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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Quetzalcoatl: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: [qb] To Clyde and Quetzacotl how do you get your work in to Peer reviewed Journals, and how do you end up serving on Boards that do the Peer Reviewing... Do you have to become affiliated with a certian academic institution?? And what level of degree do you need for people to even consider your work worth reading. [/qb][/QUOTE]Sorry about the delay. I was tied up composing replies on M1. Winters wrote you mainly about the mechanics of publication. Things like footnote style are things you worry about at the end. In any case editors in good journals will iron out errors in footnoting, grammar etc. First, you need to get trained in the area you want to write about. The easiest way is to get graduate training in the area-- this will also get you affiliated with an academic institution and will introduce you to the "jargon." However, you can educate yourself by reading widely in the area. At first you can read well reviewed popular books in the area, then standard textbooks, eventually you really have to start reading the "primary literature" usually journals but in some fields these are books. Starting out with journals, specially in science, is very difficult because of the extensive specialized vocabulary. It wouod also be useful to read some books on methods and philosophy of science as well as logical thinking. I did this in shifting fields. My PhD is in Organic Chemistry and I took courses equivalent to a BA and MA in political science. After some years teaching chemistry, I felt that I could make a bigger impact combining my training in chemistry and pharmacognosy with knowledge of Mesoamerica to publish on Aztec medicine. I read a lot on Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, the Maya, etc. I audited courses in anthropology, linguistics, Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) and eventually became recognized by other Aztec scholars as a contributing member. Let's assume you are now knowlegeable. In the process of getting there you will have encountered specific problems where the explanation does not seem correct to you or where little is known and that you are interested in. This is where you begin. You need to formulate questions that would provide evidence for or against the proposed answer. Again an example- Two famous anthropologists published papers proposing that the Aztecs sacrificed people because they needed the protein since there were no domesticated herbivores (sheep, cattle, pigs). So I asked myself 1) What did the Aztecs eat, how much food was available, was the diet balanced- including protein? 2) What were the sources of protein used, including non-traditional ones (birds, deer, insects, etc.)? 3) I already knew that only nobles got to eat the sacrificed, so what did the rest of the population do? 4) I already knew that sacrifices were not regular year-round, so when did sacrificed take place in relation to harvest times. I found answers to these questions and others and the result was a paper published in [b]Science[/b]. An useful general approach to lots of proposals is to ask "Assuming that this proposal (hypothesis) is true, what are the consequences? How exactly would it be done." Once you have done this you need to do a really good literature search to see what has been written about this before, and you need to search out the answers to questions you have formulated. As you proceed other questions or the need for further data will come up. Lets assume that you have done the research and you have a lot of material (be super good about writing down exactly where you got a piece of information. among other things a complete bibliographic entry for papers and books (you'll need it later and it is very hard to retrieve old stuff jotted down on loose pieces of paper). Be sure that you are scrupulous about exact quoting and attributing even paraphrasing when you write your notes. There are a lot of programs that keep your note and citations, bibliography on order. Go ahead and write the paper, try to be very critical about it-- where is the argument weak? what objections could be raised against it? It is very useful to get some informed criticism. Here, again, being in a graduate program is an advantage because you can use your fellow students and professors as critics. At Wayne State we had our graduate students practice their presentations before us before they tried to give the papers at an Anthropology meeting. You now have a paper. Where to publish? If you have been reading the literature all along, you should have an idea about what kind of papers and topics particular journals usually publish. You need to find one that publishes papers of the type and the topic of your paper. I also tried to figure out which would be the most prestigious journal I thought might accept my paper. Journals describe their standards in the published instructions for authors and this is a convenient source. There is a wide variation in the rate of acceptance of papers. It's like acceptances at colleges- Harvard accepts 5%, U Michigan 20-30%, Wayne State 70-80%, Austin Community College 90-95%. Journals like [b]Science[/b],[b]Nature[/b] accept 10% or less. [b]Medical Anthropology[/b] 30%, [b]Current Journal of Biological Science [/b]70% ?. Just like college admissions you have a preferred journal and a safety journal. It's useful to know what kind of questions peer-reviewers are asked when evaluating a manuscript. 1) How novel are the ideas in this paper? 2) How well defended and argued are the hypotheses of the paper defended, 3) How thoroughly is the appropriate literature covered, 4) How well does this paper fit the goals and purposes of this journal, 5) Should we publish this paper a) with minor revisions. b) with major revisions? 6) What problems of questions should the author deal with before we publish. Reviewers may have questions or problems with some data or arguments in the paper, and you will get a chance to deal with them if you can. If the answers are satisfactory publication will ensue, sometimes you get rejected because your paper does not fit the mission of the journal and iyou will get a suggestion to try elsewhere. Sometimes you get rejected, but the reviewers will point out why. You can go back for further research. etc. You do not need an academic or institutional affiliation in order to publish. You can submit papers as an "independent researcher." Decent peer-reviewed journals send out manuscripts without a name in order to focus on the ideas in the paper without the possible bias of knowing the author's name. As a reviewer you sometimes can guess who the author is by the topic. The crucial point is how good are your ideas, how well and how clearly do you state and defend your points. Once you get papers published in peer-reviewed journals, people read your work and get an opinion about your qualifications and knowledge. One measure is how often people cite your work in their papers. You get a reputation in a certain area and journals then start to send you papers to review. If a journal feels that you have done a good job reviewing papers (i.e. you are prompt, you are critical but fair, you are thorough) you may be asked to be on the board of editors. Often it also depends on personal contacts in addition to the other stuff. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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