“School of Authors” is a website from Comunicar, Scientific Journal in Education and Communication, indexed in main international data bases, that complements other websites in Spanish, English and Portuguese. “School of Authors” is written and edited, basically, by the Editorial Board of “Comunicar” and it aims to offer different sources, for manuscript submissions in scientific journals in a planned and strategic manner. It is intended to make authors think about scientific information management for publishing scientific manuscripts in high impact journals.

The importance of the languages of scientific publications

The visibility and impact of scientific publications is not only guaranteed by the reputation of the institution that hosts them, the editorial companies that support them or their location within the different indexations and international rankings. These are undoubtedly an important indicator, although they do not guarantee even though their originals are accessible to the entire scientific community.

A publication that is only available in one language (Spanish, French, German, Russian …) will only be understandable for the academic community with sufficient language skills in that language. For example, according to Thomson Reuters®, only 6% of researchers worldwide publish articles in Spanish, less than 1% in Arabic, compared to 79% in English.

Policy of reviewers

Scientific journals of international prestige have as their maxims the rigor, punctuality and transparency of all their processes, so that they generate confidence in the scientific community that has access to the studies and research that are published, as well as the researchers who decide to present their work on them.

All scientific journals already have “norms for authors” which, contrary to popular opinion, are more valuable the more standardized they are and the less “singularities” they generate for authors who travel from one publication to another. High-level scientific journals share common standards that make it easier for authors and readers to understand their manuscripts. Rather than curtailing, it is a question of not wasting researchers’ time on formal issues and really focusing on the novel and original contributions that the works must necessarily contain in this type of journals.

Rates of acceptance and rejection

Rates of acceptance and rejection are expressed in percentages and reflect the relationship between the number of articles submitted to a journal and those that are finally accepted. These rates are an indicator that must be taken into account when selecting the journal in which to publish our work, especially if our contribution is of high quality and is willing to compete with the best studies and research. For this reason, the journals with high rejection rates should not be avoided since they represent, without a doubt, the most prestigious and excellent publications. High-impact publications are, of course, the ones that receive the most work because every prestigious researcher wants to disseminate their work in the journals with the highest visibility, diffusion and impact in the scientific community and which are therefore the most recognized by the research accreditation agencies in all countries.

Importance of expressing study limitations

Expressing the limitations of the study is a task that many times, especially by novice researchers, tend to be avoided. Many think that the limitations detract from the research carried out over a long time and a lot of effort. However, it is quite the opposite, expressing the limitations of a study gives more validity and rigor to the research process developed.

When the authors explain and comment on the limitations of their study, they show greater mastery of the characteristics of the population or phenomenon evaluated, the methodology and instruments applied, the scope of the results obtained and the theoretical and investigative body that are part of the antecedents of The research carried out, that is, that far from demerit the findings obtained gives them added value of rigor and validity.

Ensure an anonymous document

We have already talked in this blog about the process of reviewing the manuscripts, in which scientific peer reviewers should evaluate the content of the submitted manuscripts, taking into account the quality of the research and whole fulfillment with the publication regulations.

As a general rule in high-level social science journals, reviewers are usually “double-blind”, that is, that neither the author should recognize those who review their contributions, nor should the reviewers know who is the author. This system, besides being a guarantee of a greater objectivity of the revision process, also affects the transparency of the scientific activity ergo of the publication.

Being the transparency, impartiality and objectivity the north to which every scientific publication should aspire, authors are required to anonymize their contributions. In this way, the rules must require at least two types of anonymisation: the textual data and the metadata of the document.

WOS and SCOPUS: The great allies of every researcher

The multiplication of channels, index, metrics, publications and impacts needs, as in other areas where information is also multiplied, an appropriate literacy that leads to the researcher in their different roles: author, researcher and professor. It is a field in which the researcher must have knowledge to plan his or her strategy and to guide rightly its scientific production, knowing and giving to know the outcome of his or her investigation.

TO KNOW

It is essential for any researcher to know the main databases where to consult and access to the best scientific work and also where to spread it. Lets know the most relevant databases not only about research but also about diffusion of research: Web of Science and Scopus.