Transcript personal perspective

How to publish a (world class) paper ?
Editor / reviewer’s perspective
Maurits van Tulder
Prof. Health Technology Assessment
Department of Health Sciences &
EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research
Vrije University, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO PUBLISH A (WORLD CLASS) PAPER ?
• Personal perspective
• Reviewer’s perspective
• How to become a reviewer ?
• How to write a good review ?
• Editor’s perspective
• How to select the best and most relevant articles ?
• How to satisfy authors, reviewers, and the publisher ?
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
• How to publish a world class paper ?
• How to publish a paper of a world class study ?
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
• Expertise: back and neck pain; epidemiology, HTA
• (Co-)author of > 360 publications in international peer
reviewed journals
• Reviewer for many journals
• Deputy editor for European Spine Journal 2010-2015
• Co-editor Cochrane Back and Neck Group 2006 - present
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
• Publication overload
• Peer review system under pressure
• Open access increases challenges
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
JOURNALS: DESPERATELY SEEKING ARTICLES
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
JOURNALS: DESPERATELY SEEKING ARTICLES
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
JOURNALS: DESPERATELY SEEKING ARTICLES
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
JOURNALS: DESPERATELY SEEKING ARTICLES
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
JOURNALS: DESPERATELY SEEKING ARTICLES
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
• Publication overload
• How to identify valid, reliable articles ?
• Peer review system under pressure
• How to get good review(er)s ?
• Open access increases challenges
• How to stop the increasing number of publications ?
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
• Publication overload
• Peer review system under pressure
• Open access increases challenges
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO PUBLISH A (WORLD CLASS) PAPER ?
Reviewer’s perspective
•How to become a reviewer ?
•How to write a good review ?
Editor’s perspective
•How to select the best and most relevant articles ?
•How to satisfy authors, reviewers, and the publisher ?
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO BECOME A REVIEWER ?
[disclaimer: this is based on my personal experience/opinion]
•Publish article(s)
•Ask your supervisor to ‘forward’ a review request
•Accept only when you will be able to meet the deadline
•Carefully review the article
•Write the review
•Discuss it with your supervisor
•Write final version
•Submit the review
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW
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Carefully read the article
Write out ‘general comments’
Write out ‘specific comments’
Give constructive comments and suggestions
Carefully check the review
Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW
• ‘General comments’
• Well written and easy to understand
• Clear description of methods and results
• Validity of the methods
• Adequate use of references/literature
• Conclusion supported by results
• ‘Specific comments’
• Minor errors: style, language, typos
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW
• Constructive comments and suggestions
• “This paper is poorly written” OR “This article would
benefit from a close editing”
• “The discussion section is inadequate” OR “The
discussion could be enlarged by including a description of
the strengths and limitations”
• “The conclusion is wrong” OR “The conclusion could
better reflect the results of the study”
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW
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Do you have time ?
Do you have relevant expertise ?
Take it seriously
Don’t take it personally (avoid bias / COI)
Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW
• Check whether it falls within your scope of expertise
• Take it seriously
• Don’t take it personally (avoid bias)
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO PUBLISH A WORLD CLASS PAPER ?
Reviewer’s perspective
•How to become a reviewer ?
•How to write a good review ?
Editor’s perspective
•How to select the best and most relevant articles ?
•How to maintain a high quality peer review process ?
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO SELECT THE BEST AND MOST RELEVANT
ARTICLES ?
Personal experience as deputy editor of the European Spine
Journal
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
How to publish a world class paper ?
Editor’s perspective
Key facts important for journals discussed at editorial board
meetings:
• Number of articles submitted
• Acceptance/rejection rate
• Review time
• Publication time
• Subscriptions
• Downloads
• Citations
• Impact factor
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ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION RATES (%)
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REVIEW TURNAROUND TIME
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
SUCCESSFUL TEXT DOWNLOADS
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
SUCCESSFUL TEXT DOWNLOADS
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CITATIONS AND IMPACT FACTOR
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
MOST CITED PAPERS
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MOST CITED PAPERS
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IMPROVING THE REVIEW PROCESS
• Monitor activities of reviewers
• Number of reviews
• Time for review process
• Quality of review (scale 1-5)
• Replace poor reviewers
• Identify new reviewers
• Introduce ‘open’ review process
• Awards
• Reviewer of the month
• Reviewer of the year
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
REVIEWER OF THE MONTH AWARD
“Few days ago I received the European Spine Journal
Reviewer of the Month Award. I feel deeply proud and
grateful of this recognition. I have been reviewer for
European Spine Journal for the last 5 years and have
completed roughly 150 reviews in this period.
You might find of interest that I did not become Reviewer of
the Month just by chance. In fact, the reading of the ESJ
Editorial "The ESJ ‘Reviewer Award’” inspired me...”
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
REVIEWER OF THE MONTH AWARD
“… The award was presented along with the parameters that
the Journal measures to evaluate candidates: “number of
revisions made per month; average number of days to
answer and complete a revision request; percentage of
accepted revision on the total requests; quality of the
reviews. Thus, I challenged myself to win the award.
Interestingly, the method to win the Award includes some
actions that make of me a better reviewer for the Journal
and the Authors and that make my work as a reviewer much
more …rewarding!”
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
HOW TO PUBLISH A (WORLD CLASS) PAPER ?
• Researcher’s perspective
• Conduct excellent studies
• Reviewer’s perspective
• Write a good review
• Carefully read article
• Give constructive comments and suggestions
• Editor’s perspective
• Select articles that are likely to be cited
• Keep publication time short
• Monitor quality of reviewers and review process
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen
THANK YOU !
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Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen