Publishing Tips
‘8 reasons I accepted your article'
Journal editors reveal the top reasons a manuscript gets published
By Elizabeth Zwaaf Posted on 15 January 2013
Peter Thrower, PhDmaintain and develop their journal's profile and reputation. The editor
also has the final responsibility for content, ensuring that it meets
the aims and scope of the journal and reflects changes in the field by
presenting
new and emerging research.In September, Elsevier Connect published an article by Dr. Peter Thrower, Editor-in-Chief of Carbon, called "8 reasons I rejected your article."
Because of the article's popularity, we followed up by asking five of
our editors a related question: What are
the top eight reasons you accept a paper? They all came up with
similar reasons, which we present here along with their commentary.
Joseph H. Astrachan, PhD
Torsten M. Pieper, PhDat the Cox Family Enterprise Center, Coles College of Business, at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and his colleague, Dr. Joseph Astrachan, Editor-in-Chief of the journal and Executive Director of the Cox Family Enterprise
Center and Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship.
1. It provides insight into an important issue
– for example, by explaining a wide variance when numbers are spread
out from the mean or expected value, or by shedding light on an unsolved
problem that affects a lot of people.
2. The insight is useful to people who make decisions, particularly long-term organizational decisions or, in our particular field, family decisions.
3. The insight is used to develop a framework or theory, either a new theory or advancing an existing one.
4. The insight stimulates new, important questions.
5. The methods used to explore the issue are appropriate (for example, data collection and analysis of data).
6. The methods used are applied rigorously and explain why and how the data support the conclusions.
7. Connections to prior work in the field or from other fields are made and serve to make the article's arguments clear.
8. The article tells a good story, meaning it is well written and easy to understand, the arguments are logical and not internally contradictory.
"Ideally,
we would like to see articles perform well on all eight points, and
that the author strives for a good balance amongst these criteria," said
Dr. Pieper said.
'Show me something new'
Alexander T. Florence, PhDEmeritus at University College London,
whether he passes a paper on to the referees for peer review is partly
determined "not by hard and fast rules but by my own feeling."For
the subject, it is what I have seen over the years in the journal and
what I feel is current, novel and not derivative," he said.
Professor
Florence added that he is intrigued by work that is very new and by
papers he wishes he thought about doing himself. After the paper has
survived reviewer scrutiny, Dr. Florence said, it helps when the
reviewers are unanimous in their views. While the reviewing process is
very strict, reviewers
might be split on their final decision: for example, one might
recommend "rejection," another "major revision" and the third "accept
as is."
Loren E. Wold, PhDDr. Loren E. Wold
, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Life Sciences and Principal Investigator of the Center for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research
of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's
Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, "Acceptance is contingent upon whether
an article advances our understanding of a topic, what is beyond
already known, and opens up a new arena."What we are seeing in Life Sciences, as well as other journals, is the explosive growth of new technology which has broad implications on these studies," he said.
Do your own work
Whilea paper might "tick all the boxes," the question on everyone's mind is,
"Is it original?" With the increasing use of technology — and several
software programs now available to detect plagiarism, such as CrossCheck
— the paper's originality can be easily determined and detected before
the referees see it. At Elsevier, many papers undergo this scrutiny.
Francesco Visioli, PhD"There should be no hints of plagiarism or fabrication in the paper," said Dr. Francesco Visioli, Editor-in-Chief of Pharmacological Research and the recently launched journal PharmaNutrition. Also, he added, "data in the figures should match those reported in the
results, and the results are not in contradiction with each other."
Use varied research methods
Dr.Pieper, who moved from Germany to the US about five years ago, looks at
the type of research submitted from different parts of the world.
"Moving from Europe to the US, I see there is a marked difference
between the output of US researchers compared to their European
counterparts in qualitative
as opposed to quantitative research for my family of journals," he
said, pointing out that well over 75 percent of submissions coming from
the US use quantitative methods compared to about 50 percent from
Europe.
"This clearly demonstrates to me that European researchers
are more embracing of alternative methods to explore a phenomenon of
interest," he said. "Going forward, I would like to see a more even
balance in the papers submitted from the US."
Resources for authors
Before submitting a paper, authors should study the journal's aims and scope and consult with the Guide for Authors.For more advice, check out the step-by-step guide How to publish in an Elsevier Journal and the Publishing Connect Author Training Webcasts.
For information on the Elsevier's online submission system, visit the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) customer support site at support.elsevier.com.
Elsevier Connect Contributor
Elizabeth ZwaafZwaaf is a Marketing Communications Specialist
at Elsevier. In this role, she has helped promote the work of the
Innovation Explorers community to a wider audience at Elsevier and in
the research community. She is currently heading up an internal campaign
that focuses on where Elsevier gets customer feedback and how it's use
‘8 reasons I accepted your article'
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