SBEditing Secrets

Submitting your research for publication can be a stressful process. In particular, the journal request for revisions, which calls for extra work constrained by a deadline, is among the most stress-producing elements of the publication process.

One way to help minimize revisions is by carefully crafting your research article to comply with the submission guidelines of the journal you are submitting to. For instance, many of my clients make the mistake of placing tables and figures within the body of the main text.

The vast majority (if not all) journals, however, require that when submitting an article for publication tables and figures should appear following the references, whereas in the main body of the text there should only be an indication of where a table or figure should appear, i.e., Insert Table 1 here.

?Of course neither you nor any editor you may be working with can possibly know all the submission guidelines for all academic journals, but the responsibility for meeting these guidelines lays firmly with the author.

Such guidelines provide exacting details about everything related to submitting an article, including format of the paper, style of citations, format for references, abstract and main body word counts, and presentation of data, tables, and figures. These are just a few samples; the actual list of details that need to be addressed can be staggering. For example, you can use this link (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/instructions-for-authors) to view the instructions to authors posted by JAMA.

Despite the sometimes overwhelming list of submission requirements, the extra time you spend carefully reviewing them prior to submission can save you the additional time and effort required for revisions, and reduce or eliminate the stress associated with completing them by a deadline.