How To Get Your Work Published, a lecture to postgraduate medical trainees

Prof. Dr. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (then director of the Kurdistan Board of Neurology Sulaymaniyah) gave a lecture to postgraduate trainees on how to publish their research. Part of a workshop.

1. How To Get Your Work Published? Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin MRCP(UK), MRCP(Ireland), FRCP(Edin), FRCP( Glasg ), FRCP(Ire), FRCP(Lond), FACP, FAHA, FCCP, FRSA Consultant neurologist and Associate Professor of Neurology

2. Who Can Publish? Anyone: Medical student Intern General practitioner Specialist/Consultant Academic faculty member

3. Why Publish? Add knowledge to your field Career progression Job requirement General interest See your name in prints and websites

4. What Do You Intend to Publish Research article (also called original article) Review or mini-review article Meta-analysis Case report or case series Images in… Short commination Letter to the editor

5. Where to Publish? We have 1000s of journals, publishers, and websites: Legitimate or predatory (fake) Subject of interest (general or specialty journal) Impact factor Indexation: Indexed (PubMed, SCOPUS, Embase, EBSCO…etc.) or not? Time from submission to decision to publication Local/national/international

6. Legitimate Vs. Predatory A genuine journal/publisher: Has a robust, scientific, and trustworthy reviewing process Time from submission to decision: 1-3 months Time from decision to publishing: 2-3 months May or may not be indexed in genuine repository indexing archives (PubMed, SCOPUS, Embase ,…etc.) May or may not have an impact factor May or may not charge authors certain fees (open-access model) Print, online, or both

7. Legitimate Vs. Predatory A predatory journal: False address: California, London, Paris,…etc. Fake editorial team: No reviewing process at all Run by one or 2 persons, almost always online-only Usually their title uses the terms “International, American, Global,…etc.) Targeted by “desperate authors” Publishes and accepts anything: false/pseudo-science Uses fake metrics/factors: such as PiF 2.2 Untrustworthy/distracting indexation: Google, Copernicus Always charges fees: $100 to maybe $2000

8. What is an Impact Factor? Provides a measure of how frequently papers published in a journal are cited in the scientific literature. Calculated as the average number of times an article published in the journal in previous 2 years has been cited in all scientific literature in the current year. Journals with impact factors above 4 tend to be regarded as having a high impact factor, and those above 10 are stellar Example: The New England Journal of Medicine had an impact factor of 79.258 in 2017 Most journals have impact factors that are below 2 .

9. Authors’ Guidelines: Each journal has a clear-cut list of authors’ guidelines How to prepare your manuscript Authorship criteria Parts of the manuscript: abstract, methods, results, discussion, etc. Word count: e.g., no more than 2000 Referencing style and number of references Figures and tables: quality, DPI, number of them Signed consent, copyright transfer form, cover letter,…etc.

10. After Submission? Editorial assistant: checks out the manuscript Consistent wit the author’s guidelines? YES NO Resend back to author(s) for corrections Send for review (2-3 reviewers)

11. Outcome After Review? The article will be returned to the author with no further consideration The manuscript will be re-reviewed by the reviewers after major corrections The manuscript will be re-reviewed by the editor-in-chief after minor corrections The reviewers accept the manuscript: no revision is needed

12. Minor or Major Revision? You should address all the reviewers’ comments, point-to-point Change your manuscript, accordingly Don’t argue with the reviewers! Re-send your manuscript once again Up to 3 reviewing rounds are attempted

13. After Acceptance? You will get a letter stating that your article has been accepted for publication After then, you will receive a “proof-copy” to review before publishing the article. Review and approve. Sometime your article will be published online immediately: “ahead-of-print” Remember, a legitimate journal may take 3-6 months, and even more than 1 year, to publish your article

14. Beall’s List of Predatory Journals https://beallslist.weebly.com/

15. 10 Tips! Well designed study, highlighted results, thorough discussion Language: grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, heading and subheading Choose a legitimate journal/publisher Scope of the journal, its impact factor, readership Read well the “author guidelines”: how to prepare and send your manuscript

16. 10 Tips! Address all the reviewer’s comments: respond well, don’t ignore them After acceptance: read the proof-copy well If rejected: live well! Resend to another journal Time factor: preparation, submission, decision, publication Quality, not the quantity, matters!

17. Good luck!