Scholarly Publishing with Open Praxis

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I participated in a webinar organised by the ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium (GDC) on 7 November about Scholarly Publishing. The webinar was presented by Dr Inés Gil-Jaurena, Editor of Open Praxis. These are my notes from the webinar.

Scholarly publishing and contributions to the scientific community

  • There are different motivations for publishing that need to be considered: individual (advancement) , institutional (recognition), funder and the broader scientific community (build upon results).
  • Another consideration is the intended audience: local or international, specialised or general.
  • Different options for publication are available: books, journals, blogs and others.
  • Journal publications can be in different languages, open access or not, short papers or long papers, theoretical or empirical.

The PhD Process and Publication

  • PhD Programmes have specific requirements regarding scholarly publishing. Some require publication before the thesis is presented, while others only want publications after the thesis is approved.
  • PhDs can be obtained via a research report (thesis) or via a collection of publications.
  • Other dissemination events during a PhD include conferences and seminars, and the publication of articles and book chapters.
  • Check your programme requirements carefully.

Journal Selection

  • Consider the topic/area (matching your topic) and the language and international scope.
  • The Impact Factor and impact in social media are important metrics, some PhD programmes specify which journals are preferred or required. Another consideration is where the journal is indexed and the abstract can be found.
  • Review the quality and history of the journal: check previous issues, the peer-review process, who is on the editorial board, who is the publisher etc.
  • Other considerations include: open access, acceptance rate, time until publication, electronic follow up regarding progress, licensing and copyright, publication and communication processes etc.

About the Open Praxis Journal

  • Open Praxis publishes 4 issues per year, about 35 articles (research articles and innovative practice papers)
  • The acceptance rate is between 50-60%.
  • Normally it takes 1 to 2 months for peer review and 4-6 months until publication.
  • PhD students are welcome to register as journal reviewers.
  • Listed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) from Web of Science.

Preparing for Publication

  • Check the journal guidelines regarding: length, structure, preferred methodologies used, reference styles, ethical guidelines. Also consider the submission of supplementary documents and data.
  • Many articles are rejected before peer review because the article does not match the scope of the journal or the journal guidelines were not followed.
  • Review before submission: language and content review. Make use of your supervisor and fellow students.

Editorial process: from submission to publication

  • Submission: Register in the journal website, follow the submission checklist.Fill in the required metadata: author, affiliation, ORCID, abstract, keywords, references, etc. Submit the full paper.
  • Editor first screening: Reject or send to peer-review.
  • Peer-review process: Two reviewers per paper (sometimes three), it takes about 2 months. The Editor then makes a decision: accept, minor revision, major revision with second round review, reject.
  • After acceptance: Check metadata, add acknowledgments, proof-correction and finally, publication.
  • After publication, authors and publishers disseminate through social media, direct email. Article is disseminated in Google scholar, ORCID, institutional repositories, and academic networks.

 

 

 

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