Read on Twitter
Submission (2/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube">The scientific manuscript is submitted through a rudimentary web interface. Sign up, sign in, add figures one by one... In my hands, the process takes 2-4 hours.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> The literary manuscript is sent as an email attachment. Takes < 1min.
Length (3/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube">Strict word count limits (typically, 5000-8000 words) defined a priori, no matter the depth or scope of the study.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links">The book is as long or as short as the story demands. Words are precious beings. You feel guilty every time you kill one.
Graphic materials (4/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> Amateur, well-intentioned, ugly figures made by oneself. Inconsistent fonts, wrong color palettes, arrows everywhere, horrendous sketches.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> A professional illustrator reads the book. They bug you until they understand it, and then they draw.
Cover (5/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> You submit a cover image proposal which never gets chosen. You have an eccentric visual idea. You are a scientist and an artist.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> The book needs to stand out in the bookstore, they will take care of this. You have no say here. You are a writer, not an artist.
Editor (6/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> All you got from them were copy-pasted emails indicating the next steps of the editorial process.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> The editor is your cheerleader. You know their name, you have their phone number, you& #39;ve met several times. Perhaps you are friends now.
Reviewers (7/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> Three anonymous, unpaid scientists review your work on a Sunday morning. The more they criticize your work, the smarter they look.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> Editors review your work. They are avid readers, they& #39;ve read it all. The more they correct, the more they like your book.
Revision (8/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> An email with the reviewer& #39;s comments. You are rarely happy after this email. You hate your paper by now, just want to satisfy reviewers.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> You meet the editor in a cafe. Comments are delivered with extreme caution. After all, this book is your baby...
Editorial decision (9/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> >6 months. If you are a data scientist, this is longer than project execution. Typically, the editor will apologize for the delays.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> The process is slow, too. But the author is the bottleneck most of the time (they& #39;ve been waiting since 2016...)
Language (10/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> You do your best with your mediocre English and put a lot of extra effort into writing. You can pay 500€ to the editorial for an editing service.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> You write in your native language (Catalan, for example). No question. They will find a translator and pay.
Money (11/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> You pay to publish. 2,000, 5,000, 10,000€, it depends.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> You get paid to publish. Not a lot, but you get paid. 1-2€ per book sold. The first few thousand sales are paid in advance.
Promotion (12/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> They do a lazy tweet quoting the article title. You will retweet this tweet and write a tweetorial. You feel guilty about self-promotion, but what to do.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> They look for a venue and set up an event. It is not massive, but still. They chase the media.
Impact (13/14)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube"> You can monitor your article by citation counts. 10, 20, on average? 100 if you are a superstar.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> You don’t really know how many books were sold, and you don’t know what’s a good number anyway. You want your work to be read, not cited.
Finally, don& #39;t think scientific https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube">journals deal with an insane amount of stuff. They could do better. My small literary https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊️" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> editorial publishes x10 pages per year than any scientific journal. It& #39;s about care and passion for literature, for the meaning of this very word (14/14).
