Writing and Publishing Scientific Articles
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of a manuscript. If your manuscript seems to have gotten inexplicably held up along the way, however, you can call the editorial office to find out the source of the delay. Editorial office staff also have access to user names and passwords if you have forgotten them. Most journals that use online submission conduct all communications by e-mail. This usually includes the decision letter.
Hard Copy Manuscript Submission
Some journals still conduct peer review using paper copies. For these journals, you should mail your cover letter to the journal with the double- spaced manuscript and its figures. The journal’s instructions to authors will tell you how many copies of each item to send. (Registered mail and overnight couriers are the safest way to send your manuscript because they track your package through delivery.) Some journals also require you to send signed copyright release forms or other forms (for example, forms signed by all the authors confirming their role in the study) with the manuscript. These forms will be in the journal’s author instructions or on the journal’s Web site. You may also have to pay a nonrefundable reviewing fee at this time or send the manuscript on a computer disk. If any aspect of manuscript submission is unclear, phone or e- mail the journal’s editorial office. The journal staff is accustomed to handling such calls. They want to assure that your manuscript can be processed without delay.
Review Process
Once your manuscript is accepted by the online submission software, you should immediately receive an e-mail message that includes the number that has been assigned to your manuscript. If you have submitted a hard copy, you should get a letter or an e-mail message with this information within 2 weeks of sending the manuscript. If you do not receive this information within the indicated time, you should contact the journal’s editorial office to find out whether your manuscript was received.
After you have successfully submitted your manuscript, the editor-in-chief or a senior editor looks at it and chooses
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