How to get your paper published faster and better. For Chinese authors, when publishing articles in international English journals, in addition to the academic value of the article itself and the author's English level, the key is to be serious By doing a thorough market analysis, selecting the right journal, and being targeted, you can increase the competitiveness of your manuscript and be accepted by more international academic journals. In recent years, with the continuous enhancement of China's overall national strength and the unremitting efforts of countless people of insight, the level of domestic scientific research has been booming, and more and more scientific research results have reached the international advanced level. At the same time, in the international publishing market, publications from China (including published books and published articles) are also increasing. But compared with China's huge scientific research team and the number of achievements, its number is still quite small. The reason is that language barriers are on the one hand, but more importantly, Chinese authors do not know enough about the publishing procedures of international English journals and books, which increases the difficulty of submitting manuscripts or increases the chance of rejection. On the other hand, even if the article is accepted by the journal, there are still many things worth noting in order to turn the paper into a high-quality publication as quickly as possible. This article will introduce in detail the three main stages in the publishing process of international English academic journals based on the author's more than ten years of experience as an editor in British English scientific journals, as well as the issues that Chinese authors should pay special attention to at each relevant stage. Choosing publications and writing articles As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. Choosing the right person to submit to is an important first step. If you want to win the bid with one stone, you must not only know yourself, but also know your enemy. The screening and selection of manuscripts in international academic journals is not exactly the same as in China. The detailed ins and outs are as follows. International English academic journals are under the responsibility of the editor-in-chief (EDITOR-IN-CHIEF) and are not restricted by other administrative orders. The publisher has no right to interfere in the selection of manuscripts. A journal may have one well-known scholar with a high academic status as editor-in-chief, or there may be two or more editors. Under the chief editor, it is decided whether to set up a regional editor (REGIONAL EDITOR) based on the popularity and popularity of the subject. If there is such a setting, in most cases the submissions will also be divided by region, and the manuscripts in a region will be reviewed by the editor of that region. ; Otherwise, all manuscripts will be collected and sent to the editor-in-chief for review. Below the regional editor is the Editorial Board (EDITORIAL BOARD), which is generally composed of 10-30 well-known scholars. Most of these people are the main reviewers. They review manuscripts for the journal without financial compensation, for the development of the journal and the development of the subject. Progress, of course, also has personal visibility. In addition to the editorial board, the editor-in-chief himself will occasionally invite reviewers. Especially when several reviewers have serious differences of opinion on the same manuscript, the editor-in-chief will seek opinions from the specially invited reviewers. The general process of review (REVIEW/PEER REVIEW) is preliminary selection, submission for review, revision and final review. Manuscripts (MANUSCRIPTS) are submitted to the editor-in-chief or regional editor. They must first pass the preliminary selection process to see if they are worth considering for publication in this journal. Articles that are thousands of words and digress from the topic will be shot on the spot (REJECTED); if the editor-in-chief feels that it is consistent with the publication policy of the publication, it will enter the review stage; if the article is very good, but does not fit well with the scope of the publication (SCOPE), the editor-in-chief will We will also refuse, but we will proactively recommend more relevant publications to the author. Articles decided to be submitted for review will be reviewed at the same time by 3-4 editorial board members or reviewers according to different publications, and responses must be given on time. The manuscript will be accepted if unanimously approved or if the majority gives the green light, but this is rare, and most are conditionally accepted, and the author needs to revise the first draft according to the reviewers' opinions. Most of the time it is a small change, but sometimes it is necessary to supplement the data, reanalyze the results or even redesign the experiment. Regardless of whether it is a major revision or a minor revision, the revised manuscript must be returned to the editor-in-chief within the specified time, and will be reviewed by the first round of reviewers to see whether the revision is qualified. In most cases, the manuscript is approved after one revision, but there are also cases where it is revised several times before it is finally submitted to the publisher. It is worth mentioning that when an article is published in a foreign journal, it is entirely the author's own business whether to accept the reviewers' opinions and modify the manuscript. Often some authors are unwilling to make any modifications to the manuscript or cannot accept the reviewers' comments. If you receive any comments, you will be asked to withdraw the submission, and you only need to write a note to the editor. For some journals, authors can recommend reviewers to the editor-in-chief, but the number of such journals is limited. Articles that pass the final review will be included in the publication plan of the journal, and the manuscript will be quickly sent to the publishing house of the journal to enter the next publishing process. The entire review process, from the first draft to the final submission to the publisher, the time it takes varies greatly between different publications and editors. It also depends on the quality of the manuscript and the author's speed of revising the manuscript. In addition, some international English academic journals often publish special issues (SPECIAL ISSUES). The purpose of publishing varies from journal to journal, but the process is similar. The titles of special issues are mostly determined jointly by the editor-in-chief or editorial board members, and are sometimes a compilation of papers from academic conferences. Special issues are composed and reviewed by 1-3 specially appointed guest editors. The procedure is relatively simple and takes relatively less time. However, whether it is a special issue or an ordinary manuscript, the key to whether it is accepted or not is whether the content of the manuscript is consistent with the journal's policy and the academic and textual quality of the manuscript. The key person who determines these factors is the author himself.

Once the author decides to publish an article, he must first identify the journal to which he will submit the article based on the discipline and research content. This is a critical step. Domestic authors are often afraid that their English is not good, so they spend a lot of time on writing at the beginning and ignore the investigation and understanding of the market. Today, there are so many English-language academic journals in the Western market, with varying academic and publishing quality, that they can be roughly divided into three categories: upper, middle, and lower. The first grade is the best, and almost everyone knows that the articles published have a significant impact and contribution to scientific research, such as "Science" and "NATURE". The number of such journals is very small, and the number of articles published each year is limited. If you can publish an article in such a famous journal, it is a blessing; the second class is less well-known, but often has good articles in a subject. The main carrier also has very high requirements for the content of articles. There are a lot of publications at this level, almost in every discipline; the last level has the largest number of publications, and some disciplines have more than two such publications. The published articles are of relatively low level, but they are also the original scientific research results of the authors, which serve as the basis or paving stone for further research in the future. All in all, for authors, once they decide to publish an article, they must first have a correct positioning of their own scientific research level. It is good to publish in first-class journals every day, but unrealistically high goals are a waste of time for both parties. After determining the positioning, journal selection is also very important. Be sure to clearly understand the publishing purposes and academic scope (AIM AND SCOPE) of each different journal (usually on the inside cover of the journal or on the back of the homepage, and also on the website), and then select the best one based on the content of your article. Corresponding publications will be the first submission targets. Once a journal is determined, the next step is to carefully study the publication's submission instructions (GIUDE FOR AUTHORS), look at its specific requirements for manuscript format, charts, references, etc., and start designing the first draft. Words are important, but graphics shouldn’t be ignored either. For Chinese authors, there are two particularly important parts of the manuscript worth noting, one is the name and the other is the contact address. The names of Chinese authors are expressed in the form of Chinese pinyin in English publications. There are usually two ways: one is the surname first and the given name last; the other is the first name first and the last name last. There is nothing wrong with the two methods, one is Chinese and the other is Western. The key is that once you decide to adopt one of them, you should stick to it and don't change it again and again. In addition, the contact address for contacting the author must be written accurately. If there is no e-mail address, a Chinese communication label can be attached with the manuscript to ensure accurate delivery of the return receipt. The address on the homepage of the article should be the author's institution when he was engaged in this scientific research, not the mailing address when submitting the article. For the main author (contact author), if there is a difference between the two, the contact address after submission should be indicated to show the difference (usually placed in the footnote of the first page in the proof). Once the manuscript is completed, it can be sent out in different ways. At present, many journals accept online submission (ON-LINE SUBMISSION), which is convenient and fast, and you can check the progress of the manuscript at any time; faxing and mailing are also possible, but you must make sure who you should send it to, whether it is the editor-in-chief or the regional editor, to avoid Passing it around afterward is a waste of time. Once the manuscript is sent out, it can be regarded as the first successful step in a long journey of thousands of miles. No matter what the result is, it is a good learning process. If you miss the first shot, there is no need to be discouraged. You can revise it and try again later, but the most taboo thing is to submit the same draft to multiple submissions. In order to save time, some authors submit their manuscripts to several publications at the same time, with the idea that "the east is not bright and the west is bright". Who knows that this has many advantages and disadvantages, especially it is easy to damage the author's reputation, and should be stopped. Registration of manuscripts in the publishing house, publishing and proofreading by the author. Manuscripts that pass the final review must be sent to the publishing house by the editor-in-chief. They must go through registration, publishing, proofreading, proofreading by the author, etc. in the publishing house. This is the key to academic articles. Publishing in a journal is another important step. Authors have a lot of work to do at this stage, and its progress will directly affect the quality and speed of publication of the manuscript on the Internet and printed journals. 1. Manuscript registration At present, in the publishing of scientific and technological journals, most of the publishing processes are computerized. The most prominent ones are the issuance and layout of manuscripts and the processing of proofs. Compared with the work procedures and methods of more than ten years ago, today's publishing industry can be said to have undergone earth-shaking changes. First of all, this change is manifested in the different channels for sending manuscripts. In the past, the basic method of transmission was by mail, and faxes were rare, so the editor's first day's work at that time was to deal with emails. Not only that, the manuscript registration method in the early years was also very primitive, without computers, let alone computer databases. New manuscripts are printed on paper cards by the boarding staff using a printer, and the numbers are registered before being handed over to the editor. The situation is very different now. Many journals have begun to accept manuscript submissions on the Internet. Accepted manuscripts can be quickly sent to the publishing house in the form of e-mail, and the manuscript registrar will provide all the information including the manuscript title and author's name. , the date of receipt of the manuscript by the editorial department, page numbers, charts, and detailed addresses and communication methods for contacting the author, etc., are entered one by one into the computer database of the publishing system. The speed and efficiency are doubled. Once the manuscript is registered, the author will receive it quickly. A receipt indicating that the manuscript has been registered and informing the author of the manuscript's serial number in the publishing house for future online inquiries.

During the manuscript registration process, if the format and figures of the manuscript do not meet the requirements or are in short supply, the publisher will send a letter to the author to request them. At the same time, the copyright contract of the article (COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT) and future print orders (OFFPRINTS ORDER FORM) are also in At this time, it will be sent to the author. If there are color pictures in the article, a price agreement (COLOUR LETTER) for the production of color pictures will be attached for the author's consideration and choice. All these letters, except for copyright and print copies, need to be responded to immediately by the author, otherwise the manuscript will not be sent to the factory for typesetting in time and will be shelved in the database, with delays ranging from a few weeks to a few months. For Chinese authors, the biggest trouble is that they have incorrect mailing addresses and cannot be contacted. Some authors often forget to notify the publishing house when their addresses change, thus losing a lot of valuable time. In addition, once you receive these letters, you must read them carefully and provide timely replies as required. If there are missing charts, you must complete them as soon as possible. If the quality or format does not meet the requirements, you must try your best to change them. As for color pictures, if you have the funds, it is of course better to print them in color. If you cannot afford to print them in color, you should inform the publishing house as soon as possible to print them in black and white. Now, if the author can provide electronic original images, many publications can publish color images (WEB COLOUR) online for free. In addition, there are two issues worth noting during this period. One is the copyright agreement, which is a legal contract between the publisher and the author. Once signed, the contract must be followed, otherwise legal liability will be borne. In addition, if you want to quote figures from other people's published articles in your article, in addition to obtaining the consent of the author, you must also obtain the text permission of the copyright owner (publishing company or academic group) at the time of publication, otherwise it cannot be quoted. . In theory, this work should be handled at the manuscript stage, but in fact because it involves many aspects, it is often delayed until the manuscript is sent to the publishing house. If the author has difficulty handling this matter himself, he can ask the publisher for help. Because publishing houses have departments specifically responsible for copyright, they can directly contact another relevant publishing house or group to solve the problem relatively quickly. Not only that, many large publishing houses have copyright agreements with each other, allowing each other's publications to conditionally or unconditionally quote figures and tables in their own publications, which can save authors a lot of time and energy. Another thing that needs to be emphasized is the manuscript itself. All manuscripts sent to the publishing house must be the final draft (FINAL VERSION). All the elaboration of the manuscript text and polishing of the graphics should be completed before the final draft. Once the manuscript is sent to the publishing house, , it cannot be changed anymore. This is a basic publishing principle. However, there are always some authors who, after receiving the registration notice from the publishing house, send a new manuscript to the publishing house and request to replace the original manuscript. This attitude of striving for excellence is valuable, but unfortunately it is too late. If the changes are minor, the publishing house will generally ignore them; if the changes are major, the publishing house will send the newly received manuscript back to the editor-in-chief for his opinions and final approval. As a result, it often takes a lot of time to delay the process, resulting in half the effort and half the gain. In short, during the manuscript registration process, the author should quickly provide the required materials to the publisher and promptly notify the change of contact address. Do not take this opportunity to modify and polish the manuscript textually. But it is undeniable that after the manuscript is issued, it is sometimes necessary to make some minor changes to the academic content in order to improve the accuracy of the academic content of the article. Such changes are allowed, but most of them must be made in the next publication process. That is the proofing stage. 2. Reviewing proofs is like registering manuscripts. The typesetting work in the publishing process is no longer what it used to be. Computers have completely replaced the old-fashioned typesetting, and the speed and quality have been greatly improved. Nowadays, it only takes a few weeks on average for a manuscript to be published from the publishing house to the proofs (PROOFS), and it can even be as fast as a few days. Moreover, the form and method by which authors receive proofs have also changed. In the past, most of them were paper proofs and ordinary mail. Now, as long as the author has an e-mail address, the proofs will be sent out in the form of e-mail (PDF), and the author can receive it instantly. When Chinese authors review English proofs, the first thing they need to check is the author's name. This includes not only the home page of the article, but also footnotes, acknowledgments at the end of the article, references, etc. Everywhere where the Chinese author's name appears, they must be checked. In addition, typographical errors and necessary changes in the article must be sent back to the publisher as soon as possible. As for the requirements for correcting the proof and the feedback channels, the publisher will generally provide detailed instructions in the cover letter of the proof. It is best for the author to follow the rules. Don't be original. If a certain picture needs to be changed, it is best to attach the changed picture together, which can save a lot of time. All in all, in the process of manuscript issuance, layout and review, the author should cooperate with the publisher as much as possible, and should not either keep giving orders or be silent. Both extremes are not conducive to the high-speed and high-quality publication of articles, and they are by no means the original intention of the author or the publisher. On the contrary, both the publishing house and the author are willing to see the article published as soon as possible. If both parties cooperate well and make full use of current technical means, the article can be published in the shortest possible time. The publishing house benefits and the author gets a name. Why not? Not for? Dual-track publishing on the Internet and print editions In the traditional publishing concept, publishing an article has only one meaning, which is to compile the proofs after verification into a journal and print it for publication. But nowadays, the meaning of publishing an article is twofold, that is, dual-track publication on the Internet and in print.

It can be said with certainty that the emergence of the Internet has completely broken the traditional single publishing form of paper printing. 1. Publish a single article on the Internet Today, electronic publishing on the Internet has become a fast and simple publishing method for many academic journals to publish before the printed version. The main form of this method is to publish the article on the website of the publication. All proofs that have been modified by the author can be published online as a single article at an extremely fast speed. These articles are collectively referred to as articles to be printed, which means articles that have been published and are waiting to be compiled into a journal for publication. This new format in which a single article is published online before the printed version greatly speeds up the publication of articles. Once the author's corrections to the proofs are fed back to the publishing house, the proofs can be revised in the typesetting workshop (computer room) in a few days. , after necessary technical processing, it can be posted on the publication's web page and meet all readers. Compared with printed journals, this will advance the publication time by at least one to two months or even more. Moreover, this form of electronic publishing has many advantages that print versions of journals do not have. First of all, it is reflected in the processing of color pictures. In the past, due to cost reasons, many color pictures could only be printed in black and white, and their academic quality was inevitably compromised. All color figures in the manuscript can be published online in color for free as long as the author provides the original figure in electronic form. Secondly, the charts and references in the article are related to each other. You can see the relevant detailed information with just a click, and you can also attach a small piece of video or audio-visual material to the article. Third, online publishing only involves a single article. Once the proofs are corrected, it can be published. It is not restricted by the frequency of publication and the number of pages of articles published in each issue. This is also the most fundamental difference between online publishing and printed editions. Finally, another popular feature of online publishing is that authors can check the progress of their manuscripts online at any time, without being restricted by office hours or geographical time differences. Unfortunately, in the early days of online publishing, many journals allowed authors or designated libraries to download articles for free, but this is increasingly rare today. At the same time, articles published online are no different in legal meaning from printed articles and cannot be changed once logged out. If the author makes major changes to the proof during proof review, he can request the publisher to review the changed proof. Whether this requirement can be fulfilled varies from journal to journal, and each publishing house has different regulations. If the author has this wish, he or she may inquire with the editor-in-chief or the publisher. Nowadays, in order to save time and gain speed, some publishing houses no longer encourage authors to review proofs, but this is a minority after all. However, with the continuous innovation and progress of the publishing industry, whether this minority will become the mainstream depends on its development and market requirements. 2. Articles compiled into the journal will be published on the Internet and in print. Articles published online will be compiled and published in order according to the size of the journal, the number of manuscript sources, and the publication frequency of the journal. Some articles take a few weeks, some take longer. As for the position of an article in a journal, it is determined by many factors. Some journals are sorted by the weight of academic content, some are sorted by subject, and most are sorted by the time when the manuscript was accepted. If there are different articles by the same author in an issue of manuscripts, in most cases they are arranged together. The work of compiling the journal is mostly done by the publisher, and the author and editor-in-chief do not interfere, except for special issues. The order of publication of the special issue has already been determined by the guest editor of the special issue when the manuscripts are sent to the publishing house. The publishing house only needs to publish and print the manuscripts step by step. After the manuscripts for an issue are scheduled, they are sent to the typesetting workshop together with four covers (front cover, back cover). Now this step is also electronic. The publishing house finalizes the draft and the relevant information reaches the typesetting workshop immediately, without being restricted by distance or time difference. After the four envelopes are released, the proofs will be returned to the publishing house for review, mainly to check the table of contents and related information of the issue, such as the issue number, issue, etc. After the four letters are approved, they will be returned to the typesetting workshop immediately, and together with all the articles in the journal, they will be compiled into an electronic file, which will be published online after technical processing. Once an article appears in the online version of a journal, it automatically disappears from the list of articles to be printed online. The content of an issue published online is exactly the same as the printed version. But it's published several weeks ahead of the print version, speeding up publication. After the publication is published online, the typesetting workshop is finished working on the manuscript, and the printing factory is responsible for the following printing processes. In foreign countries, the typesetting workshop (TYPESETTER) and the printing house (PRINTER) are separate. They are usually two independent manufacturers and have no ownership relationship with the publishing house. They are ordinary employees and employees. If the typesetting and printing quality is high, the speed is fast, and the price is reasonable and the cost is low, the publishing house will cooperate with it for a long time. On the contrary, there will be a risk of being fired. Today's printing plants are highly computerized, and the quality and speed of printing are much higher than in the past. After an issue is printed and bound, it will soon be sent to subscribers around the world to meet readers. Free copies of the author's copies and supplements will also be sent to the contacting author shortly after the print version of the publication is published. There are two aspects that Chinese authors should pay special attention to during this final stage of the publishing process. One is the final confirmation of the name. If there is an error in the article published online, the publisher must be notified immediately to correct it. As long as time comes, the publisher can correct the error in the author's name online and avoid it being published in the printed version. Wrong again.

The second is to ensure that the publisher has the latest correspondence address for contacting the author. Any changes in unit, road name, postal code, etc. must be reported to the publisher in a timely manner, and the title of the article and the publisher's number of the article must be indicated in the letter. Without the correct address, the free copies and supplements to which the author is entitled cannot be mailed to the author. Generally speaking, when the author receives the hard copy, the publishing process of the article has basically come to an end. Some journals also need to publish an electronic version and burn the article onto an electronic compact disc (CD-ROM), etc. But this is mostly just a technical matter. It is just a processing and has no direct relationship with the author. In short, looking at today's academic journal publishing industry, we are in a period of historical change, which is mainly reflected in the diversification of publishing forms and the computerization of the publishing process. This change has not only expanded the scope of academic exchanges, but also accelerated the speed of information transmission, and has a positive effect on the progress and development of human scientific research. However, this change has not yet affected the basic operating mechanism and structure of academic journals. Academic journals are still under the editor-in-chief responsibility system, and the publishing house is responsible for publishing and distribution. Therefore, for a long time to come, scientific researchers will inevitably have to deal with editors and publishers if they want to publish articles. For Chinese authors, in addition to the academic value of the article itself and the author's English proficiency, the key to publishing articles in international English journals is to do a careful market analysis, select the right journal, and be targeted, so that they can increase the number of manuscripts. competitiveness and be accepted by more international academic journals. After the manuscript is accepted, the author should respond quickly and accurately to the publisher's requirements. This can effectively speed up the publication of the article and ensure the final publication quality. "Once born, twice cooked", "Failure is the mother of success", as time goes by, as the academic exchanges between Chinese scholars and the international community continue to expand and deepen, there will definitely be more and more articles from China in Western academic journals The more you get, the more quality you get.