Getting Published The Journal Publisher Perspective LSE Academic Publishing Office Seminar Series

1. Getting PublishedThe Journal Publisher PerspectiveLSE Academic Publishing Office Seminar Series David Nicholson, Journals Publishing Director Wiley-Blackwell Life Sciences 12th May 2010

2. Some data on journals • Ulrich’s Global Serials Directory, filtered on “refereed”, “active”, “academic/scholarly”, Subject = “Economics” • 1941 titles (estimated as double the pre-1991 number) • 594 USA and 618 UK • Directory of Open Access Journals • 31 titles 2002, 4,901 in 2010, 103 titles in “Economics” • SCImago, global article output, “Economics, Econometrics and Finance” • 1996, 9,107 citable documents • 2008 , 19,423 citable documents • SCImago. (2007). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank.Retrieved May 07, 2010, from http://www.scimagojr.com • Growth of c.6.5% over the period (vs 3-4% across all subjects)

3. Authors: why do they publish? • Registration – establish your ownership and priority • Certification – acknowledgement of the quality of the work through publication in a specific journal • Dissemination – inform your peer group (and others) • Archiving– provide a permanent record of your work – “the minutes of science” And… • Designation – publication record is important • “Why hasn’t scientific publishing been disrupted already” , Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen, 4th January 2010, http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2010/01/04/why-hasnt-scientific-publishing-been-disrupted-already/

4. Authors: where do they publish? Roger C. Schonfeld and Ross Housewright,Faculty Survey 2009:Strategic Insights for Librarians, Publishers, and Societies http://www.ithaka.org/

5. Some recommendations from Editors • Familiarity with the relevant literature, and esp. that portion appearing in your target journal; • Genuine contribution to make to this literature - either methodologically or empirically - and preferably both, such that readers will learn something useful from understanding your contribution; • Tell a coherent story - linking 'theory' about how we expect or surmise that the world will behave to the methods for exploring the implications for what we observe and the techniques for testing whether what we observe is consistent with our theory. Only then will you be able to draw convincing conclusions and make reliable inferences. • Prof. David R. Harvey, The University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Journal of Agricultural Economics

6. Some recommendations from Editors • Take time to consider the typical content and  style of the journal where you are plan to submit.  There is little point submitting a brilliant article to the "wrong" journal; • Make life easier for editors and referees.  A clear "story", well written introduction and conclusion , properly organised references, tables, graphics, web-support materials and so on will not turn poor research into a good article. But, if you do not give attention to these things, you  can alienate the very people you need to have on your side; • Even though you have just completed a brilliant (= prize-winning) thesis, just hacking out a chunk of this does not automatically make a good journal article.  There is no substitute for a well crafted article. • Professor F. A. Cowell, London School of Economics and Political Science and Economica

7. The importance of being ethical • Ethical problems such as author disputes, plagiarism, falsification of data etc appear to be increasing • They absorb an enormous amount of time – publishers, editors, referees, authors • Technology (and expertise) such as CrossCheck is being deployed by editorial offices and publishers • Resources exist to help guide all stakeholders e.g. Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: A Publisher's Perspective http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-352309.html

8. Thank you David.nicholson@wiley.com