Why an international journal: what are the advantages?
Writing articles for an international journal has many advantages:
- You will join the international community of scientists in your field of knowledge, announce yourself and your work;
- since most international journals are edited by volunteers from among scientists of various universities or other institutions, your work is automatically given a sign of approval by your colleagues, and many people will make efforts to improve it and ensure that the article is published.
Order No. 1112 “On the publication of dissertation results for obtaining scientific degrees of doctor and candidate of sciences”
Appendix to Order No. 1112 “Requirements for published monographs submitted for obtaining scientific degrees of doctor and candidate of sciences”
Do I really have a worthy article for publication?
Being published means making an original contribution to science. The first task is to consider whether you have something truly interesting that your editors would want to read your work. How significant is it? How is it implemented in practice? A good idea would be to prepare a short abstract of 50 words that addresses these questions. This abstract is primarily needed for you to have a clear understanding of the tasks set, such as what your article is about and why it is important. It is also highly desirable to discuss your work with more experienced colleagues.
My first advice would be: “The more experienced scientists read the work before sending it to publishers, the better. If possible, create an ‘author support group’ at the faculty level to meet and comment on how the work is developing. My own experience participating in such a group suggests that this can yield very significant results in developing ideas and their subsequent implementation.”
Dr. David Parker
editor
Queensland, Australia
Believe it or not, the aforementioned work on the article is much more important than a good translation of the article into English, the level of which can always be improved with minimal assistance.
“Language improvement will not be a decisive factor in selecting an article for publication. The main thing is the research methods used, the rigor and appropriateness of the analysis, and the results that are critically important for any field of knowledge. The structure of the paper, language, format, and style can always be improved. But little can be done if the conceptual structure is shaky, data collection methods and analysis methods do not correspond to each other, and the author focuses only on superficial conclusions.”
Dr. M. Lynne Murphy
senior lecturer in linguistics
University of Sussex, UK
How to choose a publisher?
If you have answered the previous question completely and fully, you will be ready to deal with the next part of the process, which involves finding ways to publish. Most people in the publishing business recommend “hunting” for an appropriate journal – which means you should engage in searching for a journal whose editorial goals match the goals of your work.
Finding the right journal is as important to the publication process as having a good article idea. Many editors claim that a large percentage of article rejections occur not because of poor manuscript quality, but because they do not match the journal’s objectives. The sooner you address this issue, the better.
There are two main points to consider:
- What journals exist in my subject area?
- How can I best achieve my publication goal?
You can find the answer to the first question in many ways – through discussions with colleagues, checking online journal lists, and also asking your professional association (Association of Agricultural Economists, Animal Husbandry Development Association, etc.). Regarding the second question – see below.
Preparing a draft
Write the manuscript at any level of English you possess – this will be better than writing in your native language and then translating. Don’t worry too much about grammar, spelling, etc. – this will be corrected later; you should have a separate stage for developing the project content as a separate, editing stage.
Monitoring your journal and others with similar themes will help you greatly. Look at examples of articles, their composition, content, expressions, nuances of English idiom usage, etc.
“My general advice to a non-English speaking author is as follows – they should read many high-quality specialized journals and take note of how experienced authors use the work of others, support arguments and develop research methods, pick up the writing style, their expressions. Be concise and avoid complex phrases.”
Dr. David Parker
editor
Queensland, Australia
“When preparing to write an article, analyze how works in the same subject area are written and try to imitate the style and manner of writing.”
Simon Linacre
publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
As soon as you have a draft article with an idea worthy of attention, even if the English language requires significant refinement, it already has the potential to be published.
When to contact the editor?
Before officially engaging in promoting the article for publication, you should always establish contact with the editor, or someone from the editorial board, and ask them to read the draft to get an initial opinion on its chances of being published before you engage in such a complex and time-consuming matter as polishing the English language of the article.
However, before this stage is reached, it is important that the essence of the article is clear enough for the editor, even if the work is in broken English.
“Most editors prefer to give an early draft of an article for initial reading and comments to the author before official submission – it is much better to do this with a promise to ‘clean up’ the poor English than to submit such an article later, as it will be immediately rejected. But keep in mind that editors will not want to struggle with an entire article written in poor English, so the draft should be shortened to a few pages, giving only the main idea and showing your personal style.”
Simon Linacre
publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
It is in your urgent interest to check whether your article has the correct structure, whether there is a cutting-edge idea or innovative approach before you submit even a draft for informal evaluation to the editor. Consult with colleagues about the article content, and also, if possible, with a native speaker about its presentation.
Resolving article translation issues
You can use the services of publishing editors to verify factual errors in the article. If you are confident in your abilities, or have found a person who agrees to help you, this should be done before submission even for informal evaluation.
Formal publication preparation process
At this stage, your position is somewhat better compared to any other author: you have already chosen your journal, the editor is already familiar with the article, and you are perfectly suited to each other. If the editor believes that your article has potential, they will present it for review to invited, freelance editors. As part of the process, reviewers may offer their own suggestions for improving the English language.
You should pay a lot of attention to references to similar works, monographs, and research. This does not require great knowledge of English, but requires long and meticulous work.
Journal Selection
General criteria for international ranked journals:
- competitive environment – journals publish a small percentage of the best articles;
- participation in rankings – ensures a competitive environment;
- free publication (symbolic fee for high-ranking journals) – ranked journals make profit from journal sales, not from authors’ money. If you are offered to pay for publication, be careful, do research through Google;
- double-blind peer review – reviewers have absolutely no information about the author or even the number of authors. The author does not know and will never learn the names of the reviewers.
Rankings and indices. For natural sciences: SCImago, Scopus.
For economic sciences: RePEc Journal Ranking, EconLit, AgEcon Search, Kelee List, Handelsblatt Ranking.
The higher the ranking – the higher the publication requirements and the lower the probability of being published. As a rule, choosing a journal appropriate to the publication level is achieved after rejection for publication in another journal.
Article Preparation
Focus on impact/consequences/results – after reading the abstract, the editor-in-chief asks the question: So what? If the consequences of applying the research results are truly significant, then they become interested in publication.
Structure – each journal has its own requirements for article structure and formatting. These requirements differ significantly from VAK requirements.
Time – writing an article for a ranked journal takes much more time than a standard article for a VAK journal. Reviewers demand perfection, and the revision process can take a colossal amount of time and last several years. Writing one of the articles took the author of these recommendations more than 2000 hours (9 months).
English language – the more significant the scientific discovery, the less attention reviewers and editors pay to language. For natural sciences, language use can be symbolic. Results can be adequately presented mathematically, in tables and graphs. For humanities, language requirements are quite high, proofreading is necessary. However, there are journals in the lower rankings that allow some language deficiencies.
Motivation
Motivation is a personal matter for each author, but you need a lot of it to invest a ton of time in something whose success is not guaranteed. Here it is necessary to kill two, or better several birds with one stone. For a young scientist, motivation can be as follows:
- participation in grants and various international programs;
- bringing research results to a level that can be used in domestic or foreign commercial sphere as new technology;
- protecting intellectual property rights of potentially profitable inventions;
- having a sufficient number of publications in ranked journals opens additional opportunities for professional development;
- last but important – satisfaction of personal ambitions.
Tarasov Arthur, PhD student at MNAU
- Tarasov A. Impact of interest rates on the decision to insure in agricultural production / Arthur Tarasov // Studies in Agricultural Economics. — 2013. — № 115.
- Tarasov A. Coherent quantitative analysis of risk in agribusiness: case of Ukraine / Arthur Tarasov // Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics. — 2011. — Vol. III, № 4. — P. 23—29.
APA Style (American Psychological Association (APA) Style) is a widely used form of academic work formatting in the social sciences of Western Europe and the USA, developed by the American Psychological Association. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association contains recommendations for article organization, especially on psychology and other social sciences topics, as well as recommendations for citation formatting, footnotes, tables, fonts, and overall article structure.
A work written in accordance with APA recommendations contains:
- Title page
- Abstract
- Main body
- References
- Conclusion
- Footnotes
- Each table on a separate page
- Each graph on a separate page
Additional information:
Important: additional information regarding general conditions and recommendations for publication can be found in the book Scientific communication and e-learning, written in collaboration with Prof. S. Chorny, A. Drobitko and N. Sirenko. This book can be obtained from the library of Mykolaiv National Agrarian University.
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- Emerald Press
- Cambridge University Press
- Oxford University Press
- Elsevier Press
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