Scientific Research and Publication

[anuragsunda]

Dear all,

I am writing this thread on Jatland to initiate a new discussion on Scientific Research and Publication. I observed in my small career of Scientific research that publishing of research article in an International Journal require certain quality which should meet International Standards. There are some important questions comes in our mind while publishing research work at appropriate place.

With this thread I hope experienced Jatlanders will come with their view and newcomers will get benefited. It may also help other jatlanders who are not directly involved in scientific research to understand the difficulty and mechanism of scientific research and publications.

Few questions before publishing which come in mind of researcher are:
1. Originality of work
2. quality of work and standard
3. Qualitative and quantitative agreement and disagreement with existing literature
4. Research data is compiled and managed properly
5. Interpretation of compiled data and Writing to meet international standards.
6. Selection of a suitable Journal for publishing (Patent/Communication/Article or paper/Advanced Article)
7. Selection of Reviewers
8. Journal format and reference style
9. Author reply to Reviewers comment
10. Proof correction of Accepted work

I would like to discuss all these query in detail. Your views and further relevant query are welcome.

Regards,
Anurag

[Mishti]

All the points that you’ve mentioned are important measures to get a good publication,
your work should be original and first of its kind in your field supported by appropriate experiments providing strong evidence with proper controls,
written in a precise scientific language with first person plural (boring and too complicated for others)
and of course one should better know which journal is best suited for his/her paper and follow the journal’s style of writing.
But what is hidden is a little bit of politics that goes around.
Once in a while you get to see a paper in a high impact factor journal where even a novice can find loop-holes in experimental results or lack of them.
One of the reasons is quid pro quo, you clear mine and I’ll return the favour (many a times you have an idea who is going to be your reviewer) and other times it works the opposite way- good papers being rejected because of rivalry (as from the comments you get an idea who the reviewer was!)
but i think such instances are not very common.

[drkarminder]

obstacles that indian researchers face while going for an international publication:
1. lack of materials and resources required for research and costfactor.
2. too much emphasis to get desired results that give lot of bias in the study
3.lacking the international standard of writing and presentation

sol:
1.never worry for the originality of work,little deviation from a good article can be equally good for publication,take a good article and judge what new can be done in this and u will get ideas with no time. most of the student in india loose their time and energy in originality issues
2. collect and read as much as review articles as possible for ur selected topic ,the more u read more u will know what u actually want and what actually happens.
3. try to learn the style of presentation of a particular journal and the interest of the journal.



what i hv felt during my publications that lack of resources is that most common obstacle in publication,materials required are not easily available in india.

publication in indian journals is quite eazy,if u pay them thay can publish ur articles but for international journals its very tough for publication.

[anuragsunda]

But what is hidden is a little bit of politics that goes around.
Once in a while you get to see a paper in a high impact factor journal where even a novice can find loop-holes in experimental results or lack of them.
One of the reasons is quid pro quo, you clear mine and I’ll return the favour (many a times you have an idea who is going to be your reviewer) and other times it works the opposite way- good papers being rejected because of rivalry (as from the comments you get an idea who the reviewer was!)
but i think such instances are not very common.

Thanks for your view which are very close to my concern to discus here. Three things I have highlighted from your comment here:

1. But what is hidden is a little bit of politics that goes around.
Scientific world is very competitive and every scientist/professor use all his/her weapon/tactics to win the battle. So many things are directly connected to publications like Research Funding, sanctioning of New project grants, Grading and assessment, growth in technical and technological aspects of a scientific group and Institution etc.

2. Impact Factor
I would like to discus it in detail inSection 6 Selection of a suitable Journal for publishingand How it can reflect in Authors future perspective. Its one of a very important point to discus.

3. good papers being rejected because of rivalry
Rejection and Acceptance should not be taken personal. Every rejection or revision will definitely improve the presentation of Authors work. I will discuss it in more detail in Section 9 Author reply to Reviewers comment. I will add a separate discussion on Review process in this section. Its always better that a reviewer find mistakes rather than Audience. Re-correction or withdrawing of published article make very bad impact on Authors/Institution reputation among the Scientific Community.

Thanks with regards
Anurag

[bazardparveen]

Question: Recently, plagiarism cases have been witnessed and some were related to the copying few sentences in the introduction. Isn't writing introduction tough as well as easy task? There is no need to think much about the content of introduction but it is likely that one would repeat sentences from the very papers one reads.

What are the suggestions to avoid plagiarism and for writing an effective introduction?

[Mishti]

Question: Recently, plagiarism cases have been witnessed and some were related to the copying few sentences in the introduction. Isn't writing introduction tough as well as easy task? There is no need to think much about the content of introduction but it is likely that one would repeat sentences from the very papers one reads.

What are the suggestions to avoid plagiarism and writing for an effective introduction?

the only suggestion is not to copy-paste but read, understand and put it in your own words.

[anuragsunda]

obstacles that indian researchers face while going for an international publication:
1. lack of materials and resources required for research and costfactor.
2. too much emphasis to get desired results that give lot of bias in the study
3.lacking the international standard of writing and presentation

sol:
1.never worry for the originality of work,little deviation from a good article can be equally good for publication,take a good article and judge what new can be done in this and u will get ideas with no time. most of the student in india loose their time and energy in originality issues
2. collect and read as much as review articles as possible for ur selected topic ,the more u read more u will know what u actually want and what actually happens.
3. try to learn the style of presentation of a particular journal and the interest of the journal.

Thanks for your participation in discussion. I would like to take your view one by one which will make things more clear to Jatlanders.

1. lack of materials and resources required for research and costfactor.
Every research problem should be designed in such a way that available resources are good enough to reach the goal. Funding is always matter a lot and has to be taken care before start of the work. Pre-management is very much necessary.

2. too much emphasis to get desired results that give lot of bias in the study
Research always lead to convergence but it proceed through divergence. Target has to be wel-defined to address and reach to solution but data cannot be. Each data is important. Even error in data or reasoning should be utilized/analyzed very critically. We can start from something but can end up with something else which can be in between the path of target or close to target. It should not be negotiated.

3.lacking the international standard of writing and presentation
No body has on born knowledge, Its a continuous process of acquiring knowledge. For writing and presentation, i will discuss in detail. But for time being following link can be useful:
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topic...ation-14121566



Let come to sol:

1.never worry for the originality of work,little deviation from a good article can be equally good for publication,take a good article and judge what new can be done in this and u will get ideas with no time. most of the student in india loose their time and energy in originality issues
Its a very serious concern. Originality in work is must. Publishing with Little deviation can lead to disaster. Its not a good practice to do routine work. Its hard to make reputation in scientific community with such kind of poor work. Research is all about investment of time, dedication, concentration, self-confidence. No shortcut for quality work.

2. collect and read as much as review articles as possible for ur selected topic ,the more u read more u will know what u actually want and what actually happens.
Its always recommended. Its good practice in all kinds of education (not only for science) to go through existing literature.

3. try to learn the style of presentation of a particular journal and the interest of the journal.
A good Author should not do it, since there is no style of presentation of a particular journal. Two Journal can differ only in Formatting style and scope of journal. Which I will discus in detail in section 5 and 6. An author should have his own unique style for presentation of his work. Because within a quick time quality presentation get attention.

Thanks with regards,
Anurag

[anuragsunda]

What are the suggestions to avoid plagiarism and writing for an effective introduction?

This has been become a very interesting and hot topic in scientific community for recent time. Let first understand : What is Plagiarism?
I would like to put one example here in this context to know How serious is this concern. Please follow this link....

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/04/eminent-chemist-denies-self-plagiarism-in-space-dinosaurs-paper.html

Writing an effective introduction plays a vital role in review process. I will definitely discus in detail.

Thanks for joining us in discussion.
Regards,
Anurag

[bazardparveen]

This has been become a very interesting and hot topic in scientific community for recent time. Let first understand : What is Plagiarism?
I would like to put one example here in this context to know How serious is this concern. Please follow this link....

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/04/eminent-chemist-denies-self-plagiarism-in-space-dinosaurs-paper.html

Writing an effective introduction plays a vital role in review process. I will definitely discus in detail.

Thanks for joining us in discussion.
Regards,
Anurag

Thanks for starting a thread related to research and for the link as well. Interesting and bit of "scary" reading.

[deshi-jat]

भाई अनुराग
मेरे ख़याल तै माणस नै हालात पै बी थोड़ी गौर करणी चाहिए. अगर उसी टोपिक पै कोए और काम कर रहा हो, तै फेर शायद ज्यादा जरूरी है की पहले छापणा, बेशक कम इम्पैक्ट की पत्रिका हो. जिसने पहले छाप दिया साइटेशन तो उसको ज्यादा मिलणा चाहिए. और फेर उस पत्रिका का सर्कुलेसन कितणा सै, इसका बी किमै तो फर्क होणा चहिये

किसै पर्चे/शोधपत्र का ज्यादा इम्पैक्ट की पत्रिका मै छापणा ज्यादा मायने रखता है या उसको मिलने वाळे साइटेसंस, इसके बारे मै थोडा बताओ

प्रतिद्विन्दिता तै के इतणा फर्क बैठता होगा. वो कहया करै ना कि, "कागला के खोसे तै के ढोर मरै सै". किहे पै शक हो तै, कवर-लैटर मै लिखे कै भेज दो पत्रिका तै कि, फलाणे माणस के साथ कनफ्लिक्ट ऑफ इंटरेस्ट सै, उस धोरे पर्चे नै समीक्षा ताहि ना भेजणा

भाई प्लाग्रिज्म तो बता दिया तने, यो साईंटिफिक मिस-कंडक्ट के बेमारी सै, इसके बारे मे और बताओ

thanks for your view which are very close to my concern to discus here. Three things i have highlighted from your comment here:

1. but what is hidden is a little bit of politics that goes around.
scientific world is very competitive and every scientist/professor use all his/her weapon/tactics to win the battle. So many things are directly connected to publications like research funding, sanctioning of new project grants, grading and assessment, growth in technical and technological aspects of a scientific group and institution etc.2. Impact factori would like to discus it in detail insection 6 selection of a suitable journal for publishingand how it can reflect in authors future perspective. Its one of a very important point to discus.
3. good papers being rejected because of rivalryrejection and acceptance should not be taken personal. Every rejection or revision will definitely improve the presentation of authors work. I will discuss it in more detail in section 9 author reply to reviewers comment. I will add a separate discussion on review process in this section. Its always better that a reviewer find mistakes rather than audience. Re-correction or withdrawing of published article make very bad impact on authors/institution reputation among the scientific community.

thanks with regards
anurag

[drkarminder]

Its a very serious concern. Originality in work is must. Publishing with Little deviation can lead to disaster. Its not a good practice to do routine work. Its hard to make reputation in scientific community with such kind of poor work. Research is all about investment of time, dedication, concentration, self-confidence. No shortcut for quality work.



A good Author should not do it, since there is no style of presentation of a particular journal. Two Journal can differ only in Formatting style and scope of journal. Which I will discus in detail in section 5 and 6. An author should have his own unique style for presentation of his work. Because within a quick time quality presentation get attention.


now this is a very complicated issue..please eloborate ur definition of originality of work,then we will discuss about it.

particular journals have interest in special research for which they are known...even if u will be having a good article and its not in their field of ineterst,they will reject it
secondrly there are differences in professions like i m related to medical field so in my field their are journals which are known for their review articles,journals which are known for case reports and so on,these journals publish other articles also but very few. thts why i mentioned about journals interest.

again as i said professional diferences,what is the procedure of publication in ur field is beyond my knowledge.