How to write & publish a scientific paper Basic Concepts & Methods

Transcription

1 INAYA MEDICAL COLLEGE (IMC) NMT LECTURE 6 How to write & publish a scientific paper Basic Concepts & Methods DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM

2 I. Before start writing II. Writing the article III.Making the article to be published DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 2

3 The article has been written And now...? Cover page Be sure it has the conditions required by the journal (length, structure...) Submit it to the editor Undergo the review process DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 3

4 Writing the first page It is a cover with the name of the article, the names of the authors and the institution, and in the lower left corner, coreespondence to... DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 4

5 Tamponade as the clinical onset of a cardiac angiosarcoma DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 5

6 Be sure it has the conditions required by the journal (length, structure...) Submit it to the editor Undergo the review process DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 6

7 Get the folder target journals Be sure that this subject is at least occasionally treated in this publication Select the section were it fits better (Original papers, clinical case, letters to editor ) Verify that the article has the structure required for this format Verify (once again) with the tool of counting words that the whole do not exceed the maximum number of characters Verify that once again that the article has to do with his title DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 7

8 The document is ready Let s send it: By conventional mail: Use first class paper First class mail Presentation letter Original and 3 copies Diskette 3 ½. Copy of photographs DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 8

9 By -Letter of presentation -Attached file with text -Attached file with photographs DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 9

10 Dear Dr.: Presentation letter: Enclosed are two complete copies of a manuscript by.and. Titled. which is going to be submitted for possible publication in the section of the (name of the journal) This manuscript is new, is not being considered elsewhere and reports new findings that extends results we reported earlier in (name of the Journal). An abstract of this manuscript was presented earlier ( write Congress) Sincerely yours Author A Author B Author C Author D DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 10

11 Delays: a) To the notification of receiving the article: a) 1-7 days b) To the rejection letter: a) 2-3 weeks c) To the acceptation letter: a) 3-8 weeks d) To the publication a) Up to 2 years DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 11

12 The reviewing process DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 12

13 The reviewer CHECK POINTS Yes No 1. Does the paper fall within the scope of a general interest quality assurance journal? 2. Is this a new and original contribution? 3. Is the title suitable and well worded? 4. Is the abstract clearly written and free of abbreviations? 5. Are the keywords concise and appropriate to the material? 6. Are the methods sound and adequately described? 7. Are the concepts appropriately defined and used? 8. Is the statistical treatment adequate? 9. Are the points of interpretation clearly separated from the results? 10. Are the conclusions and interpretations sound and justified by the data? 11. Are the figures adequate? 12. Are the tables adequate? 13. Is the article unnecessarily long? 14. Are all the references necessary? 15. Is the English acceptable? 16. Is the paper addressed to an international audience? DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 13

14 OVERALL RECOMMENDATION 1 Accept 2 Minor Revision - reassessment not required 3 Major Revision - reassessment required 4 Reject - Fair, but contributing little 5 Reject - Not acceptable In the event the manuscript is revised, would you like to serve as reviewer? Yes No DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 14

15 REVIEWER GUARANTEE: - IMPORTANT: PLEASE COMPLETE THIS SECTION I, guarantee that, to the best of my knowledge, I have no conflict of interest in reviewing this paper that might influence the comments I have provided on these pages. Yes No PRIORITY OF PUBLICATION Merits rapid publication No urgency Low priority DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 15

16 Are all acceptations equal? DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 16

17 Kinds of acceptation: The negotiation a) Unconditional acceptation: Dear Dr...We have read the article titled...and we have considered it acceptable for publication...in 4 weeks you will be sent the printing proofs for correction b) Conditioned acceptation. We have read the article and have found the following points that have to be set Consider it published. Make the corrections suggested DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 17

18 Conditioned acceptation (cont) After the corrections, verify that the article has the allowed length and send a letter: Dear editor. Thank you for your kind suggestions with respect to the article with reference number.following your instructions, the next points were restructured: 1. Write the point 1 of the letter 1 and write what you did: 1. As it was suggested, the epidemiology of Salmonella was updated, the new result being.. 2. Do the same with all the points. Thank you again for these suggestions that have contributed to improve the quality of the article. Sincerely yours Block III. Making DR. the MOHAMMED article MOSTAFA to EMAM be published 18

19 Modified acceptation: The article is accepted but to be published in another section. We have read your article and we considered it acceptable for publication. Nevertheless, we consider it has an excessive length. We advice you to restructure it to fit in the section (usually is a shorter section Original papers---clinical Cases---- Letters to Editor) DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 19

20 Rejection a) Absolute rejection: We have read with interest your article since we have to ponder many papers, yours has not been selected for publication b) Relative rejection: We think your article is not appropriate to be published in our journal since it has the defects A, B and C DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 20

21 What to do with a relative rejection? Option A. Make the corrections the editor pointed to reject the article and resend the article as if it were a Conditioned acceptation. 80% new rejections. Option B. Don t desperate. Get advantage of the commentaries and send to another publication (the reviewers are sometimes the same and they will like to see the corrections they suggested done) DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 21

22 Resending the article Most articles are not published for a lack of persistance Think that once the article has been written making it to be published is only a question of time. Look for another publication, make changes (if neccesary) to fit the requirements and send it again Before sending the article for the first time, it has to be set that it will have to travel through a spiral of impact factor before being published DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 22

23 After an average of 3-4 tries, your article will be accepted for a publication DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 23

24 The printing proofs Once the article has been accepted, a preliminar version is sent to the author Don t modify or add contents Don t make modifications on grammar It is only done to correct ortography Sent them back as soon as possible, since they are ussually sent just before being published Preferable to be sent by Fax DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 24

25 Epilogue.After the publication Separatas Letters about your article After publication DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 25

26 Separatas Number depending on the publications Only in originals You can buy separatas After publication DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 26

27 Letters about the article In the fisrt two months after the publication of the article. Possitive or negative commentaries on the study The author of the study has the right to answer the questions of the letter, but the authors are rarely allowed to reply. A letter of the editorial together with the letter commenting the article is sent two months before the publication DR. MOHAMMED MOSTAFA EMAM 27