How to Get Your Paper Published in Heredity

1. How to Get Your Paper Published in Heredity Presented by Managing Editor, Professor Roger K Butlinand Publishing Manager, Rebecca Vickerstaff www.nature.com/hdy

2. Heredity is an official journal of the Genetics Society, and publishes original research in all areas of genetics, with a particular focus on population, evolutionary and quantitative aspects, animal and plant breeding and cytogenetics. Primary research papers are complemented by Reviews covering currently developing areas and News and Commentary articles keeping researchers and students abreast of hot topics. Key Facts • First published in 1947 • High profile editor and supporting editors • 12 issues a year • Print and online publication • Impact Factor 4.569 • Approximately 430 submissions received each year, ~70% rejected • Over 1,300,000 page views to the Heredity website and 650,000 article downloads • Table of Contents alerts are sent to 78,000 registrants • International readership= 46% subscribers are from North America/ 28% are from Europe/ 19% are from ROW and 7% are from Japan • Podcast (http://www.nature.com/hdy/podcast/index.html)

3. Journal scope and content Heredity covers a broad range of topics within the field of genetics and therefore papers must address conceptual or applied issues of interest to the journal's wide readership. The journal particularly encourages submissions in the following areas: • population genetics (including human) • genomics, functional genomics and proteomics • evo-devo • biometrical and statistical genetics • ecological and evolutionary genetics • animal and plant breeding • cytogenetics Heredity's original articles cover new theory and primary empirical research. The journal also publishes regular reviews and news & commentary articles.

4. Open Access Heredity offers authors open access – option to pay a one-off fee To have your final published version made freely available immediately on publication rather rely on readers who have paid subscriptions • Fee is £2,000 (reduced for Genetics Society members) • NPG already complies with major funding agencies but this is a further step forward • Final version automatically deposited into PubMed Central • Choose one of two creative commons licences • Research receives greater visibility 6 papers published open access in 2011 so far – expected growth year on year

5. What are Editors looking for? • Novel or original findings • Credibility • Brevity • Clarity of data and conclusions • Interesting to a broad, international readership • Good standard of English (seek help if necessary) • Compliance with ethical standards and approval by Institutional Review Board if appropriate • Disclosure of possible conflicts of interests by all authors • References complete and up-to-date

6. The peer review process Upon submission your manuscript will follow the following procedure: • The Editor will determine with the help of a board member if the manuscript is suitable for review • Title and Abstract are crucial! • If it is, a Subject Editor is assigned and the reviewer selection procedure begins • The board member receives the reviewer’s comments and then makes a recommendation to the Editor • The Editor will communicate the final decisions • Subject Editors remain anonymous and all disputes are sent to the Editor

7. What do we expect of reviewers? • Your opinion, supported by clear arguments (recommendation and ‘scoring’ are helpful, but less important) • NOT detailed language editing • NOT a précis • DO say what is most interesting, to whom and why • DO identify major issues and make recommendations for improvement • DO list minor scientific issues • DO be constructive and polite! • DO review on time • (it is better to say No quickly than to say Yes and then delay)

8. On acceptance • All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism • Data archiving is mandatory (data-specific repository, e.g. GenBank, or Dryad: datadryad.org) • Colour figures must be paid for…

9. The production process • Accepted manuscripts are passed to the production team • A production editor will ensure your paper meets Heredity’s house style: • Check punctuation, grammar, and consistency of terminology • Check pharmaceutical names and abbreviations • Check references • Figures and tables are formatted and the manuscript is typeset • Reasons for delays to starting work on a paper: • Artwork in wrong format • Licence To Publish form not complete • Open access payment form not received • Page proofs are e-mailed to the corresponding author within 8 weeks of acceptance – corrections to be made to a .pdf version. • Once paper is returned a Document Object Identifier (DOI) number is assigned and paper is ‘queued’ for advanced online publication (AOP).

10. Advanced online publication (AOP) • Your AOP version should appear online within 25 days. It now has a ‘Digital Object Identifier’ (DOI) number and date online and can now be cited. • Your paper is recorded in any relevant databases with which we have agreements as soon as it is published online, ensuring more people see your article over a longer amount of time • The print version of your paper ideally will appear around 3-4 months after acceptance

11. Once published: promotion and visibility • Selected articles are press-released • Electronic table of contents (e-ToC alerts) • Selected articles appear on www.nature.comhomepage and NPG’s community and subject based platforms • All articles are included in key abstracting, indexing and linking services • We also look to cross promote with other relevant NPG titles and across www.nature.com

12. Please submit your article online to Heredity www.nature.com/hdy Any Comments or questions?