ARTICLE WRITING AND PUBLICATION IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL WITH HIGH IMPACT FACTOR

Dr.M.Selvam,
Associate Professor and Head, Department of Commerce and Financial Studies, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli -24

drmselvam@yahoo.co.in
& Founder- Publisher & Chief Editor,

SMART Journal of Business Management Studies,

www.smartjournalbms.org

INTRODUCTION

Dissertation means a long essay, especially one written for a university degree or diploma.

Thesis refers to a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.

Research Paper refers to assembling of data collected, analysis thereon and presenting them in the accepted form.

7 MOST POPULAR TYPES OF RESEARCH PAPERS

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Argumentative papers, Analytical papers, Definition papers, Compare and contrast papers, Cause and effect papers, Reports, and Interpretive papers.

1. ARGUMENTATIVE PAPERS

ARGUMENTATIVE

PAPERS

present

two

sides of a

controversial issue in the one paper.

A good argumentative paper will include in-text citations from researchers that present logical facts from both sides of an issue, and will conclude with the author analyzing the pros and cons of each argument.

The confusing element of an argumentative paper is that the author is expected to favor one side more than the other on an issue,

but the research and analysis must be supported by factual data for both sides of the argument

2. ANALYTICAL PAPERS
It

includes information from a range of sources but the focus on analyzing the different viewpoints represented from a factual rather than opinionated standpoint. author may focus on the findings, methodology or conclusions of other researchers and will conclude with a summation of the findings and a suggested framework for further study on the issue.

The

3. DEFINITION PAPERS

DEFINITION

PAPERS

are

relatively

self-

explanatory.
It

describes a topic from a factual standpoint that is usually devoid of emotion or the opinion of the author. research paper will include facts from a variety of sources, the information (left unanalyzed) and actual facts found in another's research paper findings.

The

4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPERS

COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPERS are often

used in literature to compare two different authors, or stories from a particular genre. they can also be required in social sciences to compare two different theoretical viewpoints important part of paper is that while both elements in the paper need to be described succinctly.

However

The

The main part of the paper will be the comparison and contrasting examples provided by the author to support a thesis.

5. CAUSE AND EFFECT PAPERS

CAUSE AND EFFECT PAPERS trace the probable

or expected results from a particular action or policy in a logical progression that is easily followed by the reader.
Used It

in Business and Management Education.

will not only outline the predicted results from the action / situation specified, but show the range of results that could arise from this one situation through to its logical conclusion.

6. REPORTS

follow a memorandum or similar business format and they are often written to outline a case study situation

7. INTERPRETIVE PAPERS

Often required by tutors in literature, humanities and social sciences and they require the student to use the theoretical knowledge gained in a course of study to a particular case study. Examples, a piece of art or a poem in literary fields ;a business situation in a management course; or a psychological case profile in either sociology or psychology fields. The key element is evidence that the student has written the paper based on an established theoretical framework with supporting data to back up the thesis statement and findings.

WHY WRITE RESEARCH PAPERS?

Ideally to share research findings and discoveries with the hope of improving knowledge. Practically

to get funding to get promoted to get a job to keep your job!

WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESEARCH PAPER?

Good content Good writing Publication in good journals

A GOOD PAPER SHALL HAVE CERTAIN BASIC

AND ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITIES

Clarity Concepts Addressing the problem Language Presentation Use of data in the paper Size of the report Footnotes and citations

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE WRITING - FOR AUTHORS

Time to write the paper Tables and figures Read references Choose journal Tentative title and summary Choose co-authors

COMPONENTS OF THE RESEARCH ARTICLE

The hardest part is getting started Title Abstract Introduction Review of Literature Statement of the Problem Need of the Study Methods Results and Discussion Acknowledgements References

TITLE

Will determine whether paper gets read Avoid long title (see journal rules) Title format:
y

What is wrong with this one?

Internal service quality insight and perception of bank employees

This is to some extent subjective, but probably include:

y y y

A clear, concise and meaningful title which creates interest Better? Insight into the internal service quality perception of bank employees

ABSTRACT

Critical part of paper State main objective Summarize most important results State major conclusions and significance Key words Avoid acronyms Write and rewrite until flawless

INTRODUCTION

Build theory for why study is important /necessary Provide brief theoretical background

What is Statement of the Problem?

State central question Identify the gap in knowledge addressed

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

First answer the question posed in introduction Relate your conclusion to existing knowledge Discuss weaknesses and discrepancies Explain what is new without exaggerating Do not repeat results Conclusion/summary, perspectives, implications

REFERENCES

Relevant and recent Be highly selective Read the references Do not misquote Use correct style for journal

WHERE TO PUBLISH RESEARCH PAPER?

   

Publication Channels Journals Technical Reports Conference Proceedings House Magazines

Great Journals are born in the hands of the editors; they die in the hands of businessmen. -Bernard DeVoto

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE RIGHT JOURNAL?

Whats important to Author?

y y y y y y y y y y y y y

International VS National VS Local Journal reputation / Journal impact Circulation, visibility Acceptance/rejection rates Speed of handling Speed of publication Quality of printing graphics Publication costs: author pays, page charges, colour work charges Publication benefits: preprints, issue of journal, Subscription or Open Access Professional Society Publication? SCI (Science Citation Index) Covered? Impact Factor

Talk to colleagues, seek advice

y

For choosing journal and writing paper

CITATION INDEX

A citation index is an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents. The first citation indices were legal citators such as Shepard's Citations (1873). In 1960, Eugene Garfield's Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) introduced the first citation index for papers published in academic journals, starting with the Science Citation Index (SCI),

CITATION IMPACT

Later expanding to produce the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI).

Citation is the process of acknowledging or citing the author, year, title, and locus of publication (journal, book, or other) of a source used in a published work.

Such citations can be counted as measures of the usage and impact of the cited work

CITATION USES

an individual article (how often it was cited); an author (total citations, or average citation count per article);

a journal (average citation count for the articles in the journal).

Other Measures of Citation Many measures have been proposed, beyond simple citation counts, to better quantify an individual scholar's citation impact.

The best-known measures include the H-index and the G-index. Each measure has advantages and disadvantages, spanning from bias to disciplinedependence and limitations of the citation data source

MAJOR CITATION INDEXING SERVICES

ISI

(now part of Thomson Scientific), which publishes the ISI citation indexes in print and compact disc. They are now generally accessed through the Web under the name Web of Science, which is in turn part of the group of databases in the Web of Knowledge. which publishes Scopus, available online only, which similarly combines subject searching with citation browsing and tracking in the sciences and social sciences.

Elsevier,

IMPACT FACTOR

The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals

Used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more important than those with lower ones.

The impact factor was devised by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), now part of Thomson Reuters.

Impact factors are calculated yearly for those journals that are indexed in Thomson Reuter's Journal Citation Reports.

CALCULATION OF IMPACT FACTOR

In a given year, the impact factor of a journal is the average number of citations received per paper published in that journal during the two preceding years.

For example, if a journal has an impact factor of 3 in 2008, then its papers published in 2006 and 2007 received 3 citations each on average.

CALCULATION
The
y

2008 impact factor of a journal would be calculated as follows:

A = the number of times articles published in 2006 and 2007 were cited by indexed journals during 2008 B = the total number of "citable items" published by that journal in 2006 and 2007. ("Citable items" are usually articles, reviews, proceedings, or notes; not editorials or Letters-to-the-Editor.) 2008 impact factor = A/B

Note

that 2008 impact factors are actually published in 2009

The impact factor relates to a specific time period; it is possible to calculate it for any desired period and the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) also includes a 5-year impact factor.

The IF is used to compare different journals within a certain field

VALIDITY OF IMPACT FACTOR

The The

IF is highly discipline-dependent

impact factor could not be reproduced in an independent audit impact factor refers to the average number of citations per paper, but this is not a normal distribution. is rather a Bradford distribution, as predicted by theory. Being an arithmetic mean, the impact factor therefore is not a valid representation of this distribution and unfit for citation evaluation

The

It

VALIDITY

In the short term - especially in the case of lowimpact-factor journals - many of the citations to a certain article are made in papers written by the author(s) of the original article

MANIPULATION

Publish a larger percentage of review articles which generally are cited more than research reports

Change the fraction of "citable items" compared to front-matter in the denominator of the IF equation

A journal to cite articles in the same journal which will increase the journal's impact factor

H-INDEX

The h-index is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar.

The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications

The index is based on the distribution of citations received by a given researcher's publications.

The index works properly only for comparing scientists working in the same field; citation conventions differ widely among different fields

The

-index

serves

as

an

alternative

to

more

traditional journal impact factor metrics in the evaluation of the impact of the work of a particular researcher.

 The

-index grows as citations accumulate and

thus it depends on the 'academic age' of a researcher. CALCULATING THE H- INDEX

The

-index can be manually determined using

citation databases or using automatic tools.

Each

database is likely to produce a different

for the same scholar

 Google

Scholar identified 53% more citations than

Web of Knowledge and Scopus combined,

but

noted that most of the additional citations

reported by Google Scholar were from low-impact journals or conference proceedings

CRITICISM

The

-index does not account for the number of

authors of a paper

The -index does not account for the typical number of citations in different fields

The

-index is bounded by the total number of

publications

The -index does not consider the context of citations he -index does not account for confounding factors

such as "gratuitous authorship"

SOME KEY QUESTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Readability Does it communicate? Is it clear? Is there a logical progression without unnecessary duplication? Originality Why was it written? Whats new? Credibility Are the conclusions valid? Is the methodology robust? Can it be replicated? Is it honest dont hide any limitations of the research? Youll be found out. Applicability How do findings apply to the world of practice? Does it pinpoint the way forward for future research? Internationality Does it take an international, global perspective?

YOUR OWN PEER REVIEW

Let someone else see it show a draft to one or more friends or colleagues and ask for their comments, advice and honest criticism

Always proof-check thoroughly no incorrect spellings, no incomplete references. Spell

checkers are not fool-proof

EDITORS OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS

Editors of scholarly journals are of three types
1.

Acquisitions editor (or commissioning editor in Britain), who contracts with the author to produce the copy

2.

Project editor or production editor, who sees the copy through its stages from manuscript through bound journals and usually assumes most of the budget and schedule responsibilities

EDITORS OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS

3. Copy editor or manuscript editor, who performs the tasks of readying the copy for conversion into printed form.

The primary difference between copy editing scholarly books and journals and other sorts of copy editing lies in applying the standards of the publisher to the copy.

OTHER CATEGORIES OF EDITORS AT JOURNALS

Helpful to know because you might interact with each

Main categories:
y y y

Editor-in-chief Managing editor Manuscript editor

WHAT DO EDITORS LOOK FOR IN ARTICLES?

Editors approve or reject articles based on the publications publishing criteria.

1. 2. 3.

Criteria such as: Did the writer submit the piece to the right editor? Has the editor already accepted a similar piece? Will the piece fit into the publications editorial calendar?

4.

Has a similar piece run in the recent past? If yes, does this piece differ enough to printing again?

WHAT DO EDITORS LOOK FOR IN ARTICLES? (CONTD.)

5. Is the piece restricted by time? In other words, will the piece still be news or valuable to the publications audience when it hits the stands? 6. Does the piece fit for an online publication? Will this piece still have truth six months down the line? What about a year from now? 7. Does the piece deliver everything the author promised in the query letter?

WHAT DO EDITORS LOOK FOR IN ARTICLES? (CONTD.) 8. Is the piece written in the publications voice? 9. What section would this piece fit into? 10. Is the piece the correct word count? 11. Is the piece well-written? In other words, is it free of grammatical and spelling errors?

WHAT DO EDITORS LOOK FOR IN ARTICLES? (CONTD.)

12. If there are grammatical errors, is the piece worth asking the writer for a rewrite? 13. Is this an opinion piece or one based on expert quotes and facts?

14. Does the piece have a natural flow or does it read as though it has a lot of missing information?

WHAT DO EDITORS LOOK FOR IN ARTICLES? (CONTD.)

15. Does the piece offer something of value or does it leave the reader thinking? 16. If the general idea of the piece is good, but not quite on target with the publications theme, is it worth the time to ask the writer to refocus the piece? 17. Is the piece too controversial for the publications audience?

18. Does anything in the piece have the potential of a lawsuit?

WHAT DO EDITORS LOOK FOR IN ARTICLES? (CONTD.)

Editors simply reject articles from writers whove been blacklisted.

Editors may look to see if a writer can follow simple directions.

A writers ability to follow directions is often a good indicator of his/her willingness to work with the editor as well as his/her reliability.

EDITORS AND REVIEWERS LOOK FOR

Originality whats new about subject, treatment or results?

Relevance to and extension of existing knowledge Research methodology Innovative and accepted methodology conclusions valid

Clarity, structure and quality of writing does it communicate well?

EDITORS AND REVIEWERS LOOK FOR

Sound, logical progression of argument Theoretical and practical implications (the so what? factors!) Recency and relevance of references Adherence to the editorial scope and objectives of the journal

INITIAL CHECKS AT JOURNALS OFFICE

The editorial office/Editor will immediately reject some papers. Why?

Scope any papers OBVIOUSLY not within the scope of the journal Length any papers not conforming to the length policy requirements Format the format of the paper should be according to the guidelines of the Journal English any papers that are deemed to be of VERY poor quality References any papers with either very few, or only very old references

The Editorial Office assumes that if a paper passes initial quality checks, it is suitable for sending to reviewers Editor has small window of opportunity to decline a paper

WHAT THE REFEREES ARE ASKED?

General:
y

Is the subject matter suitable for publication in this journal? (If NO, suggest other journals)

Does the paper describe original work? (If No, give references to previous)

Are the references adequate? (If No, provide suggestions)

Should the paper be shorter? (If Yes, make suggestions)

WHAT THE REFEREES ARE ASKED? (CONTD)

Evaluation of technical content:

y y

Theory Engineering application

Presentation:
y y

Has the author demonstrated the value of the work? Is the manuscript organised to show clearly what has been done?

Is the use of English clear and unambiguous?

OPTIONS GIVEN TO REFEREE

Accept Accept subject to minor revisions Accept subject to major revisions Decline with encouragement to submit a substantially revised paper Decline

PROCESS OF ACCEPTANCE FOR A JOURNAL JUST ONE EXAMPLE

Submissions Editors Decision To first review Decision 100% OK (48%) Receive (28%) Reject (24%) Withdrawn (10%) Revise (37%) Reject (29%) Withdrawn (6%) Revise (3%) Reject (2%)

66%

To second review Decision

31% OK (26%)

Published

29%

TIMETABLE FROM SUBMISSION TO INITIAL

FEEDBACK TO AUTHORS

The Editor(s) do an initial read to determine if the subject matter and research approach of the manuscript is appropriate for the journal (approximately 1 week) The Editor(s) identify and contact two reviewers for the manuscript (approximately 1 week) Reviewers are usually given 6-8 weeks to complete their reviews The Editor(s) assess the reviewers' comments and recommendations and make a decision on the manuscript (approximately 2 weeks)

Expected time from submission to review feedback: 3 - 3.5 months

REVISING PAPER
If you can make changes move fast Paper is often re-reviewed by original referees and this can be quite quick Dont get defensive

Referees like to look useful y They may be right! y Remember its the paper they are criticizing, not YOU
y

You will need to revise the paper AND reply to each point describing what you have done in response Always be courteous and professional We are indebted to the referees for their many helpful comments to improve our paper

REVISING

A request for revision is good news!

You are now in the publishing cycle. Nearly every published paper is revised at least once Dont panic! Even if the comments are sharp or discouraging, they arent personal

HOW TO REVISE YOUR PAPER?

Acknowledge the editor and set a revision deadline Clarify understanding if in doubt This is what I understand the comments to mean Consult with colleagues or co-authors and tend to the points as requested Meet the revision deadline Attach a covering letter which identifies, point by point, how revision requests have been met (or if not, why not)

IF YOUR PAPER IS REJECTED

Ask why, and listen carefully! Most editors will give detailed comments about a rejected paper. Take a deep breath, and listen to what is being said Try again! Try to improve the paper, and re-submit elsewhere. Do your homework and target your paper as closely as possible Dont give up! At least 50% of papers in business and management dont get published. Everybody has been rejected at least once Keep trying!

FEEDBACK EXAMPLES (ALL REAL!)

This is outstanding work that should definitely be presented Please accept this critique as a love of the paper, and a desire to see it improved so that it is equally loved and embraced by y the entire community The paper is poorly written. This cannot be overstated. It has four high-level problems. First, it is poorly organized. Entire sections, as well as paragraphs within sections, are presented out of order. Second, sections and paragraphs do not discuss what they are purported to set out to discuss. Third, Fourth, . Please rewrite the paper.

A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME!
Thank you for submitting your work to this journal. We are pleased to accept your paper and look forward to publishing it

THANK YOU