Apart from conducting your research, one of the most exciting and impactful aspects of creating new knowledge is sharing it with others through writing and publishing your research. Don't know how to get started? Don't worry! Below are resources to get you familiar with creating an author identity (it's free!), deciding where to publish and how to evaluate journal publications, understanding open access and paywall articles, and author rights and guidelines.
Types of Research Publications
Check out the guide below to learn more about different research publications.
The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) registry provides unique, persistent, non-proprietary identifiers for researchers, creators, and contributors of all types. Your ORCID iD moves with you throughout your career, improving the attribution and visibility of your grants, research, scholarship, and creative and entrepreneurial activities. The use of ORCID iDs is fast becoming standard in academia, and many publishers and funders now require them. They are free to obtain, and once up and running, make it easy to connect with CrossRef, PubMed, Scopus, Publons, and others.
BMJ offers Institutional Fellowships, giving all faculty, staff and students within your institution the freedom to submit as many cases as they like as well as access to and reuse of all the published material. This means thatl faculty, medical students, residents and fellows can publish their case reports in this publication without paying author fees* (excluding articles that are open access).
How it Works:
See the Case Reports User Guide below to learn how to submit case reports.
When you get to the ‘Details & Comments’ section of the submission process you will be asked to enter a fellowship code to prove that you, or your institution, has access to BMJ Case Reports. This is only available to active UNLV faculty, staff, medical students, residents and fellows. Please email medlib@unlv.edu to request the code.
Article Processing Charges (APCs) are charged to authors of scholarly articles during the publication process. APCs are used by open access journals in lieu of subscription fees that libraries and readers traditionally have paid to gain access to research articles. APCs shift the burden of journal production costs (editing, peer review, hosting, archiving, preservation), to authors from readers. Paying an APC results in an article that is available to anyone with an internet connection. Corporate, non-profit, society, academic, and other publishers use a variety of models to meet their income needs and publishing service costs, and charging APCs is one model.
APCs should not be confused with page charges long associated with both print and digital publications. Page charges are used to cover administrative costs as well as the cost of print publication, but do not make the article available in an open access (OA) model.
If you want to know more about the ways in which OA journals cover their costs, this publication by Raym Crow/SPARC Consulting Group (2009) contains a thorough look at funding models.
The University Libraries supports article processing charges for authors through several initiatives.
UNLV corresponding authors have opportunities for discounts and in some cases full coverage of APCs with some publishers. These opportunities are negotiated with publishers when journal subscriptions are renewed. Each agreement is unique.
Through use of collection development funds, the Libraries established two funds supporting UNLV authors in publishing open access.
When an author (or creator) writes an article for a traditional, subscription-based scholarly journal, a chapter for a book, a monograph, or other work, they are typically asked to sign a publication agreement or a copyright transfer agreement. The purpose of the agreement may be to transfer ownership of copyright to the publisher or to otherwise specify the rights of the authors and publisher in the work.
These agreements can be negotiable, and you as the creator may be able to retain some specific rights such as the ability to:
Alternately, some publishers may offer a non-exclusive license and many publishers already grant rights back to authors automatically. Your copyright transfer or publishing agreement is the ultimate source of information regarding your publication and what you are allowed to do with your work.