Helping Research writing for student & professional researchers Research Writing
The requirements for publication of research differ among different journals. The researcher should read the instructions provided by the journal’s website about the submission criteria. The researcher can also contact the journal editorial board to get any question answered. You should know about the general and specific requirements of the journal where you want to submit your research for publication. Following are some general rules and guidelines that every researcher should observe before submitting any research for publication. These guidelines provide a general idea about the expectations of the journals for publication of your research. These guidelines especially tell the researchers about their responsibilities in preparing their research for publication.
Authorship responsibility
The manuscript that is submitted for publication should be decided for authorship and order of authorship (if there are more than one author involved). The authors should discuss about the authorship order before they submit their research to a journal. There should not be any conflicts regarding intellectual property rights or any other ownership.
There are cases where the manuscript has been submitted for publication and then another person claims authorship. Sometimes there are published research that other person claim to be their. The editor of the journal usually contacts the persons involved and the institution or other organizations that sponsored the research to resolve such conflicts.
Mechanics of writing
The researcher should make sure that the mechanics of writing are properly followed throughout the research paper. Researchers who are not well familiar with the language in which they are publishing their research may find problems in fulfilling this responsibility. The editorial section of the journal will not help you in editing any grammar or wording error they encounter in your research. It is your responsibility to edit and review for any such error before submitting for publication of research. If you are not well aware of the language and its mechanics you can ask for help from someone who has expertise in the language as well as in your topic. There are online services that provide help in editing the research. The online editing services are very efficient in copyediting and will give you fool-proof results.
Presentation
The way a research paper is presented to the journal highly effect its approval or rejection for publication. Poor quality of presentation sometimes make the editors misinterpret the content of the research. Good presentation will add to the quality of a good research.
Formatting
The format of the research should comply with the requirements of the journals well as the requirements of the citation system of your research. The journal that you are submitting your research should be fine with the citation system that you have used in your research. You should know common requirements of the citation system: typeface, font size, font color, line spacing, margin, indentation, paragraphing and alignment of pages. You can read the rules and guidelines suggested by the citation systems in their manuals, for example, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provides detailed instructions on the formatting of the text in the research paper. For other citation styles like Chicago Style of Citation read Chicago Manual of Style of Citation Online.
Order of the research
Order the pages in the manner that is specified by the citation style of your research. Generally, the research manuscript begins with the title page. The title page is followed by the abstract, introduction, review of literature, materials and methods, results, discussions, conclusions, references, tables, figures, and in the end appendices. Each section of the research should begin on a separate new page.
Page numbers
Use the word processing software to type the page numbers as well as the header of each section. The page numbers should be typed using the page number option in the word software. Do not type page numbers separately on each page by hand. It will be difficult to edit them later if the numbers are typed by hand on each page. Word software can easily identify if a page has been removed or any other change and can take care of the page numbers. Before submitting your research for publication check each page for correct pagination and header.
Cover letter
You have to address the cover letter to the editor of the journal. Check the name of the editor of the journal use correct spellings and follow the instructions to submit the cover letter. In general, the cover letter should include the following information about your research. Include in the cover letter the title of the research manuscript and the number of pages. You can provide a recommendation of a person who can review your research manuscript. You should also write in the cover letter about the ethical and legal standards that you followed in your research. Also inform them about your contact information that should include your mailing address, telephone number or any other contact number and email address.
Supplemental material
You can provide additional documents with your research manuscript that can aid in the approval of your research publication. These additional documents should be separately filed so that they can be identified from the main manuscript. There should be proper titles for each additional work or file that you have provided. The title should be self explanatory so the reader can understand and expect what could be found inside.
References
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Sixth Ed. American Psychological Association: Washington D. C. (2010).Pp- 228-231.
- “Rules of Writing Mechanics and all Kinds of Language”. All Kinds of Minds. https://www.allkindsofminds.org/getting-thoughts-on-paper-rules-of-writing-mechanics-and-written-language
- “Statement of Publication Ethics.” The University of Chicago Press Journal. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/publication-ethics-statement
