Publishing a Review article

[DryEye]

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Does anyone know of a journal which will accept a review article and what the criteria is?

 

[jymezg]

Each journal is different with requirements. Best bet is to find a journal you think would be your article would be most relevant to and seek out their requirements.

 

[DryEye]

Thanks!
My topic is the review of ocular health hazards in occupational settings

 

[qwopty99]

I'm curious too.

 

[blysssful]

Please don't take offense to this, but every decent published primary or review paper I've read (200+ just this semester) the main author or the collaborating authors have some sort of credentials or are affiliated with a university. The exception to that would be those "perspective" articles found in a lot of journals who are sometimes obscure wackos... point being, if you hope to get published, are you working independently of your university? If not, wouldn't your research adviser be able to help you with the publishing process?

Also, anyone feel free to correct me, but I believe that often people who are working on promising research in a field are asked by certain journals to write reviews on their topic. (If this isn't the case, my research prof owes me an explanation for the 3 semesters' worth of research I did to prep him to write a review!)

Out of personal curiosity, what is your research in?

 

[qwopty99]

Bump.

 

[blysssful]

Also, don't you also have to PAY to publish per word/page?

 

[jymezg]

Also, anyone feel free to correct me, but I believe that often people who are working on promising research in a field are asked by certain journals to write reviews on their topic.?

Not always the case. I have a few reviews papers published (first author) that I was instructed to write because my PI thought they were necessary to the field. But you can also be asked to write a review (although you would probably need to be top dawg in your field)

To the OP, as for the journal, unless you were collaborating/working with someone who has some experience you won't make it into a mainstream/prestigious journal. I know I've helped some undergrads prep review articles for various undergraduate research journals. Best bet is to check with your mentor, after giving it a once over he/she should be able to tell ya what you are working with.

 

[jymezg]

Also, don't you also have to PAY to publish per word/page?

I haven't so far. The journals I have submitted to paid that tab (Cerebellum and Virology). Now if you want a copy of that book your published in, its like a couple grand for the series. Unless you pull it off medline/pubmed. 😀

 

[DryEye]

Please don't take offense to this, but every decent published primary or review paper I've read (200+ just this semester) the main author or the collaborating authors have some sort of credentials or are affiliated with a university. The exception to that would be those "perspective" articles found in a lot of journals who are sometimes obscure wackos... point being, if you hope to get published, are you working independently of your university? If not, wouldn't your research adviser be able to help you with the publishing process?

Also, anyone feel free to correct me, but I believe that often people who are working on promising research in a field are asked by certain journals to write reviews on their topic. (If this isn't the case, my research prof owes me an explanation for the 3 semesters' worth of research I did to prep him to write a review!)

Out of personal curiosity, what is your research in?

Actually my supervisor, a MD-PhD, wanted me to research different journals to find out which would take my topic. And she wanted me to find out what the criteria is for certain journals

Basically, I thought maybe some Optometry students, who may have gotten an article published, might be able to give some information.

Of course, I am also finding information on my own...

 

[DryEye]

It all depends what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to publish in Nature or Science (or Journal of Refractive Surgery or Optometry & Vision Science), you need good material. The issue doesn't really come down to having a faculty appointment or university affiliation, but it's typically only those that do who are undertaking "meaningful" research/work.

You are correct in that many of the top journals ask selected experts to write review articles.

If his goal is to just get his name in print, there are many avenues for that. Most typical print "CE" for optometrists is just re-hash of the same material already found in textbooks (e.g. it's not difficult to find an article entitled something like, "Fitting Keratoconus 101"). These are the so-called "trade journals". Editors of these types of "journals" WANT you to send material to them, cause everyone is sending their work to the top journals. As such, though the common notion is that it's "hard to publish", the reality is there are reams of journal editors who would be happy to consider your work.

Re-hash: People want to publish in "good" journals so submit most/all of their work there. Editors of "bad" journals therefore get few submissions, so they actually WANT you to send stuff to them. Everything works on a continuum - so does journal quality.

That said, he says he's a pre-opt, and the nature of his question implies he really doesn't have experience publishing before. I'd say it's a longshot he has something publishable (and even longer shot that it's Medline-quality), but that said, journals will work with aspiring writers, particularly periodicals that are lower on the food chain. It's not inconceivable that if he has a decent first draft, it'll get looked at by a trade magazine. Just by looking at the title of his proposed paper, I'm sure if there's ANY content in the manuscript whatsoever, with a bit of work it can get into one of the 3 journals I mentioned above.

Bottom line: There's something called "publishing", and there's something called "publishing". The term isn't equal under all circumstances. Medline is one thing. Trade journals are another.

Its not the title. Its a topic!
Thanks for the info though!

 

[xmattODx]

Actually my supervisor, a MD-PhD, wanted me to research different journals to find out which would take my topic. And she wanted me to find out what the criteria is for certain journals

Basically, I thought maybe some Optometry students, who may have gotten an article published, might be able to give some information.

Of course, I am also finding information on my own...

I'll defer much of this conversation to qwopty who seems to know much more about academia/publishing than I. I did want to chime in and reiterate that choosing your journal is based at least partly on who you want your audience to be. It wouldn't hurt to look outside of optometry/eye journals and look into occupational type journals (as qwopty said).

What is the point of this review? What types of papers are you reviewing? Is it a review of treatments if someone is injured? A review of safety precautions? A list of potential hazards found in the workplace? A review of incidence data?

I also wanted to encourage you to pursue this. Seems like this thread took a little of a negative turn. Do your work and send it out! If it gets published come back and let us know. (Although if you haven't even started working on this that might not be for a year or more).

I don't think Optometry as a profession encourages people to publish and that is a shame.

 

[DryEye]

I'll defer much of this conversation to qwopty who seems to know much more about academia/publishing than I. I did want to chime in and reiterate that choosing your journal is based at least partly on who you want your audience to be. It wouldn't hurt to look outside of optometry/eye journals and look into occupational type journals (as qwopty said).

What is the point of this review? What types of papers are you reviewing? Is it a review of treatments if someone is injured? A review of safety precautions? A list of potential hazards found in the workplace? A review of incidence data?

I also wanted to encourage you to pursue this. Seems like this thread took a little of a negative turn. Do your work and send it out! If it gets published come back and let us know. (Although if you haven't even started working on this that might not be for a year or more).

I don't think Optometry as a profession encourages people to publish and that is a shame.

Thanks! I am looking into it for sure. 🙂

 

[qwopty99]

Also, don't you also have to PAY to publish per word/page?

Anyone?

 

[DryEye]

As a rule of thumb, you look at your references to see where to submit your article. An article with a bunch of eye references isn't likely something that would be appropriate for a dental medicine journal. Likewise, if you are writing about spectacle optics, it probably wouldn't find an audience in a ophthalmic surgery journal.

--> Oh definitely. I am aware of this. 😉

Those who are experienced in publishing though - just to let u know, usually have a target journal in mind before they even start composing the paper. Like, you start with a topic, then think what journal it would be appropriate for, then you write a paper with that particular journal in mind. Working backwards (i.e. having a paper, then deciding where to send it to) is extremely uncommon among those who have experience publishing.

--> Thats exactly what I am doing and planning right now. It has not been written...

You'll hear people in the midst of their work saying, "This is going to be a Nature paper!". This tells us 3 thigns: (1) they plan to submit it to Nature when it's done, (2) they are aiming for that caliber of journal, (3) they are going to endeavor to write a paper of that journal's quality. That's why I keep saying, "it depends what you want to do with it". The paper is driven by the target journal.

As for "criteria", I'm not really sure what you are referring to. Make sure:
1. the target journal accepts/publishes review article (not all do)
2. the target journal is of a relevant field to your article (don't send to Cornea what you should send to Retina)
3. if your paper has been written in a logical format, you probably will not need to "adjust" it's format to suit one journal or another. I'm not aware of any journal that has any particular "idiosyncrasies" for the way they want their material - as long as it conforms to the norm (for research articles: Purpose, Methods, Results, Discussion). Reviews, however, don't have a standardized structure, so just make sure it remains (as I said) logical.
4. the only significant inter-journal differences I can really think of is make sure your references are done in the way that journal wants them (e.g. embedded or endnotes). Although most journals do references the way they are done on Medline, not all do - so depending on whether you are using software, this step can sometimes be quite time-consuming.

--> Awesome! Our main concern is targeting the correct audience and finding out which journals will accept the review article. I have already gotten emails back from editors. Some enthusiastic and saying yes and others say no

If you need any other nitty-gritty, feel free to ask.[/QUOTE]
--> will do!

 

[jymezg]

I also wanted to encourage you to pursue this.

Ill second that.