Evolution and Islands

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Peer Review Process Journal Articles
Step 1 submit manuscript (ms) with permission
of all authors through journal website Step
2 ms is initially assigned to a subject editor
with expertise in the appropriate field, who
decides if it is worthy of being sent out
for review Step 3 the subject editor chooses
2-3 reviewers, usually a combination of
individuals you suggest and ones the editor
comes up with the reviewers you suggest can
have a major impact on the odds of getting a
paper accepted (politics personality) so does
the number of reviewers (2 versus 3 or 4)
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Peer Review Process Journal Articles
Step 4 reviewers evaluate your manuscript and
recommend - publish as-is - publish
after minor revision - possibly acceptable
after major revision reviewer(s) wants to
see it again to check corrections - this
could involve asking for new experiments, new
analyses of data, or a major re-write to
answer questions the reviewer(s) has -
rejected, without prejudice for resubmission
( feel free to fix and try again with
us) - rejected, no option to resubmit
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Peer Review Process Journal Articles
Step 4 the reviewers evaluate your manuscript
Step 5 the editor sends you the reviewers
comments, and any of their own, and
then makes a ruling based on what the
reviewers say - editor can decide to reject a
paper even if all reviewers liked it,
usually if it is not important enough -
editor may also accept a paper even if one or
more reviewers says it has fatal flaws
this is another place where politics can come
into play
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Peer Review Process Journal Articles
Step 4 the reviewers evaluate your manuscript
Step 5 the editor sends you the reviewers
comments, and any of their own, and
then makes a ruling based on what the
reviewers say Step 6 you prepare a
line-by-line rebuttal to all reviewer comment
s you dont agree with, and list of all
changes you made to your manuscript Step 7
the editor sends it back out for re-review, if
necessary Step 8 the editor ultimately decides
if you have adequately addressed all
reviewer concerns, and if the final version
is important enough for that particular journal
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Peer Review Process Journal Articles
Step 9 you upload a properly formatted version
of all text, figures, tables, references,
supplementary data files Step 10 journals
copy editor sends you a marked-up PDF of
your paper, now in the journal format, but with
all the corrections and questions you need
to address for clarity and formatting, not
for science reasons Step 11 you get the page
proofs to inspect, which is where you have
to catch all the mistakes and changes that
were made during the copy editting and
page setting processes Step 12 you get
the bill for publishing your work often
over 1,000, more if you have color
figures or want your paper to
be open access so anyone can read it
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How do you pick a journal?
Youve just spent 2 years of life on your
project. What journal do you submit your
manuscript to? What criteria are important to
you in choosing a journal?
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How do you pick a journal?
One popular measure (among many) used to compare
the importance of different journals is impact
factor Total of citations published in 2014
that reference papers in Journal X from the
previous 2 years, divided by the total of
citable papers published in Journal X (judged
by Thompson Scientific) Idea papers have the
most impact on a field when they are
cited more by other papers Journals are more
prestigious if on average, their papers get more
citations
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journal covers all areas of science review
articles, not data-based papers open access
(free to all)
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Biomedical journal impact factors
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Journal Impact Factor
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total cites to journal of citable papers
Journal Impact Factor
Problems with the impact factor approach -
ethical conduct - are all papers equally
citable ? During the course of discussions
with Thompson Scientific, PLoS Medicines
potential impact factor based on the same
articles published in the same year see-sawed
between 3 and 11 !! Current Biology had an
impact factor of 7.00 in 2002 but 11.91 in
2003. The denominator somehow dropped from 1032
in 2002 to 634 in 2003, although total of
papers published went up
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total cites to journal of citable papers
Journal Impact Factor
Problems with the impact factor approach -
ethical conduct - are all papers equally
citable ? - what does a mean mean?...
blockbusters vs average papers Nature noted that
89 of their citations came from only 25 of
the papers published, highly cited
blockbusters Thompson Sci. has been asked to
provide the median, as well as the mean score,
for each journal so far, will not
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Journal Impact Factor
Other problems with the impact factor
approach - evaluating journals vs scientists -
bad papers cited by rebuttals - some fields cite
older literature more, or cite less in general -
journal limits on citations - show me the data!
- proprietary data of Thompson Sci. -
for-profit motives of this private company
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My results
Impact Citations 3.9 19 10.6 31
0.9 38 (27) 3.0 80 (21) 1.6
42 (11) 4.6 43 (8) 2.6
64 (16) 9.7 63 (15)
Krug et al. 2013. Mol Phylog Evol 69 1101-1119
Marshall, Krug et al. 2012, Ann Rev Ecol Evol
Syst Krug 2011. Amer Malacological Bull 29
169-186. Handeler et al. 2009. Frontiers in
Zoology 6 28. Krug 2009. Biol Bull 132
483-494. Ellingson Krug 2006. Evolution 60
2293-2310. Botello and Krug. 2006. MEPS 312
149-159. Riffell, Krug, Zimmer, 2004. PNAS 101
4501-4506.
in 1st 2 yrs
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Alternatives for Judging Impact
Other algorithms have been proposed to judge
journals, papers 1) PageRank (Google) impactful
journal citations count more ? if you link
from a more popular site, your visit counts more
? citations in more population journals count
more 2) user-ratings (PLoS ONE) the Yelp of
science
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Judging Personal Impact
Personal metrics of impactful-ness a) total
citations (mine 1,061 famous 60 yr olds have
5-6k) b) h-index largest h such that h
papers have at least h citations -- "recent"
version only covers the last 5 years I have 20
papers that have been cited at least 20 times
each (in 2012, my h-index was 16) c)
i10-index of papers with at least 10 citations
I have 29 papers that have been cited at least
10 times http//scholar.google.com/citations?user
AxaPBaAAAAAJhlen
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Recent papers journey
population genetics of an invasive marine mussel
where to send it?? Initially submitted to
Molecular Ecology (6.5) - accepted by 2 of 3
reviews - rejected by one reviewer because of
scope of sampling Then Proceedings of the Royal
Society (5.1) - editor would not send out for
review, not important enough Then Marine
Ecology Progress Series (2.5) - three rounds of
review with 2 reviewers making numerous
technically incorrect demands and comments -
3rd editor brought in to evaluate my rebuttal to
reviewers rejected because I didnt properly
consider their comments Then Biological
Invasions (3.5) - accepted without change
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Assignment, due 10/28
1) Identify the names and impact factors
of (a) the top journal in your field of
study (b) a second-tier journal in your
sub-discipline 2) For one journal, identify a
subject editor with expertise in your
specific area of study, who would be the person
youd want handling your manuscript
submission 3) Find the correct citation format
for this journal. This should be the
citation format you follow for the references in
your prospectus and thesis.