We are all more or less suffering from many dilemmas about how or where to publish our thesis after completing our honors or masters. Although students in our country do well at the undergraduate level in universities, it is often the case that due to lack of awareness or goodwill, their research is not published in any good conference or journal. While publishing a paper, selecting the right journal is very important. Further, it has been seen that, due to wrong selection, many high-quality research articles have been published in local journals, and articles that can be published in Impact 4 Journal have been published in Impact 1 Journal.

It usually takes 4-6 months to submit and accept a paper in a publication. Nevertheless, writing a research paper requires a lot of hard work. So, choosing the right and appropriate journal is as important a task as writing a paper. Therefore, this article will describe the step-by-step guide to publish a research paper in an International Journal.

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How to select the right journal?

Journal selection can be done in two ways, after finishing writing the paper or before starting writing the paper. We usually do this after we finish writing. However, a researcher can select the journal beforehand, and there are some advantages to doing this. Usually, each journal has a section called 'Author Guidelines,' which is recommended to read the guidelines well before submitting the paper. It provides a guideline to publish a paper in this journal, such as the maximum number of tables and figures, what should be the value of tables and figures, how many words should be used to finish the whole paper, and so on. There are many benefits to writing if you know these things first.

Let's find out now. How do we find the right journal? The first thing to do is select some important keywords related to the topic you are working on. Nowadays, each research line has an online database. So, you can pick some journals based on your research field and keywords.

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After selecting a few journals, go to each journal's home page and read 'Scope of the Journal,' which tells the type of paper they publish. It is highly recommended to read the scope of the journal because if your work does not match the guidelines of the journal you have chosen, it will be rejected within 7 days.

After reading 'Scope of the Journal,' you will see that your list has come down to 2-3 journals. Now you can choose a journal by talking to your other authors and supervisors. You need to remember, and it is important to have a clear idea about the quality of your paper. If someone submits a paper suitable for 2 Impact to an impact 6 journal, it is nothing but a waste of time. It takes at least 1 month for the paper to be rejected and returned. Then again, formatting the whole paper for a new journal is time-consuming.

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Submitting the paper

Assuming your paper is ready, now you have to submit it. The process is very simple, go to the journal's homepage you have selected, register, login, submit the paper. All authors must provide an email address, though the journal editor will only communicate with the corresponding author. The whole process of paper submission is a lot like installing software on a PC. One option after another will come, and you will proceed. Each journal has its instructions for uploading figures, which must be uploaded accordingly.

At the very end of the submission, you will be given a PDF file of the entire paper. You should check the printout to see if there are any spelling mistakes and if the journal instructions are followed correctly. It is important to be careful because this is your last chance to change. If you want to make any change after that, you have to withdraw the paper and then change.

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Once the submission is complete, the status of the paper can be checked with the email and password of the corresponding author. It usually takes 7 days to go to the reviewer after submission. A paper in Peer-Reviewed Journal is sent to at least 2 reviewers. Only if 2 reviewers agree then the paper is selected for publication.

The reviewer may suggest a major or minor change. The reviewer's question must be answered very politely, whether he agrees with you or not. If you disagree, you need to be very polite and present your point of view politely.

Remember that the chief editor will make the final decision by looking at the reviewer's remarks. Once the reviewer's report is ready, it has to be re-submitted as per the previous rules. The editor will resend the paper to the reviewers with the changes. If the reviewers are satisfied, the editor will email the corresponding author informing them about the publication.

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Why publish a paper in an international journal?

Publishing a paper in an international journal will give you the opportunity to reach like-minded people across the world. Besides, you can also show your findings to other scientists around the world. Further, publishing a paper in a foreign journal will broaden the author's mind, which eventually boosts the confidence for further research. On top of that, your article can be accessed by the researchers in your field and cite your paper. In other words, you are spreading knowledge.

Each department has some best journals. For example, Nature, Nature Communications, Science, etc., are top journals for general and multidisciplinary science. You can find popular and widely accepted journals by searching them online.

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How to identify a fake journal or conference?

Some journals or conferences don't review the paper properly, or they tend to accept the paper right away without reviewing it. Such journals usually take money to publish any paper. You find the list of such poor or fake journals and conferences in a website called Beall's list of predatory publishers & journals. You may check if a journal is fake or not by searching the name on predatoryjournals.com/journals and beallslist.net.