psych question6
Psych 665 wk 6 discussion question
What are some research procedures for Research procedures for submitting a manuscript for a specific journal? SEE attached notes.
What are some good rule of thumbs to obtaining a manuscript acceptance? SEE attached notes.
What information can you take from this article to help you the in preparing your “Preparing and Presenting Effective Research Posters. SEE attached notes.
To what types of audiences might you present your research? How would that change your presentation?
Explain the peer evaluation system?
Substantial agreement on the desirability of article characteristics was demonstrated, and psychologists heavily involved in the manuscript decision-making processes. This article states that judgments of article quality and impact were only very modestly correlated with subsequent citation. What are your thoughts on per evaluation when it comes to writing your manuscript?
How would per evaluation affect your article of characteristics? SEE attached article
Question 1 NOTES
Nuts and Bolts The content of a research manuscript is by far the most important part of the presentation. The format, however, takes on some importance as well, especially because most journals receive hundreds of manuscripts each year. Standardization of some kind helps streamline the process. Here is a mini-guide to some of the most important format rules to keep in mind: 1. Make sure that the type is readable. 2. Use 12-point Times New Roman for text and Arial for figure captions. 3. All lines, including the headings, must be double spaced. 4. Allow 1 inch for a margin on the left, right, top, and bottom of the page. 5. Pages are numbered as follows: (a) The title page is a separate page, numbered 1. (b) The abstract is a separate page, numbered 2. (c) The text starts on a separate page, numbered 3. (d) The references, appendices, author notes, footnotes, and tables all start on separate pages, and the pages are continuously numbered. However, do not number artwork (figures and such). 6. The first line of each paragraph must be indented five to seven spaces or one-half inch. 7. The text should be left aligned, leaving a ragged right margin. 8. Headings are to be typed as follows. Here is an example of three different levels of headings, which are sufficient for most papers: (a) First-Level Headings are Centered, Upper and Lower Case. (b) Second-Level Headings are Flush Left, Upper and Lower Case. (c) Third-level headings are indented, boldface, and lower case. 9. Place one space after all punctuation (periods, commas, semicolons, etc.). 10. Do not indent the abstract. 11. Start the list of references on a new page.
Question 2 Notes Get published
Attaining that first manuscript acceptance takes patience and a thick skin.
By SADIE F. DINGFELDER
gradPSYCH Staff
If there is a single key to a successful career as an academic or research psychologist, it's publish, publish and then publish some more. However, shepherding an article past the journal editors and peer reviewers at the gate can be daunting, says John Serences, a fifth-year cognitive psychology graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"Getting through the rejections-repeated rejections-is the hardest part," says Serences. "You just have to have faith you will eventually get something in."
In addition to cultivating optimism, graduate students seeking publication must design a good experiment that begins to answer some burning question in their field and then write it up clearly and convincingly, says Alan Kazdin, PhD, a psychology professor at Yale University.
"The way to have a good article is good thinking-there are no other secrets to getting published," Kazdin says. And while there may be no magic formula for producing a thoughtful-and publishable-paper, Kazdin and others offer the following tips.
JUSTIFY YOUR RESEARCH
Many students believe that an experiment is worth doing just because it hasn't been done before, says Kazdin. However, in the introduction, the author must persuade readers that the study addresses an important question or significantly advances psychologists' understanding of some larger topic, he notes.
"The goal of the author is to make that reader salivate and want to know that answer," says Kazdin. Also, he says, papers with introductions that merely review the literature often get rejected. A discussion of other studies should illuminate the necessity of the paper, not just show that the author knows how to use PsycINFO, Kazdin notes.
BE THOROUGH
All too often, a paper's experiment does not answer the question posed in the introduction, says Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes editor Nicholas John Mackintosh, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge in England.
"A good experiment has ruled out possible interpretations of its results other than the one the author is arguing for," he says. "The only way to do that is to have a large number of different control groups, each one of which can rule out a possible alternative explanation."
SELECT AN APPROPRIATE JOURNAL
Keep track of what journals repeatedly come up in your literature review, says William Stoops, a fourth-year psychology graduate student specializing in human behavioral pharmacology at the University of Kentucky who has nine published papers to his name. The editors of those journals may be particularly interested in your topic, he says.
It's also a good idea for students to have a publication in mind when they write up experiments-and to read recent issues to determine the typical makeup of accepted articles, says Stoops.
"Some journals prefer lengthy discussions, and others want most of the detail in the results," he says.
DON'T OVERSTATE THE FINDINGS
It's fine to be excited about your numbers, says Kazdin, but don't exaggerate their implications.
Instead, make sure that the discussion section returns to the question asked at the beginning of the paper-and proves that the experiment has answered that riddle, he says. Furthermore, when discussing larger implications, make sure to also mention how future research can reach that point, Kazdin notes.
SOLICIT OTHERS' ADVICE
Typos, unclear wording and grammatical errors can be more easily caught by someone with a fresh pair of eyes than by the author who has read the paper a thousand times, says Mackintosh, who suggests that young authors ask their peers and advisers to review their papers. Many students even e-mail psychologists they have never met, but who have expertise on the subject, and ask them for advice, he says.
TAKE PEER-REVIEW COMMENTS SERIOUSLY
Journal editors usually accept articles under the condition that the author make substantial revisions, such as analyzing the results in a different way or running more experiments, says Mackintosh.
Think of this revision time as an opportunity to make your study even better, adds Kazdin.
"Most reviewers give a very careful reading-more than most people will ever give that article," he says. "It is in the author's best interest to incorporate as many of their suggestions as possible."
Approaching criticism constructively can be one of the hardest parts of the publication process, according to Stoops, especially after months of hard work. However, in his experience, perseverance pays off.
"Once I got my first acceptance, I thought 'Hey, I can do this. It's not impossible,'" he says.
For more information on preparing a manuscript for publication, visit APA Guide for Authors.
"The way to have a good article is good thinking-there are no other secrets to getting published."
Alan Kazdin
Yale University
Question 3 Notes\”. References
Miller, J. E., & Bloustein, E. J. (2007). Preparing and Presenting Effective Research Posters. Health Services Research, 42(1P1), 311-328. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00588.x
Objectives. Posters are a common way to present results of a statistical analysis, program evaluation, or other project at professional conferences. Often, researchers fail to recognize the unique nature of the format, which is a hybrid of a published paper and an oral presentation. This methods note demonstrates how to design research posters to convey study objectives, methods, findings, and implications effectively to varied professional audiences. Methods. A review of existing literature on research communication and poster design is used to identify and demonstrate important considerations for poster content and layout. Guidelines on how to write about statistical methods, results, and statistical significance are illustrated with samples of ineffective writing annotated to point out weaknesses, accompanied by concrete examples and explanations of improved presentation. A comparison of the content and format of papers, speeches, and posters is also provided. Findings. Each component of a research poster about a quantitative analysis should be adapted to the audience and format, with complex statistical results translated into simplified charts, tables, and bulleted text to convey findings as part of a clear, focused story line. Conclusions. Effective research posters should be designed around two or three key findings with accompanying handouts and narrative description to supply additional technical detail and encourage dialog with poster viewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Health Services Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Author Affiliations:
1Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
2School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
