How to Get your Article Published in eJIAS

1
Skills Building Workshop
PUBLISH OR PERISHStrengthening the Skills of
Developing World Investigators to Publish their
Research/Project Findings
Mark A Wainberg Elly Katabira Rodney Kort Barb
Koloshuk
2
Workshop Objectives

• Increase knowledge of the role of eJIAS in
  supporting research from the developing world
• Increase understanding of ms requirements and
  peer review process for scientific journals
• Strengthen skills in manuscript preparation

3
Skills Building Workshop
electornic Journal of the International AIDS
Society (eJIAS)
Mark A Wainberg Rodney Kort
4
eJIAS Mission

• to recognize, support, and promote essential and
  innovative HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and
  care efforts in developing countries

5
eJIAS Objectives

• 1. To provide a prominent, accessible, and
  prestigious forum for the publication of
  original, peer-reviewed articles that advance the
  field of HIV/AIDS in developing countries
• 2. To encourage and facilitate publication by
  scientists and clinicians working in developing
  countries
• 3. To improve the dissemination of high-quality
  medical evidence from research conducted in a
  diversity of geographic, cultural, socioeconomic,
  and clinical settings
• 4. To enable scientists and healthcare personnel
  to remain informed about research, analysis and
  opinion relevant to the delivery of HIV/AIDS
  prevention, treatment, and care in developing
  countries

6
eJIAS

• eJIAS co-published with Medscape on MedGenMed
• publishing platform for high quality medical
  information that uses the internet as its medium
  because it is better, faster, and cheaper than
  any other medium
• Articles published in eJIAS are available at no
  cost to readers or authors

7
eJIAS Publishes

• Research study results
• Review articles
• Case reports
• Editorials
• Letters to the editor

8
Medscape General Medicine MGMeJIAS Editorial
Staff
9
eJIAS Statistics

• 21 articles have been published (2005-2006)
• 21 submissions have been rejected
• 9 manuscripts are currently under review

10
eJIAS Readership
11
Workshops/Mentoring

• Training workshops are aimed at strengthening the
  conceptualization, manuscript development and
  peer-review skills of young investigators from
  resource-limited settings
• 3rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and
  Treatment
• Eastern European and Central Asian AIDS
  Conference
• XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006)
• Online abstract mentoring programme new
  investigators linked to experienced researchers
  in the developed and developing world

12
Skills Building WorkshopHow to Write a Paper
for Publication
XVI International AIDS Conference13 18 August
2006

• Dr. Elly Katabira
• eJIAS Co-Editor-in-Chief

13
Study Design

• The most important factors affecting manuscript
  publication are the design and implementation of
  the research or study and the analysis of the
  data

14
Title Page

• Write the papers title
• List study authors (including highest degrees
  attained)
• List the institution of each author (using
  footnotes to list institutional affiliation)

15
Abstract

• A brief summary of the manuscript
• No information appears in the abstract that does
  not also appear in the body
• See specific formatting requirements for each
  journal

16
Introduction

• Provide a brief discussion of the general topic
  (why is it important?)
• Provide a brief discussion of prior work by you
  and/or others
• Provide an explicit statement of your study
  question/hypothesis

17
Group WorkTitle Page, Abstract, Introduction

• Identify the components of the title page,
  abstract and introduction
• Are they all there?
• What is missing?
• Is there information that belongs in another
  section?
• Identify the objectives of the study
• How could these sections be improved?
• Identify what the authors have done particularly
  well

18
Methods

• Describe your study site
• Describe your study population (source,
  inclusion, and exclusion criteria)
• Describe your recruitment methods in detail
• Describe your intervention (if an interventional
  study)
• Describe the data that you collected and how it
  was collected
• Describe your data analysis in detail (dependent
  variables, independent variables, comparisons,
  primary and secondary analysis, statistical
  methods used, P-value accepted as significant,
  etc.)

19
Group WorkMethods

• Identify the components of the materials/ methods
  section
• Are they all there?
• What is missing?
• Is there information that belongs in another
  section?
• Identify areas of the study design that were
  innovative and areas that could be improved

20
Results

• Describe main analysis results (Do not repeat
  table data describe the table data in
  qualitative terms, where possible)
• Provide relevant statistical information report
  statistical significance or lack thereof (again,
  do not repeat table data)
• Describe secondary analysis results (again, do
  not repeat table data)

21
Group WorkResults

• Identify the components of the results section
• Are they all there?
• What is missing?
• Is there information that belongs in another
  section?
• How could this section be improved?
• What have the authors done particularly well?

22
Discussion

• Write down the most important take-home point
  that you want the reader to remember
• Write down the second most important take-home
  point and discuss it
• Write down the third most important take-home
  point and discuss it
• List and discuss the studys limitations
• Write down your conclusions (usually a version of
  the first take-home point that you want the
  reader to remember)
• Give future directions (often the next study you
  want to do following this one)

23
Group WorkDiscussion

• Identify all components of the discussion
• Are they all there?
• What is missing?
• Is there information that belongs in another
  section?
• Do the authors use different headings for this
  section?
• How could this section be improved?
• What have the authors done particularly well?

24
Figures and Tables
25
Group WorkFigures and Tables

• Identify different components of the figures and
  tables
• Are they labeled adequately?
• Are the figures and tables described in the text?
• Is there numerical information in the text that
  is not summarized in a figure or table?
• How could these sections be improved?
• What have the authors done particularly well?

26
Peer-Review Process

• Editors-in-chief and Executive Editor
• Reviewers
• Comments and suggestions to author (rejection or
  revision)
• Revised manuscript to reviewers
• Copyediting
• Author
• Production
• Posting

27
Peer Review Experience

• Group Discussion
• Problems with manuscript submission?
• Feedback from peer reviewers?
• Group discussion/problem solving

28
Advice from Peer Reviewers

• Are there fatal flaws?
• Is there sufficient technical content?
• Is it new?
• Is it sufficiently important?
• Is there balanced and proper use of references?
• Is this article suitable for this journal?
• Should we suspect conflict of interest?
• Technical merit (and can it be saved, if flawed?)
• What do you suggest to improve the manuscript?
• New experiments
• New data
• New technical information
• Re-writing

29
Final Recommendation

• Accept as is
• Accept if suitably revised
• Revise and reconsider
• Reject

30
Top 10 Reasons for Failure to Publish

• Poor study design
• Picking the wrong journal
• Incorrect format for journal
• Not following manuscript preparation guide
• Poor writing
• Unnecessary information in discussion
• Suboptimal results reporting
• Inadequate description of methods
• Failure to revise/resubmit after peer review
• Failure to write/submit full manuscript after
  abstract presentation

Adapted from The Top 10 Reasons Why
Manuscripts Are Not Accepted for Publication
Pierson DJ, Respiratory Care, Oct. 2004, 4910.
31
Resources

• Cetin S, Hackman D. An Approach to the Writing of
  a Scientific Manuscript
• Journal of Surgical Research 128, 165-167 (2005)
• Reporting Randomized Clinical Trials
• Moher D. Schultz KF, Altman DG. The CONSORT
  statement revised recommendations for improving
  the quality of reports of parallel group
  randomized trials
• BMC Medical Research Methodology 2001, 12
• http//www.biomemdcentral.com/1471-2288/1/2
• Translation of CONSORT statement into Russian and
  other languages http//www.constort-statement.org
  /translations/translation.htm
• Ioannidis JPA, Evans SJW, Gotzsche PC, et al, for
  the CONSORT Group. Better reporting of Harms in
  Randomized Trials An Extension of the CONSORT
  Statement
• Annals of Internal Medicine 2004 141781-788
• http//www.annalsorg/cgi/content/abstract/141/10/
  781

32
Submitting Manuscripts to eJIAS

• See Instructions to Authors
• www.eJIAS.org
• Or submit directly to
• ejias_at_medscape.net