submitting an article to academic journals

Hey Peeps,

Is it true that you are only permitted to submit your paper to one journal? If it is rejected, you can send it to others, right? I would like to publish a paper I have written but i am not sure whether I would be accepted in a top tier journal. Should I try for a lower ranking journal? How many academic journals should you try publishing in before giving up?

thx

I work in academia as a Research Assistant (I'll be in grad school this Fall :wink: ) and my experience is that you can definitely submit to more than one journal. If it is rejected, the reveiwers will usually give some type of constructive criticism and you will be allowed to resubmit. My research advisor is a reviewer for a top-tier journal and says that for acceptance for publication they mainly look at:

1. The science performed in the study
2. The impact to the overall field of study

If it is rejected you can "shop" it around but this is typically discouraged. The main reason that you don't want to shop around to too many journals is because you will get a reputation in your field and it won't be a favorable one. Publishing in obscure journals that can't be found on the major databases like PubMed or Medline is a no-no. This is of major importance because your career is affected by this. You not only want your paper in a good journal but in the future you want your paper cited by others. By good journal, it doesn't have to be top-tier but definitely one that is recognizable to people in your field. I know I sound like a broken record. But definitely have your advisors look at your work and maybe they can give you some advise as to what journal is the best for your paper. So with all of this in mind good luck!!!!

thanks lyoness!!

that is helpful.

but what do you mean when you say "the science performed in the study?"

I mean the methods used to carry out your individual research. Cell culture, etc. Do you use tried and true methods, do you use novel ideas? Also I know this sounds crazy but check your statistics and math. This sounds crazy but it's really important.

aah, thanks. You are in biology or something, right? I am a philosophy student so we don't have said "science."

I have heard that publishing in a low-tier journal can be negative to your future career aspirations, but i've never understood how. I mean, if it's a low-tier journal or nothing - i mean if you have been rejected by top-tier academic journals - then how would publishing in a not-so-prestigous journal be worse than not publishing at all?

[Jonny]

Originally Posted by pp_2006

Hey Peeps,

Is it true that you are only permitted to submit your paper to one journal? If it is rejected, you can send it to others, right? I would like to publish a paper I have written but i am not sure whether I would be accepted in a top tier journal. Should I try for a lower ranking journal? How many academic journals should you try publishing in before giving up?

thx

You should always try the top tier journal first. Each field usually has a set of good journals, and some lower ones. Top-tier journals are incredibly picky, and will ask for many changes before acceptance, maybe if you are that lucky. Maybe getting a paper into Cell, Nature, or Science could take 6 months to 2-years. The reviewers comments were almost 7 pages in 10 point font on our most recent version. You should always be able to publish somewhere, if the data is anywhere near reasonable and the experiments performed well. Publishing is always better than not publishing. But if you always publish in low journals you look sloppy, or do not work in an interesting area. Depending on the area, it may be really hard to ever get a paper in a high journal. You want papers that other people will quote and look forward to reading. Who wants to read a boring paper?

The two questions you should always ask are:
1. Is my work novel
2. Do the data fully prove my novel observation, ie are the experiments ones that are well-accepted in the field, and is the data thoroughly convincing?

There is also a trendy factor, if you do cool new techniques, or the idea is just a good one. Usually solidly performed experiments go to good journals, but not always top-tier journals. Several of these, and you will still have a golden career, no worries.

[dubya_dawg]

i had thought it was a no-no to submit to more than one journal at once.

good advice i was given (for social sciences) is to go ahead and make your paper mimic (in style and format) the articles in the journal to which you are submitting.

[JC]

Yea, i also heard that you should only submit to one journal at a time. Also, if I understand correctly, you almost always get a revise and resubmit (or reject) rather than an unconditional acceptance. They always want you to change something, no?