Publishing and Reviewing in the field of Neuropsychology

Publication Process

• Reviewing for journals

– How to get involved

– Tips for reviewing

• Steps to publishing

– Manuscript Preparation

– Plagiarism/conflicts of interest

– Tips for dealing with reviews

– Resubmission

– Selecting the best journal for your work

Reviewing

• If you want to become a reviewer– Ask your advisor if you could co-review to learn – After training complete, contact the editor/journal with request

to review & a list of areas of expertise– When asked, accept especially at first– When you accept, follow through

• When you are a reviewer– Decline and accept review requests rapidly– Constructive, not pejorative or disrespectful comments– Use “confidential comments to editor” to voice concerns that

you don’t want to share with author

• You can ask about being on editorial board but not until you’ve had significant experience

Roediger’s Tips for Reviewing(Roediger, 2007)

• Know your mission

• Be speedy

• Read carefully

• Say some positive things in your review “Unfortunately, I

believe the authors’ conclusions may be limited by the fact that Factor X covaried with the critical Factor Y,” rather than “The authors obviously were poorly trained, as evidenced by their blunder of confounding Factor X with Factor Y, so this entire line of research was a waste of time.”

• Don’t exhibit hostility

• Keep it brief (1-2 pages)

Roediger’s Tips

• Don’t nitpick (e.g., misspellings), Big picture

• Develop a good reviewing style; include ways to correct/improve the weaknesses;

• Set a high threshold for recommending additional experiments

• Watch for egocentrism: Don’t make it a habit to recommend citing your own work.

• Recommendation re. publication

• Signing your review: Journals vary on this; write the review as though you were going to sign it.

Resources

Roediger, H. L., III (2007). The Academic Observer: Twelve Tips for Reviewers. APS Observer, 20(4). Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer

Sternberg, R. J. (2002). On Civility in Reviewing. APS Observer, 15(1). Retrieved from

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer

Steps to Publishing

Steps to Publishing

• Manuscript

– Tell a story with a strong rationale and hypotheses; don’t overinterpret; acknowledge limitations, but don’t sell yourself short if your study is strong

– Plagiarism (purposeful and inadvertent)

– Conflict of Interests: Perception

Plagiarism/Duplicate publication

• Duplicate publication of own work

– Must acknowledge previous publication

– Provide rationale for added value of reanalysis

• Minor copying of short phrases only

• Redundancy, i.e., Minor copying of own work

• Plagiarism-unattributed use of large portion of text and/or data

PlagiarismCommittee on Publication Ethics (www.publicationethics.org)

• Major overlap with previously published work (many software programs for detection)

• Contact corresponding author

• If no response or unsatisfactory response, other authors contacted

• Contact author’s institution

• Reject paper with explanation

• Inform initial reviewer of action

Conflicts of Interest

• Financial Conflicts most prevalent

– Research support

– Consultant for company that may have a vested interest in findings

– Does entity require approval of publication before submission?

Reviews can be DemoralizingReviewers are doing God’s work for free & it’s time consuming

Rare “accepts” in first round so develop a thick skin

Don’t respond to negative reviews immediately or emotionally; talk to mentor & colleagues

What to do if paper is rejected• Cry? Give up? NO!! It’s part of the territory• Appeal decision? Rare• Submit to another journal but revise based on reviewer

comments• Redo or modify study based on reviews (e.g., increase

sample size)

Reviews: Resubmission Thorough, responsive letter that thanks everyone Include reviewer comment followed by location of

change in ms. & verbatim changes made• Humble• Not Arrogant, defensive, rigid (e.g., Not “we chose this approach

because we’re the experts” without rational justification)• Dismissive (“the reviewers are obviously unaware of the impact of

my work”; responses like, “my work has been published in journal XXX that has a higher impact factor than your journal” are not appreciated)

• Minimalistic (“we elected not to change anything because…”)• Rational, data-based response that makes appropriate changes

based on reason (not emotion) & justifies (if appropriate) why some suggestions were not followed

What journal to select for my paper?

• Reasons for selecting a journal:

– Habit

– Ranking

– Editorial Board

– Open Access

– Nice cover

What journal to select for my paper?

• Discipline: What specialists would be most interested in my paper? Is

it only relevant to neuropsychologists, or is it also of importance to other psychologists, medical specialists (which?), fundamental researchers?

• Disease/Disorder: Does the paper focus on a specific

disease/disorder, or does it involve fundamental or applied questions of brain-behavior relationships?

• Distinction: What is the

importance of my discovery? Do I

address a timely and important

issue, with good methodological

and statistical back-up, and nice

theoretical framework?

What journal to select for my paper?

• Core neuropsychological journals

– Cortex

– Neuropsychology

– Neuropsychologia

– Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (JINS)

– Clinical Neuropsychology

– Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychology

What journal to select for my paper?

• Cognitive neuropsychology/cognitive neuroscience

– High profile• Nature neuroscience

• Cerebral Cortex

• Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

• Journal of Neuroscience

– Medium profile• Brain & Language

• Behavioral Brain Research

• Brain and Cognition

– Low profile• Cognitive neuropsychology

• Neuroreport

What journal to select for my paper?

• General High Profile

– Current Biology

– PNAS

– Plos Biology

• General Medium Profile

– PlosONE

What journal to select for my paper?

• Medical/Neurology

– Brain

– Stroke

– Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry

– Movement Disorders

– Epilepsia

• Medical/Psychiatry

– Archives of Psychiatry

– Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

– Psychological Medicine

– Psychoneuroendocrinology

What journal to select for my paper?

• Children

– Developmental neuropsychology

– Child neuropsychology

• Children/medical

– Pediatrics

– Journal of Pediatrics

– Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology

– Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

What journal to select for my paper?

• Neuroimaging

– Human Brain Mapping

– NeuroImage (Clinical)

– Psychiatry Research-Neuroimaging

– American Journal of Neuroradiology

– Neuroradiology

– Brain Imaging and Behavior

What journal to select for my paper?

• Rehabilitation

– Neuropsychological rehabilitation

– Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation

– Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair

– Developmental Neurorehabilitation

– Neurorehabilitation

What journal to select for my paper?

• Reviews

– Neuropsychology Review

– Nature Reviews Neuroscience

– Behavioral and Brain Sciences

– Trends in Cognitive Science

– Brain Research Reviews

– Physics of Life Reviews

– Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society

What journal to select for my paper?

• Applied

– The Clinical Neuropsychologist

– Applied neuropsychology

– Behavior Research Methods

– Games for Health Journal

• For students

– Journal of European Psychology Students

Open Access publishing

What does it do?

•Makes research outputs free at the point of use

What problems is it intended to address?

•Problem of inaccessibility

•Problem of high prices

Different types of Open Access

• Green – Items are made available on a repository

• Gold – A fee is paid to a publisher

• Open access papers

• Open access journals

Publishing studies using patients

• Patients should fulfil clinical criteria• Complete descriptive data (structural scans,

neuropsychological test results, medication)• Ethical guidelines followed• Selection bias• Control participants• Matched on age, education, sex• Pathology excluded (history of neurological or

psychiatric disease)• Neurocognitive vs. biomedical journals• Impact factor• Sample size• Audience

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (JINS)

– Official journal of the International Neuropsychological Society• Editor-in-Chief: Stephen M. Rao, Cleveland Clinic, US• Editorial office: Maria Stadtler (jins@cambridge.org, 216-444-2330)• Associate Editors: Julie C. Stout (Australia), Giuseppe Vallar (Italy), Mieke

Verfaellie (US), Guy Vingerhoets (Belgium), John L. Woodard (US), Keith Owen Yeates (Canada)

• Consulting Editorial Board representative of six continents

– Publication Formats• Regular Research Articles, Brief/Rapid Communications, Critical/Short

Reviews, Special Issues/Series, Dialogues, Neurobehavioral Grand Rounds, and Book Reviews

– Journal Statistics• Current Impact Factors = 2.697, 5 year = 3.234 • Accept Rate: ~ 26%• Decision & Publication Times

– Submission to first decision: 3.5 weeks– Accept to online: 6 weeks– Accept to print: 15 weeks– Editorial assistance for non-native English speakers

Neuropsychology (http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/neu/index.aspx)

– Goals of APA journal: publish primarily original, empirical research on relation between brain and human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral function• Types of papers: regular articles, brief reports, theoretical reviews, meta-

analyses, and case reports with heuristic value • International journal (manuscripts received worldwide)• Editor (Gregory Brown), 5 Associate Editors (Deborah Fein, Harvey Levin,

Larry Seidman, Daniel Tranel, and Giuseppe Vallar), 58 Consulting Editors and 11 Principal Reviewers

– Characteristics• 2009 Impact Factor = 2.949; five years = 3.655• Acceptance rate = 33%• Mean time to 1st decision = 44 days; revised submissions = 29 days• Publication lag: online = 4-6 weeks; print = 5-6 months• Editorial Office: Penny Kaufman (kaufmap@ccf.org; 216-444-1025)• Editorial help for non-native English speakers