Helpful Hints on Getting Your Paper Accepted
Before you send the manuscript please check it for simple errors. It only takes a few extra minutes to do so, and it is unfair to reviewers for them to try to correct mistakes you should have found. Have a colleague or an intelligent friend look it over before you send it. Assume that your paper will draw at least a few negative comments and suggestions for change. If your paper is returned with an invitation to revise and resubmit, think of this as an opportunity to make a good paper even better. Generally speaking, reviewer comments are helpful, but the truth is that some are not. If you make most of the changes suggested by reviewers and you present an adequate defense of your decision not to make other suggested changes (in a note to the editor), there is a better chance that your revision will be accepted. If a reviewer thinks that something is unclear, think about why the reviewer found it unclear and try to clarify it, even if it means adding just one or two well-chosen words or phrases. Remember that most of the persons who will read your paper someday will be bright individuals with considerable background in the behavioral sciences, but few of them will know as much about your topic as you do. Write to communicate clearly within the framework of APA style – not to show off your excellent vocabulary.
Helpful Hints on Reducing Your Publication Costs
One way to keep your cost down is to consider co-authoring with a like-minded colleague or two. Accepted articles in NAJP cost $20 per journal page. A ten-page paper in NAJP is $200. However, $200 split three ways is about $67 each. Don’t have a like-minded colleague? How about a bright graduate student or an exceptional undergrad or two? A chance to work with you can be a great experience for them and a chance to put a professional publication on their resume.
Another way to reduce cost is to make smart decisions about figures and tables. They tend to “eat up” a lot of journal space. Some are necessary because they concisely portray important results. Others are less important, especially if they show something simple and straightforward that can easily be conveyed in a sentence or two.
Understand that the editor will try to help you reduce costs on those formatted papers that “hang over” onto another page by a few lines. For instance, if an accepted paper is formatted and happens to end on the 5th line at the top of page 9, the editor will alert you to this and suggest that you might be able to save 5 lines or more by cutting a phrase here or a redundant sentence there. In so doing, the paper will be reduced back to the bottom of page 8, thus saving you $20.
Helpful Hints on Increasing the Availability of Your Published Article in NAJP
The title and your name and that of any co-authors appear on the Index page. We encourage you to make as many paper copies as you like and distribute them as you wish. In addition, we grant permission and encourage you to make your NAJP article available worldwide by sending it electronically to free sites for scientists. Two such sites that purport to have a huge number of published research papers are ResearchGate and Academia.edu. As of late 2019 you can join for free, add your own published papers to their databases, and get periodic messages about persons who are reading your publications and/or citing them. NAJP has no financial interest in any of these Websites.