Scholarly publishing · 13 pages
Scholarly publishing & journals
Clear, standards-grounded explainers for how scholarly publishing actually works — the journey a manuscript takes from submission to the version of record, how journal metrics and quartiles are derived and responsibly read, and how to find, choose and use sources. Each page leads with a concise answer and links across to CASRAI’s standards and dictionary.
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All 13 scholarly publishing & journals pages
Manuscript
In scholarly publishing, a manuscript is the written work an author submits to a journal for consideration — the not-yet-published version of a research article, review or other paper. It passes through versions as it advances: the author’s original submission, the peer-reviewed accepted manuscript, and finally the published version of record. The word also survives from the era of hand-written texts.
DefinitionVersion of record
The version of record (VoR) is the definitive, formally published version of an article — the copy-edited, typeset and citable text that the publisher fixes and maintains as authoritative. It is the version readers should cite, distinguished from earlier versions such as the preprint and the author accepted manuscript. NISO’s Journal Article Versions terminology defines it, and a DOI normally resolves to it.
DefinitionJournal quartiles
Journal quartiles are four ranked bands — Q1 to Q4 — that divide the journals within a subject category by a chosen metric, such as the Journal Impact Factor or the SCImago Journal Rank. Q1 contains the top 25% of journals in that category, Q4 the bottom 25%. Quartiles are always category-specific, which is why the same journal can sit in different quartiles across subjects.
DefinitionCorresponding author
The corresponding author is the named author responsible for communicating with the journal throughout submission, peer review and publication, and for handling enquiries about the work afterwards. They take primary responsibility for ensuring administrative requirements — ethics approvals, conflict declarations and authorship details — are properly completed. The role is an administrative and accountability function, distinct from being the first or senior author.
How-toHow to use Google Scholar
To use Google Scholar, search by keywords, author or title, then refine by date and sort by relevance. Use the "Cited by" link to trace later work, the quotation-mark "Cite" button to export a reference, and the bell icon to set email alerts. Create a profile to collect your own work. Treat its broad, automated coverage with care: it is not a curated database.
How-toThe journal publishing process
The journal submission process moves a manuscript through set stages: the author submits; the editor makes an initial check and may desk-reject; suitable papers go to peer review; the author revises in response; the editor accepts or rejects; accepted papers enter production (copy-editing and typesetting); and the article is finally published as the version of record, usually with a DOI.
How-toHow to publish a research paper
To publish a research paper, first choose a journal whose scope and audience fit your work. Prepare the manuscript precisely to that journal’s author guidelines, including structure, references and declarations. Submit through its online system with a cover letter, then respond to peer-review comments point by point in your revision. Aim, revise and resubmit until accepted, avoiding predatory journals throughout.
How-toHow to choose a journal
To choose a journal, match your paper’s topic and level to a journal’s scope and audience, check that it is indexed where your field reads, and weigh its open-access options and any article-processing charges. Read recent issues to confirm fit, and verify the journal is legitimate using Think. Check. Submit. so you avoid predatory publishers.
GuideCopyright and licensing in publishing
In scholarly publishing, copyright and licensing determine who controls a paper and how it may be reused. Authors hold copyright on creation, then either transfer it to the publisher or grant a licence to publish while keeping it. Open-access articles usually carry a Creative Commons licence, such as CC BY, that sets reuse terms, while self-archiving rights govern depositing versions in repositories.
GuideTypes of peer review
The main types of peer review differ in anonymity and timing. Single-anonymous review hides reviewers from authors; double-anonymous hides both. Open peer review reveals identities and may publish the reports. Transparent review publishes reports alongside the article. Post-publication review continues after release, and registered reports review the methods before results exist. Each balances fairness, accountability and openness differently.
DefinitionImpact factor
The impact factor is a journal-level metric published in Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports. For a given year it is the average number of citations received that year by the articles a journal published in the previous two years. It measures a journal, not a single article or researcher, and is widely misused when applied to individuals — a practice that DORA and the Leiden Manifesto explicitly discourage.
DefinitionScopus
Scopus is Elsevier’s multidisciplinary abstract and citation database, indexing peer-reviewed journals, conference papers, books and other scholarly literature across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Researchers use it to search the literature, track citations, build author and institutional profiles, and derive metrics such as CiteScore, SJR, SNIP and the h-index. Its content is curated by an independent Content Selection and Advisory Board.
DefinitionWeb of Science
Web of Science is Clarivate’s curated citation index database. Originally built by Eugene Garfield as the Science Citation Index, it links scholarly works through their cited references so researchers can trace citation networks. Its selective Core Collection underpins citation analysis and is the source of the Journal Impact Factor, published in the Journal Citation Reports. It also supports Researcher and Publication identifiers.
