1. Advice on getting published
Sean Semple
Associate Professor
Institute for Social Marketing
Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport
University of Stirling

2. Publications on ‘Smoke-free homes’ in Pubmed

3. Writing a good paper Lots of good articles out there
Introduction: Why was there the need for this work? What have others done before you?
Methods: How did you do it?
Results: What did you find?
Discussion: What do your findings mean? How do they compare to other similar work? What are the next steps?
Involve your co-authors
Get views and opinions from your peers: send drafts to your HoD and colleagues who work outside your field to make sure it makes sense

4. Who are your co-authors?
authors-and-contributors.html
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

5. Where to publish?
Think about the relevance of your material to the journal readership
Read the scope of the journal
Consider the Journal Impact Factor
Geographical footprint
Look at information about acceptance rates and time to publish
Look at editorial board and international advisory committee
Discuss with the editor beforehand

6. Journals for work on smoke-free homes research
Tobacco Control
Nicotine and Tobacco Research
Addiction
Environmental Research
Int J Environ Res Public Health
Journal of Environmental Health
BMJ Open
American Journal of Preventative Medicine
European Journal of Public Health
BMC Public Health
Many general public health journals

7. Your title and abstract are really important
Most readers will decide whether or not to read your paper based on the title
It is your 5 second chance to hook interest
Most readers will only read your abstract – make sure it reflects what you’ve written in the paper
Appropriate keywords and titles are vital – readers won’t read your paper if they never find it
Smokefree v smoke-free

8. Write a good covering letter
Capture the editor’s attention
What are you adding to the field and why these results are important
Editors all want to increase their journal impact factor so why do you think it will be highly cited – and soon
Suggest reviewers – this helps editors as finding reviewers is increasingly difficult

9. Why do papers get rejected?
Fails technical screening
Outside scope
Incomplete (yes – this happens all the time!)
Methods or analysis not appropriate
Data does not support the conclusions
It doesn’t make sense
Salami slicing – why write one paper when you can write seven?
It’s boring!

10. Publication ethics Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines
Acknowledge others’ work – include all appropriate co-authors
Don’t plagiarise others
Self plagiarism is a thing…
Don’t publish the same material in more than one journal

11. Timeline It takes a long time…
3-4 months in review of first submission
Respond to reviewers’ comments quickly (2-3 weeks)
Another 1-2 months if it requires re-review
Corrected proofs
Online publication prior to hardcopy publication in journal
Easily 12 months between submission and seeing your paper in print

12. Organise your publications
Google Scholar