1. Publishing a paper

2. Author
Decision: accept, minor revision, major revision, resubmission, rejection
Corrected proofs
proofs
Journal
Editorial office
Technical editor
Editor in chief
Associate /Subject matter /Handling editor
Reviewers (1, 2, 3) – usually anonymous
Review – for authors (+ confidential evaluation for editors)
On line early
Final publication (vol., pages)

3. Submission Selection of the journal
Usually decided during later stages of writing
What to take into account
Appropriate for the topic, for the style (it is strange to submit to a journal, which you do not cite)
Impact factor
Speed of processing
Availability of the journal (publisher)
Page charge, open access (is paid)

4. Impact factor
Average number of citations which papers published in previous two years get this year. i.e. IF 2012 is average number of citations which papers published in the journal in 2010 and 2011 have got in year 2012.
Tricks journals do to increase their IF (incl. e.g. First issue publishes overview of results published previous year, but also long time on line early)

5. Submission (electronic)
Cover letter – very important
Usually, you can suggest reviewers (do not suggest your recent co-authors, or people from your depatment), good to cite the suggested reviewers
Often, you can suggest reviewers to be avoided
You can sometimes suggest the handling editor

6. Decision – usually up to 3 months
Rejection without review (editor’s decision), usually very fast
Rejection after review
Rejected but re-submission encouraged
Major revision (the paper might be reviewed again)
Minor revision
Acceptance

7. Your reaction
Rejection (any) – send elsewhere (not necessarily lower IF) – read carefully the reviews/ comments, but accept what you think is useful only – reviewers of other journal need not have the same opinion
Revisions (incl. Resubmission) – you have to take into account all the reviewers comments – the art of arguing gently if you do not agree with reviewer (and even more difficult, with editor), but you do not need to accept everything
I usually thank anonymous reviewers in Acknowledgement for useful comments

8. If accepted Copyright transfer
Proofs – take care proofs are not suitable for revisions