



LETTER TO EDITOR Year : 2020 | Volume : 9 | Issue : 2 | Page : 1279 Understanding Art of Publishing?



Alok Singh

Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India

Date of Submission 29-Oct-2019 Date of Decision 03-Dec-2019 Date of Acceptance 26-Dec-2019 Date of Web Publication 28-Feb-2020 Correspondence Address:

Dr. Alok Singh

Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur, Chhattisgarh

India

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None Check

DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_952_19



How to cite this article:

Singh A. Understanding Art of Publishing?. J Family Med Prim Care 2020;9:1279

How to cite this URL:

Singh A. Understanding Art of Publishing?. J Family Med Prim Care [serial online] 2020 [cited 2020 Sep 23];9:1279. Available from: http://www.jfmpc.com/text.asp?2020/9/2/1279/279365





This correspondence is regarding the publishing experience of amateur author for the past one year (November 2018–October 2019). The analysis is based on the e-mails of rejection received by the author in his official e-mail id. Articles chosen for analysis were ultimately published in standard journals of reputed publishing houses without any article processing charge. In all the articles, the concerned author was the corresponding author. During the time period, a total of six articles (three correspondence, two narrative reviews, and one original article) were communicated to various reputed journals with an impact factor > 2. On average, each manuscript was rejected 6.1 times before it finally got published. The minimum time for rejection was 13 min and the maximum was 173 days. About 75.6% of rejections were at initial level and did not undergo peer-review. The reasons for rejections at initial level quoted were very low acceptance rate of journal, poor language and grammar, lack of space, manuscript being of low priority, beyond the scope for journal, and transfer to another journal. Only 24.4% of rejections were peer-reviewed and referee comments were provided. All the reviewers reviewed nicely and gave important comments which helped in publishing the manuscript. Only one manuscript was accepted without any prior rejection [Table 1]. Table 1: Characteristics of rejections



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Few simple yet effective measures helped the author in publishing the manuscript. Initial review by colleagues of institution who were not part of the author team significantly improved the quality of manuscript both technically and grammatically. Use of language and grammar correction software was also helpful. As everyone puts a lot of efforts, rejection of manuscript is always disheartening. Apart from being technically sound, awareness regarding art of publication is a must and everyone should see at least once the tutorials which are available in the websites of standard publishing houses. Learning is a continuous process and the author is also in the same phase. With time, anyone can become expert after committing all the mistakes. Based on the information provided, especially for amateurs, rejection is the rule and acceptance is an exception. In the author's little experience, self-improvement is the only option which can be achieved by continuously improving technical and writing skills.



Financial support and sponsorship



Nil.



Conflicts of interest



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Tables

[Table 1]



