RULE OF THE WEEK
Preprints and Unpublished Work: What Belongs in Your Reference List.
The line journals draw between the reference list and an in-text mention, why a submitted paper is not a citation, and how a DOI moves a preprint across it.
Blog.
73 entries
JOURNAL SELECTION
From Conference Paper to Journal: Picking a Venue for the Extension.
The extension question is a venue question. Pick the journal first, because the journal sets how much you must add and how you must credit the conference paper.
RULE OF THE WEEK
When journals require an ORCID iD, and who has to have one.
The corresponding author almost always needs one now. A smaller set of publishers require an iD from everyone on the paper, and you want to know which before deadline day.
REVIEWER RESPONSE
When a Reviewer Asks for Experiments You Cannot Do.
You rarely control the budget or equipment a reviewer assumes. Sort the request by what it does to your claim, and offer the substitute an editor can accept.
JOURNAL SELECTION
Special Issues: When They Help and When They Are a Trap.
A special issue can mean a receptive editor and a faster route, or a quality shortcut that hurts you later. Here is how to tell the two apart before you accept.
REVIEWER RESPONSE
What Editors Actually Read in Your Response to Reviewers.
Editors skim your response before they read it closely. Reverse-engineer that first pass so your revision clears it: what they check, what they trust, and what sends the paper back out.
RULE OF THE WEEK
The footnote ban: where journals want that text to go instead.
The footnote is a humanities habit, and many science templates have no slot for it. Where an aside, a citation, a permission note, and a funding remark each belong once footnotes are prohibited.
JOURNAL SELECTION
How long does journal peer review take? Estimate the turnaround first.
A first decision often takes three weeks to three months, and full acceptance much longer. Here is how to read a journal's pace before you commit your paper to it.
DESK REJECT FILES
Yes, your title can trigger a desk rejection.
A desk editor reads your title before anything else. It can trip a compliance cap or raise scope doubts that close the review before it starts.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Heading levels: PLOS ONE allows three, Frontiers allows five.
Heading depth is a journal-specific rule, not a matter of taste. The real numbers at PLOS ONE and Frontiers in Neurology, and three ways to flatten a four-level outline without losing the argument.
SUBMISSION KIT
How to write journal highlights: 85 characters, results first.
An editor may read your highlights before your abstract. Three to five bullets, 85 characters each, one finding per bullet, results ahead of methods.
REVIEWER RESPONSE
When a Reviewer Asks You to Cite Their Own Papers.
Not every self-citation request is abuse, and not every one is safe to refuse in silence. Here is how to tell coercion from a fair suggestion, and what to do about each.