Journal Article Submission What are journals for To

Journal Article Submission

What are journals for? To create a peer-review process to evaluate new research before publication. To increase the prestige of the authors, and disseminate their ideas. ◦ An important step in academic careers. ◦ “Publish or perish”

Peer Review Process Step 1: An article is submitted ◦ In the US, submissions are usually unsolicited. ◦ Journal policy dictates the criteria for consideration. Ph. D. s? Graduate students? Members of a particular organization? Open to anyone?

Step 2: The article is considered by an editor. ◦ The editor can reject the article outright for: Failure to adhere to the journal requirements. Inappropriate subject matter. Any reason the editor chooses. ◦ The editor can reject the article but suggest changes and resubmission. ◦ The editor can pass the article to the referees.

Step 3: Referees evaluate the article. ◦ Referees are typically anonymous. Sometimes authors are anonymous to the referees as well. ◦ Referees should have credentials in the field. ◦ Referees may : Accept the article as-is Accept the article pending recommended changes Reject the article but invite changes and resubmission Reject the article outright ◦ When multiple referees disagree, either journal policy or editorial decision determines whether to publish.

Step 4: Final editing process. ◦ Depending on Journal Policy, any changes made to the article after the peer review may require resubmission to the referees.

Referees are not paid. Referees are typically authors themselves. ◦ Particularly, they’re often authors who have been published by the journal in question. Note to writers: read the journal in question, especially articles related to your field. These articles may well be written by your referees. You will also get a closer sense of what they consider publishable.

Criticisms of peer review process Process can be slow ◦ Can take months to years for a paper to finally be deemed worthy of publication Unpopular ideas can be suppressed ◦ Journals can have a natural bias against ideas that contradict their previously published articles Subject to control by elitism in a field to personal and professional jealousy

Sokal Affair “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. ” ◦ This article claims: Quantum theory has progressive political implications The New Age theory of the morphogenetic field could advance theory of quantum gravity “physical ‘reality’ … is at bottom a social and linguistic construct. ” ◦ Authored by NYU physicist Alan Sokal, published by humanities journal Social Text in 1996.

On the day of publication, Sokal announced the article was a hoax. ◦ “A pastiche of left wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense… structured around the silliest quotations I could find about mathematics and physics. ” – Alan Sokal

Sokal claimed the journal “felt comfortable publishing an article on quantum physics without bothering to consult anyone knowledgeable in the subject. ” Social Text accused Sokal of unethical behavior. ◦ Said they only published the article as submitted because 1) Sokal refused to make suggested changes. 2) It was directly relevant to their issue, which was dedicated to the social implications of quantum physics.

Sokal’s response: ◦ Social Text didn’t publish on the basis of an article’s correctness or coherence, but because of who wrote them and how they sounded. ◦ "My goal isn't to defend science from the barbarian hordes of lit crit (we'll survive just fine, thank you), but to defend the Left from a trendy segment of itself. . There are hundreds of important political and economic issues surrounding science and technology. Sociology of science, at its best, has done much to clarify these issues. But sloppy sociology, like sloppy science, is useless or even counterproductive. "

More recent events Late 2013: French computer scientist Cyril Labbé algorithmically tests thousands of published articles. ◦ Discovers over 120 papers published by Springer and IEEE that were merely computer-generated gibberish. ◦ These were taken down immediately. See also The Journal of Universal Rejection

Long-term Publishing Strategies You can: ◦ Work on a long-term project ◦ Write one long, definitive paper on the subject. And… ◦ Find that the overall project’s negative results overshadow its smaller (but interesting) discoveries. ◦ Have a smaller number of publishing credits attached to your name, and fewer citations from other publications. ◦ Get “scooped” when another researcher publishes on the same topic before you do.

Long Term Publishing Strategies You can also: ◦ Work on a long term project. ◦ Publish more frequently, on different stages of your research. And… ◦ Have more publishing credits to your name, more external citations, and increased interest in your project. ◦ Reduce the chances that someone else will publish on the subject ahead of you. But… ◦ This strategy is not a secret. ◦ If you essentially re-publish the same material repeatedly, your peers will notice.

Recent publication trends Self-selected reviewers ◦ Authors are asked to submit a list of qualified referees. pays” model ◦ Funded by the author or by the sponsors of the authors’ research. “Author Post-publication review ◦ Articles are published first (often online), and then reviewed.

Sci-Hub vs Elsevier ◦ Large, well-established collection of scholarly articles ◦ High subscription charges, and individual access can cost up to $32 for one-day access to a single article ◦ Took legal action against academics posting their own research on university web pages Sci-Hub ◦ Started by 27 -year-old Kazakh grad student Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011 ◦ Hosts over 58 million academic articles, all available for free ◦ Not strictly legal ◦ Domain name shut down in May 2016, but has since popped up in other places

Aaron Swartz Helped develop: ◦ RSS (Really Simple Syndication), Reddit, Creative Commons Founded Demand Progress ◦ Instrumental in halting the Stop Online Piracy Act Legal troubles: ◦ PACER in 2008 Public Access to Court Electronic Records By charging 8 cents a page for accessing public records, court system made roughly $100 million a year ◦ JSTOR in 2010 Faced 50+ years in Federal Prison for Wire Fraud and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Died by his own hand, January 2013, two days after a rejected settlement offer.

Types of Articles – Cover original, current research. Typically 5 -20 pages, but are frequently much longer. Supplemental Articles – Large amounts of raw research data, typically without much direct discussion. ◦ Can be much longer than the articles themselves ◦ Many journals now prefer to put this data online rather than in print.

Types of Articles Review Articles ◦ Discuss findings of multiple articles on a single subject. Can synthesize multiple views on the same subject Can support or critique other authors’ work Can discuss the state of the art in a given field

Letters ◦ Not letters to the editor. (Those are for magazines. ) ◦ Short descriptions of current research. ◦ Published without in-depth review. ◦ Usually reserved for urgent or timely discoveries. Research notes ◦ Also short descriptions of current research. ◦ Not quite as urgent as Letters.

Typical journal requirements (Taken from ASEE Journal of Engineering Education) Articles are expected to report a significant body of research Unusually significant commentaries or focused research with important results may be published as Research Briefs. Both quantitative and qualitative research is encouraged.

Submitted manuscripts must include the following elements: ◦ The manuscript title, authors and their affiliations, and a 50 -150 word abstract ◦ An introduction section following the abstract and preceding the main body of the manuscript; ◦ The main body of the manuscript, appropriately divided into sections

Brief biographical sketches for each author. Black and white figures and tables, if any, either embedded at appropriate locations within the manuscript or collected together and appended at the end of the manuscript.

Manuscripts may also include appendices, a glossary of symbols, and acknowledgments, as deemed appropriate by the authors.

A comprehensive reference for considerations of composition and presentation may be found in the Chicago Manual of Style, 14 th edition; A more concise source is The Elements of Style, 4 th edition, by Strunk and White. Authors are strongly encouraged to carefully proofread their manuscripts before submission.

The journal does not use endnotes, and footnotes are discouraged. ◦ If the material is important enough for a reader to seek it out, then it is important enough to be included in the body of the text. ◦ Footnotes are to be used only if they are deemed essential.

The journal generally discourages the publication of a body of research in a series of dependent parts. ◦ Authors should either identify components of the research suitable for publication as independent articles or prepare a condensed manuscript and encourage interested readers to contact the authors for additional information supporting the research reported. ◦ If the presentation of the research in a series of dependent parts is deemed essential, authors should first contact the Editor to discuss their approach before submitting their manuscripts

Manuscripts submitted must not have been published as copyrighted material nor be submitted for consideration for publication as copyrighted material while in review by the journal, whether in print or electronic form.

Review Criteria 1) appeal to a broad readership interested in engineering education 2) address important questions or propositions of lasting value. 3) build upon relevant references and bodies of knowledge.

4) employ appropriate educational or scientific principles and methodologies. 5) present original ideas or results supported by compelling evidence. 6) exhibit clear, concise, and accurate exposition. 7) demonstrate thoughtful layout and presentation.

8) show careful attention to details. 9) present meaningful illustrations, as needed. 10) adhere to accepted standards of style, usage, and composition.

Any questions?