Publishing Scientific Articles

[DRZion]

Hello all,
What is the most straightforward way to publish a physics article?

I'm not well acquainted with any physics journals, and I'm thinking of doing it online. Preferably I'm looking for something not too high profile but completely legit.

Whats the difference between peer review and non-peer reviewed? Is everything in non-peer reviewed journals rubbish?

And if I want some guarantee that no one will rip off my work, what should I do?

Thanks for the help!

 

[synthesizer-patel]

Hello all,
What is the most straightforward way to publish a physics article?

I'm not well acquainted with any physics journals, and I'm thinking of doing it online. Preferably I'm looking for something not too high profile but completely legit.

Whats the difference between peer review and non-peer reviewed? Is everything in non-peer reviewed journals rubbish?

And if I want some guarantee that no one will rip off my work, what should I do?

Thanks for the help!

For a comprehensive list of journals in your particular subject field go here:

http://admin-apps.isiknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?RQ=HOME

hit the radio button for "View a group of journals by" then go to the drop-down for "Subject Category" - hit Submit

scroll down the list until you find the physics journals that seem closest to the particular area of research that you want to publish on (you can select more than one), and that will bring up a list of journals for you.

To figure out the profile of the journal, looking at the impact factor score is a reasonably good guide - anything over 2.5 is pretty good.

Another way to go about it is to go here:

http://apps.isiknowledge.com/WOS_Ge...T2mjiAhdBLoOCOGMAJl&search_mode=GeneralSearch

then search for articles that contain the particular keywords that relate to the particular subject you want to publish on - this will give you an idea of which journals are giving your particular field of study the most attention, and therefore might be the ones most likely to be interested in publishing your work - especially if you cite their previous articles on that subject as that improves that journals citation index.

from there you can find the website address of the journal - or the publishing group that runs it - and they will have guidance for authors published there to help you with the form, content, and method of submission.

Hope that helps and good luck

 

[quadraphonics]

Whats the difference between peer review and non-peer reviewed?

Researchers actually read and lend credence to articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

Is everything in non-peer reviewed journals rubbish?

Generally speaking, yes. Many of them are basically scams where you pay them a bunch of money to publish your article, and nobody ever reads it.

There are some exceptions, such as pre-print journals where people drafts are articles which are undergoing peer review are made available in advance of their final publication. This is done because the peer review process can take months or years, and so they provide an alternative way for people to find out about current research. An example would be arXiv. But the reputation of such journals depends on the premise that the work in them will eventually be subjected to peer review, and appear in a definitive format; to the extent that it's used to circumvent peer review entirely, those articles don't gain much credence.

 

[Dredd]

Be careful if you are challenging a pet theory, because there is oppression in that realm, like most other realms.:shrug:

 

[S.A.M.]

Be careful if you are challenging a pet theory, because there is oppression in that realm, like most other realms.:shrug:

Seconded.

 

[BenTheMan]

Hello all,
What is the most straightforward way to publish a physics article?

I'm not well acquainted with any physics journals, and I'm thinking of doing it online. Preferably I'm looking for something not too high profile but completely legit.

Whats the difference between peer review and non-peer reviewed? Is everything in non-peer reviewed journals rubbish?

And if I want some guarantee that no one will rip off my work, what should I do?

Thanks for the help!

Hmm...I would say that if you don't know where to submit your work, then you probably shouldn't be submitting work. When I published my first paper, I had been working for several years, reading tons of articles, and talking to lots of people. Once you are ready to publish something, you've already read hundreds of articles on the subject you're writing about, and you have a pretty good idea of where you should be sending your article.

My guess is you haven't read hundreds of scientific papers, which is why you have no idea about where to publish your work. True or false?

 

[DRZion]

Hmm...I would say that if you don't know where to submit your work, then you probably shouldn't be submitting work. When I published my first paper, I had been working for several years, reading tons of articles, and talking to lots of people. Once you are ready to publish something, you've already read hundreds of articles on the subject you're writing about, and you have a pretty good idea of where you should be sending your article.

My guess is you haven't read hundreds of scientific papers, which is why you have no idea about where to publish your work. True or false?

True. I don't want to mix my ideas with those of others, so reading many papers is out of the question.

This non-peer review sounds interesting for when I want to publish something just to get credited for the idea. Its not like papers published in these journals don't get read - otherwise they would be swamped with lewd pictures. I would be the first to xerox my butt and submit it.

Something I am worried about is that my work isn't all that formal - its a mix of equations and schematics. The idea is solid, but if someone wanted to be a stubborn ass they could easily reject my paper and walk away with my idea. :bawl:

 

[Read-Only]

True. I don't want to mix my ideas with those of others, so reading many papers is out of the question.

This non-peer review sounds interesting for when I want to publish something just to get credited for the idea. Its not like papers published in these journals don't get read - otherwise they would be swamped with lewd pictures. I would be the first to xerox my butt and submit it.

Something I am worried about is that my work isn't all that formal - its a mix of equations and schematics. The idea is solid, but if someone wanted to be a stubborn ass they could easily reject my paper and walk away with my idea.

Personally, I get the STRONG, distinct and unshakable impression that that's the LEAST thing you will ever have to worry about!!

 

[DRZion]

Personally, I get the STRONG, distinct and unshakable impression that that's the LEAST thing you will ever have to worry about!! :

Ha, you may be right and I may be terribly deluded (or maybe plain ignorant). I hope not

 

[funkstar]

True. I don't want to mix my ideas with those of others, so reading many papers is out of the question.

"Danger, WIll Robinson, danger!"

This non-peer review sounds interesting for when I want to publish something just to get credited for the idea. Its not like papers published in these journals don't get read - otherwise they would be swamped with lewd pictures. I would be the first to xerox my butt and submit it.

I you want your work to be read by the scientific community, peer-review is the only way to fly.

(Of course, there are exceptions: Perelman's work on the Poincaré conjecture (now a theorem) was published exclusively on the arXiv, IIRC. But such exceptions are exceedingly rare, and it took years of de facto peer review for his work to be acknowledged as essentially correct.)

Something I am worried about is that my work isn't all that formal - its a mix of equations and schematics. The idea is solid, but if someone wanted to be a stubborn ass they could easily reject my paper and walk away with my idea. :bawl:

If you're worried about the referees stealing your idea, put in on the arXiv once you've been told it is sent off to refereeing. I cannot off-hand think of a journal that doesn't allow such pre-print archiving.

If you're worried that your work isn't all that formal - formalize it. If you cannot, then maybe your idea isn't really all that good, after all. Or if you don't have the skill, seek out somebody who has it.

But please, don't submit anything, anywhere, until you've read a substantial amount of the literature in the (sub) field you're publishing: Ignorance of the literature is not something that is viewed lightly, and you will most likely not get past the editor into the refereeing process. If the editor doesn't spot it, the referees will - trust me. In that case you risk not even get a detailed response as to why your work is wrong/trivial.

 

[Mr MacGillivray]

Can't you just put it on a blog?