Scholarly Communications

The scholarly communication is the process of sharing, disseminating and publishing research findings of academics and researchers so that the generated academic contents are made available to the global academic communities. A research paper is a standard way of presenting one’s research findings against certain research questions, based on scientific methods of experimentations, observations and data analysis. So, an author, or a group of authors, prepares a manuscript for submitting to a scholarly journal, where s/he articulately narrates his scientific experiments, research methodologies, key findings and conclusions to communicate how some significant contribution has been made in the body of knowledge. Submitted paper in a scholarly journal usually goes through rigorous peer review process before it gets accepted. The paper reviewers are drawn from the subject experts and practitioners in a specialized area matching a submitted paper. Peer reviewing is seen as a key quality control mechanism for a reputed journal to keep it amongst the best in its subject field. Thus, many reputed journals have very high rates of rejection in order to accommodate many good papers with brilliant ideas and novelty. The journal Science published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) informs “Because of the stiff competition for space in the journal, Science now accepts less than 7% of the original research papers submitted. Most submissions are evaluated by the staff editors and our Board of Reviewing Editors for potential significance, quality, and interest. ... About 80% of submitted manuscripts are rejected during this initial screening stage, usually within one week to 10 days.”