How to prepare good research for publication and my own experience

1. How to prepare good research for publication and my own experience By Anupun Terdwongworakul Department of Agricultural Engineering Faculty of Engineering at Kamphaengsaen Kasetsart University

2. Journal • What is the journal to publish? • What is the impact factor? • What is the database on which the journal is based? • Journal quartile or journal ranking

3. ISI Web of Science • ISI: Institute for Scientific Information

4. Science Citation Index (SCI) สกว รับรอง

5. ISI database • Powered by ISI Web of Knowledge, the Web of Science database is a collection of cross-searchable databases: • Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) • Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) • Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) • Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science (CPCI-S) • Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Sciences & Humanities (CPCI-SSH) • Book Citation Index - Science (BKCI-S) • Book Citation Index - Social Sciences & Humanities (BKCI-SSH) • You can search one or more of these databases from the ISI interface.

6. Journal (cont.) • How to search for impact factor • Mostly available at the journal website

8. Journal (cont.) • How to determine the database of the journal in question.

9. http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/

12. http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/mjl/

17. http://www2.rdi.ku.ac.th/newweb/

22. Journal (cont.) • How to determine what quartile the journal is in • Q1 = highest level • Q4 = lowest level

23. http://www.scimagojr.com/

26. Information of paper prior to submission • Any page charge for excessive page (<= 21 PDF) • UK or USA English (word counts) • Reference and citing style • Topic style • How long between acceptance and publication • Advisor concern • Impact factor, Quartile ranking, Database

27. Common files to prepare • Cover letter • Graphical abstract • List of suggested reviewers • Main texts (title, author and affiliation and texts) • Figures (.tiff, .doc etc.) • List of figure legends • Tables

28. How to make our research work more interesting • Title name • Attractive • Direct to the point • Content • Novelty • Well presented • Clear illustration • Good and robust discussion showing your deep knowledge on the subject

29. Title name • Good knowledge on the common title names • Try to make it to be different • Bring out the interesting point in our research Prediction of …………………. Using ……… Effect of ….. On ……

30. Content • Have your research topic in mind • Thorough literature reviews • Read a lot of good papers • Gain knowledge on the quality of such good papers • Learn how much work and theoretical understanding required in such good papers • Decide what is the name of your research topic with helps from your advisor

31. Content (cont.) • Assess your ability and also facilities you have • Consult your advisor and have an agreement

32. Content (cont.) • Spend as much time as possible in planning so that there will be less wasteful time • Planning the research (methodology) • Think hard what to do and what not to do • Based the plan on previous research • If not, you have to have good reason why you set up such experiment • Every steps must be explainable, not just I love to

33. Writing manuscript • With experiences, ordinary research results could be made interesting • Good English style is needed in addition to good grammatical English • Author instruction must be read comprehensively and be followed • How to write: number, unit, reference, item, UK or USA English etc. • Fail to comply with the instruction may lead to early rejection without reviewing

34. Writing manuscript (cont.) • Useful steps of composing a manuscript: • Abstract written last • Introduction • Importance of the topic and the reason for conducting the research • Previous research • Technique to use i.e. new, never done before • Objectives: short, clear straight to the point to be answered at the end of the research

35. Writing manuscript (cont.) • Useful steps of composing a manuscript: • Introduction (cont.) • Previous studies should be ordered in interesting fashion • Point out history of development • Each previous studies must be related and led to your research • Make new paragraph to separate content or to point out the new sub story

36. Writing manuscript (cont.) • Useful steps of composing a manuscript: • Material and methods • Itemized the procedure • Preparation of samples • Conditions and controls used in the experiment • Variation in treatment with backup reason using reference or past research • How to carry out experiment (equipment with name of manufacturer) • Statistical analyses

37. Writing manuscript (cont.) • Useful steps of composing a manuscript: • Results and discussion • Itemize the results in correspondence to the items in material and methods • It is good practice to prepare all figures and tables before writing • Visual inspection of the figures and notice of the interesting points in the figures

38. Writing manuscript (cont.) • Useful steps of composing a manuscript: • Results and discussion • Explain the results • What causes what? • Try to explain the reason why you have such kind of result • Look for change in variable with respect to factor • Compare results as affected by factor • Add discussion and show your deep knowledge • Should not say just what is going on? Say more on why and how?

39. Four variables increase with time. (not good enough ) • Yellow variable rises at higher rate than others and red variable is least changed. (Fair )

41. Writing manuscript (cont.) • Useful steps of composing a manuscript: • Results and discussion • Always support significant change or difference with hypothesis tests (ANOVA: p < 0.05) • Comparison must be backed up by T-test. • The results should be compared with previous published papers • The results needed explanation or support from other published papers

42. Conclusions • Brief your results • State the importance findings in your research • Suggest further investigation to answer what is left uncovered in your research

43. Abstract • Objective + Concise method + Conclusion

44. Recommended Font • Times New Roman • Double spacing • Page numbering

47. Reviewers’ comment • Late answer better than rapid answer from the editor • Quick response from the editor means: • Your content is not in the scope. Able to resubmit to other journals • Rejected. Sad

48. Reviewers’ comment • Waiting for the answer is killing and very nervous but good for those who love excitement. • Preparation for rejection is useful. • Do not be discouraged by being rejected • This will toughen your patience. • Answers from reviewers are valuable comments. • Reviewers are just like examination committee. Normally, more strict.

49. Personal background • Never published a paper for PhD • Dream of publishing a paper • Always feel the quality of the research must be recognised at international level • Feel inferiority if there has been no record of international publication • First publication 10 years after PhD graduation

50. Personal ambition • All authors being Thai • However with foreigner authors included, international collaboration will be recognised • One paper per year • Focusing on publishing for high impact journal • High impact research work