An interesting article appears in the December 2011 issue of the International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (vol. 40, issue 12, pages 1342-1345) titled “Getting published in peer-reviewed journals,” by G. Dimitroulis.
The author opens by saying
“Writing a paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal is a rewarding experience. Even though there are no direct financial incentives for publishing in peer-reviewed journals, thousands of manuscripts are produced each year which compete for the limited journal space available worldwide. In other words, there is a sense of pride and achievement behind every published journal article that has its own rewards for which money plays no role.”
Journal articles can be published to help comment or criticize the work of others, to synthesize and build a consensus about what is presently known, to announce new work, to serve as training for those postgraduate students, to further one’s career, to help attract funding, and even just by the desire to have one’s name appear in print.
The author mentions that most oral and maxillofacial surgery literature that is evidence based is that of retrospective case series with a comprehensive review. The author points out that it can be hard to convince patients to undergo a new surgical procedure. Further it can be tough to randomly assign different groups in surgery.
The author mentions the three main ways to publish which includes magazines, journals, and books. Peer review journals are of course the best as pointed out. Articles suffer from sometimes having commercial interests and books are primarily focused on packing current knowledge and can take many years.
Of course than if you decide you want to publish in a journal you need to decide which journal to select. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. Even so as pointed the impact factor can be misleading. Another factor to take into account is who is on the editorial board of the journal.
With regards to what makes a good manuscript the author states
“Wild or fanciful ideas that appear out of this world, or overly complex ideas or techniques that are likely to harm the patient will be swiftly rejected.”
The author recommends that articles are written in English if the aim is to disseminate the work throughout the world.
The author recommends that articles follow what is known as the IMRD formula of Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion.
The author does state that case reports are useful as an incremental part of a series of cases published over the years which can help build up a collective picture. A case report is simple and succinct.
The article states that producing papers for publication in a peer-reviewed journal can be a difficult undertaking that requires a lot of patience and a great deal of skill. In addition, many articles are rejected simply because of lack of space in the journal. Hence original contributions and new knowledge are the best way to go.
I feel like this article is worth a detailed read for anyone looking to publish in peer-reviewed journals.