If your research paper is ready then it is the time to publish your paper. How to publish your research paper in journal is a big question for beginners. Here I will discuss about the steps involved in publishing a research paper in journal. There are mainly following steps involved in publishing a research paper in journal as presented schematically in Figure 1.
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| Figure 1. A schematic presentation of different steps involved in publishing a research paper in journal |
Prepare your Manuscript for Publication
Before publishing your article in
journal your manuscript should be ready. I have already posted an article on
“How to write a research paper (manuscript) for publication in a journal?”.
You can go through this to learn how to ready a manuscript for publication in a
journal. After completion of the first draft of your manuscript recheck your
manuscript at least five times and edit your manuscript if some modification
required. Thoroughly check all the section of the manuscript, graphs, charts,
table, references, etc. It will be easy if all authors check the manuscript
individually and finally leader of the research group or a senior researcher of
the group could check the manuscript.
Plagiarism Check of Your Manuscript
Now if you think that your
manuscript is ready for publication then you go for plagiarism check of the
manuscript. There are many plagiarism detection software
available in free as well as in paid services. Plagiarism check of your
manuscript is necessary to avoid copy right issues.
Find a Suitable Journal
Different journals have different
research scope. Based on you research article you have to find out the journal
which is relevant with your research work. Your work should match the scope of
the journal. Sometimes journal publishers have the options of journal finder. In journal finder if you give
abstract and keywords of your article and search, then you will get specific
journal which is best suitable for your research article. In this way you have
to find out the journal relevant to your research work. During selection of a
journal it is important to check the standard of the journal also. Publication
of research article in high standard journal is always a desire of any
researcher. Impact factor of a journal is
one parameter to decide the standard of the journal. Also check if it is a paid
journal. If it is a paid journal then you have pay article processing charge
(APC) to publish your article in this journal.
Ready Your Manuscript in the Journal Format
Once journal selection is over
then you have to prepare your manuscript in the particular format of the
journal. Every journal has its own format to present your manuscript.
Especially the format of in-text citations and list of end references are
different for different journal. Some journals prefer blind
review process where the authors detail such as their names and affiliations
should not be in the main manuscript, it will be in different page which is
called “Title Page”. In general if your manuscript is not in the proper format
of the journal then it will be rejected in the initial stage.
Make a Reviewers’ List
When
you will go for submission of your article they will ask to submit reviewers’
list. General it is asked to submit the name of three to five reviewers. In
reviewer list you have to provide name, designation, affiliation, research
area, etc. of the reviewers. But, it is not necessary that they will send your
article to these reviewers.
Make a Cover Letter
A
cover letter is generally required along with submission of your manuscript.
The cover letter should be addressed to editor of the journal. A summary of
your research article has to be mentioned in the cover letter. The summary must
contain major findings of your research. It will help the editor to find the
importance of your article before going to the main manuscript.
Submit your Manuscript to the Journal
If
all the above things are ready then you can go for submitting your research
article to the journal. You can submit your manuscript two way- (i) directly
submit your manuscript through the journal website, (ii) you can send your
manuscript to the journal editor by e-mail. Maximum journal prefer first one.
In the first case you have to create an account as an author in the journal
website then submit your manuscript as per the instruction. In the second case
you can send your manuscript to the editor of the journal through e-mail. However,
very few journals allow the second case.
Wait for the Review Process of your Manuscript
Once
you have completed the submission process of your manuscript to the journal you
will get confirmation e-mail from the journal notifying that your manuscript is
successfully submitted. Depending on the journal policy the confirmation e-mail
will come to every author or only to the corresponding author of the manuscript.
Now you have to wait for the review process. Preliminary review will be done by
the editor office. If they think that your manuscript has some potential to be
published in their journal but has to be reviewed before publication then they
will send your manuscript to the reviewers. If they don’t think so they will
reject your manuscript from this stage. Then you have to submit your manuscript
to other journal. If your manuscript went for review it will take approximately
one to three months for the review process.
Reply to the Reviewers comment
After
the review process is over you will get informed from the editorial office of
the journal through e-mail. You will get details comments of the reviewers’ with
editor’s decision on your manuscript. In this stage three possibilities are
there (i) major revision, (ii) minor revision, (iii) rejected. If it is
rejected then you have go for another journal. If it is major or minor revision
then there is a chance of accepting your manuscript in the journal. In this
case (in case of major or minor revision) you have to go through the comments thoroughly
and edit your manuscript as per the reviewers’ comment. If it is asked to
conduct any experiment further that also you have to do. Then you have to make
a reply sheet containing all the answers of the reviewer’s comment in detail. There
will be time limit to submit your reply sheet along with revised manuscript.
After the reply sheet is ready submit the reply sheet along with revised
manuscript to the journal as per the instruction provided by the journal office.
Decision on your Manuscript
Once
you have submitted your reply sheet with revised manuscript to the journal now
they can (i) again send the comments with revised manuscript to the reviewers again
or (ii) take decision on your manuscript. For the first case it will take some more
time to get decision on your manuscript. In second case you will get decision
quickly.
Acceptance of your manuscript
After
the final review process is over if they found that your revised manuscript is
suitable for publication in their journal they will accept it and you will get
a confirmation e-mail from the editor of the journal.
However,
if your manuscript is not yet up to the standard of the journal they can again
advise you to edit your manuscript further.
Proof Editing and Online Article Publishing Agreement
If
your manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal then the step is to
complete the author publishing agreement. For this you have to go to your
author account and have to complete the author publishing agreement. Once it is
over then they will send the manuscript for final proof editing within a few
days of acceptance of the manuscript. Proof editing is the stage where the authors
can edit their manuscript if there are any mistakes. However, only minor change
can be done no major change of the manuscript is allowable in this stage. So,
it is important to check your manuscript line wise from beginning to end before final submission. After this stage there will not
be any chance of changing your manuscript further.
Publication
After proof editing is over your manuscript is now ready to publish and will come to online within a few days. Your article will be published in a particular issue of the journal. Once it is published it will be notified to you by e-mail.
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