In academic publishing, an article is first a drafted manuscript that is carefully reviewed by scientists of a particular discipline and specialization. Their in-depth commentary identifies the flaws and highlights the benefits of the experimental study design and results. Receiving research grants and scholarships is impossible without getting a manuscript approved by a group of esteemed peer reviewers, who are usually mid-career researchers with an impressive track record of publications.
Most early career researchers are post-doc candidates who have to scrutinize their work from the eagle eyes of three to four peer reviewers. The authenticity of the research and its related findings need to be officially recognized by peer reviewers. After peer review process is completed, the article is polished by an academic publisher.
Some of the flaws of academic peer review process is that it is a slow and lengthy process, often determined by the type of peer review model followed by a journal. Academics are overworked people and they work on volunteer basis for journals. Therefore, peer review process seems to be exploitative for academics as it offers very little or no remuneration. The time and effort put in reviewing is an integral part of the publication process, so it should be compensated.
Another striking flaw of the peer review process is that is getting biased and lacks transparency. Most journals follow the double blind peer review system. The names of the authors of the manuscript are concealed. The reviewers do not know the names of the authors of the manuscript. At the same time, the names of the reviewers and their credentials are not furnished to authors. Thus, the current system lacks transparency and acts as a “black box.”
Finally, the speed of the peer review process is associated with a long waiting time. Whenever, a paper is submitted to a journal, it is scrutinized for the novelty of findings. Once the content is approved, the authors have to wait for a long time before the paper is sent to set of esteemed peer reviewers.
Once the peer review process is completed, the final publication process is initiated: here, the editors do NOT work in tandem with reviewers. Usually, researchers get their work published in peer-reviewed journals within one year or two. Delays in peer review process makes policymakers rely on outdated findings of science.
Early career researchers have to make a mark in the field of scholarly publications. They need to get a tenure of post-doc research positions and professorship only on the basis of their successful publications. Most post-doc researchers are very good in laboratory activities. Writing of experimental manuscripts is an art, which needs to be deciphered from the constructive comments of peer reviewers.
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a consortium that announced its partnership with the American Chemical Society (ACS) for publications. With this development, researchers across the UK would have better access to articles in OA journals and periodicals of chemistry.
The publications department will not charge any money from the researcher for publishing articles in the OA format in ACS journals. These researchers have to be affiliated to universities and institutes in the UK. All the scientific articles are accessible through the open access (OA) model. The agreement between ACS and JISC would be effective for three years, dated May 2022.
JISC’s content marketing head, Anna Vernon, issued a press release stating the agreement between ACS and JISC is remarkable for all researchers based in the UK. As the OA movement is gaining momentum, they will now be providing many OA publishing modes in all ACS journals. This would facilitate collaborations between authors, institutions, and publications of chemistry. Thus, researchers in the UK would be improving their work and discoveries in the world of chemistry and interdisciplinary areas.
James Milne, the president of the publications department of ACS, also issued a press statement, emphasizing how transformative was the impact of this innovative agreement with JISC. World-class path-breaking research is being conducted by scientists in the UK. They regularly publish their work in ACS journals, which always adhere to high standards of quality and integrity. With this agreement, the reach of chemistry articles will be extended to the global community of chemists. The findings published would benefit both the funder and the institutions.
In recent times, ACS has been quietly making efforts to transition into the OA model of publications. Its read and publish program is a significant effort in this direction, supporting OA researchers. The program is being practiced in more than 400 institutions and more than 20 countries, enabling rapid growth in the readership of OA articles. ACS is a society that is committed to innovations in the open science movement, serving its growing demand in the author and reader communities.
In academia, it is absolutely essential for a researcher to publish papers in different peer-reviewed journals of a particular field of study. In this way, researchers present their work to the scientific community. “Publish or Perish” is the mantra of scientific publishing.
In fact, a researcher is considered to be productive only when he or she publishes a decent number of papers in high quality journals.The scientific publishing process is exhaustive for any researcher. A researcher has to select an appropriate journal for publishing his or her paper. The researcher has to then go through the comprehensive review process of the journal.
Finally, the paper is published in the journal after undergoing minor or major revisions. Nevertheless, papers published in peer-reviewed journals are seen as stepping stones towards a successful career in academia. These papers are considered by authorities approving research grants and funding.
Most international researchers find it difficult to select a suitable journal for manuscript publication. Remember, even if the paper includes some path-breaking results, it may not get adequate recognition in the scientific community if it is published in an unsuitable journal.
Moreover, a paper that does not fit within the scope and objectives of a journal is often rejected by editors. Due to these reasons, journal selection is the most important step after manuscript preparation. In this article, we recommend five points for selecting an appropriate journal for manuscript publication.
1. Take a look at the reference list to know the journals recommended by experts
In an academic paper, authors usually cite a large number of references. The authors must take a look at the journals in which the cited articles are published. There may be instances wherein many papers have been published in the same journal. In such cases, authors must find out if the published papers have content that is related to their manuscript. If the answer is yes, then they may consider the journal suitable for publishing their manuscript.
2. Compare the scope and objective of the journal with the aim of the study
Authors must determine whether the aim of their study matches with the scope of a journal in their field. In general, a journal’s website will always provide the scope of the journal. The journal’s website also provides a significant list of criteria that must be satisfied by an article submitted to the journal.
Thus, authors can get a clear picture of whether their manuscript is suitable for publication in a specific journal. Let’s understand better with an example: the Journal of Molecular Biology only publishes articles that describe various topics of molecular biology, which includes gene expression, cell signaling, and DNA replication.
3. Cautiously consider SCImago Journal Rank and Journal Impact Factor
The journal impact factor is a metric that reflects the quality of a journal. This metric indicates the average number of citations received by published articles of a journal over a period of one year. The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) is based on a specific algorithm that measures the ranking of a journal. Thus, the metric SJR can be considered to be a good alternative to the journal impact factor.
In general, the impact factor and SJR of a journal are published on the journal’s website. The quality of a journal can be assessed from these metrics. It is prestigious to publish in journals with high impact factor. Researchers find it easy to get recognition and funding when they have a list of publications in journals with high impact factor. Nevertheless, the rejection rate of these journals is very high, and the quality of a journal is not solely determined by its impact factor.
Some scientific publishers display on their website a list of journals and their impact factor. The most widely-known list is the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which is published by Thomson Reuters. In general, a researcher has to be affiliated to an institution or university to access this report. The publisher Elsevier has come up with Scopus database, which freely provides the list of international journals with SCImago Journal Rank (SJR).
4. Consider the turnaround time of the academic journal
In general, the process of peer review governs the turnaround time of an academic journal. The peer review process directly determines the quality of published articles. The journal’s website will usually display the date of submission and the date of publication of an article. Based on this information, authors can fairly estimate the journal’s turnaround time.
Alternatively, researchers can determine the journal’s turnaround time by counting the number of articles published by the journal in a particular year. Academic journals may be published monthly, quarterly, or annually. However, the peer review process is accelerated by journals that use an online submission system for accepting manuscripts.
5. Consider the journal’s constraints
Before submitting their manuscript to a journal, authors must thoroughly read through the “instructions to authors” webpage. They can thus avoid situations where they have not complied with manuscript preparation guidelines of a journal. For example, most journals have set a wordcount limit for their articles. In case an article does not fulfill the wordcount limit, it is rejected outright by the journal’s editors.
Another cause of concern is the cost of publication. Researchers from developing countries do not really have the budget to fulfill the high cost of publishing in high impact journals. They should consider publishing in less-known journals that do not charge publication fees from authors.There are thousands of academic journals, so selecting the right journal for manuscript publication can be an intimidating task.
Harrisco is an academic editing company that offers “journal selection help” to authors. Remember that submission to a wrong journal not only attracts rejection but also wastes precious time and resources. It is not easy to publish in peer-reviewed academic journals, but Harrisco guides the authors through the complete publication process and ensures that their work gets published in high-quality journals.
Besides, Harrisco also offers academic editing, peer review, and translation services. Moreover, it regularly holds academic writing workshops for international researchers, thereby bridging the barrier between academia and publishing.
