It finally happened! Your paper got accepted. Your hard work has paid off. You will need to review digital proofs and then a few weeks later your work will be available for the world to read. Congrats!
But do not pick up that novel yet. There are some other items that you should do. Here is a brief list:
Unless you were on that island with Tom Hanks in Cast Away, you have likely heard a lot about ChatGPT, Bard, and other artificial intelligence chatbots in the last two months. I mean a lot. Like too much.
You have likely heard about the revolutionary changes coming to the web, the world, education, and more. I am here to tell you as authors, take a breath. Don’t give up the ship. It will all be okay.
The big day has arrived. You look in your In Box and there is an email from a journal editor. You submitted your manuscript over 60 days ago and have been patiently waiting for their decision. The big day is here. You click on it. There is likely one of four decisions.
Good news no matter what the decision is! You are moving forward. Here is some advice for understanding their decision and what it means to you:
When you are deciding where to submit your next journal article manuscript, considering the journal’s publishing model is very important.
Disruption has been the norm in many areas of life. Scholarly publishing is no exception. In the 1980s, scholarly publishing seemed monolithic. Journals fell into two categories: first was traditional subscription publications. The accessibility of the content in these journals was limited to subscribers. Second, were journals published by learned societies or associations.
Your research is done. You have a solid first draft. Now, where will you submit your paper?
Authors will either have a quick answer or struggle to figure out which is the best fit for their work. I suggest you put nearly as much time into thinking through the best match for your work as you did in creating it.
Start to develop a list of possible publications for submission. Potential journals will migrate up and down your list as you learn more about each one.
Nothing is quite so sweet as seeing that block on your calendar that says, “Vacation,” or “Holiday.” Of course, it comes with some stressors, but oh, that time away.
One of those nagging items that accompany time off may be your writing. Hopefully, you have set a schedule or timeline for when your next milestone needs to be completed. The holidays in particular can present both opportunities and pitfalls. The key to determining which path you will go down is having a plan.
Many people once the time off starts will need a day or so to decompress and turn off the noise of work or the office. Completely understandable. But the goal is not to let a day turn into three days or into ten continuous hours of Netflix or….
