The Long Steps for Publishing a Scientific Paper

Reject decision letter           Accept decision letter

1. Introduction

Up until now, the author has submitted several original papers to international journals, and after being rejected several times, they have finally been accepted and published in one of the international journals.

This time, the author submitted a paper on the learning formation of operant behavior by reinforcing audiovisual stimuli in the common marmoset, a small monkey, to various international journals. However, this paper was rejected by nine different journals over four years, and finally, on the tenth attempt, it was accepted by the International Journal of Comparative Psychology (IJCP). It was truly a case of "false down nine times, get up ten times."

The details of this submission trials are summarized in Table 1. Here, the history of the paper, from the first journal, Scientific Reports, to the tenth journal, IJCP, where it was accepted, is shown in descending order of submission order. The publisher of each academic journal, the author's submission date, and the number of days until the editor notifies the author of the result of rejection or acceptance are also listed. In addition, the cost (in US$) paid by the author for open access publication in the case of acceptance is also shown. The open access publication format is described in detail later.

The above article was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Comparable Psychology (IJCP). 

URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06k3f6x5

Most of the reviewers of the above academic journals are top researchers in the field, and they read our paper thoroughly and responded seriously to it free of charge from their own precious research time. As a result, yhr author received many very harsh but appropriate comments. As a result, the content of the paper was improved every time it was rejected. At the same time, the author had the opportunity to learn about the current characteristics of the paper review process of various academic journals.

As for the content of this experiment, the iPad screen was divided into nine sections, and small videos of different monkeys were simultaneously presented in each section without any sound. When the marmoset touched one of the videos, the video was enlarged to fill the screen, and the monkey's calls were presented to the marmoset through the iPad speaker. This allowed us to explore whether the marmoset would actively seek out the enlarged monkey videos and their calls by touching the iPad section, that is, whether the enlarged videos and the presentation of the monkey's calls could be a reinforcing stimulus for the establishment of the screen touch operant behavior.

In normal operant learning behavior, learning is formed using reinforcing stimuli such as food or juice by pressing a lever or touching an iPad screen. However, this time, for the first time, this paper reported that instead, changes in audiovisual stimuli such as enlarged videos and monkey cries can be reinforcing stimuli.

In our modern daily lives, we often observe people becoming absorbed in their smartphones or tablets. This is especially evident when riding a train. And it is problematic that such absorption can sometimes become excessive and reach the level of dependence syndrome (addiction). Therefore, we have thought that it is very significant to establish such behavioral models in laboratory animals. It is usually considered difficult to form and establish such learning behavior in laboratory animals. In particular, it has been said that stable and strong learning behavior cannot be established with audiovisual stimuli that are not reinforcing stimuli such as food or water in rats and mice.

The content of the establishment of audiovisual reinforcement learning behavior using marmosets in this study was not easily understood even by the reviewers and editors of international academic journals. After nine rejections, the paper's arguments were clearly organized and improved, and on the tenth attempt, it was accepted by the International Journal of Comparative Psychology (IJCP). The IJCP is a publishing system called eScholarship at the University of California. This means that if a paper is accepted after review, the full text is made available online. Meanwhile, readers can read the full text for free and freely. In other words, despite the IJCP being an open access journal, there is no cost to the author, which is a blessing.

Currently, there are two types of academic journals: open access journals as described above, and those that are traditional subscription-based but also have the option of an open access format in the electronic version. When an open access format is selected for an open access journal or subscription-based journal, the author generally has to pay a high open access publication processing fee to the publisher after the paper review decision is made. However, in the case of traditional subscription journals, if the author does not choose the open access format, the paper is published in the paper and on the electronic bulletin board of the subscription journal, and the author does not incur any costs for publishing the paper. On the other hand, if the reader wants to read the full text of the paper, he or she must register as a member with the publisher, pay the publisher several thousand yen per paper, and download the paper as a PDF from the electronic version on the Internet. However, if the library of the reader's university or research institution regularly subscribes to the academic journal in which the paper is published, the reader can read the paper for free from the library. However, libraries cannot afford to subscribe to many expensive academic journals these days.

In the history of traditional paper-based subscription journals, academic journals first developed into electronic versions on the Internet. From this trend, a new method of dedicated academic journals that are only in open access format has emerged. Authors have a strong motivation to allow readers around the world to freely read the full text, not just the abstract. To achieve this, authors must pay hundreds of thousands of yen, or in some cases close to a million yen, to publishers as an online article processing fee after their article is accepted, as a condition for choosing the open access format. This has created an advantage for readers, as they can freely read the full text online for free. In this system, authors are left feeling dissatisfied with why they have to pay such a high fee to publishers for their own articles that have undergone rigorous review, even though they are not self-published.

Publishers probably believe that they have created an open access format as an excellent business model that focuses on the supply and demand relationship between readers and authors. For the development of academic culture, it is extremely important that publishing businesses are financially independent and stable for many years. Everyone also understands that research requires enormous resources and costs money. Publishers may think that article processing and publishing fees should be budgeted in advance into such costs. However, will the current situation in which publishers charge authors high article processing fees continue forever? The author believes that adjustments will be made in the future to determine the optimal solution for the cost burden for the three parties: authors, readers, and publishers. This is especially true after experiencing the free open access model of IJCP.

As IJCP was published through the above-mentioned university system, the article publishing fee was free, as mentioned above, even though it was an open access format. However, it took several months from the acceptance of the article to its publication, and unlike major academic publishers that make their living as a business, the notification of the review results and the editing process after the article was accepted were slow. The author suspects that they probably do not have the financial means to hire full-time professional proofreaders, and that university staff and others are in charge of the editing process. The author also felt that the online article submission system of IJCP was not very complete. On the other hand, the aauthor felt that open access journals that can charge high article publishing fees have a system that is easy to understand and friendly for submitters, and that there is an incentive to minimize the time from the acceptance of the article to publication. This is because publishers have a tremendous incentive to receive the high publication processing fee.

The history of the current IJCP journal is not very long, and the impact factor, which is the average number of citations of the papers published there, is not high. In addition, the contents of the papers published there have not been felt to be particularly advanced. However, once an individual paper is published online, anyone in the world can search for it and read the full text of the paper. The author believes that the value of the content of the paper is ultimately evaluated by the readers. In fact, in open access journals, objective indicators such as how many readers have viewed each paper and how many times it has been cited are displayed in real time using indicators such as Metrics. This means that the performance of each individual paper can be known in addition to indicators such as the average number of citations for a specific academic journal, such as the impact factor.

Therefore, the author believes that the publication of full text of papers in a system where anyone can freely search for it on the Internet and the full text can be read by anyone will continue to evolve to some extent in the future, even if we do not insist on journals with a high impact factor. Through the experience of submition and acceptance of this paper, the author also thought about the relationship between television broadcasting and YouTube. That is, instead of traditional "authoritative" television broadcasting, attention is being paid to the social impact of YouTube, even though it is a mixture of good and bad. YouTube is freely available to everyone for free. It will be extremely interesting to see whether academic journal styles like IJCP will evolve and become a counter force to publishers that are protected by history, tradition, and authority and have established themselves as huge businesses. In other words, the author would like to keep an eye on whether a breakthrough will come in the form of a university-led free open access format like IJCP, as opposed to the high open access publishing fees that major publishers charge authors after their papers are accepted. However, IJCP is not sufficient as it is now, and it would be desirable to have a faster process from paper acceptance to publication.

By the way, if your paper is rejected nine times, it is natural to lose confidence and feel like giving up. However, the author felt a strong desire to fulfill his ultimate responsibility as a researcher by publishing a paper, both to the co-researchers who engaged in this research and to the research institute that supported this research.

From this experience of publishing a paper, the author would like to discuss the process and significance of publishing a paper from a more general perspective.

2. The importance of publishing a paper in research

The author has come to believe that when a researcher obtains results from an experiment, they must turn it into a paper. As for presenting at a conference, even if it is an international conference, the author believes that it is ultimately just one step toward compiling the results into a paper. Experimental research requires huge resources such as facilities, manpower, and experimental materials. Therefore. the author believes that the researcher who led the research has an obligation to report the research accomplished against such a background in the form of a paper that is commensurate with the research.

In corporate research, there are many circumstances that make it impossible to publish depending on the stage, but the author believes that the research content is naturally summarized in the company's research report. In addition, in a research institute, it is essential to have excellent engineers who support research as well as researchers. In addition to writing papers, engineers must have the necessary skills for research and the ability to properly conduct experiments using those skills. In this position, engineers are expected to achieve better technical improvement rather than writing papers in the same way as researchers. However, if possible, engineers should also be trained to compile research into technical reports, etc. In addition, at the research institute where the author has been affiliated, many technical staff members made tremendous contributions to research support by excellent engineers and the development of medically useful experimental animals.

When research funds are provided by the government, etc., the author thinks it is important for researchers to compile and publish the results of their research in the form of an original paper in addition to reporting them to the sponsor. Here, the premise is that the research conducted at great expense will be published in an international academic journal, in the sense of contributing to the scientific world. This is because the publication will be registered in PubMed, etc., and the contents can be searched for around the world, at least through abstracts. If it is an open access journal, the full text can be read by anyone on the Internet, and even if it is not, readers can purchase and read the full text PDF of the paper at their own expense. Although such individual research information may be only a small part of the vast world of science, by accumulating and searching this information, a whole foundation of science that will be useful for further research development will be built. The author calls this "construction of a pyramid of knowledge."

Research can have more freedom than other jobs. Without it, new discoveries and developments cannot be expected. In a world with such freedom, it is natural that researchers should be bound to at least compile their research in a paper. The content of published papers is one of the evaluations of obtaining a degree at a university, employment there, and promotion, and how meaningful research results have been achieved. The publication of papers to date is also an important factor in evaluation in obtaining public research funds. The author thinks that excessive paper supremacy and extreme obsession with impact factors are off the mark. However, the importance of publishing original papers in international academic journals as one way of objectively showing research achievements cannot be denied.

3. The process of publishing a paper

In order to publish the contents of research, a prerequisite is that an experimental plan to achieve a clear research objective and the implementation of that research are carried out. The author will not go into this any further, but it is only with this prerequisite that it is possible to describe the clarity of the purpose of the paper content and the logical implementation consistency.

First of all, it is important to carefully consider the structure of the paper and how to convey the results obtained in an easy-to-understand manner. For experimental data, it is important to verify the accuracy of raw data and analytical data, and as a prerequisite, it is necessary that records of research data are accurately and orderly organized. It is also necessary to have check implementation records that prove that there are no errors in the raw data and analytical data.

In the end, in order to be able to prove to a third party that these things have been ensured, the author think it is a good idea to refer to the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards required for obtaining safety data for pharmaceuticals. The three major concepts of GLP implementation are "accuracy" of the data obtained, "storability" that data and records are properly organized and stored, and "reconstructibility" that allows experiments to be logically and virtually reproduced based on the above. The author believes that this is a basic concept required in basic science experiments as well. The author believes that no matter how many times we hold seminars like moral education talks in research facilities every time a problem of falsification or misconduct occurs, it will have little effect. If this continues, falsification and misconduct in paper data will never be traced.

The author has always thought that the acquisition and practice of GLP standards, which are routinely implemented in pharmaceutical safety evaluation research, should be introduced more in basic research facilities. Even if you dislike troublesome procedures, you should not be reluctant to spend a little time and effort, considering that data errors, fraud, or falsification could later be discovered and ruin your career as a researcher. In other words, if you acquire GLP-like research practices, you will develop a sense that you cannot conduct experiments with confidence unless you follow these standards.

4. Which international academic journal to publish in

When you have compiled your research into a paper, there is the issue of which academic journal to submit it to. If possible, it is better to finish your research in English from the start of your research life and submit it to an international academic journal. This is because English is the common language of the research-based scientific world.

There are countless international academic journals in English. It is fine to aim to submit to a highly reputed academic journal from the beginning, but you should first choose an academic journal that suits your research topic. It will inevitably be one of the journals cited in your paper. The level of academic journals is ranked by indicators such as impact factor, which is an average number of citations of papers published in that journal. At first, the author thought that there was no need to be too concerned about that. First, the author chose an academic journal that deals with a topic close to my research topic, wrote a paper according to its submission guidelines, and submitted it to that journal.

If possible, it is better to choose an open access format in which not only the abstract but the entire text can be read by anyone online for free if the paper is accepted. However, in this case, as mentioned above, if the paper is accepted, the author must pay several hundred thousand yen to the publisher as a paper publication fee. This can only be incorporated into the research budget in advance. Predatory journals that take advantage of the high publication fee should be avoided.

5. Specific methods for selecting academic journals to submit to

You may be worried about which academic journals are best to submit your paper to. Once you have completed a draft of your paper, there are several systems on the Internet that allow you to search for an academic journal to submit it to.

One of these is Elsevier Journal Finder. Click on the URL below:

https://journalfinder.elsevier.com/

Then the following screen will appear.

Next, copy and paste the abstract of the paper into the box. As an example, the author entered the abstract of the above paper, “Tablet screen-touch behavior with audiovisual stimulus consequences in the common marmoset (Callithrix Jacchus)” and clicked “Find journals”. As a result, the candidate journals shown in the figure below were displayed. Each journal’s Impact Factor, Cite Score, Time to First Decision, Time to Acceptance, Acceptance Rate, Open Access paper publishing processing fee, etc. are listed here.

9. Conclusion

It is a long journey from writing up the research you have conducted into a paper to publishing it in an international academic journal. There are many reasons why you may feel that you cannot find time to write a paper due to being overwhelmed with your daily work. There are many moments along the way when you may feel like giving up. However, the author believes that it is the duty of the researcher who led the research to publish the results in the form of a paper once the research has been conducted. It is a great loss for individuals, affiliated institutions, and society if a project that has required a lot of manpower, materials, facilities, time, and other resources is buried without seeing the light of day. Apart from reports related to trade secrets, etc., when pure academic research is conducted, if it is not published in a paper, it will remain only as the researcher's personal experience. Such valuable experiences will eventually travel into oblivion. The author believes that this is the same as publicly wasting the resources spent there. The author did not think deeply about this from the start of his career as a researcher, but he came to this conclusion as a kind of self-reflection.