Over the past 50 years, there has been a prolific increase in the number of published scientific journals and manuscripts globally. Available abstracts of scientific meetings and papers are a great source of assimilating information for publishing manuscripts, however, less than half of these abstracts are ever published as articles in scientific journals.
There are a number of reasons for a failed manuscript including lack of research time, negative research results, and delay in completion of research projects. Additionally, choosing the right topic for your manuscript can increase the chances of getting published.
You can choose the right scientific topic for your manuscript based on the following points:
- The type of manuscript.Manuscript type generally falls in the following categories:
- Full articles, or completed piece of research.
- Review papers, which provides your perspective on a current topic.
- Letters, which are a shorter version of the full articles, and are used for quick communication of new scientific advances.
When working on a manuscript, evaluate your work and determine which of these categories do it fall under.
- Ensure that your manuscript topic is publishable.
Question your scientific hypothesis as follows and examine the answers:
- Is my hypothesis hard and interesting?
- Will I face numerous challenges in my research work?
- Is my work related to a current topic?
- Do I have any solutions for this difficult problem?If the answers are yes, then you are set for writing a publishable manuscript.
- Choose the right scientific journal.Do not try to write a manuscript aimed at publishing them in multiple scientific journals. Select one or two journals of your choice, which are the right platform for advancing your scientific idea. Study the recent publications of the target journals to know the type of article topics that they accept. As rejection rates of popular scientific journals are high, wait for the response from the editorial team before sending your manuscript to another.
- Start with the research databases.You can start by looking for topics of interest in at least a few credible research databases. Avoid databases that only contain scientific papers, published more than 10 years back. Keep a note of published research papers and journals that can added as references and citations in your manuscript.
In conclusion, you must be able to cherish your manuscript topic first, irrespective of whether it gets published or not.