世界上最远的距离
既是从标题到参考文献间的距离
也是从投稿到发表间的距离
——小白
2021年3月27日,一个值得纪念的日子。
这一天是小白一作(共同)的文章在Journal of Happiness Studies(SSCI社科综合一区,2020年IF = 2.335)在线发表的日子。回首这篇文章自从2020年4月份开始投稿,历经两次被拒,后于2020年6月23日改投Journal of Happiness Studies,再经九个多月的外审,大修,以及小修,终被录用,小白内心百感交集。
这篇文章基于中国新冠肺炎疫情开始前,中,后的三段追踪数据,采用交叉滞后模型,探讨了幸福感和疫情焦虑间的关系,结果发现:幸福感可以预测疫情焦虑,但是疫情焦虑无法预测幸福感。该结果既在理论上检验了两个经典幸福感模型(Top-down和Bottom-Top)间的区别和联系,也在实践层面启发人们在平日保持高水平的幸福感,而幸福会有助于人们在危机来临之际保持心理健康。
除小白外,本文的作者还有北京师范大学心理学部2017级本科生王琢钧(共同一作),罗姝怡(共同一作),王研维,允寒琦,赵子豪和詹皓程。可以说,每一位合作者为了这篇文章的顺利发表都竭尽全力,功不可没。对于发表一篇Q1区的文章来说,天时地利人和,缺一不可。
回首这篇文章从构思,到写作,投稿,修改直至被接受的历程,小白的收获主要有三点:(1)在投稿前,如何选择英文期刊;(2)在投稿中,了解文章编辑和处理的流程;(3)自始至终,如何写信与期刊编辑沟通交流。
1. 了解期刊目标和定位
小白回想当初之所以首投被desk reject,就是因为文章的主题与期刊定位不符合。学术期刊通常在某学科或领域内有很强的针对性,所以选择期刊的首任务,就是要保证文章所属的学科符合目标期刊的学术范畴。小白此篇文章探讨了幸福感和疫情焦虑间的因果性关系,看似心理健康和幸福感领域的期刊都可以尝试投稿,但是,鉴于其结果更多强调幸福感缓解焦虑的积极意义,因此重点更多在幸福感而非心理健康,如果一开始就瞄准幸福感领域的期刊,小白想必会少走不少弯路。
2. 了解期刊的显示度
文章发表之后,我们都希望其他研究者能轻易找到这篇文章,且引用我们的研究结果。这就涉及期刊显示度的概念,可以用以下标准来辨别期刊的显示度。目标期刊能在电子数据库中被找到吗?它被 Web of Science索引收录了吗,分区如何?它被领域内有专业针对性的知名数据库收录了吗?如果答案都是肯定的,则这家期刊发表的论文在我们所在领域内的显示度应该会很高,预示论文发表后被引用的概率也很大。
3. 了解期刊的“风评”
对研究者而言,论文发表的期刊往往是衡量其科研质量优劣的指标之一,可能会直接或间接地影响一个人的职业发展、专业声誉和获得经费的机会。通常来说,知名期刊的编委会由一些优秀的研究人员构成。这一点可以通过访问期刊的官方网站,浏览其编委会成员名单,看看有没有领域内的名家。网站是否详细列出了其所属机构的信息?这家期刊之前发表的论文质量如何?此外,还可以关注,期刊的所有者或主办方是否为领域内有名的学术专家。还可以把目标期刊的影响因子和领域内的同类型期刊作横向比较。最后,还可以向资深专家征求投稿建议。
4. 了解期刊的发表周期
正规的期刊都会对外公布其文章处理流程的相关信息,甚至可以具体到每个环节的预计耗时。在选择期刊时,可以重点关注以下两个方面的信息,以了解期刊的发表周期:同行评审用时。该期刊每年出版几期?月刊的审稿时间显然会比季刊的短。有些期刊分别标明了文章的投稿和接受日期。通过简单的计算你就能大概了解该期刊的文章发表周期。发表延迟。如果该期刊有电子版,并且论文被接受后即在线上同步更新则不久就能在线检索到你的文章了。如果快速发表是你最大的诉求,那么开放获取期刊无疑是最佳选择。
小白此篇文章的发表之路尤为漫长,从投稿到录用历经9个月之久。小白知道编辑流程涉及许多步骤,编辑需要确定、邀请并让(通常是两个或更多)审稿人进行审阅。然后,这些审稿人需要足够的时间来对我们的文章进行彻底的审查。最后,编辑需要评估专家的建议,并做出决定。特别是“Under review”的状态包括许多步骤,虽然看起来我们的手稿没有经过编辑过程,但在审查过程的这一部分可能会发生很多活动。
状态
| 时长
| 含义
|
Submitted to Journal | 1-3天 | 已完成提交步骤,并且文章已提交到期刊。
|
With Editor
| 1-2周 | 一旦一篇文章被指派给期刊编辑处理,它就会被赋予一个唯一的编号。对于大多数期刊,作者将通过邮件收到文章的编号。有些期刊有多个级别的编辑,每个编辑在传递给链中的下一个编辑之前进行初步评估。在编辑邀请审稿人之前,状态保持在With Editor。 |
Under Review
| 1-3月
| 邀请了审稿人,同行评议过程正在进行中。有几个因素会影响审阅时间,最明显的是文章审稿人的可用性。此外,同行评议的时间还因期刊而异。 |
Required Reviews Completed
| 1-2周 | 所需评论的评审数量已完成,负责编辑正在考虑决策。如果多位审稿人间的意见分歧过大,编辑还可以邀请更多的审稿人,将提交内容恢复到"正在审查"状态"。 |
Decision in Process or Awaiting Decision
| 1-2周 | 编辑们已经开始在系统中做出决定。这个决定可能需要一些期刊的多位编辑来确认。最终决定后,作者将收到一封电子邮件,其中包含编辑的决定、编辑和/或审稿人的评论以及进一步说明。 |
Revise
| 1-3个月
| 编辑做了决定,要求作者修改稿件。根据修改内容的多少,会有Major revision和Minor revision之分。 |
Revision Submitted to Journal | 1-3天 | 修改后重新提交,等待编辑审理。
|
Completed - Accept/Reject | NA
| 提交过程已通过“接受”或“拒绝”决定完成。
|
Publishing online
| 1-4周
| 在文章录用后,正式见刊之前,会提前在期刊网站上发表。
|
Transfer Pending
| NA | 编辑建议将提交文章转投另一份期刊,并且需要作者的回复。 |
Submission Transferred
| NA | 投稿已转移到另一个期刊。
|
在投稿过程中,和编辑的沟通既需要耐心,也需要技巧。随着积累的增多,小白也慢慢积累了一些与编辑沟通的信件模板,让他在未来的投稿中越来越得心应手。
[编辑姓名]
Editor-in-chief, [期刊名称]
Dear editor(如果确切知道编辑名称,可以直接写其名字),
Please find enclosed our manuscriptentitled [论文标题] which we would like to submit for publication as [文章类型](review article, research article等)in [期刊名(斜体)]. In this manuscript, we report on [研究问题]. This paper should be of interest to a broad readership,particularly those who are interested in [研究领域]. Given the [研究问题的重要性], this manuscript is both timely and important.
The manuscript summarizes [研究问题]. In the meanwhile, we also introduce[研究创新]. We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership.
We consider that DR. A (E-mail:) and DR. B (E-mail:)are able to be potential reviewers of the manuscript. Due to a directcompetition and conflict of interest, we request that Dr. C(E-mail:) not be considered as reviewers.
The study was approved by [伦理审查委员会名称]. None of any published work using the same data (in whole or inpart) as was used in the present manuscript. If required, we would like to provide links to trusted open-access repositories containing the data included in the manuscript. All the authors have approved the manuscript. There is no conflict of interest.
We deeply appreciate your consideration ofour manuscript, and we look forward to receiving comments from the reviewers.
Sincerely,
[通讯作者姓名]
[所属单位]
[邮箱地址]
[编辑姓名]
Editor-in-chief, [期刊名称]
Dear Dr. [编辑姓名],
Sorry for disturbing you. I am not sure if it is the right time to contact youto inquire about the status of my submitted manuscript titled "论文标题" (ID: 稿号), although the status of “With Editor” has been lasting for more than two months, since submitted to journal three months ago.I am just wondering that my manuscript has been sent to reviewers or not?
I would be greatly appreciated if you could spend some of your time check the status for us. I am very pleased to hear from you on the reviewer’s comments.
Sincerely,
[通讯作者姓名]
[所属单位]
[邮箱地址]
To
[编辑姓名]
Dear Dr. [编辑姓名],
On behalf of my co-authors, we appreciate the oppoortunity to resubmit our manuscript entitled “论文标题” (ID: 稿号).
We would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable inputs. We have addressed all the comments to the best of our ability and have made revision which marked in red in the paper. We have also enclosed a separate document containing point-by point responses to the reviewer comments.
We hope the revised manuscript is now suitable for publication in your journal and look forward to your reply.
[通讯作者姓名]
[所属单位]
[邮箱地址]
Response to the Reviewer’s comment
We thank the reviewers for their insightful comments. In response to the concerns raised, we have revised the manuscript accordingly. Below we address the reviewers' comments. Reviewers' comment are in bold, and our response is immediately below. Furthermore, we marked the revised contents as red color in the revised manuscript.
Reviewer#1:
1. Comment 1
R1: ××××××
2. Comment 2
R2: ××××××
Reviewer#2:
1. Comment 1
R3: ××××××
2. Comment 2
R4: ××××××
[礼貌术语]
We are very sorry for our negligence of ……...
We are very sorry for our incorrect writing ……...
It is really true as Reviewer suggested that……
We have made correction according to the Reviewer’s comments.
We have re-written this part according to the Reviewer’s suggestion
As Reviewer suggested that……
[最后感谢]
We appreciate for Reviewers’ insightful comments and hope that the correction will meet with approval.
Dear Dr. [编辑姓名],
Thanks very much for your dedicated work and consideration on publication of our paper. On behalf of my co-authors, we would like to express our great appreciation to editor and reviewers.
Sincerely,
[通讯作者姓名]
[所属单位]
[邮箱地址]
参考文献
意得辑. (2019). 英文科技论文写作的100个常见错误. 北京:清华大学出版社.