Researcher Academy@XJTLU Library: Seminars & Training Events

Researcher Academy Learning Day Successfully Held Online on 25 May 2022

Researcher Academy Learning Day, organised by XJTLU Library, was successfully held online on 25 May 2022.

There were 4 inspirational sessions respectively, sharing insights from premium journal editor and publishing professionals. Ms. Melissa Wagner (Vice President of Editorial, IGI Global), Ms. Marisa Ruccolo (Customer Success Architect, Clarivate), Dr. Huaiju Wang (Scientific Editor, Cell Press), and Ms. Chentong Hao (Author Services Presentative, Cambridge University Press) gathered to discuss different topics of scholarly communication, including academic publishing, open access, paper discoverability, journal selection, manuscript writing and submission, etc..  Over 150 researchers in and around XJTLU registered for the event and there were more than 80 members of audience per session in average.

With researchers' enthusiasm, interactional Q&A sessions were contributed to during the Day. 5 frequently asked questions are selected as below:

Q1: If I got refused, will I receive a refusal with the real reason?
A1: The editors in chief are responsible for all of such decisions. If the article was rejected, you should receive a notification saying that was rejected and providing reasons why. We (IGI Global) make sure our editors in chief transparent with why an article is rejected and the way in the future you can embrave it in order to be accepted. If you have any questions about the reasons, you could always feel free to reach back out to the editor in chief.
And sometimes an article is rejected because it is not that relevant to the submitted journal’s scope. Our editors will let the author know the circumstance and can also help to find better appropriate journals for the article.

Q2: Is it possible to receive conflicting comments from different reviewers?
A2: Yes. That’s why we encourage 2-3 reviewers in the peer-review process. It is not rare that one reviewer may say “Yes, I would like to recommend it to be published” while the other may say “No, I don’t recommend it”. At that point, editors will look into these comments and usually assign it to another reviewer. Afterwards editors will look at reviewers’ comments as well as the article itself and see whether they would recommend it.

Q3: Is it true that Open Access publishing can be processed more quickly?
A3: Yes, they can. There are a few different reasons. The first reason is that for Open Access publishing, we are sensitive to the fact that authors are paying the process charge so that we want to make sure the article be published as soon as possible after the editor in chief accept it. The other reason is that there are not any embargo periods so that it can be released online to be shared to everyone as soon as the article is accepted. It is because we’re not having to worry about trying to take that article bundling to a full issue and print it.

Q4: Is there any difference between the preparation of a review manuscript and that of a research manuscript?
A4: For a review manuscript, it is very important that you first check with the journals and the editors whether they are interested in such a review before you start to write it. Because many articles of reviews are invited by journals. The other sides of preparation are more or less the same but you may focus more on giving a detailed account of this area. You also need to provide some of your own opinions as a review is not just a literature about what has been published but also your input of what you think is important in this field and how you think the field has progressed.

Q5: How to avoid repetitive contents in the results and discussion sections if we need to emphasise the significance of certain findings in both sections?
A5: If the result and discussion sections are separated, then in the result section you may stick strictly to scientific results, observations, graphics, etc., which allows readers to keep in mind those results unusual. While the discussion section is where you can refer to other literatures and scientific knowledge in order to provide the understanding of these results, and also where you highlight the significance.

Researcher Academy @ XJTLU Library is a scholarly communication theme project by XJTLU Library. It aims to guide researchers, especially early-career researchers through different phases of the research cycle, from research preparation to publishing and disseminating research, introducing various research and scholarly communication topics. The next scholarly communication event will be held in October 2022. The Library looks forward to seeing you at our event.

For reviewing other questions and answers, as well as the wonderful speeches, feel free to click HERE for the whole recordings of the event.