How To Get Your Paper Published

Yasar Ahmed
September 7, 2019 | Barcelona, Spain
DISCLOSURES

NOTHING TO DECLARE
 PLANNING
FOR
PUBLICATION
Don’t get your manuscript rejected for
technical reasons
 Choose the Right Journal
Primary Mediastinal Large B-cell Lymphoma. Adjuvant
Radiotherapy Improve Outcome After Immunotherapy

Safety and efficacy of regional trans-arterial infusion

chemotherapy combined with lipiodol chemoembolization
against advanced cancer of the gastric fundus and cardia
 Choose the Right Journal - contd
• How do you decide between various journals
in the same category ?
 Familiarity
 Impact Factor
 Impact Factor is not the only consideration
 Impact Factor Top 3 Respiratory Journals

1. Lancet Respiratory Medicine 22.992

2. Am Journal of Resp and Critical Care Medicine 16.494
3. Journal of Thoracic Oncology 12.460
 Pre-submission Inquiries
• Is your manuscript within the scope of the journal ?
• Is the manuscript meritorious enough ?
• You can query several journals at the same time
• A positive response to a pre-submission inquiry is not a
guarantee that the manuscript will be sent for peer
review or accepted
 | 9

General structure of a research article

 Title
 Abstract
 Keywords

 Introduction
 Methods
 Results and Discussion

 Conclusion
 Acknowledgements
Read the Guide for Authors for
 References the specific
criteria of your
 Supporting target journal.
Materials
 You can select Peer Reviewers
• Avoid obvious conflicts of interests (don’t suggest
your friends)
• Consider individuals you have cited
• Is there anyone you would not want to review your
work ?
 | 11

Effective manuscript titles

• Attract reader’s attention
• Contain fewest possible words
• Adequately describe content
• Are informative but concise
• Identify main issue
• Not a question
• Do not use technical jargon and rarely-used abbreviations
 | 12

Not like this

Three Different Ethnic Group-Based Data: Relevance of
Docetaxel-Related Febrile Neutropenia to Patient-Reported
Symptoms and Quality of Life in Japanese, East Asian
(Korea, Taiwan) and Non-East Asian Patients Based on
Results from 2 Randomized Clinical Trials of Docetaxel with
and without Antiangiogenic Agent in Advanced Non-Small
Cell Lung Cancer after Progression on Platinum-Based
Chemotherapy
 | 13

or this…….
• Taking selenium plus zinc reduced the risk of
developing lung cancer in high risk subjects over
the age of 55 in a randomized control trial

• Selenium plus zinc reduces the risk of lung

cancer in high risk individuals
 | 14

Keywords
• Are the labels of the manuscript
• Are used by indexing and abstracting services
• Should be specific
• Should use only established abbreviations (e.g. DNA not
IO)
Check the Guide for Authors for specifics on which keywords should be
used.
Article title Keywords
“Selenium plus zinc reduces the “Selenium, zinc, lung cancer risk,
risk of lung cancer in high risk prevention”
individuals”
 | 15

Abstract
• Summary of problem, methods, results, and conclusions
• Make it interesting and understandable
• Make it accurate and specific
• A clear abstract will strongly influence whether
or not your work is considered
• Keep it as brief as possible

Take the time to write the abstract very carefully. Many authors
write the abstract last so that it accurately reflects the content of
the paper.
Quality of the manuscript
Why?
How?
So What?
 | 17

Why? : The Introduction

• Convince reviewers that the question you are
addressing is important
• Novel
• Important
• Has implications for patient care and/or research
• Not duplicative
 | 18

Why?: The Introduction contd

Write a unique introduction for every article. DO
NOT reuse introductions.

• You know about plagiarism

• But remember, there is also SELF-PLAGIARISM
 Example : Consolidation Chemotherapy may Improve
Survival for Patients with Locally Advanced NSCLC
Receiving Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy
• Retrospective review : pts treated with concurrent CRT from 2001 to
2010 (203 pts, 113 received CCT).
Randomized Phase III Trials Have Shown Consolidation
Chemotherapy to NOT improve survival after chemoRT
• Hanna et al J Clin Oncol. 2008 (203 pts stopped by DSMB for
futility)
• Jalal SI et al Ann Oncol. 2012 Jul;23(7):1730-8.
 | 20

How?: Methods
• Adequate sample size
• Statistical design – you need a statistician !!!
• Appropriate Controls
• Describe such that someone else can duplicate
your study or understand what you did
• Ethics Committee Approval !!!
 | 21

So what ?: Discussion
• Why should anyone care about your findings ?
• Are readers going to use these results as a basis
for future studies ? Patient care ?
• IMPACT !!!
 Language Editing Services
• JTO web site, under For Authors tab, there is a list of such editing services. Here is the
link:
• http://journals.lww.com/jto/_layouts/1033/oaks.journals/editservices.aspx
• American Journal Experts
• Bio Science Writers
• Boston BioEdit
• Enago
• ScienceDocs
• SPI Publisher Services
• Text Check
• The Medical Editor
FINAL TIPS
 Three Questions to Answer

• Why?
• How?
• So What?

yasarahmed@hse.ie