A Visual Guide to the Scientific Publishing Process

Why scientific articles are more trustworthy than that video your Uncle Joe shared on Facebook.

2 min readAug 11, 2020

--

Friends! Did you know that legitimate scientists publish their research in academic journals? (not on youtube)

Getting science published is a rigorous process. Let’s break it down.

Step 1: Get an education. Then more… then more… then more…

Step 2: Conduct research (this could be its own graphic)

Step 3: Write it up.

Step 4: Submit to a journal. Important: must avoid so-called “predatory journals”

Step 5: A journal editor gives the first check to make sure your paper meets basic quality standards

Step 6: Peer review. 2–3 scientists critique your paper.

Step 7: First decision. Based on the peer reviews, you receive a decision of reject, accept, or accept with revisions.

Step 8: Revise. This might involve collecting more data, conducting new analyses, or more.

Step 9: Re-submit. The average paper goes through 2 rounds of peer review.

Step 10: Accepted! Did you know that scientists are not paid for the papers they write?

After publication: citation. Other scientists might cite your paper or try to replicate your results.

All scientists go through this publication process: evolutionary biologists, climate scientists, & medical researchers

There are nearly 8 million full-time researchers, and the vast majority are collaborative and truth-seeking

Science should be a source of hope, not fear and anger.

Being a scientist is demanding and rigorous. It helps when we have your support. Thanks for listening! — Illustrations: Kathryn M. Everson / Data Worth Seeing

kmeverson

Written by kmeverson

Biology postdoc by day, graphic designer by night. Creator of “Data Worth Seeing.”

Help
Status
About
Careers
Press
Blog
Privacy
Terms
Text to speech
Teams