Publishing as an Art

In August, I participated in a panel discussion on getting published which had been organized by the Health Care Administration Division of the Academy of Management.  Here's a summary of the advise and suggestions I offered.

Four Audiences for whom you actually write ~

1. The Editor.
The journal editor will check that your submission has adhered to the Instructions for Authors. If the answer is no, you could quickly get a desk reject. The Editor has the responsibility to assure that your submission fits with the mission and audiences of the journal. Again, if the answer is no, your submission will be rejected. To avoid this situation, send a brief (please, brief) note to the editor asking if your idea is a fit. Most editors will reply with useful information. Just don't turn this into a dialogue. Lastly, editors also act as reviewers. They read the articles and will add their critique to that of peer reviewers. They are smart people who know the field, so anticipate that.

2. Reviewers.
Depending on the journal, reviewers will be more or less rigorous in their critique of the work submitted. At the high end of rigor, you can expect to have theory and methods both scrutinized. Reviewers can be unpredictable, so be emotionally prepared for the unexpected.  For example, a reviewer might not like your statistical analysis and ask for a redo using x as a control variable. Or, a reviewer might ding you for not citing his or her work (naturally, you won't know this is happening) or for not being compulsive about the punctuation in the reference list. Lastly, reviewers do rely on the journal mission and submission guidelines to frame their critique. So, again, pay attention to those.

3. Readers.
It might seem odd that the journal readers are listed third, but they will never see your work if it does not get past the editor and the reviewers. Readers want a clear, concise take-away message. They also will not read articles that take effort to read; so, keep the syntax simple, minimize the jargon, and include visual aides that can be readily absorbed.

4. The Publisher.
The publisher of the journal wants a successful, profitable journal. Editors know this and make decisions (sometimes) based on this; hence, the need to select manuscripts that fit with the journal mission. Also, the publisher is in control of the steps that come between getting your accept letter and seeing your manuscript in print and online. Most of the time those publishing processes go smoothly, but glitches can happen which can delay release of your publication.

Do Your Homework
Given these audiences, here's my list of what you need to as homework before submitting your manuscript
a) Remember that your abstract gives the first impression. Make a good impression by having a well-written abstract that follows the Instructions to Authors guidelines.
b) Follow the Instructions to Authors TOTALLY! (Need I say more?)
c) Make sure that your submission is aligned with journal mission and have selected the type of article.
d) Edit. Edit. Edit.  There is nothing more frustrating than finding track changes, misspelled words, or contorted sentences, not to mention bad punctuation.
e) Get feedback on the draft version before submitting and then make changes it based on their comments. If your own colleagues see problems, it's guaranteed that the reviewers will too.
f) You can usually find out how long the process will take from submission to release by reading the Editorial. Most editors and journals will provide that information roughly once a year.

Lastly, as an Editor, here's my list of pet peeves.
* Tables need to carefully done, with attention to the title, formatting, columns, explanations of all abbreviations. Remember that in some article retrieval systems, these will stand alone.
* Don't forget to include the n when showing statistical results. DO NOT copy and paste output into your manuscript. Remember Audience #3, the Readers.  And, do NOT use more decimal points than are meaningful given the n.  What's the meaning of a thousandth of day hospitalized in a sample of 86? Really...
* References must conform completely to the reference style of the journal. Period.

So, that's my notes. I hope these tips have been helpful and reinforced what you probably already know or have been told.  If you have questions, leave a comment.