Publishing Your Work in

Peer-Reviewed Journals
Presenter
Affiliation
Location and Date of Presentation
 Overview
 Preparing to write your  Sections of an article
manuscript  Submission process
 Types of papers  Peer review process
 Journal selection  OSA and partner journals
 Ethical guidelines
 Defining authorship
 Preparing to Write Your Manuscript
 What is the novelty?
 What is the message?
 Put it in context—need appropriate refs
 Have it read by others
 Don’t make it longer (or shorter) than needed
 Invest time in writing well
 Preparing to Write Your Manuscript
 Choose appropriate co-authors
 Choose appropriate journal (don’t aim too high and
don’t aim too low)
 There’s more to a journal than its Impact Factor
 Read the journal’s Author webpage
 Use the correct format
 Types of Papers
 Research articles
 Reviews
 Letters
 Comments/Replies
 Discussion
 Errata
 Conference proceedings
 Journal Selection
 Specialized  broad interest
 Theoretical  applied
 Full-length letter
 Subscription  open access
 Timeliness of publication process
 Journal reputation
 Ethical Guidelines
 Obtain necessary clearances
 Submit to one journal at a time
 Declare any conflicts of interest
 Give proper attribution
 Obtain permissions
 Do not fabricate data
 Comply with internationally recognized principles for
use of animal and human subjects in research
 Defining Authorship
 Authors make substantive contributions:
• Basic physical ideas or discussion
• Laboratory experiments
• Detailed calculations
 All authors share responsibility
and accountability for
publication content
 Alternatives for Assigning Credit
 Citation
Private conversations referenced in publications
only with permission
 Acknowledgement
Contribution is not significant enough to list as
author, must obtain permission first
 Types of Authorship
 Lead author: Primary responsibility, most substantial
contribution, usually first author
 Submitting author: Deals with journal
 Corresponding author: Person interested individuals
contact, predictable address; usually submitting author
 Last author: Alphabetical or least contributor, sometimes
head of lab
 What Order?
 In some fields, student is first author if based primarily
on Ph.D. dissertation
 Order is often independent of relative status/rank of
authors
 Should be discussed at start
 Change order only with permission of all
 No addition of authors after submission
 Discussing Authorship
 Should begin at start of research
 Open and professional discussion
 Order may reflect contribution or could be alphabetical
 Identify expected contributions, roles, and tasks of each
potential author
 Can change over time, renegotiate as needed (prior to
submission)
 Authorship and Submission
 List affiliations of each author
 Allow all authors to review and comment
prior to submission
 Journal will send email to
all authors – be ethical!
 Sections of an Article
Title is informative, accurate, concise
Example of good title:
Repetitively pulsed tunable dye laser for high
resolution spectroscopy
Example of bad title:
A Unique, Novel Object-Detection Model that
Improves upon that of Wang et al.
 Sections of an Article
Abstract
 Problem and objectives
 Methodology
 Findings and Conclusion
 Research’s effect and impact
Check journal style guide for abstract length
restrictions
 Sections of an Article
Introduction
 Problem to be addressed
 Background and literature review
 New developments and principle results
 Research purpose and method
 Sections of an Article
Main Body of Paper
 Problem
 Theory and experiment
 Results
 Figures/multimedia
 Sections of an Article
Discussion
 Results viewed in larger context
 Comparison with other related work
 Significance
 Sections of an Article
Conclusion
 Summary (no new information)
 Statement of specific conclusions
 Future consideration
 Sections of an Article
References
 Numerical order by appearance
 Follow journal’s style guide
 EndNote and Bibtex
 Sections of an Article
Appendices
 Supplementary material
 Material valuable for specialist

Acknowledgments
 Technical assistance/useful comments
 Financial support/disclosures
 Writing Your Paper in English
 Grammar, punctuation, spelling, terminology
 Logical sentence structure, clarity of content
 Common weakness is omission or misuse of “the” and “a”
 Suggestions
• Use shorter sentences

• Read papers in English in

leading research journals
• Ask colleagues for help
 Basic Acceptance Criteria:
Standard Research Articles
 Work relevant to journal scope
 Results significant to field
 Incremental work discouraged
 Discussion, conclusions supported by data
 Work placed in proper context
 Equations, figures, tables, multimedia contribute to
presentation
 Well-written and logically organized
 Before You Submit
Language Review
 http://languageediting.osa.org
Style review
 Journal style guide
 Browse published articles
Follow online submission process
Submission Process (OSA)
Prism http://prism.osapublishing.org
 Submission Process
Select appropriate journal
 Submission Process
Manuscript Information
 Note if for a feature issue
 Note related papers
 Novelty/impact
statement
 Submission Process
Upload
 Word, TeX
 Cover letter
 Author
response
 Submission Process
Supplementary Material
 Visualization
 Tabular data
 Dataset
 Code
 Submission Process
OCIS Codes
 Add keywords
 Select primary code
 Enter same codes
as listed on the
paper
 Free-form keywords
 Submission Process
Co-authors
 E-mail address
required
 Notified when
submission
completed
 Submission Process
Reviewer suggestions
 3 names
requested
 Designate
non-preferred
 Submission Process
Fees and Funding
 Provide all funding
sources
 OA journals have
article processing
charges
 Overlength charges
 Submission Process
Copyright agreement
 Authors transfer
copyright to OSA
 Retain rights for
author reuse
 Submission Process
Submission completed!
 Auto acknowledgment sent
 Official submission
confirmation will
follow
 Peer Review Process (OSA)
1. Initial quality check by staff, Editor
2. Editor in Chief assigns appropriate associate/topical
editor
3. Associate/topical editor handles manuscript
 contacts possible referees
 waits for reports
 makes first decision
 makes final decision
 manuscript sometimes sent for rereview
 Peer Review Process
Reviewer recommendations
 Accepted as is
 Rejected
 Referred to more
appropriate journal
 Revise and resubmit
Peer review comments should help produce a
better manuscript
 Peer Review Process
Manuscript Decisions
 Editor makes decision after peer review
 If revisions are requested
• Authors may resubmit revised manuscript
• Cover letter should explain each change
• Editor may refer back to review
• Editor makes final decision
 Peer Review Process
Suggest a few referees, but make sure that:
 They are not just the big names in the field
 They are not closely linked to you
 OK to ask for reviewers to be excluded; don’t go
overboard
 Associate Editor is not required to grant request
(though generally tries)
 Peer Review Process
Dealing with referee’s comments:
 Referees are not your enemy—consider them allies who
can help improve your manuscript
 Treat them seriously (one revision allowed)
 Deal with each and every point, even if you do not agree
 OK to make additional changes
 Do not cast aspersions on referees or try to guess their
identity (you are likely to be wrong)
 Be courteous to referees and editors
 Peer Review Process
If manuscript is rejected:
 Act on reviewers comments before submitting elsewhere
 OSA strongly discourages resubmitting rejected papers to
other OSA journals
 You can appeal but most are turned down
 Advice: put in your drawer for a week or two weeks,
reread referee reports, rewrite and submit to other journal
 Your Participation in the Process
 Referees and Editors are volunteers
 Be generous with your own time as a reviewer
 Refereeing is a necessary cv item, shows engagement
in the community
 Refereeing record is considered for Editorial Board
candidates
 Point out suspicions of unethical behavior
Comments or Questions?

For a copy of slides or further questions,

contact me at
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OSA Journals
OSA Partner Journals
 OSA Publishing

17 peer-reviewed journals, plus conference

proceedings and OPN magazine
35% of all articles published within ISI Optics
category
40% of all citations within
ISI Optics category
Time-to-publication ranges from 64-167 days
 Optics Letters

All areas of optics & photonics

Rapid dissemination
4-page limit
2015 Impact Factor: 3.040
1,500 articles published in 2015
Median time to publication: 70 days
Acceptance rate: <40%
 Optics Letters Acceptance Criteria

Newsworthiness to substantial part of optics community

Need for rapid dissemination of novel results
High-quality scientific and technical
content
Paper likely to make a major impact on
the research field
High-quality presentation of findings
Paper does not require major revisions
Optics Letters Groundbreaking Research
Optics Letters has published key papers and
groundbreaking research in numerous areas,
including:
Optical Phase Conjugation
Bragg Gratings
Photonic Crystal Fibers
Optical Coherence Tomography
Optical Trapping
Femtosecond Laser Pulses
 Optics Letters
Nobel-Prize-Winning Authors
Numerous Nobel Prize Winners have published in Optics Letters:

Eric Betzig Stefan W. Hell

Nicolaas Bloembergen William Moerner
John L. Hall Arthur Schawlow
Theodor W. Hänsch David Wineland
Serge Haroche
THANK YOU
Presenter
Affiliation
E-mail address