It is the dream of every researcher to publish in a journal with a high to decent impact score, for your research to be deemed of high quality, and for the number of citations of your paper to skyrocket. For most PhD students, not only do we begin this journey with the delusion…I mean…aspiration of finishing in as little as three years, we ALSO aim for the highest-impact journal. While there is nothing wrong in dreaming big, and in fact it does work out sometimes in a very fast-paced lab, our dream withers as the years go by. Remember that outstanding science isn’t only published by the highest-impact journals and flashy science isn’t necessarily brilliant science. According to career advice articles published by high impact journals, here are three qualities good journals look for in a submitted manuscript. For an extensive overview on the best practices for publishing in high impact journals, check out the review article published here.
Great science
We all believe in the work we are doing. We like to think it will contribute to the advancement of human knowledge-and we are often right. Asking novel research questions and designing simple experiments that brilliantly target and answer those questions adds value to your work. Journals get their ratings from impactful, meaning widely read, science and the closer the applicability of your research findings to the general public or to health/therapeutic improvement- the better. Plus, transparency and reproducibility are driving forces underlying great science
Great science communication skills
As we’ve all experienced from grant writing and networking, it is how you sell yourself that mostly matters. You might have the best idea of all time, but that alone is unusable if you can’t express it convincingly. Mastering different ways to sell yourself is critical. It isn’t enough to give great presentations in front of an audience, it is equally important to clearly communicate your research in writing so that your audience understands and appreciates the take-home messages, even in your absence. Stating the significance of your work and the gap in science that your research fills is paramount to earning the spot you deserve in that journal.
Following the journal’s guidelines
It’s true that the enormous number of rules and regulations in journal publishing can wear one down, but after all the effort put into conducting your experiments as well as writing/editing the manuscript, the last stretch must be completed even if you have to be dragged to the finish line. Every journal has a set of formatting guides, which includes limitation in length, specific layout of figures and tables, and the order of sections in your manuscript. Read them in detail, absorb them, and apply them. Keep in mind that to get through the initial screening, it is important to make sure your area of research fits the scope of the journal you’re aiming for.