The Effective Use of Research Tools Box

Research Tools Box
The Effective Use of Research Tools Box
Nader Ale Ebrahim Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Email: aleebrahim@perdana.um.edu.my
Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim
Introduction
The search can be time consuming and sometimes tedious task. How can make it easier? How do deal with situations such as: I just join as new postgraduate students and I am not sure how to do a literature search I have been into research for sometimes now but I spend a lot of time to get the articles I want I am sure I have downloaded the article but I am not able to find it I wanted to write a new paper, how can I manage the references in the shortest possible time? I have many references, some for my old papers, and some for my current research. Sometimes, they are so many that I cant recall where I have kept them in my folders! .. I have written an article and I am not able to find a proper Journal "I want to increase the citation of my papers, how do I do?"
Objectives
To reduce the search time by expanding the knowledge of researchers to more effectively use the "tools" that are available through the Net. To evaluate the types of literature that researchers will encounter. To convert the information on the search for a written document. Help researchers learn how to search and analyze the right journal to submit. To promote their publication for further citation.
How to Conduct an Effective Literature Review
Outline
Find literature associated with the topic. Search and analyze the literature. Evaluate the paper before reading. Cite literature properly. Make a summary table of reviewed papers. Avoid plagiarism. Write a journal article based on literature review.
The literature review

In your literature review, you should:
clarify your understanding of the field explain the rationale for your research place your research within a broader context evaluate the results of previous research define key concepts and ideas identify research in related areas that are generalisable or transferable to your topic identify relevant methodological issues.
UNE. 2009. The literature review [Online]. University of New England. Available: http://www.une.edu.au/library/eskillsplus/literature/litreview.php [Accessed 25 January 2010].
The literature review

A literature review ensures that you are at least familiar with the body of research in your field before starting your own investigations. Writing a literature review also provides practice in critical thinking. Once you have applied critical thinking skills to the findings of past researchers, you are in a better position to apply these same skills to your own work.
UNE. 2009. The literature review [Online]. University of New England. Available: http://www.une.edu.au/library/eskillsplus/literature/litreview.php [Accessed 25 January 2010].
Systematic Review 1/2

A systematic literature review is a means of identifying, evaluating and interpreting all available research relevant to a particular research question, or topic area, or phenomenon of interest. Individual studies contributing to a systematic review are called primary studies; a systematic review is a form a secondary study.
Systematic Review 2/2

A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_review
A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review

Reasons for Performing Systematic Reviews

To summarise the existing evidence concerning a treatment or technology e.g. to summarise the empirical evidence of the benefits and limitations of a specific agile method. To identify any gaps in current research in order to suggest areas for further investigation. To provide a framework/background in order to appropriately position new research activities.
However, systematic reviews can also be undertaken to examine the extent to which empirical evidence supports/contradicts theoretical hypotheses, or even to assist the generation of new hypotheses
The Systematic Review Process

Planning the review
Systematic review
Conducting the review
Reporting the review
Source: Adapted from Systematic Review Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim
Planning the review

1. Identification of the need for a review 2. Development of a review protocol. (The most important activity during
protocol is to formulate the research question.)
Conducting the review

1. Identification of research 2. Selection of primary studies 3. Study quality assessment 4. Data extraction & monitoring 5. Data synthesis.
Reporting the review
Reporting the review is a single stage phase.

Checklist for reading a review paper

What are the reviews objectives? What sources were searched to identify primary studies? Were there any restrictions? What were the inclusion/exclusion criteria and how were they applied? What criteria were used to assess the quality of primary studies and how were they applied? How were the data extracted from the primary studies? How were the data synthesised? How were differences between studies investigated? How were the data combined? Was it reasonable to combine the studies? Do the conclusions flow from the evidence?
Checklist for reading a review paper-From a more general viewpoint

Can you find an important question, which the review addressed? Was a thorough search done of the appropriate databases and were other potentially important sources explored? Was methodological quality assessed and the trials weighted accordingly? How sensitive are the results to the way that the review has been done? Have numerical results been interpreted with common sense and due regard to the broader aspects of the problem?
Working with literature

Working with Literature
Find it!
Manage it!
Use it!
Review it!
Knowing the literature types
Reading efficiently Keeping track of references Writing relevant annotations
Choosing your research topic
Understanding the lit reviews purpose Ensuring adequate coverage Writing purposefully Working on style and tone
Using available resources
Developing your question
Honing your search skills
Arguing your rationale Informing your work with theory Designing method
Source: O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage - Chapter Six
Narrow the area of research

R&D and Distributed Teams
Focus of the literature Review SMEs, Virtual R&D teams and NPD NPD and Virtuality
Virtual Teams
Virtual R&D teams and SMEs
R&D NPD
SMEs and Virtual Teams
R&D and NPD SMEs and R&D
SMEs
NPD and SMEs
Ale Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S., & Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual R & D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review. [Review]. Scientific Research and Essay, 4(13), 15751590.
Review biases
Read outdated version of a paper/book Read without writing Read unlinked papers (detect as much of the relevant
literature as possible)
Read before planning (defining a review protocol that

specifies the research question being addressed)
Start reading with few resources Language bias Publication bias

Search for proper article
Effective Search Strategy-1

An effective search strategy can save hours of wasted research time and provide a clear direction for your research. The benefits of attending this workshop are numerous and include learning how to change the direction of research to discovery and how to use more efficient the tools that are available through the Internet
Effective Search Strategy-2

an understanding of the types of information available the skills to use the various research tools an appreciation of how to access this information the strategies to evaluate the literature
Effective searching
Developing a search strategy Searching the library catalogue Finding journal articles and papers Searching the Internet Other sources
Source: http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/myresearch/plan/searchstrategy.html
Developing a search strategy

Defining the topic Considering the scope of your topic Identifying the main or important aspects Compiling a list of keywords Developing your search strategy It is important to develop a search strategy to, not only, find the information you need but to also clarify your topic.
How to Find and Develop a Viable Research Topic?

Step One: Identify a Topic. Step Two: Test Your Topic.
Test the main concepts or keywords in your topic by looking them up in the appropriate background sources or by using them as search terms. If you are finding too much information and too many sources, narrow your topic by using the and operator Finding too little information may indicate that you need to broaden your topic.
Keywords
Selecting keywords lead to get more citation. Web of Science
KeyWords Plus
Hi there! This issue, we are going to explain how KeyWords Plus broadens your search. KeyWords Plus is the result of our Thomson Reuters editorial expertise in Science. What our editors do is to review the titles of all references and highlight additional relevant but overlooked keywords that were not listed by the author or publisher. With KeyWords Plus, you can now uncover more papers that may not have appeared in your search due to changes in scientific keywords over time. Thanks and keep your feedback and questions coming! Smiles, Lim Khee Hiang Ph.D., Principal Consultant
KeyWords Plus- Example

New Product Development in Virtual Environment (ISI Indexed) Author Keywords: New product Development; Virtual teams; Concurrent Collaboration; Review paper KeyWords Plus: DEVELOPMENT TEAMS; PERFORMANCE; TECHNOLOGY; KNOWLEDGE; COMMUNICATION; PERSPECTIVE; INTEGRATION; INNOVATION; NETWORK; WORKING
Finding review articles

To demonstrate finding review articles in a Google Scholar search, enter the search: "health insurance""review article" and click on the Search button.
Critically Analyzing Information Sources

1- Initial Appraisal:
Author Date of Publication Edition or Revision Publisher Title of Journal (Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from other Periodicals)
2- Content Analysis:
Intended Audience Objective Reasoning Coverage Writing Style Evaluative Reviews
Keywords used in the research
Source: PS, P., DE PRODUO, G. P. D. E. E., SISTEMAS, E. & FERREIRA, P. G. S. 2011. THE COMPREHENSION OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT INDICATORS BY VIRTUAL TEAMS. Master of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
h-index (Jorge E. Hirsch)

A scientist has index h if h of [his/her] Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np h) papers have at most h citations each.
H-index from a plot of decreasing citations for numbered papers
Where to Find Research Literature
ISI Web of Knowledge Research tools Mind Map (Refer to search

for proper article section)
Web of Science Coverage Expansion

by ThomsonReuters on 04-27-2010 01:42 PM
In recent years we have witnessed an explosion in the production and availability of scholarly research results. This growth is reflected in the gradual expansion of journal coverage in the Web of Science. Journal coverage in Web of Science consists of three major indexes, namely the (Science Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. In addition, the Conference Proceedings Citation Index (formerly ISIProceedings) became an edition of Web of Science in October) 2008. In 2000 journal coverage in Web of Science totaled 8,684 titles. In 2005, Web of Science covered 9,467 journals, an increase of 9%. As of April 1, 2010 11,519 journals are covered in Web of Science, and increase of 22%.
Published Items in Each Year (Retrieved on 2 December 2011) from WOS
Citations in Each Year (Retrieved on 2 December 2011) from WOS
Citation tracking
Citation indexes allows you to search the academic literature in ways that illuminate the progress of academic debate in your field. With a citation index, you can easily identify the most influential articles, and the leading academic authorities. You can track backwards (using lists of cited articles) and forwards (using lists of articles which cite a particular article). As a result, you can determine the position of academic debate at any time in the past
Cited Reference Searching Traditional search Cited reference search 2004 2003 paper paper 1987 paper 1993 paper
1982 paper
1996 paper 1957 paper
1982 paper
1957 paper
1996 paper
Literature Citation Information Driving Discovery of CLOSE Art

2002
Times Cited
2003
2001 2004
2007
Cited References
Related Records
2004
2005
2000
1998
1993
Citing
2000
navigating Backward in time via Cited References Forward in time via Times Cited and through Related Records
1998 1994
Time
27
Paper/journal quality
Another guide to paper/journal quality is the general reputation of the association, society, or organization publishing the journal. Leading professional associations such as American Psychological Association (APA) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) publish a range of journals that are highly regarded.
For More Info.
How to do an Effective Literature Search?

Application Training Module Series I by Customer Education Team ts.training.asia@thomson.com
Stop Searching, Start Discovering
Review Paper Examples

Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4
Search Result
Subjects
Performance Effects
Research Methodologies
Source information
Time Compression Technologies
References identifying critical chain development capacity
simplification of structure
involvement of partners
concurrent engineering
Project management
training & rewarding
Case study(small n)
Supplier integration
product complexity
concurrent product
virtual production
Empirical(large n)
creative software (Clift, T.B et al 1996) (Griffin, A 1997) (Carter, 1997) (Hartley, J.et al 1997) (Athakorn et al 2001) (Xie, S. Q. et al 2002) (Kusar, J. et al. 2004) (Petersen. et al 2005) (Tan, C.L. 2006) (Roberts. et al 2006) (Zhou, Z. et al 2008) (Bashir, H, et al 2008) (Ahlemann, F. 2009) (Selvaraj,P.et al 2009) (Xia-Bao. et al 2009) (Lifang W. et al 2009) (Vinodh, et al 2009) (Hebert et al 2010) (Roemer, T. et al 2010)
pattern matching
Theory -Building
CAD technology
project strategy
E-collaboration
Math. Modeling
Process Model
team structure
setting buffers
manufacturing
quality control
procurement
organization
www-based
Experiment
Framework
techniques
Simulation
innovation
MOHAMMADJAFARI, M., AHMED, S., DAWAL, S. Z. M. & ZAYANDEHROODI, H. 2011(Article in press). The Importance of Project Management in SMEs for the Development of New Products through E-Collaboration. African Journal of Business Management.
pilot study
statistical
prototype
lead user
planning
process
product
Review
Quality
design
variety
speed
other
Time
cost
tool
FIXSON, S. 2007. Modularity and commonality research: past developments and future opportunities. Concurrent Engineering, 15, 85.
Keeping up-to-date
Keeping up-to-date
What is an alert service? Many journal databases and book publishers offer free alert services. These are an effective means of keeping track of the latest research. Alert services come in different forms. The most common include:
a search alert. This is a saved search which alerts you when a book or article that matches your search terms is published. a TOC (Table of Contents) alert. Such an alert notifies you when a new issue of a journal is published, and provides you with the issue's table of contents. a citation alert. This advises you when a new article cites a particular work. Most alert services are email-based. An increasing number are now offered as an RSS feed. If you are just beginning, you might like to try email alerts first. These are generally easier to create.
Keeping up-to-date
Alert services are an effective means of keeping track of the latest research.
Keeping up-to-date
Create a Google Alert Enter the topic you wish to monitor. Search terms: Type: How often: Email length: Your email:
Example - 1
From: Google Scholar Alerts [mailto:scholaralertsnoreply@google.com] Sent: 2011/02/01 06:21 . Subject: Scholar Alert - [ Virtual Teams: A "Literature Review" + ebrahim ] Scholar Alert: [ Virtual Teams: A "Literature Review" + ebrahim ] [PDF] How to Conduct a Literature NA Ebrahim ... Page 10. Narrow the area of research 2011 Nader Ale Ebrahim SMEs NPD Virtual Teams R&D R&D and NPD SMEs and Virtual Teams R&D and Distributed Teams SMEs and R&D Focus of the literature Review SMEs, Virtual R&D teams and NPD NPD and Virtuality ... [PDF] Web Application User Interface Technologies M Pohja ... are 7 Page 28. Introduction discussed in the next section of this thesis. Finally, web servers may sup- port virtual hosting, content compression and other things that may help manage client-server communication. Application ... This Google Scholar Alert is brought to you by Google. Cancel alert List alerts
Doctoral dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology to be presented with due permission of the School of Science for public examination and debate in Auditorium T2 at the Aalto University School of Science (Espoo, Finland) on the 4th of February 2011 at 12 noon.
Aalto University School of Science Department of Media Technology
Example - 2
Document Citation Alert: 2 new results Document Citation Alert for: Ebrahim, N.A., Ahmed, S., Taha, Z. Innovation and R&D activities in virtual team (2009) European Journal of Scientific Research, 34 (3) pp. 297-307. Cited 2 times.
Access all new results in Scopus for this Document Citation Alert. In the table below, you can see the 2 new results for this Document Citation Alert. Results: 2 1. A collaborative model of engineering education for complex global environments Qiu, R.G., 2010, Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE, art. no. 5673356, pp. S3J1-S3J5. 2. University role in the development of future high-tech engineers Ilas, M., 2010, 2010 IEEE 16th International Symposium for Design and Technology of Electronics Packages, SIITME 2010, art. no. 5650869, pp. 327-330.
Keeping up-to-date
Search Alert: 2 new results

Access all new results in Scopus for: AU-ID("Ebrahim, Nader Ale" 22974706300) AND (LIMIT-TO(AU-ID, "Ahmed, Shamsuddin" 35241743000)).
In the table below, you can see the 2 new results for this Search Alert.
Results: 2
Document 1. Author(s) Date Source title African Journal of Business 2010 Management, 4 (11) pp. 2247-2257. African Journal of Business 2010 Management, 4 (11) pp. 2368-2379. Citations 0
Critical factors for new product developments Ebrahim, N.A., Ahmed, S., Taha, Z. in SMEs virtual team Virtual R&D teams and SMEs growth: A
Ebrahim, N.A., Ahmed, S., Taha, Z.
2.comparative study between Iranian and
Malaysian SMEs
Access all new results in Scopus for: AU-ID("Ebrahim, Nader Ale" 22974706300) AND (LIMIT-TO(AU-ID, "Ahmed, Shamsuddin" 35241743000)). If you would like to Maintain your Scopus Alerts, click on the link below: http://www.scopus.com/alert/form/MyAlerts.url. We hope that this information is useful to you. If you have questions about this or other features of Scopus, Please visit our Info site. Your previous alert for AU-ID("Ebrahim, Nader Ale" 22974706300) AND (LIMIT-TO(AU-ID, "Ahmed, Shamsuddin" 35241743000)) was sent on 4 Nov 2010
Note: Results from CSA Illumina are not included in this e-mail alert. Your results list on Scopus for this e-mail alert can contain not only newly published documents, but also newly added archive material with an earlier publication date.
This email has been sent to you by Scopus , a product of Elsevier B.V., Radarweg 29, 1043NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Tel.+31 20 485 3911. You are receiving this e -mail because you are a subscriber to a Search Alert from Scopus. Elsevier respects your privacy and does not disclose, rent or sell your personal information to any non -affiliated third parties without your consent, except as may be stated in the Scopus Online Privacy Policy . By using the Search Alert, you are agreeing to abide by the Scopus Terms and Conditions . If you would like to unsubscribe from future mailings regarding the Search Alert mentioned above, please login to Scopus and go to My Alerts to delete this alert from your profile. 2010 Scopus. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use, reproduction, or transfer of this message or its contents, in any medium, is strictly prohibited. SciVerse is a registered trademark of Elsevier Properties S.A., used under license. Scopus is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V.
Delivery Job ID: 11259:009013825:11252:009588722
Web
1 new result for "Virtual R&D teams"
Virtual R&D Teams for NPD in SMEs

ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Virtual R&D Teams for NPD in SMEs: Past, Present and Future Trend. In: APCMOTTE2008 (Asia pacific Conference ... www.wepapers.com/.../Virtual_R&D_Teams_for_NPD_in_SM...
This once a week Google Alert is brought to you by Google. Remove this alert. Create another alert. Manage your alerts.
Paraphrasing
Desktop search
dtSearch Google Desktop Windows Search
Reference Management
EndNote
EndNote is an almost indispensible tool for the serious researcher. And best of all, its free to all UM postgraduates!
Why use EndNote?

EndNote allows you to create your own reference library. This library can be used to store the bibliographical details relating to the articles and books that you use. When it comes time to write your thesis, you can employ the library to insert references into your text and produce your bibliography. EndNote will save you hundreds of hours over the course of your research.
Export to EndNote
ScienceDirect (Elsevier) allows you to check your desired citations, then click on the Export Citations link
then you select which pieces of information you really want in your EndNote database, using the radio buttons, then click on the Export button to bring up the dialog box we have seen before to transfer the temporary file into EndNote
Humanities International Index is a bit more convoluted; I conduct a search, then click on the first result from the search for more information
Scanning through the icons at top, I spot the one that exports to Bibliographic Manager naturally, I click on it to move to the next step (watch for icons like this within indexes)
Click on the correct radio button to select EndNote, and we next see the comforting and familiar dialog box that allows EndNote to ingest our citation
Target Suitable Journal
Where should I submit my publication?

Impact Factor
The most commonly used measure of journal quality is Impact Factor. This is a number which attempts to measure the impact of a journal in terms of its influence on the academic community. Impact Factors are published by Thomson-ISI
Impact Factor-Journal Ranking

Relative impact factors are often a better guide to the importance of a journal than raw numbers. JCR allows you to compare the impact factors of different journals in the same subject area The Economic History Review has an impact factor of 1.051. At first glance, it would appear that this journal is relatively unimportant. In fact, it is arguably the premier Englishlanguage journal in its field (its major competitor, the Journal of Economic History Review, has an even lower impact factor: a mere 0.529!). Far more illuminating is the journal's relatively high impact factor compared to other journals in the history of the social sciences. Economic History Review ranks first out of 15 journals in the Thomson-ISI's list of journals in this subdiscipline.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH Impact Factor in 2008
Cites in 2008 to Number of items 2007 = 144 2007 = 278 items published in: published in: 2006 = 280 2006 = 270 Sum: 424 Sum: 548
Calculation:
Cites to recent items Number of recent items
424 = 548
0.774
Impact Factor
Total Cites
Getting published
Objectives
To improve the quality of articles. To manage the submission procedure. To evaluate Journal measuring factors (like: Journal Impact Factor, Immediacy Index, Cited Half Life, five Year Journal Impact Factor) before article submission. To search and analyze the right journal to submit. To identify journals to publish in or which journals are the best in a particular discipline. To write and submit journal articles using time-saving bibliographic management tools. To deal with the editor response To deal with the Publishing Process (How to Deal with Proofs)
Getting published
Why publish? Apart from the final thesis, you should also consider publishing your work as you go along. There are various reasons for this:
publications assist in final preparation of your thesis disseminating your knowledge and experience, it gives you an academic profile and raises the profile of your institution, research publications generate income for the University, publications enhance your CV and may help in gaining employment, and you may even become rich and famous - but don't count on it!
Paper Structure
Title Affiliation Abstract Keywords Nomenclatures Introduction Materials and methods Results and Discussions Conclusions References
Abstract
Abstract should not exceed 300 words (without reference).
Abstract must include following sections:

Problem Statement: This section should include answers of the questions: Why was research needed?. What was the context of the work?. Introduce the problem or provide background for what you will address. Approach: What did you do and how did you go about solving or making progress on the problem. Describe the method of research, study, or analysis applied to the problem. Results: What results did you get? State what you found and relate it to the problem. Summarize the major results in numbers, avoid vague, hand waving results such as very small or significant. Conclusions/Recommendations: What are the implications of your answer? State the relevance, implications, or significance of the results or conclusions, to the business. Significance of work is often implied by the recommendations or implications for future work.
Type of journal paper

Full-Length Paper Communication (results of complete small investigations or
giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus)
Technical note/Note (discussion related to a paper

previously published)
Data bank Viewpoint (concise, to the point, and bring novel new insights on a
specific problem)
Review Letter
Choose a category for the paper

Research paper. This category covers papers which report on any type of research undertaken by the author(s). The research may involve the construction or testing of a model or framework, action research, testing of data, market research or surveys, empirical, scientific or clinical research. Viewpoint. Any paper, where content is dependent on the author's opinion and interpretation, should be included in this category; this also includes journalistic pieces. Technical paper. Describes and evaluates technical products, processes or services. Conceptual paper. These papers will not be based on research but will develop hypotheses. The papers are likely to be discursive and will cover philosophical discussions and comparative studies of others' work and thinking. Case study. Case studies describe actual interventions or experiences within organizations. They may well be subjective and will not generally report on research. A description of a legal case or a hypothetical case study used as a teaching exercise would also fit into this category. Literature review. It is expected that all types of paper cite any relevant literature so this category should only be used if the main purpose of the paper is to annotate and/or critique the literature in a particular subject area. It may be a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources or it may be comprehensive in that the paper's aim is to cover the main contributors to the development of a topic and explore their different views. General review. This category covers those papers which provide an overview or historical examination of some concept, technique or phenomenon. The papers are likely to be more descriptive or instructional ("how to" papers) than discursive Source: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/write/abstracts.htm?part=1#2 Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim
HOW TO WRITE/EDIT SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

(I) MINDSET, (II) CONCEPTS, AND (III) LOGIC
I. Right mindset for writing

State your facts as simply as possible, even boldly. No one wants flowers of eloquence or literary ornaments in a research article.
-R.B. McKerrow (Well-known British editor
& educator 1882-1940)
Example 1
Ok: It is clear that factor A upregulates the pathway.
Better: Factor A clearly up-regulates the pathway.
II. Modern writing concepts

1. Styles 2. Use We 3. Use active voice 4. Avoid vague IT, THERE, THIS/THAT 5. Avoid long sentence 6. Write a strong sentence core 7. One message per paragraph
1. Styles
BOGBusiness or Government style, the more traditional style CLEARClear Easy Reading, the more modern style
Example
BOG: It is anticipated that an annual training rate of 100 employees will be achieved by the time the program is fully operational.
CLEAR: When the program is operating at full capacity, we expect to train 100 people per year.
2. Use We
We-sentence is a more-modern style, reads more interesting, and communicates with the reader more directly. We report We speculate We generated We measured
We-sentences appear in many leading journals
In this report, we define a mechanism for and discover distinct roles for We use assays to We demonstrate that We provide evidence that (Science)
3. Use active voice

Active voice is more informative, clearer, and more reader-friendly than passive voice.
The results indicate Table 1 shows Recent studies have reported Zhang and coworkers have suggested
Example 1 Bad: Twelve soil samples of 4 agricultural areas were investigated for, and the corelationships between were analyzed.
Good: We investigated 12 soil samples of 4 agricultural areas for , and analyzed the co-relationships between
Iyn dupr writes: (The author of Bugs in

writing: A guide to debugging your prose)
If you want to learn only one technique to improve your writing substantially, you should learn to avoid using passive voice.
4. Avoid vague IT, THERE, and

THIS/THAT IT is unknown.
THERE is no where.
THIS/THAT could be anything.
IT is old style
1. Old style: It is likely that it will rain soon. Modern style: It will rain soon.
2. Old style: It should be borne in mind that the current research has imitations.
Modern style: The current research has limitations.
III. Logic issues

1. Logic flow 2. Connection 3. Parallelism 4. Redundancy
1. Use transitional words to promote logic flow
Also, and, again, further, furthermore First, then, second, next, lastly Soon, after, previously, meanwhile But, yet, still, instead, In short, in other words, Similarly, consequently, accordingly
2. Connection of clauses
1. Compound (and, but) 2. Cause/effect (as, because, for, so, ) 3. In between (semicolon) 4. Condition (if, whether, when) 5. Concession (Although, even if, whatever) 6. Result (so that)
Example 1
She has a fever, and she probably has an infection.

Incorrect:
She has a fever; she probably has an infection.

Correct:
3. Parallelism
1. Verb 2. Subject 3. Similar parts in a sentence 4. Meaning
Verb
Incorrect: She swims, plays basketball, and was running bicycles. Correct: She swims, plays basketball, and runs bicycles.
Subject
Incorrect: The ignition was tested, an examination of the belts was carried out, and the levels of the lubricants were checked. Correct: The ignition was tested, the belts were examined, and the lubricant levels were checked.
Other parts
Not only, but also Bad: The plant is not only capable of growing on high-salt soils, but also accumulating concentrations of salts.
Good: The plant is not only capable of growing on high-salt soils, but also capable of accumulating concentrations of salts. Better: The plant is capable of not only growing on high-salt soils, but also accumulating concentrations of salts.
4. Redundancy
Most-commonly seen problems in nonEnglish speaking writers Wording repetition Sentencing repetition Meaning repetition Wordy
Wording
1. Bad: These
differences grew smaller, and they finally faded out after a stimulation of 3 min.
Good:
These differences grew smaller and finally faded out after a stimulation of 3 min.
(Cont.)
2. Bad: The result indicates that this assumption can be considered reasonable in some sense.
Good: The result indicates that this assumption may be reasonable.
Meaning
1. Bad: A method to evaluate this effect, rather than to assume subjectively, was proposed. Good: A method to evaluate this effect was proposed.
2. Bad: As a rule, the temperature was generally adjusted to the room temperature.
Good: As a rule, the temperature was adjusted to the room temperature
Selecting keywords
Improving Readership of Your Articles

Appearing at the top of the list of search results, and having a useful description of your work, greatly improve the likelihood that a reader will find and download your document. Abstracts should include keywords that potential readers are likely to use in searches. It is especially valuable to modify and reuse words that appear in the document's title and full text to improve the article's rank when readers search for those words. The first sentence of the abstract is all that is likely to be displayed in the search page results, so make your first sentence one that will encourage readers to click the link.
Using keywords
Using keywords is a vital part of abstract writing, because of the practice of retrieving information electronically: keywords act as the search term. Use keywords that are specific, and that reflect what is essential about the paper. Put yourself in the position of someone researching in your field: what would you look for? Consider also whether you can use any of the current "buzzwords".
Source: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/write/abstracts.htm?part=1#2
Paper submission
Author Self Check

Is the title of the paper well described clearly and shortly?
Is the abstract addressed the summary of the manuscript?

Are the keywords selected wisely?
Is the content of the paper treated original and innovating?

Is the methodology well discussed (clear and accurate)? Are the paper structure and all figures well designed? Are all tables and figures in the paper useful and commented in the text?
Author Self Check- Con.

Are the parameters, legends and units well described in the figures and its axis? Is the nomenclature in the paper well described in the equations and the text? Is the introduction of the paper dealt the relevant topics? Are the experimental apparatus and procedure clearly described? Are the conclusions supported by derived results of this work? Are the references used latest and appropriate? Is the standard language Tools Box 2012 Research used?
By: Nader Ale Ebrahim
Cover letter
Research background, Innovation and significance of the research, Latest publications Relationship to prior publication
Cover letter
Dear Professor Katsuhiko Ariga, Good Day!
Enclosed is a paper, entitled " Small and Medium Enterprises; Virtual R&D (Research and Development) Teams and New Product Development: A Literature Review." Please accept it as a candidate for publication in the Advanced Science Letters Journal.
Below are our responses to your submission requirements. 1. Title and the central theme of the article. Paper title: " Small and Medium Enterprises; Virtual R&D Teams and New Product Development: A Literature Review." This study reviews the concepts of new product development and distributed teams in small and medium enterprises. It proposes the state-of-the-art literature review in order to provide an overview on the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. 2. Why the material is important in its field and why the material should be published in the Advanced Science Letters Journal? The necessity of having an effective virtual team network is rapidly growing alongside the implementation of information technology. Finding an appropriate virtual teams management has become increasingly important today's distributed environment. However, the conventional centralized architecture, which routinely requests the information by face to face meeting, is not sufficient to manage the growing requests for new product, especially in small and medium enterprises. Recently, a new phenomenon that uses virtual teams to assist the distributed R&D teams has emerged. The virtual teams reduce timeto-market, distribute SMEs risk in new product development, and improve SMEs operational performance. Given today's virtual teams demand over the SMEs, it is important for the Advanced Science Letters Journal readers to understand this new phenomenon and its benefits. This study gives a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R&D teams collected from the reputed publications. It is the first in the literature that reports the analysis of proceeding about the topic. We strongly believe the contribution of this study warrant its publication in the Advanced Science Letters Journal.
Cover letter Con.

3. List of FIVE (5) potential referees 12345Finally, this paper is our (I, Prof. Zahari Taha and Associate Professor Dr. Shamsuddin Ahmed) original unpublished work and it has not been submitted to any other journal for reviews. Best Regards, N. Ale Ebrahim PhD Candidate Department of Engineering Design & Manufacture Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya (UM) Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia http://www.researcherid.com/rid/C-2414-2009
Acceptance Procedure
Acceptance Procedure
Editor-in-Chief tests the manuscript according to the several criteria of subject scope, style, apparent technical validity, topical importance, relationship to prior publication, conciseness, appropriate references, and length. Papers that vary widely from the prescribed archival style (those written as speeches, ill-defined manuscripts, progress reports or news releases, or those strongly flavoured with advertising) will not be considered for publication. Associate Editor (Editor) evaluates the paper according to the same criteria and, in most cases, has the paper sent to one or more reviewers in the field (usually two) for confidential review. The Associate Editor may, however, at his or her discretion, accept the paper without review, reject it giving explicit reason, or request that the author prepare it in a different format.
Example (Source: Industrial Management & Data Systems)

The reviewing process Each paper is reviewed by the editor and, if it is judged suitable for the publication, it is then sent to two referees for double blind peer review. Based on their recommendations, the Editor then decides whether the paper should be accepted as is, revised or rejected. The Editor may, however, vary this process in some circumstances. Copyright Articles submitted to the journal should not have been published before in their current or substantially similar form, or be under consideration for publication with another journal. Please see Emerald's originality guidelines for details. Use this in conjunction with the points below about references, before submission i.e. always attribute clearly using either indented text or quote marks as well as making use of the preferred Harvard style of formatting. Authors submitting articles for publication warrant that the work is not an infringement of any existing copyright and will indemnify the publisher against any breach of such warranty. For ease of dissemination and to ensure proper policing of use, papers and contributions become the legal copyright of the publisher unless otherwise agreed. The editor may make use of iThenticate software for checking the originality of submissions received. Please see our press release for further details.
Similarity score
The similarity score indicates how similar this paper is to other papers, with values ranging from 0 (no similarities) to 100 (completely the same). High scores, e.g., above 30, may indicate that parts of the paper have been copied from elsewhere.
High similarity rate

Dear Dr ., Thanks for your effective work. We also finish the Cross Checking work here. We found four papers (your Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 ) could not arrive our standards, e.g. the similarity rate is very high, which means these papers have duplicated or salami-slicing, self-plagiarism problem. We can't accept these. When you see the attached reports, you will understand us here. .. . Thanks. Best wishes, ?????
We use plagiarism Detection
Check plagiarism first
Example 1 (Text with references) Example 2 (Text without references) Example 3 (Text with references-Checked with Turnitin)
How do I avoid plagiarism?

only hand in your own and original work. indicate precisely and accurately when you have used information provided by someone else, i.e. referencing must be done in accordance with a recognised system. indicate whether you have downloaded information from the Internet. never use someone elses electronic storage media, artwork, pictures or graphics as if it were your own. never copy directly without crediting the source do not translate without crediting the source do not paraphrase someone elses work without crediting the source do not piece together sections of the work of others into a new whole do not resubmit your own or others previously graded work do not commit collusion (unauthorised collaboration, presenting work as ones own independent work, when it has been produced in whole or in part in collusion with other people) ghost-writing you should not make use of ghost writers or professional agencies in the production of your work or submit material which has been written on your behalf
Acceptance Procedure Con.

Reviewer is asked to judge the technical validity of the manuscript and the extent of its advance over work previously published. The reviewer is asked also for advice as to whether the paper merits publication in the journal. However, the decision to publish, to require major revision before publication, or to reject for reasons cited lies first with the Associate Editor and ultimately with the Editorin-Chief. Editorial Decision to Accept or Reject - The Editors will inform the author of their decision (acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rejection). In the case of rejection, the author will be given specific reasons related to the criteria. In the case of conditional acceptance, the required revisions will be clearly indicated. On some occasions, the Editors may anticipate a need for further reviews after revision; if so, the author will be notified.
Reviewer
Compatibility with the journal topics Scientific level The clear answers to the questions: - What is the problem? - What is done by other people? - What the author did? - What is new? - What is the author contribution?
Organization of the paper: - problem statements, - application area, - research course, - methods used, - results, - further research, - interest in cooperation, - acknowledgements, - references Language: - spelling, - style, - grammar
Some General Rule for Reviewers
Almost 90% of the journal follow these rules. so, you check yourself how your paper is before you send it out.

Author - If the paper has been rejected or if extensive revisions have been requested that the author believes are incorrect or unwarranted, then he or she is entitled to submit a point-by-point rebuttal to the Editors statement of reasons and the reviewers comments. Editors - The rebuttal then is analyzed by the Editors, and a decision is made. In rare cases of a complex point of dispute, the Editors, at their discretion, may mandate additional reviews. In no case shall a paper go through more than two reviewing cycles before a decision is given. Editor-in-Chief - If the dispute still remains unresolved, then the decision of the Editor-in-Chief is final and overrides all other considerations.

Rebuttal by Author (for rejected paper) - In the confrontation between the rejection statement and the rebuttal statement, the decision goes in favour of the author if the dissenting reviewers case is not clearly convincing. Authors who are requested by Editors to revise their papers must make an effort to accomplish the requested revisions in the stated period, which normally is four weeks for major revisions, two weeks for minor revisions. If the author does not respond to the subsequent inquiries, the paper will be regarded as withdrawn. Normally, an author who has good reason to request a time extension will be granted such an extension.

Reviewer who feels strongly that a particular paper should not be published may be given the opportunity, if the Editor decides nevertheless to accept it, to write the criticism as a Technical Comment. The author then is allowed to write a closing response for publication in the same issue as the Comment. Formal acceptance will not occur until the author has complied with all of the revision requests (if any) made by the Associate Editor or the Associate Editor has accepted the authors rebuttal, and the author has prepared the paper in the Journal Manuscript Style and Format.

When a paper is formally accepted, it will be scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue, and the author will be so informed. Depending upon the number of papers awaiting publication and the projected size of issues, this may require that papers be scheduled several issues ahead. Editor-in-Chief also may designate certain special-category papers for immediate publication. Page proofs will be made available to authors for correction and release prior to scheduled publication. Authors should inform the Journal department of any anticipated change of postal or e-mail address between acceptance and page proof time. Authors are expected to read and release their proofs in seven days or less.

Overscheduled - To allow for late or non-release of proofs by authors and to provide the flexibility to meet issue-length and topicmix constraints, issues will be overscheduled by about 25%. Thus, there will always be a certain number of papers held over for the next issue. Papers not published in the issue for which they were originally scheduled will have first priority for publication in the following issue.
Example - Proofing Instructions

The proofreading stage is intended to catch any errors in the galley's spelling, grammar, and formatting. More substantial changes cannot be made at this stage, unless discussed with the Section Editor. In Layout, click on VIEW PROOF to see the HTML, PDF and other available file formats used in publishing this item.
For Spelling and Grammar Errors

Copy the problem word or groups of words and paste them into the Proofreading Corrections box with "CHANGE-TO" instructions to the editor as follows... 1. CHANGE... then the others TO... than the others
2. CHANGE... Malinowsky TO... Malinowski
For Formatting Errors Describe the location and nature of the problem in the Proofreading Corrections box after typing in the title "FORMATTING" as follows...
3. FORMATTING The numbers in Table 3 are not aligned in the third column.
4. FORMATTING The paragraph that begins "This last topic..." is not indented.
Referees Report Form

Example 1 Example 2
Please kindly complete the following form and submit. Referee report received after ten days from the date shown above will not affect the decision of acceptance or rejection of the article. An average rating of 6 is required for the acceptance of the article.
Top of Form
1.
English grammar and readability 1(Poor) 2 3 4 5 6(Average) 7 8 9 10(Excellent)
2.
Reference of previous contributions in books and journals
1(Poor)
3.
6(Average) 7
10(Excellent)
Chances of free from potentially serious errors which may invalidate the results 1(Poor) 2 3 4 5 6(Average) 7 8 9 10(Excellent)
4.
New technical contributions 1(Poor) 2 3 4 5 6(Average) 7 8 9 10(Excellent)
5.
Quality as a review article 1(Poor) 2 3 4 5 6(Average) 7 8 9 10(Excellent)
6.
Summary rating of the overall quality of the article 1(Poor) 2 3 4 5 6(Average) 7 8 9 10(Excellent)
7.
Review Comments
Bottom of Form
Reviewer Guidelines
1. A general rule is "Don't spend more time reviewing the submission than the author spent writing it." If you find that a submission has so many problems that it would require a complete rewrite to save it, make a reasonable number of comments and reject the submission. 2. If you review a submission that is excessively similar to previously published submissions (or you have reason to believe that the submission has previously been published), please note this to Editor. 3. Editorial comments are helpful to authors. However, readability is a factor in a good submission. If the use of language is so poor that it makes reading difficult, please note this in your comments and reflect it in your ranking.
Reviewer comments
Reviewers Evaluation Report (Reject) Reject- does not comply with the aims and scope Reject with helpful comments-1 Reject with helpful comments-2 Reject with helpful comments-3 Requires Major Revision Moderate Revision
Reviewer comments Con.

Some suggestions The manuscript needs a substantial improvement Acceptable for publication Not acceptable for publication Cannot accept your manuscript Major correctionReferences (not already cited in the paper) Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim
Manuscript is not suitable!

Dear ..........: This manuscript is not suitable for the Advanced Science Letters. Please submit to other journal. Best regards, H. S. Nalwa Katsuhiko Ariga ______________________________________________________________ Dear ........, I regret to inform you that I cannot accept your paper for publication in Management Science. My decision is based on lack of fit. In particular, your work is not welltied to the Management Science literature and research style. I wish you good luck in pursuing another journal for publishing your work. Best regards, Yossi Aviv
Revised version
Step by step corrections (with minor modification) Step by step corrections base on reviewer's comments Compare the old and the new version of paper (with major modification) Response to the editorial issues
Henson's Tips to Writers

do not fear rejection--it is part of the writing process do not be preoccupied with telling readers everything you know-instead help readers discover insights target your articles to journals that have an acceptance rate of at least 20% do not be afraid to call the editor of the journal stay within the preferred article length of the target journal write what you have to say and then edit your manuscript several times, eliminating everything that's unnecessary always say yes to rewriting parts of the manuscript if requested to do so avoid jargon follow the journal's guidelines do not make technical and grammatical errors
Why target a suitable journal is important?

1. Journal selection is vital for quick publication. 2. Finding a suitable journal can lead to easy publication; more citation and visibility to your published article. 3. Choosing an irrelevant journal can lead to slow publication, unkind reviewer comments and finally rejection.
Where should I submit my publication?

The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)

The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was founded by Eugene Garfield in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation. ISI offered bibliographic database services. Its speciality: citation indexing and analysis, a field pioneered by Garfield. It maintains citation databases covering thousands of academic journals, including a continuation of its long time print-based indexing service the Science Citation Index (SCI), as well as the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). All of these are available via ISI's Web of Knowledge database service.
Eugene Garfield, Ph.D.

Founder & Chairman Emeritus Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) For more Info
The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)

The ISI also publishes annual Journal Citation Reports which list an impact factor for each of the journals that it tracks. Within the scientific community, journal impact factors play a large but controversial role in determining the kudos attached to a scientist's published research record.
Web of Science Coverage Expansion

by ThomsonReuters on 04-27-2010 01:42 PM
In recent years, we have witnessed an explosion in the production and availability of scholarly research results. This growth is reflected in the gradual expansion of journal coverage in the Web of Science. Journal coverage in Web of Science consists of three major indexes, namely the (Science Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. In addition, the Conference Proceedings Citation Index (formerly ISI Proceedings) became an edition of Web of Science in October) 2008. In 2000 journal coverage in Web of Science totaled 8,684 titles. In 2005, Web of Science covered 9,467 journals, an increase of 9%. As of April 1, 2010 11,519 journals are covered in Web of Science, and increase of 22%.
Impact Factor
The most commonly used measure of journal quality is Impact Factor. This is a number which attempts to measure the impact of a journal in terms of its influence on the academic community. Impact Factors are published by Thomson-ISI
Impact Factor-Journal Ranking

Relative impact factors are often a better guide to the importance of a journal than raw numbers. JCR allows you to compare the impact factors of different journals in the same subject area The Economic History Review has an impact factor of 1.051. At first glance, it would appear that this journal is relatively unimportant. In fact, it is arguably the premier Englishlanguage journal in its field (its major competitor, the Journal of Economic History Review, has an even lower impact factor: a mere 0.529!). Far more illuminating is the journal's relatively high impact factor compared to other journals in the history of the social sciences. Economic History Review ranks first out of 15 journals in the Thomson-ISI's list of journals in this subdiscipline.
Impact Factor
Total Cites
Real Impact Factor
Journal Self Cites (JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY- IF= 1009) Total Cites 4923 Cites to Years Used in 322 Impact Factor Calculation Impact Factor 1.009 Self Cites 457 (9% of 4923) Self Cites to Years Used 66 (20% of 322) in Impact Factor Calculation Impact Factor without Self Cites 0.803
Number of references
Journal Source Data (JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY- IF= 1009) Citable items Articles Reviews Combined Other items Number in JCR year 2009 (A) Number of references (B) Ratio (B/A) 176 5200 29.5 6 839 139.8 182 6039 33.2 32 123.00 3.8
Journal Source Data

The Source Data Table shows the number of citable items in the JCR year. Citable items are further divided into articles (that is, research articles) and reviews. An item is classified as a review if it meets any of the following criteria: it cites more than 100 references it appears in a review publication or a review section of a journal the word review or overview appears in its title the abstract states that it is a review or survey Other items include editorials, letters, news items, and meeting abstracts. These items are not counted in JCR calculations because they are not generally cited. Data in this column are available only in JCR 2003 and subsequent years. The table also shows the number of references cited by the articles and reviews in the JCR year. The ratio of references to citable items indicates the average number of references cited by an article or review.
Cited Journal: JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY

Journals 1 - 20 (of 394) Impa ct Page 1 of 20 Cited Year All 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 Yrs 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Rest 492 110 212 274 275 281 266 286 214 186 281 9 3 0 457 2 18 48 35 37 36 29 26 16 18 192 436 0 7 23 34 23 26 30 34 16 18 225 354 1 12 10 15 25 21 18 20 6 19 207 167 1 7 4 9 10 15 10 10 5 3 93 157 144 142 130 102 93 90 69 67 66 62 53 52 45 39 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 2 2 6 5 2 5 4 3 2 1 2 0 1 0 3 3 3 8 3 10 4 6 10 5 8 2 0 4 0 0 3 5 11 12 14 9 6 2 6 2 3 3 2 1 1 1 6 7 10 10 14 5 3 2 1 4 1 2 2 2 3 8 7 11 17 4 2 1 4 3 4 3 6 1 4 0 8 12 3 8 4 5 4 5 10 5 4 0 5 5 2 3 9 6 9 10 4 2 5 8 2 1 4 4 1 2 14 108 0 9 4 2 1 4 3 2 1 1 2 0 0 0 80 79 54 50 60 61 36 32 41 48 32 39 28 23 [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ]
Citing Journal All Journals
1.009 J OPER RES SOC EUR J OPER RES ALL OTHERS (354) COMPUT OPER RES INT SER OPER RES MAN COMPUT IND ENG INT J PROD ECON EXPERT SYST APPL STUD COMP INTELL INT J ADV MANUF TECH OMEGA-INT J 3.101 MANAGE S INT J PROD RES OPERAT RES COMP SCI LECT NOTES COMPUT SC INT J SYST SCI SPRING SER RELIAB EN APPL MATH MODEL I C WIREL COMM NETW ANN OPER RES CONTEMP SY
Citing Journal: JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY

Journals 1 - 20 (of 575) Impa ct [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ] Page 1 of 29 Cited Year All 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 Yrs 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Rest 616 339 19 134 297 392 327 396 315 303 312 270 2 7 182 7 43 80 134 100 120 106 89 96 79 966 0 457 2 18 48 35 37 36 29 26 16 18 192 444 5 22 39 22 16 36 29 35 27 14 199 185 0 3 1 1 6 4 4 0 7 2 157 182 0 1 4 4 3 3 1 6 6 4 150 108 1 7 9 18 11 9 8 4 7 2 32 66 47 45 44 43 41 39 38 38 34 34 31 31 27 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 2 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 6 4 0 3 2 0 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 4 6 0 5 3 3 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 1 7 4 0 2 3 3 3 2 3 2 0 1 3 1 4 9 0 2 4 0 1 2 1 4 0 5 4 2 10 0 0 2 0 1 7 2 2 1 0 1 0 4 5 5 0 1 3 3 2 0 0 3 0 1 1 1 15 6 0 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 0 3 2 1 4 1 0 2 1 1 1 3 2 1 0 4 1 3 11 9 45 23 24 29 15 26 25 18 34 14 18 13
Cited Journal All Journals ALL OTHERS (1820)
1.009 J OPER RES SOC EUR J OPER RES 2.227 MANAGE SCI 1.576 OPER RES COMPUT OPER RES LECT NOTES COMPUT SC INT J PROD ECON OPER RES QUART OMEGA-INT J 3.101 MANAGE S ANN OPER RES 0.838 INTERFACES INT J PROD RES NAV RES LOG 1.479 TRANSPORT SCI IIE TRANS MNGT SCI 0.806 J PROD ANAL 3.099 J MARKETING RES COMPUT IND ENG
Disseminate Your Results (Advertising)
Publication Marketing Tools

"Enhancing Research Visibility and Improving Citations"
Nader Ale Ebrahim PhD Candidate Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Email: aleebrahim@perdana.um.edu.my
Abstract
Abstract: Research needs to be explained clearly to others to colleagues, to educational bodies, and to the public by publications. There are various reasons for publication: Publications help in spreading your knowledge and experience, It gives you an academic profile and raises the profile of your institution, Research publications create income for the University, .. and Publications strengthen your CV. Publishing a high quality paper in scientific journals is a halfway of receiving citation in the future. The rest of the way is advertising and disseminating the publications by using the proper Research Tools. Familiarity with the tools allows the researcher to increase his/her h-index in the short time. H-index shows the academicians influences in the specified field of research. Therefore, a person with higher level of h-index has more high quality publications with high amount of citations. This presentation, covers the following topics: Why publish and increase h-index?, Definition of h-index and g-index, Importance of h-index, How to use Research Tools Mind Map, Paper title preparation, Selecting keywords, Select the proper journal, Advertise published article, and finally Trace published article citation. Keywords: h-index, Increase citations, Research tools
The scenarios
I have written an article, and I do not know how to select the title and keywords for receiving high citation? I have published a high quality paper, how can I receive high citation rate in the shortest possible time? "I want to increase the citation of my papers, how do I do?"
Motivations
Times Higher Education World University Rankings system Citations research influence (worth 32.5 per cent) UM Transformation Plan Von Zedtwitz (Ph.D. in Business Administration - 1999) h-index importance H-index comparisons Australian Research Repositories Online to the World Citation Workshops Directory of Open Access Repositories News CV (Curriculum Vitae)
Objectives
To increase your paper visibility, accessibility, To improve the quality of the article title and keywords To evaluate Journal measuring factors (like: Journal Impact Factor, Immediacy Index, Cited Half Life, five Year Journal Impact Factor) before article submission. To search and analyze the right journal to submit. To identify journals to publish in or which journals are the best in a particular discipline. To disseminate the publications by using Research Tools in order to increase citation To trace the citation
Publication marketing checklist
NO. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Item Paper title keywords Proper journal Select best paper repository Networking Alert system
Check
Strategies for Enhancing the Impact of Research

Improving access and retrieval of your research study is the surest way to enhance its impact. Repetition, consistency, and an awareness of the intended audience form the basis of most the following strategies. Preparing for Publication Dissemination Keeping Track of Your Research
Source: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Missouri
h-index (Jorge E. Hirsch- 2005)

A scientist has index h if h of [his/her] Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np h) papers have no more than h citations each.
H-index from a plot of decreasing citations for numbered papers
g-index (Leo Egghe (2006))

In order to give more weight to highly-cited articles Leo Egghe (2006) proposed the g-index. The g-index is defined as follows: [Given a set of articles] ranked in decreasing order of the number of citations that they received, the g-index is the (unique) largest number such that the top g articles received (together) at least g2 citations. Although the g-index has not yet attracted much attention or empirical verification, it would seem to be a very useful complement to the h-index.
How to measure h-index

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Web of Science - Science - Thomson Reuters Publish or Perish Microsoft Academic Search Add-on for Firefox: Scholar H-Index Calculator Quadsearch Scholarometer-add-on for the Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome 7. scHolar index
Optimizing Your Article for Search Engines
Source: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/seo.asp
Optimizing Your Article for Search Engines

Optimizing your article for search engines will greatly increase its chance of being viewed and/or cited in another work. Citation indexes already figure in many disciplines as a measure of an article's value; there is evidence that article views/downloads are also beginning to count in the same way. The crucial area for optimization is your article's abstract, title and keywords, which are freely available to all online.
Understanding Search Engines

Each search engine has its own algorithms for ranking a piece of content, such as a journal article. However, many search engines estimate the content's relevancy and popularity as measured by links to the content from other websites. Most search engines attempt to identify the topic of the piece of content. To do this, some search engines still use metadata tags (invisible to the user) to assess relevant content, but most now scan a page for keyword phrases, giving extra weight to phrases in headings and to repeated phrases.
Strategies for Enhancing the Impact of Research Preparing for Publication

Add the name of study in the title of all publications and use the same title/ name consistently. Assign keyword terms to the manuscript. Formulate a concise, well-constructed title and abstract. Include crucial keywords in the abstract. Publish your work in an open access journal. Consider the desired audience when choosing a journal for publication.
Selecting keywords
Optimize Title/Abstract
Step 1: Construct a clear, descriptive title In search engine terms, the title of your article is the most interesting element. The search engine assumes that the title contains all of the important words that define the topic of the piece and thus weights words appearing there most heavily. Step 2: Reiterate key phrases The next most important field is the text of the abstract itself. You should reiterate the key words or phrases from the title within the abstract itself.
Well-Optimized Abstract:
Poorly Optimized Abstract:
Strategies to increase citations
Target a journal with a high impact factor, or, in fact, with any impact factor at all! Choose a new, rapidly growing field of research. Articles on hot topics tend to cite much more recent references than those in more traditional fields. Target journals in rapidly growing research fields because they tend to publish papers with a short time interval from submission to acceptance. Write research articles, technical notes and reviews. For the purposes of calculating citations, these are considered citable items. Editorials, letters, news items and meeting abstracts are non-citable items. Write reviews in addition to research papers. Reviews are more likely to be cited than original research papers. Write at length. Longer articles are cited more often.

Make it easy for others to access your work. Online availability of articles clearly increases citations (and therefore, the journals impact factor). It helps if researchers can find relevant articles and access them instantly, rather than working their way through barriers of passwords and technicalities. This effect will increase with the availability of search engines like Google Scholar.
Target open access journals (especially if they have an impact factor). Make your work available via the Google searches/ResearcherID. Put the address for your ResearcherID page into your email signature as a clickable link.
Dont write as a member of a consortium. Its better to be one in a list of individual authors. Some evidence shows citations to articles written by consortia have been undercounted. Find quick publication Journals
Open Access Journal

One key request of researchers across the world is unrestricted access to research publications. Open access gives a worldwide audience larger than that of any subscription-based journal and thus increases the visibility and impact of published works. It also enhances indexing, retrieval power and eliminates the need for permissions to reproduce and distribute content.
Elseviers position on Access

Journals offering sponsored access A number of journals published by Elsevier offer authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access to individual articles. The charge for article sponsorship is $3,000. This charge is necessary to offset publishing costs from managing article submission and peer review, to typesetting, tagging and indexing of articles, hosting articles on dedicated servers, supporting sales and marketing costs to ensure global dissemination via ScienceDirect, and permanently preserving the published journal article. The fee excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges which are additional. Authors can only select this option after receiving notification that their article has been accepted for publication. This prevents a potential conflict of interest where a journal would have a financial incentive to accept an article.
Source: Sponsored Articles & Elseviers position on Access
Abstracted/indexed in
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
ABI/INFORM Association of Business Schools' (ABI) Academic Journal Quality Guide (www.the-abs.org.uk) Australian Business Deans' Council (ABDC) Journal Quality List Australian Research Council ERA Ranked Journal List Compendex Computer Abstracts International Database Current Contents / Engineering, Computing & Technology Current Contents / Social & Behavioural Sciences Emerald Management Reviews (EMR) INSPEC Abstracts International Abstracts in Operations Research OR/MS Index and Annual Comprehensive Index Science Citation Index Social Science Citation Index SCOPUS Zentralblatt MATH
Source: Journal of the Operational Research Society
Self Citation
Self-citation refers to a paper being submitted to a specific journal in which papers that have been published during the previous 2 years in that same journal are cited in the reference list. While self-citation of relevant papers is legitimate, excessive self-citation can indicate a manipulation. Thomson Reuters resource known as Web of Science, the company which now lists journal impact actors, considers self-citation to be acceptable up to a rate of 20%, anything over that is considered suspect (Diana Epstein, 2007).
Source: Diana Epstein, Impact factor manipulation, The Journal of the European Medical Writers Association, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2007 Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim Research
Funny Self Citation
Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim Source: Google Scholar & Peter Achterberg (1977)
Citation Behavior, variance among disciplines:

Mathematics Economics Genetics & Heredity
12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0%
20 07 20 06 20 05 20 04 20 03 20 02 20 01 20 00 19 99 19 98
There are inherent differences between different fields with regards to citation behavior. For some fields such as Mathematics or Economics it takes longer to reach the peak of citation activity.
Citation trends for different types of publications

Write reviews in addition to research papers - review journals often have high impact factors as they are more frequently cited than research articles; Online availability is crucial as it facilitates greater access to your work by the international research community; Target open access journals, particularly peer-reviewed publications; Deposit your research output in the UWS Research Repository.
Source: University of Western Sydney Library
Journal Immediacy Index

Cites in 2010 to items published in 2010 = 22 Number of items published in 2010 = 28
Calculation: Cites to current items 22 = 0.786 Number of current items 28
Disseminate Your Publications (Advertising)
Targeted advertising
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Strategies for Enhancing the Impact of Research Dissemination

Submit the manuscript to a digital subject repository. Submit the manuscript to an institutional repository. Set up a web site devoted to the research project and post manuscripts of publications and conference abstracts. Take advantage of SEO (search engine optimization). Present preliminary research findings at a meeting or conference. Follow up preliminary research findings presented at a meeting or conference with a published manuscript. Consider submitting the same article to a journal in a different language as a secondary publication. Start a blog devoted to the research project. Contribute to Wikipedia. Contribute to a social network
8 Ways to increase usage and citation of published papers

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Create your own website Create Mind Map Do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Contribute to Wikipedia Join Twitter Join academic social networking sites Join LinkedIn Deposit papers in repositories
Adopted from 10 Ways to Increase Usage Box 2012 By:of yourAle Ebrahim Article Using Social Media and Citation Nader Published Research Tools
Repositories can disseminate information

Universities can:
meet accountability requirements improve the brand image of the university preserve academic research outputs permanently and effectively promote co-operation with industry and contribution to the local communities reduce the costs of taking charge of academic information
Researchers can:
gain greater visibility for their research achievements establish the channel for the dissemination of research outputs reduce the cost of preservation and dissemination of research outputs raise the citation rates of their articles
Source: What is an academic repository? Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim
Citation Competition
Always upload preprints of your papers either on the Los Alamos ArXiv or NEC Citeseer or both. This gives your papers visibility. When writing a paper, use the introduction to provide a motivating context. So it grabs the interest of the reader. When writing a paper the goal is for you to communicate ideas in the clearest way. The more people that can understand your paper, the more it will be cited. Keep track of all your international contacts by using the LinkedIn web utility.
Citation Competition
Take 50 photocopies of your best 1-2 papers to conferences, and leave them on the brochure desk as a handout. Maintain your publication list on your home page. Make an attractive homepage that is clear about what you are working on. Conference papers do not get ISI citation counts. So the trick is to ensure that after a conference you take that paper, correct it, extend it, and submit it to a journal. When your paper is finally published, individually email the pdf to selected collaborators and contacts that you have met at conferences etc.
Source: Derek - https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Citation_Competition
Optimize citations
Put your article in an institutional or subject repository. Publicize yourself - link to your latest article in your email signature. Make your article more accessible Make your article more visible

Reading lists Department website or personal webpage Twitter and Facebook LinkedIn Join academic social networking sites CiteULike Email signature
Source: Optimize citations -http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/beyondpublication/optimizingcitations.asp And Promote your article - http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/beyondpublication/promotearticle.asp
Copyright issue
Your publication freely available Besides the bibliographic details, you can add the publication itself to UvADARE, in pdf or Word. Of course, you yourself decide whether you only want to archive it (in which case the electronic version is not accessible) or if you wish to give interested researchers and readers full access to the electronic publication. There are great advantages to making it worldwide available. Publications which are freely available are more often downloaded and cited. If your publisher does not give permission to give access to the definitive publisher's version/pdf, in many cases it is permitted to make the last author's version available (i.e. the version after peer review). This version has the same scientific content, but lacks the publisher's lay-out. More information can be found at SHERPA/RoMEO and the Open Access and Copyright site of UvA.
Source: Digital Academic Repository of the University of Amsterdam
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ResearcherID Wikipedia Web Site Mindmeister SSRN getCITED Academica ResearchGate The Berkeley Electronic Press
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MPRA HAL Malaysian Expert CiteULike PublicationsList Academic Research Microsoft WiKi Methodspace Ecademy Best Virtual R&D Tools Box 2012 Papers Teams By: Nader Ale Ebrahim Research
The following text retrieved on 23rd April 2011 from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia (available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_team). A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team or GDT) is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. Powell, Piccoli and Ives define virtual teams in their literature review article "as groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more organizational tasks."[1] Ale Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S. & Taha, Z. in their recent (2009) literature review paper, added two key issues to definition of a virtual team as small temporary groups of geographically, organizationally and/ or time dispersed knowledge workers who coordinate their work predominantly with electronic information and communication technologies in order to accomplish one or more organization tasks[2]
See the list of Nader Ale Ebrahims publications in the references section
Source: SSRN eLibrary Search Results ORG: Contemporary Organizational Structures (Topic)
Document Publishing
Scribd.com Docstoc.com Issuu.com
CSTD (Commission on Science and Technology for Development ) 2011-2012 panel
Recently, a report published in the CSTD (Commission on Science and Technology for Development) 2011-2012 intersessional panel which hold on 13-15 December 2011, Manila, Philippines. In this report the paper Ale Ebrahim, N., S. Ahmed and Z. Taha (2009). "Virtual R&D Teams in Small and Medium Enterprises: A Literature Review " Scientific Research and Essays , is one of the references.
Thanks to whom cited

LinkedIn Nader Ale Ebrahim wrote: Dear Montero, First of all, I should take this opportunity to thank you for accepting the LinkedIn connection request and cite my paper in your presentation entailed "Three Secrets to Turning Your Office Into The Anywhere Office". Next, I have submitted my PhD thesis, and I am waiting for final defense. My experience regarding virtual teamwork return to my topic of research and my experience background which is reflected in the following publications http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1379350 . I found you as a professional person in the filed of virtual teams, so I would like to keep in touch with you in case of any inquiry. Best Regards, Nader
On 01/23/12 8:03 AM, Phil Montero wrote: -------------------Nader - Thanks for connecting with me! I see we share several groups all having to do with virtual teams. What is your experience or interest in virtual teamwork?
On January 23, 2012 7:00 AM, Nader Ale Ebrahim wrote: -------------------I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
Social Network
Professor T. Ramayah
Publishing a book
Trace the citation
Keeping Track of Your Research
Record Citation
KNOWN CITATIONS Mind Map
Links
Useful Links
Thomsonscientific.webex.com une.edu.au/library/eskillsplus adt.caul.edu.au
Smile - your research almost done!
Thank you!
Nader Ale Ebrahim Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Email: aleebrahim@perdana.um.edu.my
References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Research Tools, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Apr. 2010 Journal Citation Reports, Thomson Reuters 2009 The publish or perish book: Your guide to effective and responsible citation analysis / Anne-Wil Harzing. , September 2010 Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Six Ale Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S., & Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual R & D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review. [Review]. Scientific Research and Essay, 4(13), 15751590. Journal Citation Reports - Science - Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge ALE EBRAHIM, N., ABDUL RASHID, S. H., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2011. The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs. Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, 10, 109-114. EBRAHIM, N. A., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2010. SMEs; Virtual research and development (R&D) teams and new product development: A literature review. International Journal of the Physical Sciences, 5, 916-930. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2009. Modified Stage-Gate: A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process. African Journal of Marketing Management, 1, 211-219. ALE EBRAHIM, N., ABDUL RASHID, S. H., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2011. The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs. Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, 10, 109-114. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S., ABDUL RASHID, S. H. & TAHA, Z. 2012. Technology Use in the Virtual R&D Teams. American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 5, 9-14. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S., ABDUL RASHID, S. H., TAHA, Z. & WAZED, M. A. 2012. Virtual Collaborative R&D Teams in Malaysia Manufacturing SMEs. Advanced Materials Research, 433-440, 1653-1659. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2009. Modified Stage-Gate: A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process. African Journal of Marketing Management, 1, 211-219. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2009. Virtual R & D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review. Scientific Research and Essay, 4, 15751590. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. 2010. SMEs; Virtual research and development (R&D) teams and new product development: A literature review International Journal of the Physical Sciences, 5, 916930.
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The Effective Use of Research Tools Box - By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

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Research Tools Box

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

How to Conduct an Effective Literature Review

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

The literature review

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

The literature review

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Systematic Review 1/2

Systematic Review 2/2

A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review

Reasons for Performing Systematic Reviews

The Systematic Review Process

Conducting the review

Reporting the review

Planning the review

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Conducting the review

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Reporting the review

Reporting the review is a single stage phase.

Checklist for reading a review paper

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Checklist for reading a review paper-From a more general viewpoint

Working with literature

Knowing the literature types

Reading efficiently Keeping track of references Writing relevant annotations

Choosing your research topic

Using available resources

Developing your question

Honing your search skills

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Narrow the area of research

R&D and NPD SMEs and R&D

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Read before planning (defining a review protocol that

Start reading with few resources Language bias Publication bias

Search for proper article

Effective Search Strategy-1

Effective Search Strategy-2

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Developing a search strategy

How to Find and Develop a Viable Research Topic?

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

KeyWords Plus- Example

Finding review articles

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Critically Analyzing Information Sources

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Keywords used in the research

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

h-index (Jorge E. Hirsch)

H-index from a plot of decreasing citations for numbered papers

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim

Research Tools Box 2012 By: Nader Ale Ebrahim