How to get published in Science

Yesterday, I joined a lecture titled "How to get published in Science", by Anthony Newman who's a chief editor (probably) in Elsevier Amsterdam. He gave us a very clear presentation about the whole procedure of publishing scientific paper. But he spoke really first, I can only wrote down the key points of his speech. Let's start.

What to Publish?
   New & original results or methods!

Before you start

•    Is your research new and interesting?
•    Is your research on a hot topic?
•    Is your work providing solutions to some difficult problems?
•    Are you ready to publish? ( I didn't write down what you should prepare before to publish)

What type of manuscript?

• Full letters: completed pieces of research
• Letters:  quick and early
• Review paper:  usually invited 

Identify the audience

Select the best journal for submission    review recent publications to find out the hot topic

• look at your references. (find out which journal they published)
• Is the journal peer-viewed?
• Who are the audience of the journal? Do they match to the your audience?
• Average time to print (too slow you may lose to your competitor)
• Impact Factor (IF): measurement of quality 

Problems frequently faced by publishers

• out of scope
• Do not follow "guide of authors"
• Wrong (or No) suggested reviewers
• ...

What's a good manuscript?

• Clear, useful, exciting scientific message: your words should not be creative, but concise and clear.

General Structure of a full article

• Title
• Author
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Main text

The writing sequence: write backwards

• 1.figures and tables
• 2.methods, results & discussion 
• 3.introduction
• 4.abstract

           where is conclusion?

Details on structure

• Title : informative and concise, avoid jargon and abbreviations
• Abstract: 1.should stand alone, 2.what you did? key finding! and 3. accurate and specific
• keywords: label, should be critical

The introduction:

•  describe the problem
•  provide a perspective consistant with the natural of the journal
•  based publications
  

Pitfalls of the introduction:

• too wordy
• a mixed bag of introduction with results, discussion, etc.
• no words like "novel", "first time",etc.

The method: give the details, but don't give all details about standard methods: use references and supplementary materials


Results:

• Only representative results, essential for the discussion
• Do not "hide" data
• Use sub-headings
• clear & easy to understand
• Appearance counts: un-crowded, scale marker for picture

DISCUSSION: THE MOST IMPORTANT, what you think about your work


Pitfall: 

• go beyond the results
• unspecific expression
• sudden introduction of new terms or idea

Conclusion:

• how your work advances the field from the present state of knowledge
• DO NOT repeat the abstract

Acknowledgements: advisor, financial supporters, proof readers,typists


Reference:

• cite the main scientific publications
• not too many references
• avoid excessive self-citations
• avoid excessive citations of publications from the same region

COVER letter:

• why did you submit the manuscripts to this journal?
• mention special requirements
• accelerate the editorial process of your paper