Cstam Jour Potential Print

How to unlock you journal’s

full potential

Daniel Broaddus, PhD

Senior Editor and Trainer, Liwen Bianji

December 22, 2010

A little about me…

Liwen Bianji (Edanz Group China) | 2

� Research: Optics and Telecommunications

� Fields: Physics, Electrical Engineering,

Nanoscience, Material Science

A little more about me…


Author

Reviewer

Reader

Science packaged for a big audience


Physicists at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland,

report that they have created an analogue to a black hole

in their lab. Such a tabletop black hole, made from a

length of optical fiber and laser light, may prove

invaluable in understanding the characteristics of these

exotic astronomical objects, scientists say.

Attractive visuals


Artist’s rendition of a black holeEvent horizon analog in water

Bring curiosity and attention to a journal


Presentation

� Introduction

� Section One: Connecting with scientists

� Section Two: Easy to read

� Section Three: Easy to contribute

� Section Four: Professionalism


Why Internationalize?

� International scientists know new science is

being generated in China – They want to know

about it

� Scientists want all countries to participate in a

positive culture of sharing and communication –

China’s voice in the scientific community


� Website

� Indexing

� Search engines

� Becoming a web resource

� Blogs

� Conference presence


Section One Connecting with scientists

The Internet is key!

Quickest

connection to

your content

Legitimizes your

journal

A high-quality website is expected of modern journals


Website

Readers can

browse your

entire archive

Website


Website


� Navigability—Simplicity

� Ease of finding manuscripts

� Ease of accessing and understanding guidelines for

authors

� Ease of submission

� Templates—MS Word, LaTeX

� Some free content (abstracts, full manuscripts)

� Advice on preparation of figures and tables

� Recommended editing services

Website Attractive visuals


Website Top cited, Newest cited, Comments


Website Editor’s recommendations


Website RSS feed


Website Tag cloud


How important has it been for NRR to be indexed in SCI? What advice can you

offer to journals on that process?


Indexing SCI Index

“After being indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded

(SCI-E), NRR has experienced significant growth in both

the number and quality of contributions. Many factors

are taken into account when evaluating journals for

coverage of SCI, including the journal's basic publishing

standards, the international diversity of its authorship and

editorial board, and citation data.” – Ms Zhao Meng,

Development Editor Neural Regeneration Research

Indexing


Being indexed will help authors connect to your

journal

Search engines Getting results


� Be in the top few results for your Journal’s name

� Try to be a top result for your journal’s subject

Readers and authors need to find and trust your journal

before they will invest time in it.

Search engines Moving up


� Encourage linking to your site (blogs, RSS)

� Become a web resource for select topics

� Link to other related web resources

Web resources


Websites where people go to get reliable information

Often have high search engine rankings

Imagine…

Wants to become the authority on

microRNAs

� Have an expert write an easy to read

explanation

� Link to your manuscripts

� Link to other information (Wikipedia)

People will come to Protein & Cell to learn about microRNAs

Blogs and RSS feeds


� Connect with contributors in a trusted forum

� Platform for media connections

� Improve your internet profile (Search engines)

Can give readers and authors a chance to learn about

the science in your journal before reading it.

Blogs and RSS feeds


� Sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of

Engineering and National Natural Science Foundation of China

� 1,200,000 registered members

� 500,000 page views per day


Conferences Finding contributors

� Find contributors

� Face-to-face meeting

� Contribute to community

� Feedback from reviewers

and authors

Establish your journal as a

subject leader

What benefits are there for journals to attend international events? What

events has NRR attended recently and what were the outcomes?


Conferences

“NRR has attended three international meetings in 2010,

the Francis Crick Symposium on Neuroscience hosted by

Cold Spring Harbor Asia, the 13th National Conference of

Neurology hosted by Chinese Medical Association, and the

40th Society for Neuroscience annual meeting,

Neuroscience 2010.

NRR’s presence at international events is beneficial for the

journal to expand its international awareness. We hope to

increase face-to-face communication with internationally

renowned experts and researchers, to become acquainted

with their recent achievements, and to listen to their

recommendations for NRR.” – Ms Zhao Meng, Development Editor Neural Regeneration Research

� How do readers read?

� Abstract

� Display Items

� Captions

Section Two Easy to Read


Readers are busy scientists

Information should come a quickly as possible from a

manuscript

Therefore, manuscripts should have:

� Well written abstracts

� Easy to understand figures

� Captions that explain the figures

In addition a manuscript should use simple language


How do your readers read?

Many researchers will only read the abstract so

must be able to ‘stand alone’

Must give an accurate summary of the research,

and enough information so that readers can

understand:

�What was done

�Why it was done

�What the findings were

�Why the findings are useful and important


Abstract

Abstracts Getting more from your manuscripts


Summary of broader appeal

�Highlights importance of research

�Clarifies context

�Brings in readers from outside

fields

�Gets notice on blogs and science

new websites

Big questions

Saving lives

Science fiction

Faster computing

Cheaper, cleaner energy

Popular science

Connects you to a wider audience = more readers

Abstracts A little media attention


Manuscripts will already have a press release

Abstracts International Chinese journals


WJG already requests a summary of broader appeal


Display items

� Best way to present results

� Deliver information quickly

� Good visuals attract readers

� Provide a professional look

Work in tandem with

“broader appeal”

Work with your authors to

develop great visuals

Captions


Often readers will not read the main text of a

manuscript. They must understand the figures

using only the caption.

Ensure your authors answers these questions:

�What it is in the figure?

�Why was this figure included in the manuscript?

�How should the figure be interpreted?

Captions

This figure is from a high-impact-factor journal.

This one is from a lower-IF journal


�Clear, uniform author

guidelines

�Templates

�Simple formatting rules

�Reference style files

�Clear reviewer guidelines

Section Three Easy to contribute


Ease of contribution


Scientists want to do, read about, and write about science

We do NOT want to…

�Do complex typesetting

�Struggle with Microsoft Word

It looks like you are writing a journal article, would you like some help?

Yes No

Request feedback on the process from your authors and reviewers.Make sure your efforts are helpful!

Author guidelines


Author guidelines should be clear and uniform.

Try to keep things simple (e.g. word/page counts rather than line

counts)

Provide a summary of important rules: Total word count: 3500

Abstract word count: 200

Reference limit: 20

When possible use examples!

1. C. van Trigt, "Visual system-response functions and estimating

reflectance," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 14, 741-755 (1997).

Easier to understand

Templates


64%“If there was a template,I would use it”

Templates


Templates make

formatting simple

It looks like you have a template... I guess you do not need

my help �

Simple submission format


Templates are great…

But not having to do any formatting is better

Many journals have very easy requirements:

� Double space

� Use standard font

� Figures at the end

However, providing a simple template still helps!

Reference style files


Reference managers like Endnote, Zotero,

Mendeley, and BibTeX save everyone’s time!

Provide Style files

� .ens files for Endnote

� .csl files for Zotero and Mendeley

� .bst files for BibTeX

Use a standard style – no need to make new files

Tell reviewers what you want

� Constructive, ethical comments

� Analysis of the full manuscript

� Clearly reasoned comments

Why? More reviewers will be “Good reviewers”

Consider a reviewer template with directed questions to

ensure quality reviews

Clear reviewer guidelines


“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and

five minutes to ruin it.” – Warren Buffet

Section Four Professionalism


More and more Journals are setting high ethical

standards. Readers, authors, and reviewers now

expect them.

Ethics


Mediation


You are the mediator between author and

reviewers:

Make sure only constructive reviews make it to

the author

and, only polite responses make it back to the

reviewer

One unfair experience can ruin a researcher’s

opinion

Reviewer comments


Vague or unjustified reviewer comments can hurt

the process

Even if they were intended to be minor

“The language in the manuscript was full of

grammatical errors.”

It is hard for the author to know what to improve

Ensure good reviewer–author communication

Reputation


Readers want to read…

Reviewers want to contribute to…

Authors will be proud to submit to

� Use the Web to get ahead

� Connect with contributors (blogs, RSS,

conferences)

� Require clear, concise, accurate writing

� Use the full appeal of your manuscripts

� Build a solid reputation

Summary

Thank you, from all of us at Liwen Bianji,

Edanz Group China

Special thanks to:

Chinese Society of

Theoretical and

Applied Mechanics

To download this talk and others

please visit:

www.liwenbianji.cn

Some material in this talk was obtained from Optics Communications, Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and Science Magazine.

Useful Websites


Journals

Protein & Cell

Journal of Zhejiang University

Journal of Integrative Plant Biology

Cell Research

Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Neural Regeneration Research

World Journal of Gastroenterology

http://www.protein-cell.org/archive/index.html

http://www.zju.edu.cn/jzus/index.php

http://www.jipb.net/

http://www.cell-research.com/index.asp

http://iopscience.iop.org/1009-9271

http://oa.crter.org/nrren/ch/first_menu.aspx

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/current.htm

Blogs and RSS feeds

EurekAlert! China

ScienceNet

http://chinese.eurekalert.org/zh/index.php

http://www.sciencenet.cn/

Reference managers

Zotero

Mendeley

BibTeX

http://www.zotero.org/

http://www.mendeley.com/

http://www.bibtex.org/

Publishing Tools

CrossCheck http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck.html

Technology

Cstam Jour Potential Print