How to publish a research paper: every step from draft to acceptance

What are the steps to publish a research paper in a Scopus journal?

Eleven steps, and the order matters. Format before choosing the journal, and you format twice.

1. 1

   Confirm what your university counts

   Which databases, how many papers, and whether accepted is enough.

2. 2

   Decide the article type

   Original research, review or short communication. The type sets the word limit.

3. 3

   Choose the journal and verify its indexing

   Shortlist three and check each one live on Scopus Sources or the Master Journal List.

4. 4

   Prepare the manuscript to the author guidelines

   Format, references, declarations, a similarity check and ORCID iDs.

5. 5

   Agree authorship in writing

   Author list, order and corresponding author, agreed before submission.

6. 6

   Write the cover letter and submit

   Through the journal’s own system, to one journal only.

7. 7

   Editorial screening

   A technical check, then the editor sends it to review or desk rejects it.

8. 8

   Peer review and revision

   Reviewers report and you revise point by point. One or two rounds is normal.

9. 9

   Acceptance, licence and proofs

   Sign the agreement or licence, then return the proofs on time.

10. 10

    Online publication, DOI and the final issue

    Online with a DOI first; volume and issue numbers later.

11. 11

    After publication

    Update ORCID, check your Scopus profile, file the evidence.

Times below are typical ranges rather than fixed figures; how long journal publication takes explains why they vary.

The review row can repeat: a rejection sends you back to journal choice, which is why the shortlist has three journals.

What should you check before you submit?

Start with the rule, not the journal. The UGC 2022 PhD regulations do not set a national requirement to publish before thesis submission, but many universities have their own, and the details decide whether your paper counts: which database, accepted or published, and whether proceedings qualify. Get the clause in writing from the research cell. Our guide to the publication requirement for a PhD shows how.

Then the article type. A thesis chapter is rarely a paper as it stands: it is too long and full of background the journal’s readers already know. Work out which of the types of research articles you really have. If it is a review, see how to write a review article.

Journal choice shapes everything after it and has its own guide. My one addition: verify indexing yourself in Scopus Sources or the Master Journal List on the day you submit. WhatsApp lists go stale, journals get discontinued, and some websites copy real journals’ names.

Preparation is mostly the author guidelines, read line by line. Run a similarity check and open the report. Many publishers screen submissions with iThenticate, and a large match to your own synopsis or a Shodhganga copy of a colleague’s thesis will be noticed.

Before you press submit, go through this list:

• The journal is on your university’s list, checked this week, and its ISSN matches the database record.
• The article type and word count fit the journal’s guide for authors.
• Every co-author has approved the final version and the author order, by email.
• You have read the similarity report itself, not just the percentage.
• Declarations are ready: funding, conflicts of interest, ethics approval, data availability.
• The paper is not under consideration at any other journal.

A worked example

An illustrative case: a third-year nursing scholar has a chapter on a nurse-led discharge education programme for heart-failure patients at one district hospital, and needs one Scopus paper before her pre-submission seminar in fourteen months. She cuts the chapter hard, shortlists three journals that recently published similar studies, checks each in Scopus Sources, makes sure the manuscript states the ethics committee approval, agrees the author order by email, and submits in November. If it rejects after review in April, the second journal is ready. Fourteen months sounds generous. It isn’t, once you allow for one rejection.

What do “With Editor”, “Under Review” and “Required Reviews Completed” mean?

Once the paper is in, you will spend weeks staring at a one-line status. Elsevier’s support page on Editorial Manager statuses defines them; other systems such as ScholarOne use similar labels.

None of these tells you the outcome. If nothing has moved for well beyond the journal’s typical review time, one polite email to the editorial office quoting your manuscript number is fine.

What happens if the paper is desk rejected or sent back for revision?

A desk rejection comes from the editor before any reviewer sees the paper, usually over scope, an unclear contribution or failed basic checks. It stings, but it costs you the least time of any rejection. Read why papers get desk rejected before sending the same file to the next journal.

A revision decision is good news, even “major revision”. Answer every comment, including the ones you disagree with, in a point-by-point letter, and meet the deadline; responding to reviewer comments covers the letter. And if the paper is rejected after review, use those reports to fix it before the next submission.

What happens after acceptance: licence, proofs, DOI and the issue?

Acceptance is not publication. Four things still happen, and you have to act on two of them.

The publishing agreement. For a subscription article you usually transfer copyright to the publisher. For an open access article you keep copyright and grant the publisher a licence, typically a Creative Commons licence; Elsevier’s copyright policy lists CC BY, CC BY-NC and CC BY-NC-ND as the options. Check whether your funder requires a particular licence. Any article processing charge is invoiced by the publisher; the open access and APC guide covers waivers.

Proofs. Elsevier’s proofing page says most journals set a proof deadline of between 48 hours and one week, and that corrections are not usually possible after proofs are returned. Proofs are for typesetting errors and wrong names or affiliations, not for new paragraphs.

Online publication and DOI. The article appears online with a Digital Object Identifier, under a label such as “Articles in Press” or “Online First” depending on the publisher.

The final issue. Volume, issue and page numbers come later, sometimes months later. Find out whether your university accepts the online version with a DOI or wants the issue details.

Which mistakes do scholars make between the steps?

None of these is about writing. They happen at the hand-offs.

Submitting to two journals at once. Elsevier’s publishing ethics policy calls concurrent submission “unethical behaviour” and “unacceptable”, and you declare at submission that the paper is not under consideration elsewhere. Editors can find out, for example when the same specialist is invited to review for both journals. If a journal is too slow, withdraw formally in writing and wait for the confirmation before submitting elsewhere.

Paying a “publication fee” to an agent. Scholars lose money here, and sometimes the paper too.

Changing the author list after submission. Adding the HOD’s name after acceptance, or quietly dropping a co-author, causes real trouble. Elsevier’s policy allows authorship changes after submission only in exceptional circumstances, at the editor’s discretion, and not at all after acceptance. Agree the list before submitting; our authorship guide has a checklist for that conversation.

Letting the similarity check surprise you. A thesis deposited on Shodhganga, a conference paper, or a preprint can all show up as matches. Elsevier’s policy treats an earlier academic thesis or preprint differently from prior publication, but the editor still needs to know. Say so in the cover letter; our journal cover letter guide shows where.

Missing a deadline you never saw. Revision and proof deadlines often go to the corresponding author only. If that is your supervisor, agree who watches the inbox.

What should you do once the paper is published?

People skip this and regret it at the next DC meeting.

• Add the paper to ORCID by importing it with its DOI.
• Check your Scopus author profile once the paper is indexed, usually some weeks after online publication. If your name is split or merged with someone else’s, use the Scopus Author Feedback Wizard. The ORCID and Scopus ID guide walks through it.
• Save the acceptance email, the first page of the published article, and a screenshot of the journal’s Scopus Sources entry. Research cells ask for these, and coverage can change later.