What do editors want?

Steve Milanese

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My journey

• Studied - B.App.Sc. (Physio), Grad.Cert (Sports Physio),

Grad. Dip.(Ergonomics), M.App.Sc.(Manipulative Physio),

PhD

• Researched – worked as Research officer at UniSA

• Wrote – Publish or perish (40 peer reviewed papers, 8 book

chapters, 1 article in Family Circle© )

My journey

• Reviewed – Regularly reviewed articles for Ergonomics, Canadian Journal of Physiotherapy, Australian Journal of Physiotherapy, Journal of Manual Therapy, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Philippine Journal of Physiotherapy, Pain, Youth Studies Australia, PLoS One.

• Edited - In 2012 was contacted by PLoS One and asked if I would join the editorial board for the PLoS One Journal.

• Have steered 24 Articles to production over the past 12 months.• Have 8 more in the pipeline

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Journal Requirements

A Happy Life

What an editor wants

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Journal Requirements

To be accepted for publication in PLoS ONE, research articles must satisfy the following criteria:

1.The study presents the results of primary scientific research. 2. Results reported have not been published elsewhere.

3. Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail.

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4. Conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data.

5. The article is presented in an intelligible fashion and is written in Standard English.

6. The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.

7. The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines (e.g. CONSORT, MIAME) and community standards for data availability.

Editorial criteria

The Editorial Criteria of PLoS ONE•Our mission at PLoS ONE is to rigorously peer‐review primary scientific research and publish all articles that are judged to be technically and ethically sound and appropriately reported. Thus, we avoid subjective considerations such as the novelty and perceived importance of the paper, focusing only on the technical aspects of the paper.

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1. The paper is submitted to PLoS ONE (offices in Sa Francisco and Cambridge)

2. Publication assistants review keywords and identify relevant editors via classification matches.

3. Send paper to editor asking if he/she will take it on.

The process

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4. Editor agrees (or not)• I read article and if not appropriate reject

5. Editor identifies two reviewers (based on a database of reviewers with classification matches)

6. Send e.mail to reviewers asking if he/she will review the paper.

The process

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7. Reviewer agrees (or not)

8. Editor gets reviewers feedback and makes a decision.

9. Sends e.mail to author with decision.

The process

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10.Article returns with amendments.

11.Editor either accepts or sends to reviewers to re-review

12.Sends e.mail to author with decision

The process

Decisions

1. Acceptance:•The manuscript is appropriate for publication as it is.•The manuscript will be checked to ensure that it conforms to the technical specifications that are needed to publish the paper.•Following an acceptance I will not see the manuscript again before it is published

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2. Minor Revision:•The manuscript is suitable for publication but needs some minor adjustments before publication.•These could include textual revisions and the inclusion of details or data that I am confident are already in the authors’ possession.•Following this decision, PLoS ONE expects to receive a revised manuscript very soon, which will be passed to me to check that what I requested has been performed. The expectation would be that this revised manuscript will be accepted.

Decisions

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3. Major Revision:

•The most challenging decision to make. It should be used when a manuscript has potential to be published but is lacking in some major way, usually experimental.

•Following this decision, I would expect the authors to take some time to produce a revised version, which I will need to fully scrutinize again before making a further decision.

Decisions

Decisions

4. Rejection: •Rejection implies that the papers as submitted is not appropriate for publication in any journal and that I do not anticipate that the study can be revised to make it so.

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Journal Requirements

A Happy Life

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Publication costs US$1,350 per article (Aus$1,482)

24 articles x $1,482 = $35, 560

Takes me approximately 4 hours per article = 96 hours

My payment for 2012 =

PLoS ONE

A Happy Life

• Easy to read – Makes sense– Properly formatted– Appropriately technical language

• Easy to get reviewers– Interesting– Relevant to the journal

Happy editor = Happy paper

Hints to making my life easy

1.Write proper English

2.Follow the publication template

3.Any suggested reviewers appreciated

4.Don’t argue with me – happy to discuss

5.All amendments need to be spelt out