DIU Blog

RESEARCH PAPER REVIEWING

Prof. Dr. A.K.M. Fazlul Haque
Director IQAC,DIU

In tertiary level of education, research plays the cardinal role in discovering and contributing to develop knowledge in concerned field of study. And a good research paper explains what the researcher have learned after exploring the topic in depth.

With the increasing advance of different types of technologies and availability of information, a good number of research papers have been published both online and offline. Apparently, new research fields have been developed.

In general, published journal articles have gone through a rigorous screening process which we refer to as blind peer review, whereby independent experts provide the author with critical commentary and suggestions for improving their final paper, prior to publication. Articles submitted to journals usually appear in print sooner than books or book chapters. Articles published in peer reviewed journals are very important means of distributing research findings for the foreseeable future.

TWO MAJOR TYPES OF RESEARCH PAPERS.

01. Argumentative research paper:
In the argumentative research paper, the writer introduces the topic and informs his audience exactly which standpoint s(he) intends to take which is often identified as the thesis statement. Objective of the argumentative research paper is persuasion, which means the area or topic chosen should be debatable or controversial.

02. Analytical research paper:
The analytical research paper often begins with the student asking a question (research question) on whichs(he) has taken no stance. Such a paper is often an exercise in exploration and evaluation.

JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR (JIF)

A number of journal ranking systems are used to determine the standing of a journal – or the relative importance of a journal in its field. One of the most well-known is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) designed by Eugene Garfield, founder of the Institute for Scientific Information, which is now owned by Thomson Reuters. The Journal Impact Factor is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited over a certain period of time. Other rankings are also used, such as SNIP (Scopus’s Source Normalized Index per Paper), Google Scholar Index and CABs (Chartered Association of Business Schools). A journal’s ranking can therefore serve as a metric to reflect journal quality as well as the value of a researcher – who is typically a faculty member, PhD student or research fellow at an academic institution
[https://www.usb.ac.za/usb_food_for_thought/why-publication-in-an-academic-journal-matters/].

REVIEW OF JOURNAL ARTICLE
The primary purpose of the review is to provide Editorial Board with the information needed to reach a decision to proceed. Review report also instructs the authors on how they can strengthen submitted manuscript against the comments, where it may be regarded as acceptable for publication. While reviewing, the reviewers should assess the manuscript on technical soundness and scientific validity. This refers to the methodology, used at the paper and analysis portion: the methods ought to be appropriate and properly conducted, and the conclusions drawn must be fully supported by the data. But, the reviewers do not assess the importance or significance of a paper because the research community makes this judgment after publication.

The review should consider the following areas:
Technicality
Evidence
Compliance with Experimental Data
Statistical Analysis
Data Compliance and Expected Standards of Research Community
Previous work (literature review)
Clearly Written Manuscript
Ethical Concern

REJECTION OF RESEARCH PAPER BY JOURNALS

A manuscript can be rejected for all manner of reasons. Here are few general reasons which need to be considered by the author(s) before submission of research pape. The manuscript fails the technical screening. Before sending the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief of a journal, the editorial office will undertake some basic checks. The main reasons for rejection of papers at this stage include:

Elements of plagiarism
Whether the paper is under review at another journal
Key elements such as a title, list of authors and affiliations, main text, references, or figures
and tables are missing
The quality of the language is not up to the mark for review to take place
Tables and figures are not clear to read
The paper does not conform to or comply with the journal’s guidelines

The manuscript does not fall within the journal’s Aims and Scope. If the paper won’t be of interest or value to the journal’s audience, it’s unlikely to be accepted. When submitting, author should read the aims and scope clearly to understand the type of articles the journal is looking for. There are many ways to assess how to choose a journal for publication and it’s important to take preferred journal’s scope into account.

The significance of research topic
Again, if the topic covered by the paper is not of interest to a journal’s audience, it will likely be rejected. It may be that the paper’s findings are incremental and do not advance the field, or that the manuscript is clearly part of a larger study which has been divided up to make as many articles as possible.

The research is over-ambitious
If the authors have been overly ambitious, results may be difficult to interpret or may even be flawed. In this perspective, it will be more appropriate to divide or segregate the work(s) into a series of smaller research projects.

Clarity of hypothesis
The research question behind the research may be unclear, poorly formulated, or not relevant to the research area or scope. An extensive literature review can help guide the hypothesis or research question.

Incomplete manuscript
The paper might contain observations but it may ignore or overlook other important work(s) in the field. Flaws in the manuscript’s arguments and/or conclusions. Arguments should be logical, structured and valid, and should support the conclusions reached by the paper. If the conclusions reached cannot be justified based on the rest of the paper, or they ignore large portions of the literature, the manuscript will be rejected. Language, writing, and spelling issues.The structure of the paper, language and any tables or figures need to be of logical and good enough quality for the paper to be assessed. Absence of these features, he paper will be rejected. It is always a good idea to ask others to check paper before submission as a second pair of eyes can help pick up any errors the author might have missed.

• The above-mentioned guidelines, information are just to facilitate new researchers begin works with
  research paper. These will not answer all questions and it does not give specific details about writing aresearch paper.
  REFERENCES

1. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/genre_
   and_the_research_paper.html
2. https://www.nature.com/srep/guide-to-referees#writing-review
3. https://www.wiley.com/network/researchers/submission-and-navigating-peer-review/9-commonreasons-for-manuscript-rejection
4. https://www.usb.ac.za/usb_food_for_thought/why-publication-in-an-academic-journal-matters/