20.30 Submission

This checklist can be used to produce camera-ready papers (initials submissions, revisions, and final versions). The checks should be completed in order (keep this in mind when updating this checklist).

Things that cannot be fixed 1h before the submission deadline

  • Have a knowledgeable colleague read the paper and provide feedback.
  • Consider publishing the data/analyses (e.g., on figshare, github, zenodo).
  • Is the research question stated clearly in the first few sentences of the abstract and the introduction?
  • If your article was a reject (or revise) and resubmit, did you clearly fix any concerns?
  • Check whether there is previous research in the target journal that can be cited.

Table of contents

Orga

  • Check submission deadline

Clarity

  • Have any major conceptual changes/prominent phrases been changed recently?
  • Consistently use the same terminology (avoid synonyms) of conceptually relevant terms
  • Present major conceptual blocks in the same order (same numbering for hypotheses)

Up-to-date

  • Use latest statistics (e.g., including exclusion criteria)
  • Use latest model results
  • The variables in the background/methodology/results/discussion/intro/abstract/conclusion should be the same

Template, formatting, and spell-checking

  • Used the correct template from the journal website? This might require an additional, external checklist.

  • Select and check citation style (search by example)

  • Check page limit
  • Spell-check (e.g., in Word)
    • Check tempus (methodology: simple past)
    • Check common mistakes (e.g., comma for which/who, i.e./e.g. should be in parentheses, using “an” before vowel sounds, e.g., an hour but a horse)
    • Remove double-spaces: ctrl+h in Word (1)
    • Abbreviations introduced and used consistently?
    • Consistent capitalization (headings, captions, …)
    • Consistent terminology (e.g., paper vs. article)
    • Use the same decimal separator throughout the paper (. or ,)
    • Consistently spell out numbers less than 10
  • Check tables and figures
    • Check references to figures, tables and appendices
    • Are your figures/tables self-contained? You should be able to read the article without looking at the figures/tables and vice versa.
    • Tables:
      • Check alignment of decimals
      • Are table legends appropriate?
      • Are tables embedded into the main text?
      • Have tables been cited in the text?
      • Do the citations refer to the CORRECT table/figure?
      • For better alignment: adjust paragraph -> indentation, margin left/right.
    • Figures:
      • Alignment: Central in article with consistent margins inside the figure.
      • Use the same font-type for the text and the figures.
      • Use vector graphics.
      • Figures should include searchable text (Word: emf/wmf vector graphics)
      • For screenshots: include as PDF with OCR
    • Check figures/tables and include references in the yaml header (no cite)
  • Check references
    • Go through reference list and check whether there are references that have been included accidentally (different topic)
    • Bibliography: check whether all citations are in the bibliography
    • Direct quotes should include a reference to the specific page
    • To ensure a blind peer-review: Use “Anonymous” consistently (instead of author names)
    • Search paper for “reference” (to catch notes like (“reference needed”))
    • Check in-text citations: correctly cited? separated by semicolons?

The following should not be necessary (when the word/latex reference documents work properly):

  • Consistent use of font sizes, types in figures and tables
  • Alignment of Headings etc.
  • Formatting of footnotes
  • Text-alignment/blocks (for all paragraphs)

Final checks

  • Make sure that the paper is anonymous (remove authors from paper.md before creating the docx/pdf, inspect word document for personal information)
  • Compare with previous version to catch accidental changes (Word: Check, Compare documents)
  • Check the PDF. There might be problems when creating the PDF from the word document.
  • Update abstract in submission system?

For the revision of conference papers:

  • Acknowledge support by a funding body, acknowledge colleagues, reviewers (e.g., “The authors are grateful to the three expert reviewers for their exceptional comments.”)
  • Include the keywords and abstract in the yaml header of paper.md.
  • Check and update metadata (authors, title, …)
  • Latex: Check if .tex writes metadata to PDF (final version, not for submissions/revisions):
\usepackage[pdftitle={Title of the paper}, pdfauthor={AuthorName FamilyName, AuthorName FamilyName}, pdfkeywords={keyword1, keyword2}]{hyperref}

Cover letter

Example 1: JOSS

Dear JOSS editors,

I am pleased to submit the Python package BibDedupe for consideration and possible publication at the Journal of Open-Source Software. This submission addresses the clear need for effective software tailored to the detection of duplicates within bibliographic data.

In academic research, especially in areas involving meta-analysis and research synthesis, the accurate identification of duplicate bibliographic entries is essential. These duplicates, often resulting from the dissemination of a single study across multiple databases, can affect the integrity of research outcomes. Existing tools for deduplication generally do not cater adequately to the unique aspects of bibliographic data, which has very specific and idiosyncratic variations in authors’ names, publication titles, and source details. BibDedupe is designed to address these specific challenges, focusing on achieving zero false positives to ensure that each unique study is correctly represented in research summaries.

Our development is informed by a comprehensive understanding of bibliographic data management and data quality requirements. It employs a detailed approach to data preprocessing, blocking, matching, and merging, offering efficiency and reproducibility in deduplicating bibliographic records. The performance of the package is particularly beneficial for researchers engaged in literature reviews involving large volumes of publications.

BibDedupe is one of the first open-source tools in its domain that actively seeks peer review of its code. The field of literature review and meta-analysis software has long been dominated by proprietary and non-peer-reviewed tools, leading to a gap in the availability of rigorously evaluated, open-source options. By submitting BibDedupe to JOSS, we aim to raise standards in the field, encouraging the development of more rigorous, effective, and transparent tools for conducting literature reviews and meta-analyses. This effort aligns with a growing demand in the academic community for open-source tools that are not only functional but also validated through peer review.

I believe BibDedupe will be a valuable contribution to the Journal of Open-Source Software, appealing to researchers looking for efficient and reliable bibliographic data management tools. I look forward to sharing more details in a paper to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Best regards,

Gerit Wagner

Post-submission tasks

Upon submission, a PaperID is usually assigned by the submission system.

  • Paper repository:
    • Create YYYY-MM-DD-JOURNAL_Paper_PaperID.pdf
    • Create YYYY-MM-DD-JOURNAL_Submission_proof_PaperID.pdf
    • Create YYYY-MM-DD-JOURNAL_Revision_sheet_PaperID.pdf
    • Create YYYY-MM-DD-JOURNAL_Cover_letter_PaperID.pdf
    • Create git-tag (e.g., git tag icis2021-submission, git tag icis2021-final-version, git tag misq-revision1)
  • Analyses repository:
    • Tag git-repo (CHECK whether the data exactly matches the paper!, e.g., compare regression results)
    • Add specific version to Dockerfile (e.g., FROM rocker/tidyverse:3.4.3) - generally avoid using the :latest tag
    • Build dockerfile (docker build .)
    • Run analyses in Dockerfile
    • Save python package versions (pip freeze > requirements.txt)
    • Create git-commit + tag
    • Change Dockerfile to latest (e.g., FROM rocker/tidyverse)
    • to do: add note somewhere on how to restore python package versions (pip install -r requirements.txt)
  • Add to waiting for and create reminder to check the progress of the submission
  • Inform coauthors about the submission and thank co-authors/research-associates
  • Update personal paper portfolio