“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.

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Emerging themes. A source of inspiration for research

Author Ángel Hernando Gómez – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

Talking about emerging topics and research topics is putting the wound in one of the main parameters that should be taken into account if you want to publish in high impact journals.

The impact index worries the authors, it is always desired to publish in the best positioned journals and, therefore, with a higher impact index, but it also worries the journals because it is the way in which they are classified and placed in a most relevant place in the ranking of their area.

The impact index is obtained through a quotient between the number of manuscripts published in the last two years and the citations received, from journals of the same indexation source, in the same years.

To increase citations, and therefore the impact index, journals have to select emerging themes so they are a direct source when it comes to know where research is moved in a determined area. Also the congresses of the different areas, given their immediacy, are also a forum in which they try to reflect and provide research data on the topics that, at a given time, are current issues.

Taking into account these considerations is why we propose a double track when it comes to locating which are the emerging themes in an area.

First, a search can be made to find which are the journals that, for a certain area, are in quartiles Q1 and Q2, both from WOS and SCOPUS. Once this is done we should review the abstracts and keywords of all the articles published in these journals in the last two years (although it may seem like a huge task, it is not and it is relatively easy to do in a short time). Obviously, if the journals need that their call for papers become of the maximum actuality (in which they make division between monographic and miscellaneous, also the manuscripts that are published in the miscellany part) this is a basic source when determining which are the emerging themes of a particular scientific area. Carrying out this task, before initiating research processes, will allow us to channel these into themes that are more easily published in high-impact journals.

The second complementary source to locate emerging themes are the Congresses, both national and international, that are most important in this area of ​​specialization. The immediacy of the congresses and the “being up to date” that is intended with them, as a source of exchange and advance in research, allows us to know, through the analysis of the themes and symposiums proposed in the last two years, what concerns as a research topic in each area.

The union of these two strategies will allow us to know which are the emerging themes in our research area and, the fact of getting to know it, facilitates us to channel our next researches into current emerging topics that are, in the end, interesting for the journals of high impact in which we intend to publish the manuscripts that inform of our studies and works.

Correspondence with the editors

Author Luis M Romero-Rodríguez – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

One of the most complex issues for authors in the editorial process of a manuscript is to decide when and why to write to the editors of a journal.

Firstly, we must take into account that many editors (and the staff of the publication as assistant editors, monographic coordinators, members of the Scientific Council, technical staff, etc.) often share the activity of the journal with its teaching, administrative, management and researcherer obligations; that is, they are not usually dedicated to this activity full-time and exclusive dedication.

Having understood this, we must take into consideration that correspondence with editors is an EXTRAORDINARY resource. Some key aspects for the correspondence with the editors to be effective and cordial, would be the following:

1. Make sure that what you are going to ask is not answered on the website of the publication: Most of the emails that are received from the authors who have not sent yet the manuscripts are usually about the subject and the scope of the publication, even sending as an annex to the e-mail the draft of the manuscript for the editor to tell the author previously if it “enters” in the lines of the journal. Rarely he or she will get an answer in these cases, because journals should guarantee that the review is transparent and objective, principles that could be compromised if a publisher gives a provisional “approval”. The best way to know if a manuscript is consistent with the subject and the scope of the publication is to read the “About” section in the magazine and more importantly, accessing its publications. In Comunicar Journal, the thematic line is clearly identified in this ad hoc section.
2. The message must be short, concise and direct: If there is any doubt that the publication’s web page does not answer, or if it is necessary to contact the editor for a specific aspect (excessive reviewing time, incidents with the manuscript, among others); a clear and direct message will always be appreciated. Let’s see the following example:

Dear editor.

A cordial greeting. My name is Frank Torres, author of the manuscript “Identities on Instagram: Contemporary Narratives in Journalism Students”, identified with Code 05567 and sent on 10/30/2017. Having spent more than 3 months without an answer about the evaluation process and verifying that on the intranet is still appearing “waiting for assignment”, I would like to ask you, is there any problem with it?

Thank you in advance for your response.

3. Wait a reasonable time for the answer: As we have already pointed out, the editors usually share this activity with others that also require a lot of attention. In this sense, a lapse of one labour / working – is a sufficient period to have an answer. However, keep in mind the holidays and the summer periods of the publisher’s country of residence.
4. In case of co-authorships, check with the author per correspondence (APC): Another one of the problems that often occur in the case of coauthors is that the journal has kept informed about the evaluation process to the author that has declared as APC (Corresponding Author) and sometimes this author has not shared the information with his colleagues. In this way, it is always advised that the author declared as APC could be the one who handles all correspondence with the editor from the same email account with which was registered in the system.
5. Do not put a copy of your message to all members of the publication: Correspondence with the editor should be solely and exclusively to the email address indicated by the journal for these cases. In the case of Comunicar Journal, all inquiries must be made to director@grupocomunicar.com
6. Use the media provided to communicate with the editors: Some manuscript management platforms allow consulting the staff of the journal. In these cases use only external mail when the editor has not answered after a reasonable time.

Taking into account the 6 recommendations in reference, we will present an expository title -more non-limitative- normal cases of correspondence with editors:

   Excess of the limit time declared by the publication for the revision of manuscripts. In the case of Comunicar Journal, the limit for the editorial estimation / editorial rejection does not exceed 30 days, while for the reviewing process, the maximum limit is 150 days (see Code of Ethics).

   Technical failures in the system. Although we must check if it happens to try to access only with our computer, if it is an error of our browser or if it is a temporary error for changes in the web. It is recommended that before reporting these technical problems, wait at least 12 hours.

   Differences with the opinions of the reviewers. Although the manuscript evaluation process is usually only in the hands of the reviewers (to guarantee objectivity, impartiality and transparency), there may be SUSTAINED differences with the opinions of the reviewers. This route is not recommended when all reviewers decide not to publish, but when minor or major changes are requested.

   Questions for questions that are not declared on the website of the magazine.

   Request letters of acceptance of the manuscript or certificates of revision.

* Note 1: In those journals with a large number of works, there are co-editors, coordinators or secretaries in charge of correspondence. Always check before writing to the editor that there is no figure assigned for these tasks.

* Note 2: Special gratitude to Rafael Repiso for some suggestions for this post.

The sources of information and its evaluation

Author Raidell Avello Martínez – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

Source: https://goo.gl/wmVH6T

In a general way it is possible to call “sources of information” to all those resources that serve to meet the informative needs of any person, even if they were not created for this purpose. From the information theory there are also defined as any source of information that can be susceptible of being represented by an analog and / or digital signal.

In the sources you can find information and important data accumulated throughout the history appropriate to an investigation. As is to be expected, the results of our research will also be integrated into these and will be part of the scientific tradition necessary for future research.

The sources of information can be classified taking into account different criteria, although they all have points in common. Among the most used classifications there is one related to the level of information that they contribute:

1. a) Primary sources: are those that contain new and original information obtained as a result of scientific research, among which are: monographs, serials, official documents of public institutions, technical reports, patents, standards, doctoral thesis, minutes of congresses, among others.
2. b) Secondary sources: are those that contain organized and elaborated information, product of the analysis, synthesis and reorganization of primary sources, among which are: dictionaries, encyclopedias, anthologies, directories, yearbooks, bibliographies, catalogs, summaries bulletins, citation indexes or impact indexes, reference works, among others.
3. c) Tertiary sources: are those secondary sources that have been combined with others, among which are: bibliographies of bibliographies or repertoires. Sources can also be classified according to the information they contain: general and specialized sources; or according to its geographical aspect: national or international.

FundRef/Crosscheck/SimilarityCheck/CrossTech

Author Angel Torres Toukoumidis– Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

Crossref is a non-profit organization aimed to improving access, communication and search in the academic community. Currently, the platform contains almost 10,000 members from 114 countries that use the services offered, among the most popular services are Fundref, Crosscheck, Crossmark and Crosstech.

First, Fundref is a database used to provide information about the funding received in the investigations. Specifically, it allows organizations to monitor and follow up on the grants issued, guarantees the particular clauses of the funders, increases the transparency of the results of the financing and proposes visibility to the funding sources. In summary, Fundref acts in a favorable manner with the Research and Development institutions (I+D), giving it an up-to-date record of its investment in publications published on important databases such as Scopus.

International editions, the worldwide visibility of the journals.

Author Ignacio-Aguaded – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

We are in a global universe, today science has no borders and except for the idiomatic, surpassed with the English lingua franca, investigations move around the world with a fluency previously unsuspected.

World-first level scientific journals have as a basic principle their international vocation in their subjects, their approaches, the origin of their authors and readers, their languages ​​(especially English) … Their scientific community is global, even analyzing local samples, their approach is always universal.

In this sense, an explicit quality criteria that readers and authors must value when selecting their focus journals is the international projection of the publication, with clear indications of overcoming the geographical and even linguistic and cultural borders that in Social Sciences have been so preponderant.

The large databases of international prestige (WoS and Scopus) are very aware of this international factor that usually generates greater impact in its main indexers (Journal Citation Reports in WoS and SJR and CiteScore in Scopus), although the nordic, technical and anglophone bias is more than palpable, among other reasons because of the infrastructure itself of science and the unproportional distribution of the scientific community in the world. The countries of the North, the English language and the technical-exact disciplines have an overwhelming with the international presence that can only be overcome with internationalization and other languages ​​(such as Spanish and Chinese), the promotion of the Humanities and Social Sciences as maximums exponents of science that join the circuit of scientific journals and finally to “empower” the South as a subject of science, with the training of researchers and scientific endowments.

The scientific journals of first level are always publications with a deep and constant international vocation and a worldwide visibility.

All the possible readings. Formats and appearance

Author Mª Amor Pérez-Rodríguez– Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

The edition of scientific journals in digital format multiplies the possibilities of reading, diffusion and visibility of the same and, consequently, of the works that are published in them. Together with the care of quality of the contents, the formats, the presentation and promotion are basic aspects for a scientific publication to increase its visibility and impact. The commitment to, in addition to getting faster and systematizing the entire editorial process, offering a friendly and accessible format, allows the magazine to be known and become relevant. For all of this it is very important to facilitate more reading modes.

Comunicar has opted for the versatility offered by the emerging technologies and their digitization, both in the editorial issue and in the diffussion. In this way, the adjustment of the formats has been strengthened in line with the new modes of reading and communication provided by the web, the incorporation of the OJS3 platform for editorial management and the diffusion process through the strategic use of social networks.

RefWorks vs. EndNote

Author Águeda Delgado-Ponce– Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

In a previous post we reflected on the characteristics and advantages of using reference managers in the research, without concreting on anyone. In the present, we intend to address the particularities and differences of two managers really used by the scientific community: Refworks and Endnote.

Refworks is the main tool contracted by the Universities for the creation of databases and personal library of the users. It requires therefore, belonging to a university and a previous registration. This way, you will have your bibliography accessible through the Web being able to: