What I Learned While Writing My First Journal Article
5 things I learned while writing my first article for a top journal
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If you are into research like I am, you may know that getting your work published in a top journal is a huge achievement and you can gain more reach to your work. I was able to publish my first piece of work in my PhD in a top journal. In this article, I will share with you 5 things I learned while writing my first journal article.
1. Select the Right Journal
Selecting the right journal is crucial to getting your work published. The scope of the journal should be relevant to your field. It would be a pity if your article got rejected because it is not relevant to the scope of the journal you submitted to.
Also, pay attention to journal metrics such as ranking, h-index and impact factor. If you are new to research, you can seek advice from your supervisor or senior colleagues.
2. Go through the journal guidelines before starting
Journals have their own set of rules and guidelines which should be followed by authors when preparing their manuscripts (the work that an author submits to a publisher, editor, or producer for publication). Different journals can call this set of guidelines in different ways. Here are some examples.
- Formatting guide on Nature
- Manuscript Preparation Guidelines on Wiley
- Submission Guidelines on PLOS ONE
- Author Guidelines on ACM CSUR
Make sure to go through these guidelines thoroughly. These guidelines include details about
- the peer-review process
- what templates to use (LATEX, Word)
- how to structure the manuscript
- the page limit of the manuscript
- the word count in the abstract
- how to prepare figures and tables
- how to structure the supplementary material
- how to format references/bibliography
- author rights and copyright information
