How does it work?
First, "gather your materials." I am a big advocate of chronologically referencing my desktops on computers. I think it's hard to do subject reference because it gets subjective; should a paper about photosynthesis, for example, go under "biochemistry" or "radiation"? But you will remember, for example, oh, that great paper about photosynthesis that I read around Christmas time last year, and you can find it by searching in your December2010 file.
Here's my hard drive, for example. Computer has the "name" "starsurge" (to differentiate it from my other computers) and then I've got files ready for each time period. Also I've got files for MatLab and R where I copy scripts I want to use in those programs, that way the program doesn't have to search through a lot of junk. Inside those you would see another set of chrono files.
So you will need:
1. your manuscipt, probably in Word format
2. your manuscript, in PDF format
3. the images from your manuscript, preferably in PNG format, but PDF is okay, too. JPG will not look good when you submit because the images do not compress/expand easily...
4. your personal information-- just get all of it. SSN, mom's maiden name, you name it.. I've got a special file (not on my computer) where I keep this stuff near the computer so if I need to know something obscure (drivers license number, for example, for car stuff), it's right there.
5. sticky paper to write a password on-- you can combine steps 4 and 5 and just keep a password notebook or file.
Now there are many places to submit and I'm not going to get into that, but just find one and submit to see how it goes. I submitted a paper on my own when I first got to grad school (with an "English degree" and no research of course it got rejected-- but I didn't know what I was getting into, and it was a good experience to see what writing was about).
Okay, so there will be some instructions for your journal you submit to, and unfortunately you will want to just follow those.
Now one thing to be aware of is the difference between a first author and a corresponding author. A first author is the person who wrote most of the darn thing. A corresponding author is the person to whom complaints and responses will be submitted. They will be the first to find out if it's published.
GRAD STUDENTS: This is usually not you. This is usually your PI. Make sure they are okay with it first. They will be much better at responding to a lot of stuff since THEY ARE VERY EXPERIENCED. Never doubt the power of a PI.
Now on a lot of sites, like Scholar one, you can also put yourself as a co-author (which you are) which allows you to interact with the document online and check its status.
I've been following one for a bit here so I'll tell you what it looks like
If you click on Manuscripts I have Co-Authored, on the left, you will see a page that tells you about your manuscript and it's status
I have followed mine and generally it goes through a few phases:
1. It's submitted but nothing has happened
2. It is awaiting reviewers
3. It is awaiting AE recommendation (that's associate editor)
4. It is either rejected or accepted.
For an idea of time, this manuscript was submitted once previously and returned for revision (submitted around August 2010, I guess). I revised it in November and after a few iterations it was re-submitted around December 27, 2010. Since that point, it is now (Feb. 2., 2011) in stage 3-- awaiting AE recommendation. So with one revision, to progress to this point takes roughly six months. The editor part, then, appears to take about four months.
Keep that in mind as you are "pushing pubs" out the door.
Now, there are "back doors" for publishing, just like for anything-- some people just know the right folks, and get through with alacrity. But for us humans out there, it's a long journey. I hope this is a decent guidebook-- I'll keep you updated as the manuscript moves.
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