If you’ve just started your research career in physics, you’ll soon be aiming to publish your research. Publishing is an important part of your academic career for many reasons that include:
- Requirement by your faculty.
- Required for promotions within academia.
- Helps you gain recognition as an expert in your field.
Performing the research is only part of the work. Some say your research is not done until it is published. Furthermore, only published research can advance a field and contribute to the progress of science. Therefore, it is important that you, as a young PhD, start writing as soon as possible in your career.
“No one undertakes research in Physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before” – Stephen Hawking.
Challenges of Publishing in Physics
The question most young PhD’s ask when publishing their first research article in Physics is “Where do I start?” Publishing is a massive and often overwhelming task. You need to:
- Have a thorough understanding of the field.
- Be able to interpret your results in the context of the literature. You can easily get lost while “wading through the published research”. Where do you start? How do you find, manage, and organize all that information so that you can tell your story?
- Tell your story using appropriate terminology yet remain clear and concise.
- Tell your story in a methodical way.
- Add to the current field of knowledge.
- Keep up with the fast-moving field of physics.
Physics Publishing Made Easier Through IOP
Enter, the Institute of Physics (IOP). Their philosophy is to “advance physics for the benefit of all”. The IOP is so passionate about physics that they are promoting it from the school classroom right through to industry. Physics can help society around the world. In fact, Physics can tackle global challenges such as climate change, healthcare, energy, food and water resources.
Sharing knowledge and connecting people is part of the IOP’s strategy to “unlock the future”. That is where IOPscience (home of scientific content from IOP Publishing) comes in.
On IOPscience you will find Physics publications from IOP Publishing and their partners. Some of the journals on their platform include: Metrologia, Nanotechnology, New Journal of Physics, Nuclear Fusion and Nonlinearity. The list of journals confirms that IOP is an important name when it comes to publishing research in Physics. Furthermore, they also boast essential physics e-books and conference proceedings.
IOP Publishing supports open access and offers various routes for open access publication. These include articles in which authors pay article publication charges (APCs), hybrid open access in subscription journals, sponsored open access, and green open access. Green open access is when an author can post their manuscript on their institutional repository after an agreed time period (usually one year).
7 Ways IOPscience Will Save You Time
The IOPscience functionality offers you an enhanced user-experience with the following features:
- Discover relevant content. The search filter will help you to find articles relevant to your subject. This way you can eliminate reading unrelated articles. You can even filter your results according to journals, authors, publication type, and open access.
- Save searches. This feature allows you to re-run a previous search. You can also tag articles of interest. No more wondering where you started before an article led you in a different direction.
- Receive alerts on new research being published. RSS feeds and email alerts will keep you updated when new research is published. This will help you stay up to date with the literature.
- Get access to preprints and news. Read additional information concerning Physics and how it relates to our world challenges.
- Use social bookmarking to share articles. Networking is the key to your academic career. Start building relationships by sharing articles on social media. Buttons on IOPscience enable you to share an article via email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the Mendeley referencing program.
- Discover related research. Subject category codes make it easier to discover related research.
All the features can be personalized to suit your subject interests and research needs.
To access IOPscience, contact your librarian to see which journals you may access. If you are unsure about anything, contact IOPs customer services.
IOPscience Author Guidelines
This section is a must-read, especially if this is the first time you are writing a journal article. The IOPscience author guidelines tell you how to choose the best journal for your research, what they look for in a paper, how to format it, and how to submit it to them for publication. It also details the sections that your research paper requires and the referencing style. If your submission is unsuccessful, IOPscience may suggest other journals that would be suitable for submission.
IOPscience provides further information on what to expect after submission such as their review process, how long the process takes, right through to publication. In addition, guidelines are given for writing and publishing books and conference proceedings.
Write and format your article the way IOPscience requires it. If you do it right from the start, you won’t waste time reformatting it just before submission. If English is not your first language, IOPscience will help you find an editor to ensure your manuscript is submission-ready.
Latest News from the Physics World
The latest news section is one of my favorite features of the IOPscience platform. Important and relevant news items are accessible from the IOPscience home page. The news articles not only highlight the latest research in the Physics world, but also put it into context within the bigger picture. Real world problems are discussed, questions are posed, and interesting facts are given. Besides these, there are news items through which a lot can be learnt and wondered about. Your general knowledge will love you for it too.
IOPscience promises to make your literature search and manuscript preparation process more efficient. Have a look at https://iopscience.iop.org/ and share your thoughts in the comments section below.
