Publishing OHP Science

SOHP Science Networking Event Session

Blog post by Daniela Ortega

Edited by Lacie Barber & Rebecca Brossoit

SOHP’s Scientific Affairs committee hosted a series of virtual Science Networking Events in Fall 2022 that brought together researchers to discuss a variety of occupational health psychology topics with networking opportunities. This blog summarizes highlights from the following event:

Looking for Acceptance – Publishing OHP Science

Mindy Bergman, Joe Mazzola, Mindy Shoss, & Robert Sinclair

November 29th, 2022

Event Introduction

Publishing a manuscript is a tough endeavor for many researchers. The process behind publishing a paper may involve rejections, judgments, and emotions. Consequently, the experience of submitting a first manuscript may discourage new researchers from trying again or take an emotional toll on their academic lives.

Getting rejected from journals is a prevalent experience among all types of researchers, so we invited experienced researchers and editors to give us their best tips on getting papers accepted at major OHP journals. Our four panelists included:

  • Mindy Bergman – Texas A&M University, Associate Editor for Occupational Health Science
  • Joe Mazzola – Meredith College, Section Editor for Stress and Health
  • Mindy Shoss – University of Central Florida, Associate Editor for Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 
  • Robert Sinclair – Clemson University, Associate Editor for Journal of Business Psychology and Founding Editor-in-Chief of Occupational Health Science

This session was hosted by Lacie Barber and Gloria González-Morales. Other Scientific Affairs committee members include Rebecca Brossoit, Katrina Burch, and Courtney Keim.

Discussion Highlights

The transcript excerpts from below have been lightly edited for brevity or interpretation.

On why manuscripts often get rejected by journals…

  • ●      Mindy B. – I submitted a paper to Occupational Health Science and had not read our submission guidelines.My abstract was not the right length, and it was rejected. Every journal has different submission requirements, and I want to start by saying that there’s even some basic administrative stuff that we forget to do a lot, and I was one of them in my own journal.
  • ●      Robert – Typos are a red flag. If you can’t get that right, how can we trust the research? I think typos orient people toward thinking about “Where are the other problems here?” rather than thinking, “What is good about this manuscript?” I think it’s just an essential thing… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a paper where they cited something, and I said, “I wonder what that is?”, then I go to the reference section, and the reference is not there.
  • ●      Mindy B. – When we’re talking about bad writing, we mean that the paper’s contribution isn’t clear, the story doesn’t come through, the flow isn’t there, and there are skips in the logic. For example, someone might say, “A, B, and C have never been studied in the same paper,” and there are papers that have studied it. Bad writing is more about the organization of the theory and the philosophy of the paper.

On how to approach writing manuscripts for their acceptance in journals…

  • Mindy B. – People who are so close to their own work don’t realize that what is in their head is not what is on the paper, and all I have is what is on the paper. One of the things that a person can do is to have a reading group where you agree to read other people’s papers, and (the group) agrees to read your manuscript for you before you send it… The reader has to be someone that you’re friendly enough with, that you’ve talked through what the paper is about, and who can easily tell what’s missing.
  • Mindy S. – Take a careful look at how papers are written in each journal you’re targeting. What are they emphasizing? How long are the sections? Take a paper from the journal you want to submit to that is incredibly well written. Then, outline that paper: try to understand how it went from point A to point C. Try to use the outline to understand how a lot of these journal’s papers are written and how to write a compelling paper for that audience.
  • Joe – Writing a paper is like fiction writing… If you want a character to pull a gun out of a drawer in chapter nine, you need to put the gun in the drawer in chapter two, and I think that is what gets missing sometimes. You know where the story goes, and you forget that you need to set it up for the people who have not read it.

Watch the Full Discussion

SOHP members can access the full session recording here. If you aren’t yet a member, please consider joining to access these recordings and other great SOHP membership benefits!

Daniela Ortega is a first-year master’s student in the Applied Psychology program at San Diego State University in the ConnectWell @ Work Lab. Her research interests include sleep and the work-nonwork interface, especially how time allocation across work and family/home roles may differ based on gender. Daniela strives to alleviate work stress in her personal life by going on walks with her dogs or taking a nap after a cozy meal.