Revising and submission

Revising your writing

Revisions with yourself and others

Writing takes time and good writing takes even longer. Once you have a draft, come back to it with fresh eyes. Ask around the group or your friends/classmates to help with editing.

Some tips to help you get the most out of the revision process:

• ask a variety of people to read your writing such as a non-technical expert to comb through for weird sentences, grammatical errors, a field novice to catch anything that is not explained well, a field expert to evaluate the scientific soundness of the results and interpretation

• ask each reviewer to focus on a particular aspect of the paper, e.g., the grammar, the clarity, the logical flow

Revisions with the PI

Once you have a draft that represents your best scientific and writing effort, we will go through (several rounds of) revisions. Our aim is to anticipate possible reviewer comments and ensure that to the best of our abilities we have thoroughly considered all relevant aspects. This will include re-writing sections, doing further calculations, adding/removing parts, etc.

** Please be sure to document and keep track any and all changes/discussions/information that you, your co-authors, or Wennie generate in the revision process **

While not all the changes will make it to the final version, it is important we keep our own internal record.

Near the end, we finalize which journal to submit and polish the submission materials.

Submission

Once all co-authors and PIs agree a manuscript is ready to submit, the following are usualy required:

• Decide on a journal to submit: Depending on the project and its scope/significance/intended audience, different journals will be appropriate. Look through your reference list to see where people submit to and discuss with Wennie. Some relevant journals are:

  • AIP: Physical Review B, Physical Review X, Physical Review Materials, Physical Review Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, APL Materials

  • RSC: Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Faraday Discussions, RSC Advances, New Journal of Chemistry, PHysical Chemistry Chemical Physics

  • ACS: JACS, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Chemistry of Materials, ACS Catalysis, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

  • Nature: Nature Communications, Nature Computation, Nature Energy, npj Computational Materials

  • Wiley: Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy, Materials, Angewandte Chemie, physica status solidi (b)

  • IOP: New Journal of Physics

  • PNAS

• Cover letter: most journals require a cover letter to the editor. Look or ask for examples and compose a draft.

• Make sure you have communicated with co-authors ahead of time: some projects will involve multiple people, including those outside the group. Be sure to consistently communicate with co-authors throughout the process, including up to and beyond submission. Everyone should agree on the final version being submitted.

• Identify potential reviewers: a good place to start are the references and your literature search. We can also discuss who might be good reviewers.

• Make sure the acknowledgements are correct: This is extremely important for reporting to funding agencies and getting future funding. Many agencies have specific wording that they want used. Double check or ask if unsure.

• Creating a separate document recording the information inputted during the submission process may be useful for future information