Peer Review and peer reviewed journals
Peer-reviewed or refereed journals have an editorial board of subject experts who review and evaluate submitted articles before accepting them for publication.
Peer review or referee process
An editorial board request subject experts to review and evaluate submitted articles before accepting them for publication in a scholarly journal. Submissions are evaluated using criteria including the excellence, novelty and significance of the research or ideas. Scholarly journals use this process to protect and maintain the quality of material they publish. List of the members of the editorial board are listed near the beginning of each journal issue.
Basic information about each publication, including whether it is peer-reviewed/refereed can be searched by searching journal title in Ulrichsweb or Ulrichs.
Blind Peer Review (Single Blind Peer Review) ‐ The author of the article is unaware of who the reviewers or referees are. The reviewers might be familiar or not having any knowledge of the author.
Double Blind Peer Review ‐ Here neither the author nor the reviewers are known to each other. So the reviewers' assessments of the article will be less subject to bias.
Peer Review ‐ This is also called "refereeing," the process of submitting an article to a panel of experts for review prior to making a publishing decision.
The peer review process is utilized by a majority of academic journals and book chapters. Peers are professionals and experts who have an intimate familiarity with the subject matter being explored in the article or chapter.
The ideas behind peer review are
· Only the best articles and chapters will be selected for publication.
· Articles and chapters selected for publications are subjected to professional scrutiny
· Outside reviewers will bring little or no bias into the selection process.
· Shortcomings are more likely to be spotted and corrected before publication.
· The process of fact‐checking is further enhanced.
Not all academic publications use the peer review process. Some publications might utilize their own editors or even a single editor to screen articles being considered for publication. This does not necessarily take away the importance or legitimacy of the publication as a valid academic source.
Manuscripts preparation for Journals
– Components
Manuscript Preparation
Scientific
writing involves effectively communicating research findings. The final stage
of a research project is the writing of a manuscript which ultimately allows a
research work to become part of the “body of knowledge.” Preparation of a
manuscript involves the careful inclusion of all the relevant information so
that the research can be understood as well as replicated by others. It should
be concise and clear without any ambiguity or confusion.
A
Manuscript/article for publication is an original work that presents new
knowledge. This new knowledge should be explained by building upon already
existing knowledge.
Manuscript
should contain the section such as, Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials
& Methods, Results & Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement and
finally References.
A
manuscript must be clearly written in the language and font types directed by
the particular Journal guidelines.
The
Scientific Ethics should be followed in manuscript writing, Persons who have
significant contributions in conducting the research must not be excluded from
the authors list and persons without having any contribution should not be
included as author.
No
Plagiarism should be there and should be cautious about the novelty and
copyrights of others.
Manuscript Structure:
Title page
- Title page should contain the title of the article, the full names of authors
and institutional full addresses for all authors and email of corresponding
author. Abstract and Keywords should be included.
·
Title
- A good title should contain the fewest possible words that adequately
describe the contents of a paper. Title should be Informative, meaningful &
specific, Neither too short nor too long, Must be chosen with extreme care
since it will be read by thousands of people. Unnecessary jargon, uncommon, abbreviations, ambiguous terms,
unnecessary detail, etc should be avoided
·
Author(s)
Name - Should provide full name of all authors.
·
Authors
affiliations - Should provide
institutional full address for all authors.
·
Corresponding
Author - The name and email address of the corresponding
author should also be included, mentioned as corresponding author by marking
star (*). The corresponding author is fully responsible for any disputes
arising due to the publication of his/her manuscript.
·
Abstract
- An abstract should be prepared; the word count should be kept limited to as
per journal guide line. The abstract should not contain any undefined
abbreviations or references or exaggerated conclusions. A good abstract should
(i) state the principal objectives and scope of the investigation, (ii)
describe the methodology employed, (iii) summarize the results and (iv) state
the principal conclusion.
·
Keywords
- Keywords should be very selective and appropriate with 5 to 7 key words.
Keywords are important for indexing: they enable your manuscript to be more
easily identified and cited. Avoid uncommon abbreviations and general terms.
Main Text
Original
Investigations and Brief Report contain the section of Introduction, Material,
Methods (or Materials and Methods), Results, Discussion (or Results and
Discussion).
·
Introduction
- Provide the necessary background information to put your work into context.
The introduction should provide within 2-3 paragraph based on the type or
category of information presented and aims of the study.
Do not include methods, results or
conclusions (an outline of the conclusion may be given in the final paragraph
of introduction), Description of data collection and analysis, extensive review
of the field, or disproportionate citation of own work, work of colleagues or
work that supports your findings while ignoring contradictory studies or work
by competitors.
·
Materials
and Methods/Methodology – we should give full details by
which a competent worker can repeat the experiment. For materials, include the
exact technical specifications and quantities and source or methods of
preparation. For methods, usual order of presentation is chronological. This
section must be brief but informative. Clearly explain how you carried out your
study according to the following generalized structure:
o
What materials were used?, How the
experiment was structured or designed?, How the experimental procedure was
done?, How the data were analyzed?, etc.
o
We can give appropriate sub-heading for
each of the category or method used or procedure, study areas, analysis etc.
Write most of this section in past tense using passive voice. Do not include
any results here.
·
Results/Case
Studies - It is the most
significant part of a paper. The Results section presents the experimental data
to the reader and is not a place for discussion or interpretation of the data.
The data itself should be presented in tables and figures. The placement of a
particular table or figure in the text should be indicated. For experimental
studies, key statistics and any statistical analysis that was performed should
be stated. Give appropriate sub-heading
based on the study results.
o
It should be short but clearly
represented.
o
No discussions should be included here.
o
Use Tables and Figures to organize all the
data systematically - Tables to show exact values; Figures to show trends or
relationship effect.
o
Figures and Tables should be easy to
understand without the reader having to refer to the text.
o
Do not include both a Table and a Figure
showing the same information.
o
Presented tables and figures in the paper
must be referred to in the results section.
· Discussion -The discussion section is often the most difficult to write. If the work has characterized a phenomenon by studying specific effects, use the results to describe each effect in separate paragraphs. If the work has presented a hypothesis, use the results to construct a logical argument that supports or rejects your hypothesis. If the work has identified main objectives for the work, use the results to address each of these objectives.
A A well defined study that is described in the Introduction, along with supporting results that are presented in the Results section, can be easily constructed in the Discussion section. Begin the Discussion section with a brief paragraph that again gives an overview to the work. Summarize the most important findings and, if applicable, accept or reject the proposed hypothesis. Next, identify the most interesting, significant, remarkable findings that were presented in the Results section, and contrast these findings in light of other studies reported in the literature. Finally, at the end of the Discussion section, discuss other works in the literature that address this topic and explain how this work contributes to the overall field of study.
FiFinalize the discussion section according to the following criteria-
o
Try to present the principles, relationships
and generalization as shown by the results.
o
Point out any exceptions or any lack of
correction, and define unsettled points.
o
Show how your results, and interpretations
agree or disagree with previous published works.
o
Discuss both theoretical implications, as
well as practical applications.
·
Conclusions
- The practical implications of research are explained in the conclusions.
Here, again introduce the work and then briefly state the major results, major
points of the discussion and finally, end with a statement of how this work
contributes to the overall field of study. The Conclusions section should
contain short Introduction, Results, Significance of the research,
implications, Limitations, Recommended topics for further study, etc. Conclusion should be limited to one or two
paragraph.
Acknowledgements
– This is a brief statement acknowledging the efforts of any person or
consultant who are not included as authors. All funding sources for the work
should be stated. In short, Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc.
should be placed in a separate section before the References.
Declaration of Interests-
All
authors must declare any conflicts of interest. This section is for
acknowledging individuals and institutions whose assistance and support the
authors wish to mention.
References
- The paper should be prepared in the style of the journal to which the paper
is submitted. Guidance on referencing style can be found in the Author
Guidelines for the specific chosen journal.
So we should check the Authors instructions for the correct ‘reference’
format. Include all references that have
been cited in the text. Do not include extra references to simply cite
particular authors or journals. It may be appropriate to cite previous
publications from your own laboratory. Softwares may be used for easier
reference formatting.
Supplementary Material
- Unpublished tables and figures that relate to the manuscript but are too
lengthy to be printed with the manuscript can be submitted online as
Supplementary Material. Do not include material that has been published
previously or is otherwise under copyright restriction.
Final Checklist for submission
We
must ensure that before submitting the manuscript for publication, the
following matters should be considered
·
Title page should contain full title, name
of the author/co-authors, their designation & institutions they are
affiliated with and email address for future correspondence.
·
Abstract and keywords are provided.
·
References are properly arranged as per
the Instruction to Authors section.
·
Tables should be on separate pages.
·
Headings of Tables, their numbers and
Captions of illustrations.
·
Photographs and illustrations with high
resolution along with their captions.
·
Copy right agreement added with signature
of corresponding author/All authors.
·
Disclosure regarding source of funding and
conflict of interest if any
·
Letter of Undertaking signed by all the
corresponding author/authors.
Scientific
articles are generally written in the “IMRaD” format. The IMRaD report is a paper that is
structured in four main sections: Introduction,
Methods, Results, and Discussion. This format used for lab
reports as well as for preparing planned and systematic research report in any
field of research.
Structure of research papers/article (www.link.springer.com)
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Selection of journals for article
publication
Publishing
in journals that are not reputable can diminish the credibility of our
research. To ensure that our work gets the readership it deserves, publishing
the article in a good, reputable and suitable journal is very important. The process of selecting an appropriate
journal is becoming increasingly complex due to the proliferation of journals,
areas of specialization, and emergence of interdisciplinary topics. Authors
have to optimize between many criteria or constraints before reaching a
decision about where to publish.
The
following are a few criteria that may be followed for journal selection
·
Opt among the journals that you, your
colleagues and mentors use for research.
Some journals used to charge a publication fee or processing for article
publication and will publish the article in open access. Some journals will publish articles without
any publication fee, but will demand a subscription fee for others to view or
access the article. In other words, some
journals are based on a reader-pays model, in which institutional libraries
typically pay for access, and some journals are open access journals and
support “unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse,” but are based on an
author-pays model.
·
Review the recent publications in the
journal to assess the scientific rigor and editorial quality of the
publications.
·
Aim and scope of the journal, the
editorial board, indexing status, the peer review process, reputation, and
policies for authors are the key indicators of quality journals. These criteria
can help identify quality journals suitable for publication. Journal indexes
(also called bibliographic indexes or bibliographic databases) are lists of
journals, organized by discipline, subject, or type of publication. To be indexed, journal undergo certain review
process. So, journals included in an
index are considered of higher quality than journals that are not. Examples of
indexing services are Index Medicus, MedLine, PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, EBSCO
Publishing's Electronic Databases, SCIRUS, etc.
·
Another option is to consult with
librarians affiliated with institution or a local public library. Librarians
can provide guidance in helping authors with selecting quality journals to
consider for publication.
·
Another important factor is the time a
journal takes for completing the reviewing and publication process
Quick Tips for Journal Selection
Make
a List of the Journals Available - To obtain a comprehensive knowledge about
available journals and to prepare a list of journals in the given subject area one
may consulting peers, search through online listings, and check with
professional associations.
·
Determine
the Impact of the Journal
Quantitative measures such as the Impact
Factor, Journal Rank, Article Influence, and H-Index are used to determine the impact
of the journal. These are generally linked to the citation rate for articles
published in the journal.
·
Identify
the match of Journal Scope and Policies
The subject areas covered and the types of
articles published should be ascertained and should go through the editorial
policies and practices of the journal.
·
Check
the Journal Requirements and Distribution
Most journals have a certain style for the
article. The article must be consistent with the requirements of the journal.
The mode of distribution (print/online) and number of subscribers determine the
reach of the journal.
·
Collect
Information about the Journal’s Peer Review Process
Information about the peer review process
for the specific journal, including stature of reviewers, objectivity, and
timelines, should also be gathered from a variety of sources. Actual values or
estimates of rejection rates should be obtained.
·
Check
the “Instructions for Authors” thoroughly
The “Instruction for Authors” has certain
additional information for the authors that one must keep in mind before
submitting the manuscript. For example, topics that are welcome, discouraged,
page limit etc. may be mentioned here, that are important for the authors.
Therefore, this list must be thoroughly checked.
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References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528624/
https://ucsd.libguides.com/c.php?g=704382&p=5000890
https://beckerguides.wustl.edu/authors/hindex
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4150161/
https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/essays/concept-citation-indexing/
https://www.ou.edu/webhelp/librarydemos/isi/
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