Professional Way to Publishing
Research Papers by Khurshid Alam
As
authors and research writers you always look for topics on which you want to
create a great paper. Myriad of ideas come to mind. Many of you strive to write
on almost all topics you think of. Soon many authors loose away the ideas. But
a good strategy can help you write great papers, see the papers through
publication to distribution and sharing.
Researching
Conception of idea: As soon as you
conceive an idea, note it down. Write a description how you conceived the idea,
what it is all about, how you would progress on it, which articles or books you
should read for developing your concept and who are the previous authors on
this subject. This will leave you not short of the material, which is the
biggest killer of an idea.
Create
a mini-layout of your article with all the required items such as abstract,
keywords, title of your article, main article, subparts of the article,
annotation, citation, references and bibliography. As you progress you can
expand everything till completion.
Review: No article is finished unless it
is reviewed thoroughly. If you are a researcher with an academic institution,
share your idea with your supervisors since very beginning and seek their
advice. If you are an independent researcher, get it reviewed by a senior or
specialist in the field. Do not bother if the title of your article is same or
closely similar to someone else’s. Your content, presentation, argument, and
annotation must be different to make your paper original.
Get
your article reviewed and proofread by some professional editors or those who
are expert in language even if you think your language is very excellent. Only
a third eye can detect grammatical errors that you might have left.
Howsoever your article is professional, if the language is not of good standard
it can fail you sooner or later.
Register your article: You must protect your
idea. When you are finished with your article, register it with some research
organizations. There are many research organizations that register your
material for free such as Open Researcher & Contributor ID or ORCiD in short. Typically, you can register even the
abstract of your article and get it published with some scholarly journal such
as Contemporary Literary Review India.
If
you have written a creative piece such as a poem, story or a book, register it
with Works Copyright. There are
many other organizations where you can register your creation for a fee also.
Publication
Shun away from certain journals: Publication is a big
step forward to your career. There are a good number of journals around. Do
thorough research which journals publish your kind of material. Do not submit
your material anywhere you come across.
Publishing
on blogs and on own website is not considered genuine publication. Though they
may be good to start with, universities and research departments generally do
not give credit to such platforms. Shun the journals or anthologies which
publish for a fee.
Create a list of professional journals: Create a list of
professional journals, magazines, or anthologies which bring out research
papers in your discipline. Check if they have ISSN number – it is the first
step that gives recognition to your publishing credit –if they are registered
with digital libraries such as Elsevier, ORCiD, Scopus, JSTOR, Electronic
Journals Library and such other entities, and if they have impact factor. Such
factors increase your publishing recognition. However, remember that to get
listed with such entities, a journal has to be in the publishing field for a certain
number of years. A comparatively new journal may not be registered with many
such entities.
With
a new journal, check its editorial policy which is more important than any
other factors. Check the factors whether it has announced its publishing
guidelines, it publishes all the submissions it receives, it publishes for a fee,
it follows any editorial process.
Reading fee versus publishing
charge:
There are journals that ask for a reading fee. But reading fee does not
guarantee publication and it should not. All submissions are not selected even
if you pay a reading fee. Small publication may be asking for a reading fee to
publication cost.
If
all the submissions are selected, it means it charges for publishing and it is
not a reading fee. Such journals do not follow any editorial process. They do
not have a process to check for the authenticity of the submission. Keep away
from such journals even if they have ISSN or recognized by any institutions.
Distribution
Share your publication: Once your creation is
published, your task is not yet over. Apart from what your publishers do for
promoting their publication, you must share your publication on as many
platforms as possible. Post it on your blog or website if you have one, share
it on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or others.
Connect with researchers: Search out researchers
in the same field you are working in. You must discuss on the topic you work
on. Your idea expands and your thought matures with discussion.
Virtual library: Create a virtual
library of your work. There are many such libraries which you can use for
promoting your work. Mendeley is one of
its examples.
