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Engineering Research: Publication Process

This guide aims to familiarize new Engineering postgraduate students with different resources and services of the Library.

Scholarly Publishing

Getting your research published in a scholarly journal involves:

  1. Journal Selection
  2. Submission
  3. Review
  4. Proofreading 
  5. Publication & Beyond .

The following advice and tips for publishing in academic research journals are adopted from Taylor and Francis Author Services.

See also Tips for Academic Publishing (CEI, HKUST)

1. Journal Selection

How to Choose a Journal?

  • What are the aims and scope of the journal?
  • What is the journal's target audience? Researcher? Practitioners or general public?
  • What is the readership and usage? The top cited or downloaded papers may be on the journal website.
  • Is the journal peer-reviewed? (What is peer-review?)
  • Who is on the editorial board?
  • Is the journal indexed in citation databases like Web of Science and Scopus? Does the journal have an Impact Factor?
  • Is it published by a major publisher, society or association?
  • Free tool: Springer Journal Selector

 

2. Submission

Writing for Your Chosen Journal

When you have found a suitable journal for submission, read through the instructions for authors carefully. Each journal has its own specific publishing standards and ethics which can be found on the journal's web page.

  • Look at previous papers to get a feel for what is accepted.
  • Read and follow the submission guidelines. Take note of maximum extent of the submission.
  • Check guidelines on copyright. Ensure you have the correct copyright clearance, especially for photographs/images.
  • How should you submit your paper (online or in paper form)? Many publishers now have online submission service.
  • Do you need to submit a cover letter of your article?
  • Do you need to provide a keyword list?
  • Ensure all references are mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and all tables, figures are clearly presented.
  • Ask a colleague to read your draft prior to submission.
  • If English is not your first language, consider using "English polishing" service provided by many publishers.

Now, you are ready to submit your manuscript to the publisher.

3. Peer Review

After submitting your manuscript, the journal editor will assess your work and decides whether to send it for peer review.

Peer review allows an author’s research to be evaluated and commented upon by independent subject experts, and it can take different forms depending on the preference of the journal.

  • Single-blind review - the reviewer's name is hidden from the author.
  • Double-blind review - the reviewer's name is hidden from the author and the author's name is hidden from the reviewer.
  • Open review - no identities are concealed.

Advantages of Peer Review

  • Bring errors and gaps in literature to the attention of authors
  • Make the work more applicable to the Journal readership. e.g., reviewers may advise you how to present your methodologies or findings so the article will be easier to understand for the audience.

Reviewers will then make a recommendation to the editor whether to accept, accept with revisions or reject your article.

If your paper gets accepted with revision, address all points raised by the editor and reviewers. Provide a polite rebuttal to any comments you disagree with. Remember, your reviewer is a knowledgeable subject expert;  if you think that their comments are incorrect, it might be because they misunderstood your manuscript, and you need to make your point or statement clear.

4. Proofreading

Once your manuscript has been accepted, the editor will send your article to the production editor. You will also be informed that your manuscript are available for proofreading.

As this is the final check before your article is ready for publishing, make sure you check the proofs against the original text for accuracy (e.g. spelling, punctuation, complete citation, etc) and also check all the author names & affiliations.

5. Publication & Beyond

Promote Your Publication

How to improve your research impact: YouTube series, Sharing and promoting your article, Ten tips for promoting your research , 

1. Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), personal blog or webpage, department website can help enhance the visibility of your article. 

2.  Academic research-sharing and networking sites such as ResearchGate, Mendeley, Academia.edu.

3. Open Access (OA)

Post your article to an open access institutional (HKUST Institutional Repository - HKUST IR) or subject repository such as arXiv, PubMed Central to reach out to more readers.

Advantages of the HKUST IR:

  • Provide open and perpetual access for research output on a robust, standard compliant infrastructure.
  • Enhance visibility: research has demonstrated that open access articles have appreciably higher citation rates than traditionally published articles.
  • Facilitate communication by providing persistent links to individual items as well as authors' research portfolio.
  • Establish priority of ideas and intellectual property by registering the work with a date stamp.

Visit About the HKUST IR for more information.

Maximize Your Citation Counts

Establish a Unique Profile

Tips Recommendation
Make your name unique, e.g., include middle Initials Chan, P.C.H.
Publish under a Consistent Name

E.g., Use Chan, P.C.H in all your papers

Don't use variants of your name in different publications
Chan, Philip Ching Ho
Chan, P.C.
Chan, P.C.H.
Chan, P.
Chan, Philip C.
Register a unique ID or profile Web of Science - ResearcherID,
ORCID iD (publishers requiring ORCID iD)
Google Scholar Citations

A unique ID can help avoid name ambiguity,  it can be used to track the impact of your research publications to improve citation accuracy and quality.
Full Address for affiliation - add HKUST and department Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Department of Economics, Hong Kong, Peoples Republic of China
Upload your papers to open access repositories such as the  HKUST IR or arXiv.org Will be harvested by search engines such as Google Scholar and be included in their citation counts
Request Corrections Inform Web of Science and Scopus for errors in affiliations, name, publications and citations.
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