How to Turn Phd Thesis Into an Article?
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How to turn PhD thesis into an article? Presented by Ozge Sertdemir [email protected] AGENDA o What is a journal article? o Differences of journal article from thesis o Identifying the right journal o Typical Journal Article Structure o How to build your article o Tips WHAT IS A JOURNAL ARTICLE? | 4 What is a Journal Article? Many first-time authors use the research conducted as a part of their PhD as a basis of for a journal article While this is logical, requirements of a journal article significantly differ from those of a thesis Journal articles focus on a specific research written by experts and other professionals and usually scholarly and peer reviewed | 5 Different Audience, Different Standards ▪ Dissertation committees assess whether a student’s work has fulfilled program outcomes and requirements, not whether it’s ready for publication or even widespread release. ▪ Dissertation review certifies the student’s capabilities within the context of the discipline and the institution. (Hawkins AR, et al, The Journal of Academic Librarianship) Editors and reviewers of peer-reviewed journals are experts in their fields and well versed in scholarly communication. Their task is to assess whether papers and projects further the knowledge and thus should be published! | 6 Differences between Thesis and Article THESIS ARTICLE • Meets academic requirements • Meets journal requirements • Reviewed by selected committee members • Reviewed by panel of blind reviewers • Chapters • Sections • Lengthy, no word limits • Word limits • Table of Contents • Manuscript format • Lengthy research of literature • Succinct research of literature • Institutional Review Board approval • Institutional Review Board described described in detail in 1-3 sentences • Description and copies of tools used • Essential and succinct tool • All findings presented information • Verb tenses vary • Selected findings presented • Verb tenses are consistent | 7 Peer – Review Process The editorial process selects suitable articles for publication and publishes papers in one standard format. The key step is the peer-review process: ▪ Essential filter to separate science from speculation and to determine scientific quality ▪ Peer review helps • determine the validity, significance and originality of research, • improve the quality of papers, • Protect the author’s work and claim to authorship ▪ Publishers have ensured the sustainability of journals and the peer-review system for over 300 years.They stand outside the academic process and are not prone to prejudice or favor. IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT JOURNAL | 9 Journal Structure JOURNAL PEOPLE AIMS AND QUALITY OPEN SCOPE ACCESS • Editor Must be checked Checking Metrics Check if it is open • Editorial/ carefully before • Impact factor access or based on Advisory Board submitting the • CiteScore subscription • • Publisher manuscript SNIP • SJR | 10 1. PEOPLE - Who are the people in a journal? Editor in Chief Editorial Members • appointed by publisher and editors • Responsible for scientific quality • experts in a subfield of the journal • Checks papers and decides which papers get • can be consulted when needed published • sometimes involved in review process • Coordinates the peer-review process • Communicates with authors and reviewers Advisory Board • Defines aim & scope of journal (with publisher) • advises on topics for special issues and review • Advises on strategy and direction of journal papers • Usually professor at esteemed university • advises on strategy and future direction of journal • Often a team of editors • represent authors and readers of the journal | 11 1. PEOPLE - Who are the people in a journal? Publisher • Overall management of journal • Providing the editorial infrastructure (peer-review process) • Arranging the publication of accepted manuscripts • Distribution and promotion of journal to readers/libraries • Tagging and archiving of all published articles • Dealing with ethical and copyright issues • Appointing editors and editorial board | 12 2. AIMS & SCOPE A journal always has an Aims & Scope, a text that describes the goal of the journal: ▪ Subject ▪ Audience ▪ Type of articles ▪ Quality or coverage of field ▪ Association with group Always check the scope of the journal first! Read Guide for Authors and some recent issues carefully to understand whether it is the right match for your paper. Don’t forget: Poor match is a common reason for editors to reject papers before peer review! | 13 3. QUALITY ▪ Several indicators are available to measure the quality of the journal, which assume that the importance of a paper can be assessed by number of citations: ▪ Impact Factor ▪ CiteScore ▪ SJR ▪ SNIP ▪ Always check if the journal is accredited by databases and covered by respected sources such as Scopus When used correctly, research metrics together with qualitative input give a balanced, multi-dimensional view for decision-making. Always use more than one metric before making any decision. | 16 4.Open Access ▪ Most journals are subscription journals, they are purchased by university/library and are only accessible to subscribers. ▪ Currently also ‘open access’ journals are available. Authors (or their funders) pay ‘article process charges ‘ (APC) and the article is freely available. ▪ Gold open access: author pays to publish in journal ▪ Green open access: manuscripts is available through institutional repository. ▪ Most subscription journals offer option to make an article ‘open access’. These are so-called ‘hybrid’ journals. | 17 Finding the Right Journal A very common reason for editors to reject a paper is because the paper is not of interest to their journal Select the right journal by considering: ▪ Aims & Scope (check journal websites and recent articles) ▪ Types of articles (full paper, letter, review paper) ▪ Audience (specialists, multidisciplinary, general) ▪ Recently published papers | 18 Finding the Right Journal • Choose only one journal, as simultaneous submissions are prohibited • Supervisors and colleagues can provide good suggestions • Articles in your reference list will usually lead you directly to the right journals • Better to begin with a checklist: • Is this journal the right fit for my work? • Do you or your colleagues know the journal? • Is the journal accredited by relevant databases? E.g Scopus, PubMed etc • Can you easily identify and contact the publisher? • Do you recognize the editorial board? | 19 Finding the Right Journal • Follow the guide for authors! ▪ All journals have a detailed guide-for-authors which contains precise instructions how to prepare a manuscript ▪ Read carefully and follow the instructions ▪ Pay attention to ▪ Layout and section lengths (stick to word limits) ▪ Nomenclature, abbreviations and spelling ▪ Reference format ▪ Number/type of figures and tables ▪ Statistics ▪ Guidelines to submission | 20 Finding the Right Journal Use Elsevier Journal Finder - www.journalfinder.elsevier.com • Simply insert your title and abstract and select the appropriate field-of-research for the best results. • A shortlist of Elsevier journals is recommended if it has published articles that have a high similarity with the article | 21 Finding the Right Journal Use Scopus Compare Sources Tool • Type your subject area and list all related journals among 23,507 journals in Scopus database from more than 6000 publishers. • Compare journals based on different metrics • Evaluate shortlisted journals more in a detail | 22 Brief Refreshment The largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and features smart tools that allow you track, analyse and visualize scholarly research *Records back to 1788 *Database is updated daily +70 Million Multiple regional *Over 8.000 ‘article in press’ *40 different languages are content types from more than *Over 4.000 active Gold Open Access covered 6.000 publishers and 105 journals are indexed *Automatically generated countries *Additional enhanced metadata,í.e. researcher and affiliation 100% Medline coverage profiles JOURNALS CONFERENCES BOOKS PATENTS* Physical Sciences 23,507 peer-reviewed journals 106K conference 613 book series 27M patents 301 trade journals events Health 8.3M conference 38K volumes Sciences • Full metadata, abstracts and papers From 5 major patent offices cited references (refs post- 166K stand-alone Social - WIPO 1970 only) books Sciences - EPO • Funding data from Mainly Engineering 1.5M items acknowledgements and Computer - USPTO Life • Citations back to 1970 Sciences - JPO Sciences - UK IPO Source: Scopus.com, January 30, 2018 | 23 Publishers Coverage - Scopus covers more than 6.000 publishers worldwide to support your research needs | 24 Subject Coverage - Titles on Scopus are classified under 4 subject clusters and indexed into 27 main subject areas: Life Sciences Physical Sciences 6,809 titles 16% 12,263 titles 28% 25% Social Sciences 31% 10,905 titles Health Sciences 13,819 titles Number of journals in Scopus by subject area by Jan,2018 * Includes active titles. Titles may fall into more than one subject area JOURNAL ARTICLE STRUCTURE | 26 Journal Article Structure Scientific articles all have a precise structure that should be followed: ▪ Title ▪ Authors ▪ Abstract ▪ Main text ▪ Keywords • Introduction • Methods • Results and discussion • Conclusion ▪ Acknowledgements ▪ References ▪ Supplementary material | 27 Journal Article Structure Title, Abstract & Keywords Use Scopus! Conclusion Introduction Methods Results Discussion Databases you can use: Figures / Tables (your data)