PUBLISHING YOUR WORK IN PEER-REVIEWED

JOURNALS

NAMEOSA Fellow

AFFILIATION

LOCATION AND DATE OF PRESENTATION

Overview

• Preparing to write your manuscript

• Types of papers• Journal selection• Ethical guidelines• Defining authorship

• Sections of an article• Submission process• Peer review process• OSA and partner

journals

Preparing to Write Your Manuscript

• What is the novelty?• What is the message?• Put it in context—need appropriate refs• Have it read by others• Don’t make it longer (or shorter) than

needed• Invest time in writing well

Preparing to Write Your Manuscript

• Choose appropriate co-authors

• Choose appropriate journal (don’t aim too high and don’t aim too low)

• There’s more to a journal than its Impact Factor

• Read the journal’s Author webpage

• Use the correct format

Types of Papers

• Research articles• Reviews• Letters• Comments/

Replies

• Discussion • Errata• Conference

proceedings

Journal Selection

• Specializedbroad interest

• Theoreticalapplied

• Full-lengthletter

• Subscriptionopen access

• Timeliness of publication process

• Journal reputation

Ethical Guidelines

• Obtain necessary clearances

• Submit to one journal at a time

• Declare any conflicts of interest

• Give proper attribution

Ethical Guidelines• Obtain permissions

• Do not fabricate data

• Comply with internationally recognized principles for use of animal and human subjects in research

• Word by word copying is strongly discouraged, but if necessary must be given proper attribution

Defining Authorship

Authors make substantive contributions:

• Basic physical ideas or discussion

• Laboratory experiments

• Detailed calculations

All authors share responsibility and accountability for publication content

Alternatives for Assigning Credit

• CitationPrivate conversations referenced in publications only with permission

• AcknowledgementContribution is not significant enough to list as author, must obtain permission first

Types of Authorship• Lead author

Primary responsibility, most substantial contribution, usually first author

• Submitting author – deals with journal

• Corresponding author Person interested individuals contact, predictable address; usually submitting author

• Last author Alphabetical or least contributor, sometimes head of lab

What Order?

• In some fields, student is first author if based primarily on Ph.D. dissertation

• Order is often independent of relative status/rank of authors

• Should be discussed at start• Change order only with permission of all• No addition of authors after submission

Discussing Authorship

• Should begin at start of research

• Open and professional discussion

• Order may reflect contribution or could be alphabetical

• Identify expected contributions, roles, and tasks of each potential author

• Can change over time, renegotiate as needed (prior to submission)

Authorship and Submission

• List affiliations of each author

• Allow all authors to review and comment prior to submission

• Journal will send email toall authors – Be ethical!

Sections of an Article

Title: informative, accurate, concise

Example of good title

Repetitively pulsed tunable dye laser for high resolution spectroscopy

Example of bad title

A Unique, Novel Object-Detection Model that Improves upon that of Wang et al.

Sections of an Article

Abstract• Problem and objectives•Methodology• Findings and Conclusion• Research’s effect and impact

Check journal style guide for abstract length restrictions

Sections of an Article

Introduction• Problem to be addressed• Background and literature review• New developments and principle results• Research purpose and method

Sections of an Article

Main Body of Paper• Problem• Theory and experiment• Results• Figures/multimedia

Sections of an Article

Discussion • Results viewed in larger context• Comparison with other related work• Significance

Sections of an Article

Conclusion • Summary (no new information)• Statement of specific conclusions• Future consideration

Sections of an Article

References• Numerical order by appearance• Follow journal’s style guide• EndNote and Bibtex

Sections of an Article

Appendices• Supplementary material•Material valuable for specialist

Acknowledgments• Technical assistance/useful comments• Financial support/disclosures

Writing Your Paper in English

• Grammar, punctuation, spelling, terminology• Logical sentence structure, clarity of content • Common weakness is omission or misuse of

“the” and “a” • Suggestions

o Use shorter sentenceso Read papers in English in leading

research journalso Ask colleagues for help

Basic Acceptance Criteria:Standard Research Articles

• Work relevant to journal scope• Results significant to field• Incremental work discouraged• Discussion, conclusions supported by data• Work placed in proper context• Equations, figures, tables, multimedia

contribute to presentation• Well-written and logically organized

Before You Submit

Language Review• http://languageediting.osa.org

Style review • Journal style guide• Browse published

articles

Follow online submission process

Submission Process (OSA)

PRISM – www.prism.opticsinfobase.org

Submission Process

Select Appropriate Journal

Submission Process

Copyright agreement

• Authors transfer copyright to OSA

• Retain rights forauthor reuse

Submission Process

Title and Abstract• Note if for

feature issue

• Note related papers

Submission Process

Upload• Word, TeX• Cover letter• Author

response

Submission Process

Multimedia• Video• Audio• Tabular data• Images• Other

Submission Process

OCIS Codes• Add keywords• Select primary code• Enter same codes

as listed on the paper

• Free-form keywords

Submission Process

Co-authors• E-mail address

required• Notified

when submissioncomplete

Submission Process

Reviewer suggestions

• 3 names required

• Designate non-preferred

Submission Process

Funding/Page Charge Information (Subscription journals)

• Note NIH funding• Overlength charges

OA journals have mandatory charges

Submission Process

Submission completed!• Auto acknowledgment sent• Official submission

confirmation to follow

Peer Review Process (OSA)

1. Initial quality check by staff, Editor2. Editor in Chief assigns appropriate

Topical/associate editor 3. Topical/associate editor handles

manuscript• contacts possible referees• waits for reports• makes first decision• makes final decision• manuscript sometimes sent for rereview

Peer Review Process

Reviewer recommendations • Accepted as is• Requires further revisions• Referred to another journal• Rejected

Peer review comments should help produce a better manuscript

Peer Review Process

Manuscript Decisions• Editor makes decision after peer review• If revisions are requested• Authors may resubmit revised manuscript• A cover letter should explain each change• Editor may refer back to review• Editor makes final decision

Peer Review ProcessSuggest a few referees, but make sure that:• They aren’t just the big names in the field• They are not closely linked to you. • You can ask for reviewers to be excluded, but

don’t go overboard • Associate Editor is not required to grant request

(though generally tries)

• Referees are not your enemy—consider them an ally who can help improve your manuscript

• Treat them seriously (one revision allowed)• Deal with each and every point

- You don’t need to agree with all of them• Can make additional changes• Don’t cast aspersions on referees, or try to guess

the referees’ identity (you are likely to be wrong)• Be courteous to referees & editors

Peer Review Process

Dealing with referee’s comments:

Peer Review Process

If manuscript is rejected• Act on reviewers comments before

submitting elsewhere• OSA strongly discourages resubmitting rejected

papers to other OSA journals• You can appeal but most are turned down• Advice: put in your drawer for a week or two

weeks, reread referee reports, rewrite and submit to other journal.

Your Participation in the Process

• Referees and Editors are volunteers

• Be generous with your own time as a reviewer

• Refereeing is a necessary cv item, shows engagement in the community

• Refereeing record is considered for Editorial Board candidates

• Point out suspicions of unethical behavior

Comments and Questions?

For a copy of slides or further questions,email me at

EMAIL ADDRESS

OSA Journals

OSA Partner Journals