Getting Academic Works Published in Peer-Reviewed Journals David Riese Gilliland and Franklin Professor Department of Drug Discovery and Development Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy

Overview of Presentation Why publish in peer-reviewed journals? Two financial models for peer-reviewed journals Factors to consider in selecting a journal in which to publish Steps to follow in publishing a paper in a peer-reviewed journal How to increase the visibility of your own publications

Why Publish In Peer-Reviewed Journals? For members of many STEM disciplines, peer-reviewed journal publications are one of the most important ways by which a faculty member’s scientific productivity is measured Two alternatives are books or book chapters. However, the scope of a journal article is typically more limited than that of books or book chapters, allowing for more frequent publication. Conference proceedings are another alternative. However, the scope of a journal article is typically greater than that of a conference proceeding, allowing for the telling of a more complete story.

Two Financial Models for Peer-Reviewed Journals “Reader pays” model The subscribers of a journal and/or the members of the professional society pay the bulk of the costs of publishing the journal Examples include Science and JAMA Even though this is a “Reader pays” model, your cost of publishing in such a journal may still be significant “Author pays” model – AKA the “open source” model The author(s) of a journal article pay the bulk of the costs of publishing the article Example is PLoS One Cheaper (easier) for readers to access your work

Selecting a Journal: Issues to Consider Suitability of your work for the journal Stature/visibility of the journal in your field Do you read papers in this journal? Impact factor of the journal Affiliation with a professional organization of relevance to your career Indexed (Pubmed, Medline, Current Contents, Thompson/ISI, Index Medicus, Scopus ….) Journal financial model and estimated cost of publishing your paper Length of time before you receive a decision and before an accepted paper will appear in print Likelihood that your paper will be accepted

Steps in Publishing a Paper I Optional: draft an abstract and ask a journal for a preliminary assessment of the suitability of the work Select the journal to which the work will be submitted Identify the format and length requirements of papers submitted to the selected journal Write the paper, adhering to the journal’s requirements Identify potential reviewers of the paper Write a cover letter to the editor Submit the paper and cover letter Wait for the reviews of the work

Steps in Publishing a Paper II Three potential outcomes of the review Rejection Acceptance (almost always conditional/provisional) Something in between Your responses In general, your response will always be the same - the work will need to be revised - even if you decide to submit it to a different journal In some cases, additional experiments will be necessary In other cases, only changes to the text will be necessary At a minimum, you will need to revise the cover letter If submitting a revised manuscript to the same journal, be gracious, be agreeable, be comprehensive, be TIMELY

Increase the Visibility of Your Publication I Cite it in a review article Distribute e-reprints or web links to other scientists in the field Publicize it via social media and web http://www.academia.edu http://www.davidriese.com/publications

Increase the Visibility of Your Publication II If your work is supported by an NIH grant, you are required to submit publications to the Pubmed Central repository – a side benefit is that this will ensure that the article is also indexed by Pubmed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Riese+DJ+ 2nd

Increase the Visibility of Your Publication III Create a Google Scholar profile Lists each of your publications and its citations Automatically updates your overall citation record, h- index, and i10-index Provides links to your email address, your homepage, and the full text of your articles Ensures that you and your papers appear in Google and Google Scholar searches https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=55j1ZOE AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao