Title: Publication Strategies
1Publication Strategies
- Vivian Siegel, PhD
- Director, Center for Science Communication
- Departments of Medicine (Genetic Medicine)
- and Cell and Developmental Biology
2Strategic Issues
- Deciding what constitutes a paper
- Writing the best possible paper
- Manuscript architecture
- Prereview
- Anticipating the needs of editors and reviewers
3Why do you publish?
- To claim priority for a discovery
- To share what you have learned and how you have
learned it, so that others can build on that
knowledge
4How do you publish?
- Through peer-reviewed journals of the highest
possible stature
5Priority and stature
- Sometimes competition means you need to publish
fast - High profile journals generally require big
stories
6Whats new and why should I care?
- What is the question you have answered with your
data? - How sophisticated do you have to be to appreciate
the importance of that question? - How much work would it take to answer a bigger
question - one that you dont need to be quite so
sophisticated to appreciate?
7Writing the best possible paper
8There are two very distinct audiences for your
paper
- The Scientist in Your Field
- Methods
- Data (figures, tables, etc.)
- Legends
- The Outsider (scientists, editors, others)
- The body of the paper (introduction, results,
discussion)
Each piece needs individually to tell your story
in a way that is best suited to the appropriate
audience.
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12medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/editors_club/
13Writing Studio
www.vanderbilt.edu/writing/index.php
14Anticipate what editors and reviewers need and do
- Editors need to know whats new and why its
important - Reviewers need to believe your conclusions
- Reviewers will always ask for more
- If Reviewers ask for more, Editors ask for more
15Ironically, it takes longer than ever to get a
paper published
- 26 papers in JCB
- June 1985
- June 1997
- June 2008
- Time from Submission to Acceptance
- Scatter plot, red line is the Median
16Overall P0.0015 (Kruskal-Wallis) Dunns
Multiple Comparison Test June 1985 vs. June 1997
Pgt0.05 June 1985 vs. June 2008 Plt0.05 June 1997
vs. June 2008 Plt 0.01
17It has become painful to publish
18What can you do?
- Take every opportunity (cover letter,
introduction, etc.) to express clearly why the
question being answered by the paper is worth
answering - this helps the editor - Provide enough experimental detail for reviewers
to judge the technical quality of the work - Be honest (dont hide work that undermines your
conclusions, or oversell the paper, just to get
past the editor) - Be strategic - manage expectations write the
paper so the reviewer asks for what you can
provide - Be respectful in your response to the decision
19- Randy Schekman The Role of an Editor A Delicate
Balancing Act - Vivian Siegel and Zena Werb How to Read and
Respond to a Journal Rejection Letter - William Wells Me Write Pretty One Day How to
Write a Good Scientific Paper - Liana Holmberg What Happened to My Figures?!
http//www.ascb.org/files/WICB_Pub_Vol_I_II.pdf
20Thank you.
vivian.siegel_at_vanderbilt.edu