Debs's blog

When following your manuscript through from submission to publication, there are many different people and several different teams with whom you will come into contact. So who on earth are you supposed to go to if you have a question?!

An email lands in your inbox to let you know that an editorial board meeting is on the horizon and the Editors want to see a report on submissions. And guess who has the joy of putting that together? Oh yes, it’s you.

Reviewer selection is arguably the most important part of an Academic Editor’s job; without good reviewers, the whole peer review process grinds to a halt. So, if you are a good reviewer, I would like to take this opportunity to say, on behalf of editors and authors everywhere: Thank You!

Absolutely everything is done online these days and peer review is no different. If you’ve ever written a journal article, or been asked to review one, then you will no doubt be familiar with online submission systems.

If you were lucky enough to be at the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors 2017 European Conference back in November, then you may have had the opportunity to take a look at “The Peer Review Game” created by Tom Gaston.

No, we’re not talking Shakespeare here (that’s another topic for another day – and, for that matter, another blog). We’re talking about the surprisingly contentious issue of who gets to be listed as an author on an academic paper.

There is something of an air of mystery as to what actually happens to your manuscript once you’ve pressed that “submit” button. It seemingly goes off into cyberspace and you are left playing the waiting game.

If you work in academia, you’re bound to be familiar with Impact Factors. You’ll probably know that “good journals” have an Impact Factor, and you may know that “really good journals” have a high Impact Factor. But do you know how Impact Factors are calculated? Or how journals are ranked? In short, do you know what an Impact Factor actually is?

One question that us peer review administrators get asked more than any other is “how long will the peer review take?”. Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer to this – you might as well be asking us how long a piece of string is.

You’ve finished your project and written your paper. You’ve researched the best journals in the subject area and know exactly which one you want to publish in. You go through the submission process, take a deep breath, cross everything, and hit that “submit” button.