Deck 16: Publishing Your Research

Question 1

What sections should be included on a poster that you present at a conference? What types of presentations should you prepare?

Answer 1

A poster should include all the sections of a paper: the introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references. When at a conference, you should have three presentation formats: a short, medium, and long format that vary in the level of detail you include. The short format should be within 1 to 2 minutes that convey the key purpose and findings of the study. The medium format should be roughly 5 minutes that covers briefly the background, motivation, methods, and results. Finally, the longer 10 to 15 minute version should cover the entire poster and walk the audience member through the study in much greater detail.

Question 2

Identify 3 different presentation formats at a conference and briefly describe what they entail.

Answer 2

Data blitz: generally very short oral presentations with only a few slides that convey the essence of the research and data in a fast but clear way.
Symposia: Symposia are generally three to five shorter talks that contain an overlapping theme. Symposia talks generally last around 20 minutes each and focus on a particular research study or studies.
Poster presentations: Posters generally occur in a large room or conference hall and sessions last between 30 to 90 minutes depending on the conference. Poster presentations can have more than one presenter who stands near the poster to discuss the research with audience members who are free to walk within the space. Generally, authors of a poster would aim to present the data visually as often as possible.

Question 3

Provide two issues that relate to how the review process is imperfect.

Answer 3

One issue that is at least in part due to an imperfect review process is that fraudulent work can slip through. This is partly because the reviewers often do not rerun analyses due to raw data not being a required component of the submission.
A second issue is that the editor needs to be well-versed in the particular area and well-connected so as to recruit good reviewers. Poor reviewers can lead to disparate reviews that may lead to frustrations to the authors and the entire review process.

Question 4

Identify two factors that should influence your decision on where to submit your manuscript for publication.

Question 5

Describe two objectives you can strive for to increase the chances of getting your manuscript accepted.

Question 6

Short talks that last less than 10 minutes involving only a few slides on key findings are generally called…

A) oral presentations.
B) paper blitzes.
C) data blitzes.
D) symposiums.

Question 7

When presenting a poster, it is generally a good idea to prepare which of the following?

A) A short and brief description as that is all your audience will have time for.
B) A relatively long presentation since the audience will likely all have time to stand and read your poster in detail.
C) Three formats: a short version, a medium version, and a longer version of your presentation.
D) All the possible questions that your audience might ask, since that is all you can prepare for.

Question 8

For very specific research that might only attract a narrow breadth of audience, which of the following might be the best options to get critical feedback?

A) Submit your work for publication at a journal that attracts a wide audience, such as Psychological Science.
B) Submit your work to a specialized conference.
C) Submit your work to a general conference.
D) Submit your work to an undergraduate conference with a wide audience.

Question 9

Which of the following is true regarding submissions to conferences?

A) You should generally submit to the lowest status conference since you will get the largest audience base to give you feedback.
B) You should generally try submitting to the highest status conference you can.
C) Conferences don't really have a broad range of statuses, so submitting to the closest one is always the best option.
D) Conferences are highly specialized and there are no conferences for broad audiences. Therefore, it is really easy to decide which conference to submit to.

Question 10

The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provides information on…

A) organization of content.
B) how to format your paper.
C) writing style.
D) all of the above.

Question 11

Journals' impact factors measures…

A) the rate at which publications in the journals are considered to be highly valid.
B) the rate at which other researchers cite papers from the journal.
C) the amount of researchers who publish in the journal who are considered "highly impactful."
D) The number of impacts the journal publications makes in the media.

Question 12

When writing for the journals Nature or Science, it is generally true that…

A) you will be evaluated by and writing for experts in your particular field.
B) you will be evaluated by only the editor since he or she is well-versed in all areas of science.
C) you will be writing for a broader audience and the style is often different from submitting to a more specialized journal.
D) you will be evaluated by at least six reviewers and two editors over two rounds of revisions because these journals only publish the best of the best.

Question 13

Journal citation reports serve which of the following purposes?

A) They are like impact factors but take into account journals indexed in the Web of Science.
B) They are like impact factors, but instead focus on the author's rankings instead of the publication's rankings.
C) They are like impact factors, but take into account the number of authors on a publication.
D) They are like journal rankings, and also take into account how difficult the studies were to conduct.

Question 14

Which of the following best describes an editorial board?

A) It consists of non-researchers who help the journal make financial and executive decisions.
B) It consists of researchers who assist with administrative tasks, such as editing, printing, and organization, for the journal.
C) It consists of researchers who play a role in deciding which submissions get accepted and which ones get rejected.
D) It consists of community members who assess the readability of the journal for the general public.

Question 15

When preparing a submission to the manuscript, you should include a cover letter that serves the purpose to…

A) describe your procedure in detail.
B) briefly discuss why the journal is a good fit.
C) present a description of the background literature and what the field has already accomplished to situate your research in the context of existing work.
D) tell the editor whether or not you think reviewers are necessary for your submission.

Question 16

In general, to maximize your chances of getting your paper ultimately accepted, you should…

A) ask the editors for only 1 reviewer.
B) explain to the editor why you think the journal is a good fit by including it in the introduction of your paper.
C) take reviewer comments and feedback seriously when revising your paper.
D) select the most valuable comments and only use those to ensure that you are being selective.

Question 17

If you do not agree with a reviewer's feedback for a specific change or revision, what should you do?

A) Make the change anyway because you have no choice.
B) Make the change and explain in the manuscript that the change was due to a reviewer's remark so your audience knows what the reviewer's comments entailed.
C) Contact the reviewer and ask why the change was recommended.
D) You may choose to not make a change, but should convincingly articulate your reason to the editor in charge.

Question 18

Kevin is working on a manuscript with a revise and re-submit for further consideration status. He is only accepting feedback that he agrees with. He thinks that the reviewers are wrong and misunderstood parts of the manuscript. Which of the following is likely to occur?

A) It is almost certain that Kevin's revisions will lead his manuscript to be rejected.
B) It is almost certain that Kevin's revisions will still be accepted because the editor sides with the author.
C) Kevin would need to make clear and reasonable arguments for why he is not accepting certain requests for changes or feedback from the reviewers to increase his chances of getting his paper published.
D) Kevin would need to make arguments for why he is not accepting reviewer comments and feedback, but this is not likely to change his chances of getting the manuscript published.

Question 19

Which of the following is not a reason why the review process is imperfect?

A) Sometimes, fraud is not detectable at the review stage.
B) Generally, reviewers give critical comments that make the publication stronger.
C) Sometimes, editors might select poor reviewers for a manuscript.
D) Generally, the review process can take some time.

Question 20

A reason why fraud is hard to detect is because…

A) reviewers are not experts in the specific field.
B) editors are not experts in the specific field.
C) reviewers generally do not look at the results section and take the findings for face value.
D) reviewers often don't have access to the raw data.

Question 21

Not all problems with data in manuscripts come from authors committing fraud. It can also be…

A) data entry or management errors.
B) reviewer fraud.
C) editors misinterpreting findings.
D) authors' predictions being contradicted.

Question 22

Jill is working on a senior honor's thesis and has collected almost all her data but is in the preliminary stages of her data analysis. Her first set of analyses has yielded consistent results. One of the biggest conferences in her field is coming up and the deadline is very soon. Although Jill has not completed her project yet, the data collection and analyses will be complete before the conference is to start. Which of the following is most appropriate?

A) Jill should submit her preliminary analyses as a poster presentation as preliminary findings can be submitted to conferences.
B) Jill should submit her preliminary analyses as a publication to a journal as preliminary findings can be submitted for publication.
C) Jill should wait for the next time the conference meets.
D) Jill should submit her preliminary analyses as a keynote address as preliminary findings can be submitted to conferences.

Question 23

A(n) ____________________ is one of the most common formats for a presentation at a conference, but being part of a(n) _____________________ is seen as more prestigious.

A) oral presentation; poster presentation
B) keynote address; oral presentation
C) poster presentation; symposium
D) symposium; poster presentation

Question 24

One of the most important factors to consider when submitting to a conference is…

A) where the conference is meeting that year.
B) who the anticipated audience will be.
C) the number of attendees expected.
D) how many coauthors you have.

Question 25

The editor is likely to send your manuscript out for review if…

A) there are enough reviewers that they can pay to review your work.
B) the match between your manuscript and the scope of the journal is strong.
C) your manuscript has more than one author.
D) reviewers like you.

Question 26

Which of the following about the submission process is true?

A) You only need to address feedback from reviewers as you see fit for your research.
B) Receiving a "revise and resubmit" is not very meaningful. In fact, you are very likely to get rejected in the second round even if you address all the changes that the reviewers suggested.
C) Receiving a "revise and resubmit" decision is not necessarily a negative outcome. In fact, it is an opportunity to significantly improve your manuscript.
D) Reviewers generally don't mind if you don't use the APA format in psychology. Editors are still going to consider your paper and give you constructive feedback, as long as you get it right by the time the paper is accepted for publication.

Question 27

Posters presentations include _______________ of the sections found in a formal paper, and generally should present data _________________.

A) some; in text format
B) all; in text format
C) none; visually
D) all; visually

Question 28

When reviewing a paper, reviewers are tasked with __________________ and ________________.

A) checking the raw data; making a decision for the editor on whether the paper should be accepted
B) providing the authors with feedback; making a suggestion to the editor with a decision on whether the manuscript should be accepted
C) checking the raw data; providing authors with feedback
D) contacting the authors; providing the editor with feedback

Question 29

An outcome of the review process being imperfect is that it requires…

A) editors who have a broad and deep perspective on the field.
B) reviewers who are willing to review papers for a cheap price.
C) editors who have a lot of controversial ideas.
D) reviewers who have relatively little experience to be more objective.

Question 30

Which of the following is true about journal rankings?

A) They change only every five years when the rankings are re-evaluated.
B) They should be the most important determining factor for where you submit your work.
C) They vary depending if psychology and psychiatry journals are combined into the rankings.
D) Non-scientist members of the community rank them.

Question 31

A journal's impact factor changes from year to year.

Question 32

Rejection letters for a manuscript tend to be much longer in length than a letter asking for a revise and resubmit.

Question 33

One of the most important factor to consider when selecting a journal to submit to is how well your research matches the scope of the journal.

Question 34

APA has a conference that draws in specialized researchers in the field of clinical psychologists, at around 2,000 researchers per year.

Question 35

Journal impact factors are most useful when you compare journals from different fields.

Question 36

Many of the high status journals such as Science or Nature target broad audiences and require authors to write short reports that are still clear.

Question 37

Your target audience is less important for conferences than for publications, as unlike journals, all conferences are attended by a broad range of audiences.

Question 38

If you do not format your manuscript correctly (e.g., using APA format for psychology), editors will review your articles, and then send it back asking for revisions and that you format your journal using the appropriate format.

Question 39

Upon receiving page proofs, you should only be making minor changes and edits such as fixing typos and not making major revisions to your manuscript.

Question 40

Rankings are important but should not be the main determinant of whether you submit to a journal. Rather, the match between your work and the journal is often more important.

Question 41

At large conferences, there are generally one presidential address but there can often be multiple keynote addresses.

Question 42

Reviewers can provide constructive comments, but they can also sometimes provide aggressive and hostile responses that are overly critical.

Question 43

When issues of fraud occur in the context of making up data or having errors in the data, it is generally because the reviewers were not paying attention and did a poor job during the review process.