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Ed491517 3 4

The document discusses guidelines for selecting an appropriate journal to publish research manuscripts in, including factors like the journal's aims, acceptance rate, indexing in databases, and the values of different journals. It also covers writing an abstract, introduction, and outline for a research paper.

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Sim Wen sen
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21 views2 pages

Ed491517 3 4

The document discusses guidelines for selecting an appropriate journal to publish research manuscripts in, including factors like the journal's aims, acceptance rate, indexing in databases, and the values of different journals. It also covers writing an abstract, introduction, and outline for a research paper.

Uploaded by

Sim Wen sen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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e) appropriate length of papers,

f) requirements to headings, figures, references, etc.,


g) guidelines for submission.
You should decide if your manuscript fits the aims and the content of the journal. In
this case you have a good chance to be published.
Indexing of the papers of a journal in scientific databases is an indicator of the
quality of the journal. The other indicators are high frequency of citing of the papers
in other journals, well known editors and editorial board members, low acceptance
rate, etc. (Klingner, Scanlon, and Pressley 2005). Publications in highly valued
journals have more weight in your CV but it is more difficult and time-consuming to
get published in these journals.
Scientific databases themselves are of various prestige in the scholarly world.
The most prestigious is the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) Web of
Knowledge (Current Content). It includes the most valued scientific journals in the
world. Every branch of science has its own database, for example the SSCI (Social
Science Citation Index) in social sciences, the ERIC (Educational Resource
Information Center), the International ERIC and the BEI (British Education Index) in
education, PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO in psychology etc. The common searching
engines are not the usual tools for finding scientific papers.
The acceptance rate of a journal is the proportion of the number of submitted
manuscripts to the number of published manuscripts. The acceptance rate of journals
is very different; it varies from one percent to eighty percents (Henson 1999). High
quality journals have lower acceptance rate as rule, but some top-quality journals
have high acceptance rate as well. Kenneth T. Henson (1999, 780) recommends
young researches not to send their manuscripts to the journals with the acceptance
rate below 25%. Her paper includes some data about the acceptance rate of journals
on education.
Journals have thematic issues that are announced about a year before the
composing of the issue. If the topic of the manuscript fits the content of a thematic
issue, prefer the issue. The acceptance rate into the thematic issues is about three
times higher than the acceptance rate into the general issues of the journal. After the
thematic issue is published, the editors tend to reject the manuscripts on this topic
(Henson 1999). The topics of the thematic issues can be found in the editorials of the
journal and on the journal’s web page.
Different journals value different components of quality and you should have
this in mind while selecting the appropriate journal. Some journals value practical
implications of the research, the others value the originality of findings and approach,
the others emphasize high clarity and readability of presentation, still other editors
base their decisions mainly on the rigor of the research methodology, etc (Day 2006).
Send your manuscript to the journal which values the aspect well developed in your
article!
You have read many papers while preparing your research and manuscript.
The journals you have read most are usually the best to submit your manuscript. You
know the scientific problems of the journal, the favored research methods and the
style of presentation. You have used this knowledge in your paper and therefore it fits
the journal. You probably have read some papers from one or two editorial board
members. The members can be the blind reviewers of your manuscript.
It is easier to publish papers, which correspond to the world-view of the editor
and reviewers (Toomela 2003). You can find something about this world-view if you
read the papers of the editors and editorial board members on your topic or related
topics.
Really new knowledge is easier to publish in periphery; it can be published in
the leading journals only if there are two competing scientific schools (Toomela
2003).
Most manuscripts are rejected by highly valued journals. Nevertheless, the
papers are published in some other journal. Your can have more than one journal in
your mind as the possible places for the publication of your manuscript but you can
send your manuscript only to one journal at once. If you are not sure in the selection
of the journal, you can send the abstract of your paper to the editor and ask if this
paper might be of interest for the journal (Klingner, Scanlon & Pressley 2005;
Murray 2005, 63 - 64).

Writing the abstract and introduction

Robert Hauptman (2005, 115) writes: “Perhaps the single most important point is
to have the desire to discover something new and share it with readership”. It is time
to begin the writing of a paper when you have something to say to your colleagues in
the scientific world (Klingner, Scanlon & Pressley 2005). You have an evidence-
based new conclusion. The conclusion makes some contribution to theory and it can
be applied to develop practice. The new idea can be developed on data, which you
have used earlier in another paper to base the conclusion in another area.
Usually the question is to be answered are you the single author of the paper or
somebody is your co-author. It is always easier to write in co-operation, the quality of
the paper will be higher and you learn something from your co-authors (Hauptman
2005; Murray 2005). It is useful to work in-groups and speak about the idea of a
paper to colleagues and if they add something essential to the framework of the
paper, they have the right to be the co-authors. All the persons who have added
creatively to the research or writing are the authors.
Further we will treat the traditions of scientific writing according to the usual
structure of a research paper. The structure is as follows:
a) abstract,
b) introduction,
c) methods,
d) results,
e) discussion,
f) conclusion,
g) references,
h) appendixes.
The structure has been developed for the papers describing empirical studies but it is
used for other types of papers with some modifications as well. In the papers about
case studies, the discussion and the results parts may be joined. If the conclusion is
short, then it can be given at the end of the discussion without a special heading, etc.
It is useful to start the writing from an outline of the paper (Lester 1990;
Neman 1989). The outline organizes any support you can give to your main new idea.
The subheadings in your outline should describe their content as fully as possible –
then the outline is of real help in writing. I have put concrete ideas into my outlines
and references to literature to rely on during writing. In my outline, it is also given
how many pages or characters can be devoted to every subheading in the paper.

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