Improving your odds

Good science Design your study well. If possible, replicate

samples and years. Get advice before you start.

Use the correct statistical analyses;

get advice if necessary.

Present reasonable conclusions, preferably

comparing competing hypotheses.

Good presentation

Insect predation on cane toads Write clearly and concisely, using good grammar.

Write a good cover letter and abstract that

clearly convey your bottom line.

Present and explain statistics well.

Design clear figures that tell your story.

Make sure that the take-home story of your

paper is abundantly clear in each section.

Your introduction should effectively summarize

the current literature and indicate how your paper

advances the field.

Follow the journal’s guidelines for authors; use

recent issues of the journal as guidelines for style.

Getting good advice Include strategic co-authors who will improve

the research and paper. Remind co-authors that

that they must help when needed.

Contact the journal editor to make sure

the paper is a good fit with the journal.

Ask colleagues to review the paper for the

quality of the science and presentation.

Get help from English-speaking colleagues or

editors (sometimes you may need to pay for help).

A Tough Market

Some statistics on publishing in Biological Conservation as a case study for

leading international journals in conservation biology:

Impact factor: 3.8 - ranked 6th in the field of Biodiversity Conservation by

Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports

Types of articles published:

• Original research articles and short communications

• Reviews

• Perspectives and opinions

• Letters to the editor

High rejection rate for all authors:

50% of submitted papers are Immediately

Rejected without review; not including

Letters to the editor.

60% of reviewed papers are Rejected.

80% of all submitted papers are Rejected.

The rejection rate is particularly high (more than 90%) for authors from certain

developing countries, such as China and India.

Common reasons for rejection:

Not of interest to readers of Biological Conservation – (wrong journal)

Not novel enough – provides only marginal insights beyond previous

work published in a particular field – (just another example)

Inadequate sample size – (not enough samples or years)

Weak presentation – statistics, figures, writing – (unclear)

Poor introduction, conclusion, and literature review – (out of date)

Getting Your Article Accepted into a Conservation Journal

Richard B. Primack1, Sandra Broerse2, Julie Lockwood3, and Andrew S. Pullin4 (part of the Biological Conservation team)

1Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 2Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 3Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA; 4University

of Wales, Bangor, UK

The Challenge

Publishing in well-respected, peer-reviewed journals is important for

communicating the results of your research and advancing your

scientific career. However, acceptance rates at leading journals are very

low. How can you improve your odds and take an efficient path to

getting your work published?

Resources for authors

All journals have guidelines for authors – follow them. Use recent

articles in your target journal as guides for style.

Keep a file of your favorite papers – note what you like about them

and copy those techniques when possible and appropriate.

Here are a few good references on writing:

Strunk and White. 1999. The elements of style.

Gopen and Swan. 1990. The science of scientific writing. American Scientist.

Yau. 2013. Data points: Visualization that means something.

Few. 2011. Show me the numbers: Designing tables and graphs to enlighten.

Conclusion

The advice in this poster may seem pretty boring—but following it

will increase your chances of acceptance. Surprisingly, most authors

slip up on one or more of the points we recommend. If your paper is

rejected, use the reviews and editor’s comments to improve your

paper before re-submitting to another journal. Examine the reviews

for ideas on how to improve your research. Good luck!

For more information about the journal:

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/biological-conservation

Acknowledgements The editors thank the authors for submitting papers to our journal,

and the reviewers who provide valuable evaluations. We also thank

the supporting staff of Elsevier for the production of the journal.

Credit: Andy Dean Photography on PhotoDune

Credit: Richard Primack

Credit: Figure from Cabrera-Guzmán et al. 2012. Biological Conservation

Credit: Wayne MacPhail