How to get your research published… …and then

How to get your research published…

…and then noticed.

elsevier.com/authors

Contents

Introduction Getting published Getting noticed Tracking your impact Why publish with Elsevier? Useful links

1 2 23 27 29 31

December 2020

In this booklet, you’ll nd simple, actionable support that will help you publish and promote your research and make the biggest impact you can with your work

In the rst section, we’ll look at getting published

The decisions you make about your publications a ect their ultimate impact: the journal you choose, the type of article and the way you write about your research all contribute to the result

Then it’s time to get your work noticed…

With your peer-reviewed article published and available online, there’s a lot you can do to promote your work and get it out to a wider audience

● Sharing your article
● Increasing your visibility ● Writing a lay summary
● The power of social media ● Media coverage

… And nally, track your impact

This won’t be the only paper you’ll publish, so it’s useful to build an understanding of what works well and where you could make improvements You can do this by tracking your impact

● Article-level metrics ● Tools you can use

elsevier.com/authors 1

● When and what to publish

● How to write a great research paper

● Choosing the best journal for your work

● Your open access options

● Navigating the publishing process

● Getting the most out of peer review

● Publishing ethically

How to get your research published and then noticed

Introduction

As a researcher, you make huge strides in advancing essential knowledge Your achievements can save lives, change the way we understand the world and improve our quality of life When you’re ready to share your knowledge, the best way to do it is by publishing your work

Getting published

When and what to publish

Do you have a story to tell?

This is a great question to ask yourself when you’re considering publishing an article Editors and reviewers are looking for original and innovative research that adds to their eld of study, sheds new light on previous ndings or joins the dots between work in di erent areas Your conclusions must be sound and based on robust data

Is there an audience for your story?

If your research contributes to knowledge in your eld, your peers and researchers in other areas are likely to be interested in your work However, your audience could be even broader than this The more original and innovative your research, the more people will be interested And if it’s clear, understandable and compelling, you could also share your work with the general public especially if you can explain how it
a ects their
lives

How can you tell your story?

Scholarly articles come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each designed to suit research published at di erent stages, in di erent elds and to share di erent aspects of the work

1. Full articles contain signi cant data, detail, developments and outcomes

2. Letters and short communications are intended for the quick and early communication of signi cant or original advances, without including too much data or detail

3. Review papers summarize developments on a speci c topic, without introducing new data

4. Research elements articles complement full research papers and describe output, such as data, methods and protocols, so ware, code and hardware

If you’re unsure which type of article to write, it’s a good idea to discuss your options with your supervisor or colleagues What’s more, remember that not all journals accept all types of article…

NB: In this booklet, you’ll nd guidance for writing and publishing a full article

Your research is complete, now it’s time to write You might enjoy this, but if you’re like many others, it might also be the most challenging aspect of disseminating your results

Elsevier has many resources to support you as you write your manuscript, with step-by-step instructions, training and editing, and

translation services to help you perfect your work before you submit This will help you publish a high-quality paper that shares your research with the world

Authors’ Update

● Stay in touch with industry developments, support and training

● As an author, there’s a lot for you to keep up with – new publication types, journals, review methods and much more

● Authors’ Update is a hub for articles on trends in publishing, relevant topics and being an author – and you can sign up to receive new articles as they appear

Visit Authors’ Update:

elsevier.com/connect/authors-update

How to get your research published and then noticed

Research elements

Elsevier’s Research Elements journals are a suite of open access journals dedicated solely to publishing research elements articles Research elements articles are brief, peer-reviewed articles that complement full research papers and describe output that has come about as a result of following the research cycle – this includes data, methods and protocols, so ware, code and hardware

The Research Elements journals are:

● Data in Brief ● MethodsX ● HardwareX ● So wareX ● So ware Impacts Read more at: elsevier.com/authors/author-resources/research-elements-journals

How to write a great research paper

Researcher Academy

Learn academic writing skills and improve your manuscript

● Succeeding in a research career means learning and continuously building your skills across the board, from planning experiments to promoting your published work

● The Elsevier Researcher Academy provides free e-learning resources With more than 100 modules
across 18 topics covering research preparation, writing for research,
the publication process, navigating peer review and communicating your research, you can learn the skills you need to take the next step in your career

● When you learn with the Researcher Academy, you join a community of authors all working together to gain new skills
Visit the Elsevier Researcher Academy:
researcheracademy.elsevier.com
Visit the Author Resources page for more tools to help you as you write your article: elsevier.com/authors/author-resources

Preparing to write

Before you start, gather all your content: your results, lab notes, observations, methods, insights from previous research, any multimedia content and, importantly, your references With everything in one place, you can better organize your thoughts and plan your article

A full article usually follows a standard structure, which we will follow here But it’s always best to consult the guide for authors of the journal to which you’re planning to submit before you begin as there might be special instructions you need to follow

If you’re writing a di erent type of article, you may still be able to apply some of the guidance identi ed below but be sure to consult the guide for authors

One way to get started on your manuscript is to create a skeleton template of the sections of the article – title and information (authors, keywords); abstract; introduction; methods; discussion & conclusions; acknowledgments You can then easily add content in each section, which you can work from as you progress Voilà – no longer a blank page!

How to get your research published and then noticed

Great writers read

One way to improve your manuscript writing is to read other people’s articles The more you read, the more you will understand what works and what doesn’t, and how best to present the information you want to share A great way to do this is to be a reviewer – nd out more here:

elsevier.com/reviewers/role

Title

The title is the main advertisement for your article A great title entices the audience to read on; a poorly titled article may never reach your target readers

Your article’s title should re ect its content clearly, enabling readers
to decide whether it’s relevant for
them Being direct about the topic by including your main keyword(s) helps make your article discoverable for your readers And remember, abstracting and indexing services depend on accurate titles: they extract keywords from them for cross-referencing

Make the title catchy and keep it speci c Leave out phrases such as “a study of ”, “investigations into”, “observations on” And avoid using abbreviations and jargon – there’s plenty of opportunity for that later

E ective titles:

● Identify the article’s main topic

● Are accurate, unambiguous, speci c and (when possible) complete

● Are as short as possible

● Are enticing and interesting

Authors

Only authors who have made an intellectual contribution to the research should be credited, including those who will take responsibility for the
data and conclusions, and those who have approved the nal manuscript The order of credited names can vary between disciplines; the corresponding author may not always be the rst author

Depending on the journal, you may use CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which makes each author’s contribution clear You can read more about this on the following page: elsevier.com/authors/ journal-authors/policies-and-ethics/credit- author-statement

Keywords

Most journals request a list of keywords: important words that are relevant to the work you’re presenting and capture the research e ectively Keywords are used by abstracting and indexing services and choosing the right ones can increase the chances of your article being found by other researchers

To choose your keywords, it may be useful to imagine your readers searching for research they’re interested in What would they type in the search box?

Many Elsevier journals also ask for a subject classi cation during the online submission process; this helps editors to select reviewers

Abstract

Graphical abstracts

Many journals support graphical abstracts A graphical abstract is a useful way to provide a visual summary of your article’s main ndings It appears in your article on ScienceDirect and it also features in the results lists returned by online search engines Graphical abstracts can be shared on social media or directly with colleagues to help you broaden your audience (remember
to include a link to your article!) You can get help with creating graphical abstracts from Elsevier’s Illustration Services – webshop.elsevier.com/ illustration-services/

Introduction

A er months of literature review, you may have enough background to ll
a book, but resist the temptation:
keep the introduction brief It should provide context and background, but not be a history lesson It should state the problem being investigated, its contextual background, and the reasons for conducting the research State the questions you’re answering and explain any ndings of others that you’re challenging or building on Brie y and logically lead the reader to your research questions, hypotheses, and experimental design or method

The abstract is your chance to describe your research in a limited number of words (o en c 300); use those words wisely Together, the title and abstract should fully represent your article A well written abstract will help readers understand what your article is about and whether it’s interesting or useful for them It will also help improve visibility through abstracting and indexing

The abstract should summarize
the problem or objective of your research, and its method, results, and conclusions An abstract usually doesn’t include references, gures or tables It’s great if your abstract is interesting, but above all it should be accurate Don’t promise more than your article delivers

Many authors write the abstract last, so it re ects the content accurately But it can also be helpful to write it rst, to help you focus your thoughts and give you a good starting point for the article

How to get your research published and then noticed

Methods*

*also called “Materials and Methods” or “Experimental Methods”

This section should be detailed enough to enable readers to replicate your research and assess whether the methods justify the conclusions It’s advisable to use the past tense – it’s about what you did – and avoid using the rst-person perspective (e g “I transferred liquid A to the mixture”)

Ultimately, you should explain how
you studied the problem, identify the procedures you followed, and structure this information as logically as possible

If your methods are new, you’ll need to explain them in detail If they’ve been published before, cite the original work, including your amendments if you’ve made modi cations You may also

consider publishing your method as a research elements article, then referring to it in your main article We’ll cover how to do that later in this section

Identify the equipment and the materials you used, specifying their source
State the frequency of observations
and what types of data were recorded Give precise measurements, stating their strengths and weaknesses when necessary Name any statistical tests, so your quantitative results can be judged

If your research involved human participants, animals, stem cells or other biohazard materials, you’ll need to include certain information in the ethics statement, such as committee approvals and permission to publish You should also explain your criteria for selecting participants

STAR Protocols and STAR Methods

Though the method used for an article is vital for reproducibility, methods sections have traditionally been neglected, with detail o en relegated to the supplementary information and readers skipping straight to results

Two initiatives led by Cell Press aim to change this:

STAR Protocols (cell.com/star-protocols/home) is an open access journal that aims to help researchers conduct experiments more e ciently by improving the reproducibility of published methods

STAR Methods (cell.com/star-methods) is a new approach to the methods section of an article, which promotes transparent reporting of experimental design and methodological details STAR Methods are applied across all Cell Press journals, and the Key Resources Table is also available in some other Elsevier journals

Results

This section should present your ndings objectively, explaining them largely in text This is where you show how your results contribute to the body of scienti c knowledge, so be clear
and logical And it’s important not to interpret your results – that comes in the Discussion & Conclusions section

You can base the sequence of this text on the tables, gures and graphs that best present your ndings Emphasize any signi cant ndings clearly Tables and gures must be numbered separately; gures should have a brief but complete description – a legend – that reveals how the data was produced

Discussion & conclusions

This is where you describe the meaning of your results, especially in the context of what was already known about the subject You can present general and speci c conclusions but take care not to summarize your article – that’s what the abstract is for

You should link this section back to the introduction, referring to your questions or hypotheses, and cover how the results relate to your expectations and cited sources Do the results support or contradict existing theories? Are there any limitations? You can also suggest further experiments, use cases and extensions

Above all, the discussion should explain how your research has moved the body of knowledge in your area forward Your conclusions must be supportable and not extend beyond your results, so avoid undue speculation and bold judgments about impact This is also a good place to suggest practical applications for your results, and to outline what the next steps in your research will be

To summarize, make sure that:

● Your results directly support your conclusions

● You use speci c expressions and quantitative descriptions – “12 degrees Kelvin higher” instead of “a higher temperature”

● You only discuss what you de ned early in the paper – don’t introduce the reader to a whole new vocabulary If you missed an important term, go back to the introduction and insert it

● All interpretations and speculations are based on fact, not imagination

Acknowledgments

Keep acknowledgements brief, naming those who helped with your research: contributors, or suppliers who provided free materials You should also disclose any nancial or other substantive competing interest that could be seen to in uence your results or interpretations

How to get your research published and then noticed

Manage your references with Mendeley

Simplify your work ow, accelerate your research at mendeley.com Mendeley can help you discover, access, store, manage, cite and share

references and research data

O ering time saving e ciencies, Mendeley Reference Manager, Mendeley Cite and Mendeley Web Importer enable you to reduce your workload and advance your research goals

References

New research builds on previously published work, which should always
be acknowledged Any information
that isn’t “common knowledge”, or generated by your experiments, must be recognized with a citation Quoted text should be within quotation marks and include a reference

The format of citations and references varies, so you should refer to the guide for authors of the journal to which you’re submitting

Adding research data

Research data forms the backbone
of your research article and provides the foundation on which scienti c, technical and medical knowledge is built Research data can include but are not limited to: raw data, processed data, so ware, algorithms, protocols, methods, materials

You can get credit for your research data and code and make it Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) in line with community standards on best practices on research data management

As a researcher, you are increasingly encouraged, or even mandated, to make your research data and other research outputs available To support authors complying with funders requirements and to align with the Transparency

and Openness Promotion guidelines for research, Elsevier journals have implemented data sharing guidelines (elsevier.com/authors/author-resources/ research-data/data-guidelines)

Sharing information about your research

data, including raw or processed data les, code, so ware, models, algorithms, protocols and methods, is a crucial step in publishing your work This could involve publishing your data or code as a research elements article, linking your article to an already deposited dataset, uploading it to Mendeley Data Repository or sharing a statement about your data or code

● Citing data –cite your research data and code in your article and add a reference to it

● Publishing a research elements article – publish a brief, peer-reviewed article and cite it

● Linking your article to data and code
in supported repositories – create bidirectional links between your article and a dataset or code deposited in a repository such as Mendeley Data

● Uploading to Mendeley Data – you can store your data in Mendeley Data, so it will get a DOI, making it citable and FAIR

Co-submission to Research Elements journals

If you decide to publish a research elements article, you can submit directly to the journal of your choice For Data in Brief and MethodsX, you can co-submit your research elements article alongside your full article to a participating Elsevier journal

Whether you have stored your research data in a repository or published a data article, be sure to cite your research data in your article This ensures you receive credit for your work, while making your research data accessible, giving your readers deeper insights and supporting their work Find out more at: elsevier.com/ authors/author-services/research-data

Data statement

In some cases, there may be good reasons that prevent you from sharing your data or code alongside your article submission Some Elsevier journals may require you to submit a data statement alongside your manuscript clearly explaining the data or code you’ve used in the article or the reasons why it might not be available for sharing

Illustrations

You may have illustrations, gures, multimedia or other artwork to submit with your article as supplementary les Requirements will vary depending on the journal; for speci c details on how to format and submit artwork, visit: elsevier. com/artwork

Like all content you submit to a
journal, the illustrations should be
high quality If you need support with this, Elsevier’s illustration services can help: professional illustrators can create or polish images to match your exact needs We support detailed full-color and photorealistic images, simpli ed line drawings, detailed graphs and tables (webshop.elsevier.com/illustrationservices)

SEO your article

Make your article more noticeable with search engine optimization (SEO)

With so many millions of research articles available, it could be easy for yours to get lost in the noise By paying attention to a few points, you can

make sure your article is search engine optimized and ready to be discovered by the broadest possible audience

Tips for SEO include:

● Use keywords, especially in the title and abstract

● Add captions with keywords to all photographs, images, graphs and tables

● Add titles or subheadings (with keywords) to the di erent sections of your article

● Make sure you place links to your article from relevant websites e g your institute’s website, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, blogs and social media

Find out more about SEO: elsevier.com/ connect/authors-update/top-tips-making- your-article-visible-with-seo

How to get your research published and then noticed

A note on language quality

Language issues can mean the di erence between acceptance and rejection It’s important to ensure the language you use is clear and error-free, for two main reasons:

● The clearer your language, the more easily and accurately people will understand your work and your message

● Errors disengage readers – if your work is full of mistakes, your readers will be distracted and question
the quality of your work This is especially important when the reader is reviewing your submission to a journal
Your article should report your ndings and conclusions as clearly and concisely as possible To achieve this:

● Try to avoid unnecessary words or phrases – keep it simple

● Use the active voice when possible
For example, “Carbon dioxide was consumed by the plant” is passive Active writing shortens this phrase to, “the plant consumed carbon dioxide” – which is much snappier

● Tense is important For known facts and hypotheses, use the present tense: “The average life expectancy of a honeybee is six weeks ” But use the past tense when referring to experiments you’ve conducted:

“All the honeybees were maintained in an environment with a constant temperature of 23°C ” And also use the past tense to describe results: “The average life span of bees in the contained environment was eight weeks ”

Editing and translation services

Elsevier Author Services provides a variety of editing services that ensure your paper is free of grammatical, spelling and other common errors, giving you a better chance of success when you’re ready to submit

The standard service features:

● Editing into proper scienti c American or British English

● Edited by PhD or PhD candidates ● Free re-editing or money back

It can be easier and more e ective to work in your native language What
do you do when it’s time to publish
in English? Elsevier’s Author Services provide translation services to help you communicate your research in English

Translations are done by native English- speaking PhD or PhD candidates in your eld of study and double-checked by successful authors

For more information, visit:

webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices

How to get your research published and then noticed

Choosing the best journal for your work

Publishing your research in the right journal can help you reach a global audience, make an impact and move forward in your career How can you make sure your publication is the best it can be? Here are some tools and tips to help you nd the right home for your work

JournalFinder

With potentially hundreds of journals in your eld, nding the right home for your research isn’t always easy

Powered by the Elsevier Fingerprint Engine, Elsevier JournalFinder uses smart search technology and eld-of- research-speci c vocabularies to match your article to Elsevier journals

JournalFinder is simple to use: enter the title and abstract of your manuscript and you’ll get a list of journals best suited to your work

Find out more about JournalFinder:

journal nder.elsevier.com

Journal metrics

When you’re looking at a long list
of potential journals for your next submission, how do you decide which to shortlist and submit to?

Journal-level metrics can inform your decision

Elsevier’s Journal Insights (journalinsights.elsevier.com) provide extra information on three aspects of our journals – impact, speed and reach

Impact

● CiteScore – average citations received per document published in the journal

● Impact Factor – Clarivate metric – number of times an average paper in the journal is published

● 5-year Impact Factor – Clarivate metric – Impact Factor based on ve years of history

● Article In uence & Eigenfactor – citations from highly ranked journals are more important and in uential than those from lower ranked journals

● Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) – the impact of a paper within a subject eld

● SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) – a prestige metric based on the idea that “not all citations are created equal ”

Speed

● The average number of weeks it takes for an article to be reviewed

● The average number of weeks it takes for an article to reach key publication points in the production process

Reach

● The number of downloads at the country/regional level over the last ve full years available

● The number of primary corresponding authors at the country/regional level over the last ve full years available

CiteScore*

SNIP

SJR

Impact Factor

Full name

CiteScore

Source-Normalized Impact per Paper

SCImag0 Journal Rank

–

Measures

Average number
of citations received per peer-reviewed document published in this title, in a range of four years*

Citations relative to average for discipline; SNIP > 1 means journal is cited more than average for eld

Average prestige per publication, depending on the SJR of the citing journal

Average citations per publication

Accounts for varying journal size?

Accounts for varying behaviour between disciplines?

Availability

Freely available at scopus.com/sources and via individual journal homepages under Journal Metrics and Journal Insights

Available via journal homepages and Journal Citation Reports, Clarivate Analytics at clarivate.com/ journal-citation-reports

*CiteScore measures the average citations received per peer-reviewed document published in this title CiteScore values are based on citation counts in a range of four years (e g 2016-2019) to peer-reviewed documents (articles, reviews, conference papers, data papers and book chapters) published in the same four calendar years, divided by the number of these documents in these same four years (e g 2016–19)

Checklist:

● Take into consideration the type of article you’d like to publish (full length, letter, review, research element, etc )

● Check the references in your article, to give an indication of possible journals of interest

● Read the journal’s aims and scope on the journal homepage on elsevier.com

● Read or download the journal’s guide
for authors

● Check if the journal is invitation-only; some journals only accept articles a er inviting the author to submit

● Check the journal’s performance for review and publication timelines

● If you need to publish open access, remember that most Elsevier journals explain their open access options on the journal homepage

● Submit your paper to only one journal at a time

Your open access options

Whatever your discipline, there’s an open access home for your research at Elsevier With over 2,300 journals that o er gold open access publishing options, we’ve got you covered

In 2019 we published over 49,000 gold open access articles, a growth of 40 percent on the previous year Today Elsevier is one of the world’s fastest- growing open access publishers

When you publish open access with us, you bene t from the world-class expertise of our editors and reviewers, state-of-the- art innovations that measure your impact and make your work more visible, and exposure on the world’s biggest publishing platform, ScienceDirect Your work is also included in relevant indexes and databases, and we ensure that it always remains discoverable and accessible, no matter how much time passes

Bene ts of publishing open access with Elsevier include:

● High visibility – reach the audience your research deserves

● Proven trust – 140 years’ experience curating and verifying scienti c knowledge

● Top quality – rigorous standards & quality journals across the board

● Powerful innovation – access to state- of-the-art innovations that measure your impact and make your life easier

● Wide choice – select the publishing model that’s right for you

Find out more about publishing open access with Elsevier: elsevier.com/authors/ journal-authors/open-access

How to get your research published and then noticed

Gold and green open access

If you choose to publish a subscription article, we can still help you meet
your open access requirements All
our journals o er a green open access option, meaning you can post a version of your article in a repository a er an embargo, so people can access it freely

130 of our journals also have an open archive, where content becomes freely accessible a er a certain period

See Elsevier’s sharing policy for more information: elsevier.com/about/policies/ sharing

Gold open access

Green open access
(Sharing your subscription article)

Options

● Publish in an open access journal or in a journal which supports open access (hybrid)

● Link to your article
● Select a journal that features an open archive ● Select a journal that participates in CHORUS ● Self-archive a version of your article

Access

● Public access is to the nal published article

● Access is immediate

● Free access to a version of your article ● Time delay may apply (embargo period)

Fee

● Open access fee is paid by the author, or on their behalf for example by their institution or funding body

● Fees range between c$150 and c$5000 US Dollars excluding tax, depending on the journal with prices clearly displayed on our Article Publishing Charge (APC) price list and on journal homepages

● No fee is payable by the author as publishing costs are covered by library subscriptions

Use

● Authors can choose between a commercial and noncommercial user license

● Accepted manuscripts should attach a CC-BY-NC-ND user license

● Authors retain the right to reuse their articles for a wide range of purposes

Navigating the publishing process

How to get your research published and then noticed

Once you’ve checked (and re-checked!) your manuscript, you’re ready to submit it to the journal

Submission and revision can be the most frustrating part of the publication process Elsevier aims to take the pain out of submission with streamlined systems and processes

Once you’ve identi ed the journal to which you want to submit, you can nd the link to submit your manuscript on the journal homepage The submission system you’ll use – for example, Editorial Manager (EM) – will depend on the journal to which you are submitting

Find out more about submitting your manuscript: elsevier.com/authors/journal- authors/submit-your-paper

Check the status of your paper

A er submission, you can follow the status of your article in our electronic submission systems using a reference number that you’ll receive by email

If your paper is accepted for publication, you can follow the publication status through to completion using the “track your article” feature You’ll receive a reference number and link via email, a er nal decision

Article transfer service

The submission journey is rarely as simple as choosing a single journal
– you may need to submit your manuscript to multiple journals before you nd the right t

In Elsevier’s journal ecosystem, editors can recommend submissions for transfer to connected journals This transfer process takes you closer to the right journal faster And because you don’t need to reformat your manuscript, you will save time

Find out more about article transfers:

elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/ submit-your-paper

Agreements and licenses

When you publish with Elsevier, you enter into a legal agreement This means that both we at Elsevier and you as an author agree to certain rights and responsibilities and promise to act in a legally-sound manner

Protecting author rights

Copyright aims to protect the speci c way the article has been written to describe the research and its results Elsevier is committed to the protection and defense of its authors’ work and reputations We take allegations of infringement, plagiarism, ethical disputes and fraud very seriously

Publishing agreement

In order for Elsevier to be able to publish and disseminate your article, we need certain publishing permissions These permissions are de ned by a publishing agreement between the author and the publisher You’ll be asked to complete a journal publishing agreement or license during the time between your article’s acceptance and its nal version

End user license

If you’ve chosen to publish your article gold open access, you also select an end user license to determine how readers can share and use your article without having to request permission Elsevier o ers a choice between a commercial and a non-commercial user license, so you can select the license which suits your type of research (For health & medical science journals there are di erent regulations

What is the license process?

Always check your chosen journal for details )

Before choosing an end user license, we recommend that you:

● Understand what each user license permits, and the rights it grants to readers for using your article

● Check if your funding body or institution has a policy requiring the use of a speci c license

● Read your journal’s guide for authors to ensure it o ers the license you want to use

● Visit the Creativecommons.org site for more information on what to consider before selecting a user license (It’s important to note that you can’t revoke your chosen license )

More information is available at: elsevier. com/openaccesslicenses

Step 1:

Authors sign a publishing agreement where they will retain copyright but grant publishing rights to the publisher

Step 2:

Readers can use and share the article as de ned by the user license.

Step 3:

The author grants the publisher the right to publish the article under the applicable license.

Step 4:

The publisher makes the article available online with the author’s user license.

USER LICENSE

AUTHOR

Retains copyright

Publishes article under the user license

PUBLISHER

READER/USER

Grants publishing rights

Granted rights to reuse the article

How to get your research published and then noticed

Getting the most out of peer review

Peer review is the cornerstone of the academic publication process We rely on this process to uphold the quality and validity of individual articles and the journals that publish them As such, reviewers play a pivotal role in scholarly publishing

The peer review system exists to validate academic work, helps to improve the quality of published research, and increases networking possibilities within research communities There are several types of peer review; you can nd out what type of review a journal uses in the guide for authors

● Single blind review – the names of the reviewers are hidden from you as the author This is the traditional approach to peer review

● Double-blind review – the reviewer and author are both anonymous This limits bias, and articles are assessed on the content alone However, it is challenging to ensure total anonymity

● Triple-blind review – reviewers are anonymous, and the author’s identity is unknown to the reviewers and the editor Articles are anonymized at submission

● Open review – this is an umbrella term for several models The most common de nition is when reviewer and author are known to each other during the review process Open peer review can involve the publication of reviewers’ names, reviewer reports and author responses

Read more about peer review with Elsevier: elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is- peer-review

Learn the fundamentals of peer review with Researcher Academy: researcheracademy.elsevier.com/ navigating-peer-review/fundamentals-peer- review

Reviewer Hub

Manage and get credit for your work as a reviewer: elsevier.com/reviewers

As a researcher, you may review other people’s articles that journal editors send to you By doing this, you help to build knowledge in your eld – and you can hone your own article writing skills at the same time

This voluntary work takes time and e ort and can be challenging to manage alongside your own research The Reviewer Hub helps you manage the reviews you are invited to undertake and ensures you get credit for the work you put into them

After acceptance

Congratulations, your article has been accepted!

There are a few more things to consider that can optimize the publication of your work At Elsevier, we will do everything we can to have your article published as quickly and accurately as possible

Articles in press

Accepted articles are published online on ScienceDirect as an “article in press”, and in most cases are assigned to an issue almost immediately You can track your article and citations throughout this process

You can pass your Share Link on to colleagues, friends and family, and use
it to promote your article by email and on social media Anyone who clicks on your Share Link within the 50-day period will be taken directly to the article with no sign up or registration required A er the free access period, the usual access rules apply

Find out more about Share Links:

elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/ submit-your-paper/sharing-and- promoting-your-article/share-link

O prints

Some Elsevier journals provide o prints – an exact copy of the article published either on paper or as a PDF If your journal does not provide them, you can order o prints from Elsevier Author Services: webshop.elsevier.com You

can order from 50 to 250 o prints, in increments of 50, published on high- quality glossy paper and with optional covers

Proo ng

Accurate proofreading and clear marking of corrections are essential for the production of a quality article As soon as your article has been typeset, you’ll receive an email with either a link to it on our online proo ng system or a PDF attachment of your article

Share Links

When you publish with Elsevier, in most cases you will receive a Share Link – a customized link to your article on ScienceDirect that provides 50 days’ free access

Publishing ethically

Your publications re ect the quality of your work and of the work that happens at your institution Peer-reviewed articles are essential building blocks of knowledge, and they embody the scienti c method
It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior

Scienti c misconduct and breach of publishing ethics can take di erent forms and be committed knowingly or unknowingly Examples of misconduct and breaches include:

● Authorship disputes – deliberately misrepresenting a researcher’s relationship with published work

● Competing interests – not disclosing to a journal that you have a direct or indirect con ict which prevents you from being unbiased

● Plagiarism – passing o another’s work or idea as your own

● Simultaneous submission – submitting a paper to more than one publication at the same time

● Research fraud – including fabrication (making up research data) and falsi cation (manipulating research data, tables or images)

● Salami slicing – the “slicing-up”
of research that would form one meaningful paper into several di erent papers

Resources to help you ensure your work is carried out and published ethically.
The Ethics in Research & Publication Program is a collaboration between Elsevier and an independent panel of experts in research and publishing ethics The program’s online resources and tools have been developed to help you feel con dent that you’re doing the right things Resources include information on policies, topics to consider when you’re publishing and factsheets to support you in your e orts to promote research integrity See ethics.elsevier.com

How to get your research published and then noticed

CRediT

With the rise of genome-wide association studies and particle accelerators, multi- author papers are getting more frequent – and author lists longer When many authors are involved in a study, simply listing their names doesn’t provide much information With CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), each author’s contribution is made clear From conceptualization to writing, each

person involved in the work is properly acknowledged for their role CRediT statements should be provided during the submission process and appear above the acknowledgement section of the published paper

Find out more about CRediT: elsevier. com/authors/journal-authors/policies-and- ethics/credit-author-statement

Getting noticed

Congratulations on your publication! Now your paper is online, you can promote it – sharing your paper with colleagues, the media and the general public can help you take the next step with your research, by attracting funding and collaborators

More than 2 5 million scienti c articles are published each year, and that

Sharing your article

Elsevier supports responsible sharing.

Sharing and promoting your article form an important part of research,
in terms of fostering the exchange of scienti c information in your eld and allowing your paper to contribute to wider scienti c progress

You bene t from sharing the appropriate version of your article which ensures that:

● You always receive credit
● The integrity of the scienti c record is

not compromised

Responsible sharing in line with copyright enables publishers to sustain high quality journals and the services they provide to the research community

Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals at: elsevier.com/sharing-articles

number is rising So it’s increasingly important for you to nd ways to make your article stand out

Use these resources to share your article with the people who need it – and make an impact globally

elsevier.com/promote-your-work

Howcanishareit.com

There are many options to share your work so how do you know the best way to do it? Is it best to share your nal published article, or an earlier version? How can you be sure you’ll be credited properly?

The STM Association has created howcanishareit.com to answer your questions The tool helps explain how you can share articles published in academic journals It includes the “Can I Share It” look-up tool which provides users with an easy way to check where a journal article can be shared in line with the paper’s access and usage rights

Visit: howcanishareit.com

How to get your research published and then noticed

Share Links

When you publish with Elsevier, in most cases you will receive a Share Link – a customized link to your article on ScienceDirect that provides 50 days’ free access

Find out more about Share Links:

elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/ submit-your-paper/sharing-and- promoting-your-article/share-link

Increasing your visibility

It’s important to make sure people can nd you and links to your publications online There are a few easy ways to increase your online visibility

Update your pro les

If you have a personal page at your institute, include links to the nal versions of your articles on that page You should also ensure that your

CV is available online, with links to your publications You can do this on networking sites like LinkedIn, or on a personal website or blog

Finally, keep your SCOPUS and ORCID author pro les up to date so others can nd your articles You can now update both at orcid.scopusfeedback.com – just follow the easy online steps

Present at a conference

Presenting and networking personalizes your work, giving it a face and voice and can create new opportunities for collaboration Make sure you connect with other delegates on Facebook

and LinkedIn and direct them to your website or blog If you create a poster for a conference, post it on your website and provide links on your blog, social media pro les, online CV or institutional page

Write a lay summary

You’re busy sharing your article
and getting the word out to other researchers But what about people who aren’t subject matter experts? If you have ndings that matter to the general public, it’s important to be able to present your work in a way that people will understand

With a lay summary, you can help people without an academic background to access your results A lay summary is a short account of your paper written
in clear, non-technical language You can use it to explain your research, your ndings and why they matter

At Elsevier, several journals give you the ability to publish a lay summary of your article, helping you reach a wider audience with your research