The Science and Art of Publishing: An Editor’s Experience

Auditório B

This talk draws on the presenter's personal experience as an editor of the European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), which receives almost 5,000 submissions per year, as well as his experience as an author and reviewer. Following an initial reflection on the criteria for evaluating science, the talk will provide some guidelines on how to successfully submit a paper to a journal. The best way to learn how to write a successful paper is to understand the review process and what editors and reviewers look for. Consequently, the role of scientific paper reviewers will be discussed, as will the structure and content of review reports. When discussing a paper analysis framework, we will also provide insights on how to organise and write a scientific paper. Language usage, paper structure, contribution analysis, and the discussion of computational experiments and results will also be addressed. Concrete examples will be provided to illustrate the main ideas presented. However, no paper organisation or writing correction, nor any response from reviewers or editors, can replace the quality of the research work itself. However, while quality is a necessary condition, it is not sufficient. Publishing is also an art.