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Which is a better choice: Open Access or Subscription Journal?

 

Researchers have to consider many factors before deciding whether to publish in a traditional subscription journal or an open access (OA) journal. The most important factors are the visibility of a journal, the cost of publication, the impact factor of the journal, and the speed of publication. Internet of things has created a radical shift in the academic publishing model. Today, internet is being primarily used to connect, share, and communicate things all across the world.

Previously, collaborations with prestigious journals were required to know the latest emerging trends in a field of study. Researchers flocked libraries to get hold of the latest copy of their academic journal. Today, all information is available online and researchers can easily read scholarly articles online. Moreover, they can save important files on their personal computers. Everything is available at the click of a mouse.

The online publishing platform has two options: the traditional subscription model and the recently popular open access model. The traditional subscription model charges hefty fees from readers to access their journal online. On the other hand, the open access model enables all readers to access scholarly articles free of cost. The publication cost is borne by the authors who submit their manuscript for publication. Moreover, researchers today share their work through Twitter, social media sites, and blogs.

The OA publishing model has removed all barriers of scholarly communication. Today, so much research work is available online to the general public without causing deep holes in their pockets. But researchers still have to publish in prestigious peer-reviewed journals that follow subscription model. This is because most subscription journals have high impact factor and prestige in the academic community. In this article, we guide researchers on how to make the right choice between OA model and subscription model of publishing.

The visibility of the journal: Most researchers want to publish their articles in journals that have high visibility and readership. As the online format of OA journals is freely accessible to the public, they enjoy higher visibility and readership. Compared to subscription journals, OA journals have 89% higher rate of full-text downloads, and 42% higher rate of PDF downloads. Moreover, the unique visitors of OA journals were 23% higher than those of subscription journals. These are the findings of a latest survey published by OpenScience platform of De Grutyer Publications.

The cost of publication: The article processing charges (APC) differ depending on whether the journal is subscription based or open access. At the time of submission, authors are charged a small fee to offset the costs related to editorial and peer-review services. However, authors have to pay a hefty fee once their paper has been accepted for publication.

Most subscription journals charge authors 100-250 $ for publishing a single page, and 150-1000 $ for publishing a single figure in colored format. On the other hand, OA journals have a flat APC value, which can range from as little as 8$ to a sky-rocketing figure of 5000$. Some journals do offer partial waivers to authors with limited financial resources.

Today, libraries of prestigious institutions like Harvard are encouraging authors to follow OA model of publication. This is because most subscription journals charge a hefty fee for full online access of their articles. The annual subscription fee of some traditional journals is about 40,000 $. Today prestige is being replaced by the more reasonable OA model.

Journal Impact factor: Most OA journals are relatively new and they do not have impact factor, which is a measure of the journal’s prestige in the academic community. For example, Springer published 500 OA journals in 2013, but only 179 of these journals had an impact factor. Most authors of science and humanities only want to publish in journals with high impact factor, that is, journals that follow the traditional subscription model.

Nevertheless, some disciplines do have OA journals with high impact factor, and can be considered to be prestigious. For example, PLOS Biology and PLOS ONE follow complete OA model of publication, and yet manage to be ranked 1st and 10th most prestigious journals, based on their impact factor.

Many Chinese and European universities provide an extended tenure of professorship to researchers who have published in high-impact, peer-reviewed, prestigious journals. Most well-established journals still follow the traditional subscription model. Moreover, it is easier to get research grants if you have an impressive list of publications in high-impact subscription journals.

The speed of publication: In the survey conducted by the OpenScience platform, about 65-70% of science authors always considered the time taken to publish a paper after submission, that is, the speed of publication of a journal. Most peer-reviewed medical journals have a publication time of 21 months, causing a time lag between clinical trials and data publication. For patients awaiting new therapies, this time lag for data dissemination is discouraging.

Clinicians should consider publishing in OA journals, because they are speed up the review process and shorten publication time. The most prestigious OA journals such as PeerJ, PLOS ONE, etc. are devoted to accelerate the peer-review process. In 2013, a survey examined 135 journals indexed by SCOPUS. They found that OA journals had a significantly shorter publication time compared to traditional subscription journals. Thus, OA journal is recommended to researchers who wish to disseminate their findings rapidly.

In conclusion, the visibility of a journal, cost of publication, journal impact factor, and speed of publication are the most important factors to consider while making a choice between OA and subscription journals. The well-established researchers can opt for OA journals, while budding researchers may opt for subscription journals as they still have to make a name for themselves in the academic community.

Nevertheless, the OA model is here to stay and it been popularized by the growing readership on the internet. Information platform has now shifted to online model modes from the traditional print model, which is dying with due course. Most prestigious universities are canceling their contracts with costly subscription journals. Harrisco offer journal selection service to all researchers who find it difficult to make this important decision. Harrisco is the no.1 academic editing company in Seou, South Korea.

 

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Harrisco: world’s no.1 company in academic editing services

Harrisco has been providing academic editing services to more than 90 South Korean universities since 1997. Being the no.1 brand for academic editing services in South Korea, Harrisco has now planned to offer its services to other countries and establish a global presence. So, what really makes Harrisco a brand to reckon with?

Well, it is the consistent hardwork and dedication of more than 500 native English editors that polish manuscripts of Korean scientists and researchers. These editors have advanced degrees (MS and PhD) in science, technology, medicine, and humanities. They work in prestigious universities and research centers of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India. Most editors work remotely for Harrisco through a sophisticated website platform.

To understand the significance of academic editing services, let us first take a peek on the latest survey carried out by Nature journal. The survey included more than 108 journal editors. Interestingly, more than 25 percent of these editors had received papers with serious English language errors. It is important to note that a paper that presents novel research results may be rejected due to poor English language usage.

Now, let’s understand what really is included in the scope of academic editing services. Harrisco offers two services of academic editing: Standard editing and Super Intensive Editing. Standard editing involves polishing the manuscript for grammar, punctuation, word choice, terminology, and spelling. The editors work hard on improving the overall clarity of the content presented in the manuscript. By availing our Standard Editing Services, researchers can ensure that the manuscript has good readability.

Harrisco has recently introduced “Super Intensive Editing Services” to researchers in South Korea. This is basically developmental editing of the manuscript. This improved version of academic editing involves a thorough assessment of the content presented in the manuscript. The editor may choose to rewrite a sentence and update information in order to ensure the content is relevant to the article’s title. The editors also work on simplifying complex concepts presented in the manuscript.

Harrisco offers 20% discount on academic editing services to its university clients. Moreover, Harrisco offers 10% discount on academic services to its individual clients. Harrisco is dedicated to maintaining high-quality standards, so it regularly conducts a “customer satisfaction survey” with its clients. The clients can then select an editor of their choice at no extra cost. Harrisco effectively handles all urgent assignments with its vast network of professionally qualified, native English editors. The charges for academic editing services differ depending on the turnaround time.

 

 

 

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MIT ends publisher contract with Elsevier due to disputes over Open Access Model

 

The University of California (UC) took a bold decision last year by terminating its contract with Elsevier as it could no longer afford the high publishing costs of the very popular open access model of publishing. In June 2020, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) followed the footsteps of UC and terminated its contract with Elsevier, stating that the publisher did not provide a business proposal that aligns with the Publisher Contracts Framework of MIT.

This is a major jolt to the world of academic publishing, given that UC has more than 280,000 students and as much as 227, 000 faculty members. On the other hand, MIT has approximately 24,000 students studying at its campus currently. The MIT Framework of Publishing Ethics was introduced in the year 2019, and more than 100 academic institutions have openly supported this framework within just one year of publication.

The Framework emphasizes on disseminating latest research studies free of cost and immediately. Moreover, it acknowledges the publication output of authors and institutions in academia. The main goal of this framework is to support “open sciences” without barriers. According to Chris Bourg, the director of MIT Libraries: All the faculty member of MIT are disappointed to know that Elsevier could not reach a consensus with the MIT Publishing Framework; however, all the staff members and students across the country stand by the principle of “open science and knowledge without barriers.”

The negotiations between publishing giant Elsevier and MIT officials failed because the institute wanted all scholarly articles to deposited in MIT repositories immediately after their publication. Elsevier has never really implemented the concept of automated deposit for scholarly articles. Presently, Elsevier has the “read and publish” model of open access publishing, which does not align with the MIT Framework of Publication Ethics.

In the year 2019, UC had challenged the open access policies of Elsevier and was disgruntled with the publisher’s enormous monetary expenses. The officials at UC did not like the exorbitant article processing fees charged by Elsevier for providing “open access publishing option” to UC authors. Moreover, UC wanted Elsevier to draft a contract that allows 100% open access to all articles written by UC authors.

On the other hand, Elsevier offered “the open access model” on a much smaller number of journals, yet the cost of publication was increased significantly for UC authors. The officials at the UC issued a press release stating that they could not bear the publication cost of $30 million over a three-year period, yet they wanted to achieve 100% open access model of publishing.

In the proposal provided by Elsevier, UC authors had to forgo access to a number of subscription-based journals of Elsevier. Moreover, Elsevier did not provide any financial assistance to authors who lacked research grants. However, UCLA’s student newspaper Daily Bruin published a recent report stating that the effect of Elsevier’s ban was not really pronounced on librarians and researchers working at the campus. Very few students and researchers have complained about how the ban has negatively impacted their work.

To make amends, UCLA came up with an innovative “Inter-Library Loan program” that provides subsidized access to articles from libraries located outside the UC campus; these libraries may be located in the US or abroad. However, librarians at the UCLA campus have seen only a slight increase in the number of students availing this program. The increase has been only 15 to 20 percent of the projected value. This means that both students and researchers are now subscribing to articles of other publishers.

According to Virginia Steel, a librarian working at the UCLA campus, the effect of the ban on Elsevier has not really been dramatic. However, the officials at UC and MIT were open to a fresh round of negotiations with Elsevier; however, they both stand firm on the principle of “open access publishing.” The officials of Elsevier are now focusing their efforts on renewing negotiations with officials of both universities.

If Elsevier manages to come up with a contract that aligns with MIT’s Framework of Publication Ethics, then it would be strong step in propagating latest scientific studies to the general public. Although Elsevier shares the ethos of the MIT Framework, it is still not sure how to make a dramatic shift in its subscription-based model of academic publishing. Nevertheless, Elsevier is determined to find out a middle path that satisfies both the parties, thereby promoting the interests of the global community of researchers.

The year 2020 seems to be challenging the monopoly of Elsevier, a leading scientific publisher with a global presence. Interestingly, Elsevier’s negotiations also failed to impress officials at the State University of New York (SUNY) and University of North Carolina (UNC). Both these universities have also not renewed their contract with Elsevier. The officials at the UNC said that Elsevier is not really providing affordable publishing solutions, so they would not go ahead and renew subscription to 2000 e-journals. The UNC officials said that they would be subscribing only to a few selected journals of Elsevier from May 1, 2020.

Following on the footsteps of UNC, the officials at SUNY also decided not to renew their contract with Elsevier for “ScienceDirect” but they declared to subscribe to a short list of titles from Elsevier’s stock of journals. The negotiations between SUNY officials and Elsevier had taken place over a period of one year, but all those efforts seemed futile in changing the minds of the university officials.

The charges proposed by Elsevier were found to be too exorbitant by officials of SUNY. The “open access model of publishing” has changed the dynamics of academic publishing, and Elsevier no longer has an overwhelming control over the content. The officials of SUNY were of the opinion that the publishing charges proposed by Elsevier were inflated to make a whopping profit.

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Why do researchers attend academic conferences?

Some budding researchers who have never attended an academic conference may think that the only objective behind attending an academic conference is to present your research study. However, an academic conference is an excellent platform to present your work to eminent professors in your field and to engage the peer review committee in a quick question-answer session.

All these sessions are ultimately aimed at strengthening the quality of your work. Paper presentations are just one aspect of academic conferences. In this article, we explore the many reasons for which researchers attend academic conferences. In general, most research papers are revised multiple times before being published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.

Most researchers have to wait for a couple of months to see their final draft getting published in the journal. However, academic conferences readily accept research work that presents recent findings in their field of study. In other words, academic conferences showcase emerging trends in a field of study.

An academic conference is information-driven, with many presentations from noted keynote speakers. A researcher can get enough information to decide whether a particular speaker has expertise in their field of study. Another reasons for attending an academic conference is the possibility of connecting with researchers living in different regions and countries.

Presentations act as advertising billboards, presenting innovative ideas. Normally, most billboards are used to attract the attention of consumers. Similarly, academic conferences are wonderful events to catch up in a conversation with esteemed researchers out of your lab.

Most conference attendees can continue their exchange of information even after the conference, all thanks to the internet and email. There are many high-quality papers presented at conferences, and you do not want to miss a golden chance of knowing them.

Most conference delegates can arrange a meeting with keynote speakers with the help of the conference app. Networking is the keyword here and academic conference create an environment conducive to international collaborations. Besides technical presentations, academic conferences also serve as social networks for budding researchers who can gain a fresh perspective on their career and research work.

At academic conferences, participants are mostly served great meals and drinks. While enjoying this session of eating and drinking, many young researchers can get themselves acquainted with speakers who had the greatest impact on them. Many academic conferences also have introduction sessions for young doctoral students who have freshly graduated from university.

Most academic conference organizers publish a set of proceedings, which is nothing but a book of abstracts submitted at the conference. This booklet is an official souvenir of the conference, and all participants receive this document at the end of the conference. The conference proceedings may be provided as a hard copy or in the digital format.

All the abstracts reflect the latest research work in your field of study. You can read through these abstracts after reaching home, because they are nothing less than a treasure trove. You may then introduce yourself to other researchers who attended the conference and make a long-lasting network of collaborations.

Although academic conference presentations can add a sparkle to your resume, everything comes with strings attached. Registration fees, traveling expenses, accommodation, visa fees are some of the factors to be considered before attending a conference. In general, most conferences are subsidized for graduate students and researchers from developing countries.

Many universities also sponsor academic conferences, which significantly brings down the cost of attending such conferences. Some researchers who are just embarking on their research journey may also receive travel grants for international events.

To avail of subsidies and grants, researchers should never hesitate in contacting the conference organizers directly. Moreover, they can avail of university grants by contacting their program coordinator, research supervisor, or HR department of their institution.

Attending an academic conference is a golden opportunity and paucity of funds should never be the reasons for not attending it. Some students are often hired by conference organizers to work as volunteers at the conference. So, these volunteers can attend such conference without paying registration fees.

Most conference organizers do not readily promote grants on their website, so asking them directly is the best chance of knowing about grants. Graduate students and young researchers should socialize through conference app and get to know about researchers living near the venue of the conference.

They can then enquire if these researchers are willing to accommodate them at their houses or about researchers willing to share accommodation rooms at hotels. Thus, the cost of accommodation can be covered with these initiatives.

Besides preparing presentations and posters, young researchers intending to attend an academic conference for the first time must spend some time in doing pre-conference prep. This will certainly boost your morale and remove your fear of conversing with unknown researchers.

Harrisco is a top academic editing company in Seoul, South Korea. It has been organizing academic conferences on various topics since 2017. Currently, it is busy organizing the 3rd IKNC conference for Korean researchers in August.

A strict review committee will monitor the quality of papers presented at the conference. All conference abstracts will be published as a conference proceeding by Harrisco. A few selected papers of high-quality would be published completely in SCI journals.

The names of these SCI journals are displayed on the conference website www.iknc.org. The last date for Abstract submission is 15th July 2020. The high-quality papers selected for publication will be first polished by native English editors of Harrisco, a top brand in the field of academic publishing.

 

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Identify world’s leading journals in the Journal Citation Reports published by Web of Science

Clarivate Analytics is a leading player in the STM publishing industry, providing truthful insights into the world of academic publishing. On the 29th of June, 2020, Clarivate Analytics released its Journal Citation Reports (JCR), an important document that is published annually on the Web of Science. The JCR document is important for the global academic community as it provides an insight into high-quality academic journals of the international community.

All academic journals are ranked on the basis of several indicators, visualizations, and data. The report is a quantitative estimate of the impact created by academic journals in their field of study. The report specifically scrutinizes the quality of research published in prestigious journals and how they were promoted to the international community of researchers.

To compile this report, Clarivate Analytics team made use of the 2019 data presented in the Web of Science Core Collection, which is a flagship brand of the company and a global citation database that is publisher-neutral. Clarivate Analytics invited a global team of experts to curate the structured data presented in the 2019 Web of Science Core Collection.

To accurately evaluate the impact factor of academic journals, the team of experts carefully evaluated the content presented in the selected collection of books, conference proceedings, and journals. This report is used to estimate the true worth of a journal in the academic community, which consists of researchers, editors, publishers, investors, and librarians. Their main goal is to promote high-impact journals to a diverse set of audiences.

Although vast data of metrics is available in the JCR report, the most widely used metric is the “ Web of Science journal impact factor” in academic publishing. So, what really are the key highlights of the JCR report published in 2020? Let us first explore the selection criteria for the inclusion of journals. In the 2020 JCR report, the experts have added 351 new journals to the inclusion list.

Out of them, 178 journals are completely “Open Access” in nature. Given that most researchers have flocked to the OA model of publishing, JCR report included 1600 OA journals in 2020. Nevertheless, JCR report has compiled the impact-factor of 12,000 journals from 236 research fields of hard sciences and social sciences. These journals were selected from 83 countries spread across five continents of the earth.

The JCR report of 2020 has evaluated the open access publishing model through new descriptive data. This implies that the report includes data on the access model used for reading articles of each journal. Thus, the JCR report of 2020 provides transparent, publisher-neutral information to the community of researchers on whether they can access “free-to-read” articles in a journal.

Moreover, the report also provides information on whether the articles can be re-used through Creative Commons Licenses, which are usually issued through “gold open access model”. Finally, the report presents the overall citations and the volume of content presented by each journal.

One of the key highlights of the JCR report is the fact that it includes 7487 hybrid journals in its 2020 edition. Moreover, these hybrid journals are innovatively classified in order to enable readers to quickly identify the following features of these journals: 1) The number of papers published through the conventional subscription model, and 2) the number of papers published through the Creative Common Licenses, which establishes the “gold open access model.”

Now that we know the classification criteria of each type of journal, let’s explore the objectives behind the journal selection process. In the JCR report of 2020, Clarivate Analytics has excluded 33 journals that did not conform to the standards of academic integrity. Thus, the JCR report of 2020 has excluded 0.27% of the listed journals.

These journals have exhibited anomalous behavior in terms of citation. There have been strong evidences to prove that the journals had many cases of self-citation and stacked citation. These situations do not conform with the disciplinary norms put forth by the JCR review committee of experts.

Another important disciplinary action exercised by the JCR review committee is as follows: An “Editorial Expression of Concern” was issued to as many as 15 academic journals, which contained one or more published articles with an unusually high number of journal citations. These citations were disproportionately associated with JIF. The editorial board of Clarivate Analytics will scrutinize low-quality content of this type to prevent any distortions of the Journal Impact Factor.

Keith Collier is a senior vice president of products at the Science Group of Clarivate Analytics. In a press release of the 2020 JCR report, Keith Collier issued the following statement: Web of Science Citation Reports has been providing unbiased data on journal citations for the past 40 years, so the academic community has been following this report consistently for these many years.

It gives a glimpse of the world’s leading journals in the field of hard sciences and social sciences. The research community includes all academic editors, librarians, researchers, publishers, and institutions. They can carefully evaluate the selected journals to make informed decisions about their publications. The report helps them understand citation trends of academic journals.

In the year 2020, Clarivate Analytics made concerted efforts to accelerate the pace of innovation in academia. They have updated the parameters of self-citation and added a new paradigm of descriptive data, which will provide the research community with a better insight on the evolving models of academic publishing.

In the 2020 JCR report, a wide number of indicators are used for evaluating each journal’s profile. The most noteworthy among them is the “Web of Science Impact Factor.” It indicates the average frequency of citation received by a journal in a particular year.

Moreover, the report also presents “Immediacy Index,” which indicates the frequency of citing an average article from a journal in the same year of publication. After classifying the journals according to their category, the journal impact factor indicates the rank of the journal. This metric is expressed in terms of percentile.

 

 

 

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The business of academic conferences: a complete overview

An academic conference is basically a gathering of researchers in the same field of study. In this gathering, they present the findings of their research study and get themselves updated with the latest innovations in their field. An academic conference has different names, such as academic congress, research conference, academic meeting, and symposium.

These conferences are usually organized by companies or academic societies of independent scholars. However, every academic conference is monitored by a scientific committee that reviews the quality of papers submitted to the conference.

Academic conferences are not just restricted to people in academia. They can be either small meetings held for local scientists or large global events that include the participation of thousands of international scientists.

An academic conference may include highly-specific topics restricted to a particular discipline or it may be an interdisciplinary conference that presents perspectives of academics from related fields. Industry professionals from different disciplines may also be invited to attend academic conferences.

The content of most academic conferences is intellectually stimulating, so researchers should always make it a point to attend such conferences. Young researchers get acquainted with research happening outside their field of study.

It is an excellent platform to socialize with researchers outside your field of specialization. Thus, you can build long-lasting relations with new researchers and increase the possibility of international collaborations. However, many people still do not know the list of benefits an academic conference can offer.

Most people working in industry attend professional conferences to get acquainted with industry trends and market summary. On the other hand, academic conferences are based on a totally different wavelength.

Usually, academic conferences are filled with abstract presentation, keynote speakers, innovative research studies, and poster presentations. To ease the anxiety of researchers attending an academic conference for the first time, let’s dig into the world of academic conferences.

How is an academic conference conducted for researchers?

Because academic conferences serve as a platform for presenting the most innovative research studies in a field of study, academics come across latest developments in their field of specialization. This means that participants who attend such conference also get a chance to present their work to a wider audience.

An academic conference is lined up with a list of short presentations that captivate the attention of the audience. In some large conference, organizers may arrange “parallel sessions” that run simultaneously through the conference.

With the evolution of academic publishing, the format of academic conferences has also undergone transformations. Because industrial conferences have gained immense popularity among professionals, academic conference has also become a bit more flexible in their selection process.

Now-a-days, academic conference have also become interactive and include debate sessions to engage the attention of participants. Nevertheless, most academic presentations can be classified in the following categories:

Plenary sessions: In most academic conferences, papers are accepted from parallel streams. However, all participants are requested to attend the plenary session. A plenary session includes a keynote session, different types of presentations or panels.

Keynote session: Most delegates are attracted to the keynote session of an academic conference. In this session, keynote speakers present the scope of the entire conference and encourage the collective endeavor of academics participating in the conference.

Panel sessions: A particular topic is selected for debate and discussion in the academic conference. Panelist are invited to moderate the debate of multiple researchers. They can issue statements or simply answer questions put forth from the audience. The goal of panel sessions is to facilitate the exchange of viewpoints presented by experts on a particular topic.

Oral sessions: In this session, several presenters give a small talk on their selected papers, which are based on a common theme. Every presenter has to complete their speech within a short duration of time, usually 10 minutes. After each presentation, additional time is allotted for a quick question-and-answer session with the audience.

Poster sessions: Physical or digital posters of researchers are usually displayed in the conference hall filled with academics. These posters are displayed for a long time and at the same platform in the conference room. There are no time constraints observed for poster sessions. The conference delegates take their own time to peruse through different posters and they then discuss the presented research work with the authors.

Workshops: Most academic conferences have lectures, tutorials, and workshops on following subjects: science communication, how ESL researchers can get their work published in international English journals. Most graduate students and young researchers benefit a lot by attending such workshops. This is because they are in the nascent stage of their research careers and are not really adept at scientific writing. By attending such writing workshops, they can really understand the complexity of academic publishing.

Harrisco is a top academic editing company that organizes academic conferences on various topics. All conference papers are published as proceedings by Harrisco. A few of the selected papers of high-quality are published completed in our selected SCI journals. Harrisco has been in the business of academic conference since 2017. Its latest conference is scheduled to be held in August. The conference website is www.iknc.org

The reviewing committee has strict selection standards to ensure that our conference are aimed at the scientific community of international repute. Harrisco edits all selected papers prior to publication in academic journals. The academic conferences have prestigious keynote speakers from reputed institutions across the world.  Come, let’s explore the world of academic conferences. Let’s build the future of our budding researchers.

 

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How to impress the Journal Editor with Your Cover Letter

In research and academia, it is extremely important to publish your data and results in international English journals of high-impact factor. All researchers have to submit a cover letter along with their manuscript to the journal editor. Usually, a cover letter is addressed to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

A journal editor forms a first impression of your work by reading your cover letter. Based on the cover letter, a journal editor gets a glimpse of the main ideas presented in your study. A journal editor then decides whether the manuscript is relevant for publication in the journal. In other words, a cover letter is a mirror to the quality of a research study.

A journal editor may either forward the manuscript to the team of peer reviewers or may reject it outright. In some cases, a journal editor may be so impressed with the cover letter that they may publish the manuscript as it is. Now, let’s discuss how you can write a cover letter that is concise yet persuasive in its tone.

Typically, a cover letter is written in professional English and should not exceed more than 2 pages in length. A cover letter is mostly written to sell a research study to a journal editor. In this article, we present 11 tips for cover letter development.

  1. Always include important fundamentals of a cover letter: It is always preferable to use a letterhead from your affiliated institution. If letterhead can’t be availed, then make it a point to furnish the following details at the top left corner of the page: the names of all authors, including corresponding authors, the email address for correspondence, and the physical address of the institutions affiliated to the authors.

In case of a standardized letterhead, the author must include his or her contact information at the end of the letter, just below the signature. The journal editor would always need your contact information for further correspondence. To increase the credibility of the cover letter, the author should include the hand-written signature and not just the mere name in typed format.

In some journals, different editors are assigned to review manuscripts of different regions: American, European, Asian, African, and Middle-eastern regions. Many prestigious journals have global coverage, so authors should make sure that they are contacting the right editor in their region.

Address the editor with their proper title, such as Dr. or Prof. before mentioning their correct name. A journal’s website usually displays the names of its editors. If the names of editors are not available on a journal’s webpage, then you may address them as “Dear Editor” or “Dear Editor-in-Chief”. Always refrain from using the following salutation: “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam.”

Authors should always make it a point to write the cover letter in a unique way. Remember that originality is the keyword here, so an author cannot simply copy the wordings from their manuscript. They need to paraphrase their results and findings in a succinct way. Only native English authors are capable of rewording their findings and data. Take the help of a native English speaker if you are not comfortable with rewording. Before developing ideas for your cover letter, make sure that your research completely aligns with the theme, scope, and objective of the journal.

2. How to present the main content in the cover letter of a journal: The tone of the cover letter should be positive and constructive; the English language usage should be professional. The “title of the manuscript” should be presented as it is in the cover letter. Make sure you present the correct title as there may be instances where you have changed the title in the final draft of the manuscript. Then, clearly mention the type of article presented in the manuscript.

For example, it could be a short summary, a meta-analysis, full article, a systematic review, etc. Remember, an ethical author never submits a paper to more than one journal simultaneously. There could be instances of an author submitting their manuscript to another journal after facing outright rejection from a prestigious journal. Then, such an author should write a new cover letter to the different journal editor.

This cover letter should address the theme, requirements, and objectives of the second journal. There could be instances where you are addressing the editor for the second time. In this case, the cover letter should clearly indicate how you have modified the manuscript by taking into account the constructive feedback of the peer reviewers.

All the reasons of rejection should be clarified in the second cover letter. A journal editor is always keen to publish papers that have novelty of content. Therefore, the main content of the cover letter should be just one or two paragraphs explaining the novelty of a research study. This section should cover all the important points presented in your manuscript. This section cannot be very long or short; it should be of medium length.

The author should present the best results of the experiments and mention all the novel techniques used in the study. All significant results of previous related studies may be included in a concise manner, if necessary. However, the author must be careful enough to ensure that the results presented in the cover letter match with those presented in the main manuscript and in the supplementary information.

Finally, the author should explain the significance of the rationale behind submitting to a particular journal. This is the most important aspect of a cover letter. A journal editor should be convinced that your research study addresses the scope of the journal. The author must explain how their research study addresses an important issue and how it can attract the attention of the journal’s readers. A journal editor must be convinced that the research study contains path-breaking results.

3. How to conclude your cover letter: Make a list of the other supporting documents that you are including with the cover letter: the main manuscript, the supporting information, author information forms, feedback to the comments provided by reviewers (This is included in revised cover letter.).

However, it is important to keep the cover letter concise, so some authors may do away with this information as it simply lengthens the cover letter. Remember a cover letter is like a sales pitch for a research study. The author has to convince the editor how a research study is relevant to the scope of the journal.

In the final paragraph, the authors should thank the editor for considering their manuscript, and they should be open to constructive feedback thereafter. The authors should refrain from using abbreviations in the cover letter. Before submission, they should make sure that the content does not have any errors related to grammar, punctuation, and style. There should be no spelling errors in the cover letter.

Most researchers in Korea think that cover letter development is a daunting task. Harrisco is a leading academic editing company that provides complete publication support to Korean researchers. The native English editors of Harrisco are retired professors who can draft perfect copies in immaculate English. Being scientifically strong with PhD degrees, Korean researchers are assured of high-quality work.

 

 

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How can researchers benefit from academic conferences

Academic conferences often help researchers in boosting the prospects of their career. Well, conferences often serve as a platform to showcase talent of the researcher community. There are posters, presentations of hundreds of researchers who have gathered under one roof. With a lot of stress on innovation and impact, young budding researchers can definitely learn a lot at academic conferences. Here, we offer ten tips on how researchers can maximize their benefits through academic conferences.

1) Plan ahead of the academic conference: Researchers should take a look at the abstracts ahead of the conference. This will certainly help them in managing their schedule, especially when they are hard-pressed for time.

2) Spend time with researchers outside your network: Although it is nice to spend time with scientists at the lab, researchers should always make an effort to reach out to researchers who are outside their network. This can help them foster long-lasting relations for foreign collaborations. This may be difficult for researchers who are in their early stage of career, like first year graduate students. For example, students can find it easy to connect with a professor who appears at the same academic conference.

3) Request the principal investigator for introduction to their colleagues: Students in grad school and young post-doc researchers may not really be comfortable to start a conversation with senior colleagues in their research network. In such cases, the help offered by principal investigators would be really useful as they are indeed aware of your research interests and work. They can introduce you to senior colleagues working in your related field of study.

4) Always keep a copy of the conference schedule with you: Researchers should always avoid attending conferences behind the schedule. Arriving late at a conference means that you miss important presentations and talks of keynote speakers. Having a copy of the conference schedule in our pocket definitely helps!

5) Network and learn during the conference: One of the best things that a conference offers is the opportunity to build relationships professionally. While working in a laboratory, researchers can easily build relationships through daily conversations. However, the scope of your professional network need not be limited to a lab. At a conference, you can simply introduce yourself to strangers sitting next to you. Remember having small conversations with researchers from different cities and countries can definitely take you miles in your career.

6) Enquire about the work of other researchers: Many presentations are shown in academic conferences. There may be instances where these presenters could be sitting just beside you in the conference. Do not miss an opportunity to strike a conversation about their work. Remember that your first question should always be related to their presentation. There’s no need to blabber about your own work. It will surely show up in the course of the conversation.

7) Researchers should take notes in the conference: There will be many opportunities to listen to conversations and sessions at conferences. Although most researchers are brilliant and have a sharp memory, it is easy to forget the nuances of the exchanged conversations.

Therefore, we recommend researchers to make small notes through their day as they are busy listening to talks and engaged in serious conversations with people in their new professional network. By taking notes, researchers can retain their level of alertness throughout the conference.

8) Share contact information with other researchers: While you try to connect with someone having the same research interest, it is always preferable to share your contact information with them and develop a long-lasting relationship.

9) Act on what you learned in the conference: Researchers will definitely some time to process the information received in a conference. This is because a lot of innovative ideas and concepts are impinged into your mind within a short span of one day. To avoid an overload of information, researchers should refer to the short notes that they compiled during the conference. They can then recollect the ideas meant to be implemented in their laboratory.

10) Establish contact with new connections: Although a researcher makes many connections with new people at a conference, it is always important to reach out to them after the conference is over and you are back to working at the lab. One of the easiest ways to reconnect with new people would be through email. A relationship can be built up simply by having a conversation through email. Remember, recommendations given by these connections would be useful in gaining a new research grant or to overcome the hurdles faced in your current research study.

So, are you ready to face the next academic conference?

Now that we have presented you a blue-print for being successful at an academic conference, do you really feel ready to take up the challenge of the next conference? Conference planning and organization involves a lot of effort, both in terms of money and time. These two things are precious to any researcher. By following our strategy, researchers can really make conferences beneficial to their career and laboratory.

Nevertheless, researchers should always plan ahead of the conference and should attend only those that add value to their research. They should what to really expect in an academic conference. With this approach, researchers can gain useful opportunities and connections meant to make a breakthrough in their work and life.

Harrisco is a top academic editing company that is organizing the 3rd IKNC conference in August. The conference is based on various topics of humanities, civilization, public health, nanotechnology, and chemistry. Take a look at the conference website www.iknc.org. The last date for Abstract submission is 10th July. The conference would be held in South Korea, but overseas researchers can attend the conference virtually through our webinar. We fully understand the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19.