1. How to get published: making a good first impression
Journal editors are busy people. The volume of scientific papers submitted is increasing and, for academic editors, the work that they do for journals needs to be juggled with the many other demands faced by the modern scientist or clinician. What does this mean when you submit a manuscript? Louisa Flintoft, in her post in the BioMed Central Blog, explains the importance of making a good first impression to maximize your manuscript’s chances of being sent for peer review.
The blog post says (quote): In some ways, the cover letter does a similar job to the abstract in explaining what you have done and why it is important, but should appeal to an editor who may be less familiar with the precise area you work in. The number one rule is: don’t copy and paste the abstract to use as your cover letter. You have a chance to do something more to sell your paper. The number two rule is simple: get the name of the journal right. On Genome Biology we often receive cover letters addressed to, or that mention, another journal. This suggests to us the paper has already been submitted to and rejected by another journal – information the authors probably don’t want to share! It also slows the process as we have to double-check the authors really intended to submit to us.......(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
2. Citable Items: The Contested Impact Factor Denominator
Discussing the Journal Impact Factor inevitably leads one down a rabbit hole. While the numerator of the ratio (total citations) to the journal is clear enough, the denominator (citable items) causes great confusion, and getting a clear answer to its construction requires real work. Phil Davis, in his post in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, discusses about the Impact Factor denominator - how it is defined, why is it inconsistent, and how it could be improved.
The blog post says (quote): From time to time, Thomson Reuters will receive requests to re-evaluate how a journal section is indexed. Most often, these requests challenge the current classification schema and maintain that papers presently classified as “Article,” which are considered citable, should really be classified as “Editorial Material,” which are not. A reclassification from Article to Editorial Material does nothing to reduce citation counts in the numerator of the Impact Factor calculation but reduces the number in its denominator. Depending on the size of the section, this can have a huge effect on the resulting quotient. For elite medical journals, Editorial Material now greatly outnumbers Article publication………..(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
3. 85% of Health Research is Wasted: How to do great research, get it published, and improve health outcomes.
Posted by Trish Groves in The Impact Blog, this post reflects on the scandal of waste, error, and misconduct in clinical and public health research and describes a new effort to tackle research and publication integrity from both ends. This challenge matters everywhere, but it’s specially urgent in low and middle income countries. The University of California, San Francisco and BMJ have teamed up to develop an eLearning programme for clinical and public health researchers called Research to Publication.
The blog post says (quote): Research to Publication covers - in six courses with 48 modules lasting more than 200 hours - everything from developing good research questions and the best and most ethical study designs (given local circumstances), through to reporting studies accurately and understanding what editors and peer reviewers are really looking for. Each module comprises a presentation of 30-60 minutes with video or narration that the learner can run at their own pace, along with up to 3 hours’ worth of further reading and exercises. All materials include real examples, including policies and case studies about doing and publishing research in low and middle income countries........(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
4. Will University Presses be the new winners in Open Access publishing?
On 4 February, the European University Association (EUA) - a representative organisation of more than 800 universities in 47 European countries - published its ‘Roadmap on Open Access to Research Publications’. The term ‘roadmap’ implies a motion towards something, but where exactly is Open Access going, and which stakeholders stand to benefit the most? There is currently a hefty political push towards OA at both national and EU levels, and the current Dutch EU Council Presidency has identified OA as one of its priority areas, notes Byron Russell, in his post in the Publishing Technology Blog.
The blog post says (quote): Universities are funded, in part, by attracting researchers and undergraduates, which means polishing up their prestige and focussing efforts on brand recognition. From this point of view, for a university to have its own press, and funding the Article processing charges (APCs) for highly-cited publications, can almost be seen as a kind of marketing exercise rather than corporate survival. The logical step - given that the investment is relatively small and much IT support is available in-house - is for leading universities to cut out the go-between, and become their own OA publishers. There are new opportunities here, and fledgling alliances to be created. I think we can expect to see many new initiatives along the lines of the exclusive-open UCL Press.......(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
5. Text and Data Mining Are Growing and Publishers Need to Support Their Use – An AAP-PSP Panel Report
During the AAP/PSP annual meeting last week, a panel discussion with representatives of consortia, a publisher, and a technology provider explored the topic of text and data mining. In his post in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, Todd A Carpenter discusses the introductory remarks and some information about the panel discussion.
The blog post says (quote): The question for our community is, what is the role of publishers in this endeavor? How can publishers support the researcher community that is interested in undertaking these kinds of analyses with our data? What challenges do publishers and libraries face in provisioning and licensing these services? How can you do so in a way that does not appear, from a systems perspective, like wholesale theft of your company’s intellectual property?.......(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
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