Fatimah: I can fully understand what you are saying. I come from similar situation coming from a family where I was the first to go to college. So at every stage the inspiration has to come from outside rather than your near and dear. However once having come to the academic system, you know how important the publications are. So that should be the motivating factor for you. Also rely on some of your colleagues and mentors within the department and university for inspiration. That is what I did. It took me almost four years after joining to publish my first paper that too in a conference, to speak in front of international audience. Once done there is no going back.

Ideally you should have someone in your department that can provide the necessary help in all matters related to your research be a mentor or supervisor, or whatever you may call. Do not hesitate otherwise you have good support system in RG which will help you in all matters related to publishing. Start publishing and get good responses.

Dear Fatimah

The researcher must be honest in assessing the degree of relevance and novelty of the research and choose a journal with impact factor compatible. She brings a conceptual breakthrough or incremental? Affects the lives of a small population or thousands of people? Improves knowledge about a phenomenon or presents a new technology?

The researcher should also consider factors such as the profile of the audience to be reached, the prestige of the publication and whether it works as open access or subscription system. Open access allows you to reach a larger readership and thus generates more citations. But it also has a much higher cost

Fatimah: I can fully understand what you are saying. I come from similar situation coming from a family where I was the first to go to college. So at every stage the inspiration has to come from outside rather than your near and dear. However once having come to the academic system, you know how important the publications are. So that should be the motivating factor for you. Also rely on some of your colleagues and mentors within the department and university for inspiration. That is what I did. It took me almost four years after joining to publish my first paper that too in a conference, to speak in front of international audience. Once done there is no going back.

Ideally you should have someone in your department that can provide the necessary help in all matters related to your research be a mentor or supervisor, or whatever you may call. Do not hesitate otherwise you have good support system in RG which will help you in all matters related to publishing. Start publishing and get good responses.

Writing the paper according to the laws of journal regulations is the most difficult step

For me the first difficulty was choosing the right journal where I can submit my manuscript. Every journal have their own guidelines for authors which are different from other. Understanding the expectations of Journal as a beginner was quit tough until the sample article which help me to progress.

I agree with Ratan that choosing an appropriate journal is an important early step in the process. What counts most is finding a "home" where the readers of that journal will be interested in what you have to say. And the first place to look for such a journal is in your own bibliography. That is where you have already listed the works that are relevant to your own interests.

The step I would recommend is take an published article from that journal and outline it, where each paragraph in the article is one line in your outline, and the headings and subheadings in the article itself are the main organizing framework for your outline. That way, you will learn how articles are "put together."

Thank you for the motivating responses Dr. Elias and dear all. Thank you for sharing your experience Prof. Nageswara. This means, culture or no culture, the spirit (or may be willing?) of writing should come from within; and perhaps passion of writing.

I agree too with Ratan, Prof. Morgan and Dr. Hatem on choosing the right journal. I confessed, I am still not sure which one to choose.

Second thing, reading your comments made realise one thing. The fear of saying hello to the journal I'm seeking. Fear of saying it wrong, How can I tackle that fear?

I would suggest to analyze journal's style too.

As for fear, it is like jumping into cold water. As written above, once it is done, theres no way back. However be prepared that the first try neednt be succesfull and it may not be your fault or errors in your article. Journal might receive article from some well-known author and decide to publist it instead of unknown author independently on how your arcicle might be interesting or important.

Always do what you are afraid to do. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

You have to overcome your fear and start publishing. May be you can publish a preliminary version of the paper in a conference in front of live audience. Get their feedback and then make necessary changes and submit to a journal. While submitting to the journal as Tomy said take care of all the requirements. Then wait for the result. In the worst case you will revise and submit. You will succeed.

Fatimah,

You ask about introducing yourself to the journal and that is a good question, with an easy answer. First, there is so much online and electronic submission now that you may not need to do any introduction at all. Instead, you just fill out some forms and attach your manuscript.

If you are submitting to a journal that wants a physical (or email) copy of your paper, then you should include a brief "cover letter." This letter does not need to say much more than: "Please find enclosed my manuscript, "Title," which I believe is appropriate for your journal.

Unless there are very unusual circumstances, editors do not pay much attention to longer letters, CVs etc. Instead, they want to determine whether your article is relevant for their journal, and if so, which reviewers they should send it to.

Or at least this is the case with journals in the US and UK. There may of course be different expectations in other cultures.

I am also from the same situation as Prof.Nageswara and I fully agree with your views! Of course now we have more possible interactions through RG, Google+ etc and new generation can make use these facilities.

Thank you so very much. Yes, its no longer a turning back.

Initially writing a scientific paper was very difficult for me. After completing the experiments, I started writing the paper.While writing the paper, I could find more experiments and data generation are required. Finally the paper was written and sent to journal. I was not happy about the paper. I received the paper with a lot of comments.I modified the paper and sent to journal.Finally my paper got accepted. I was very happy to receive the acceptance letter.

For me, first of all writing my first paper was also a difficult task but writing it in a proper format by following all the predefined steps and points, was even more difficult task.

Regards,

Nitish

My first experience was mixed reactions. On one hand I was happy that i am writing my first paper, on the other seniors said data was not sufficient and will be rejected. Rejection scared me because i saw my colleagues had papers, i did not know whether there paper was rejected and then finally accepted or accepted in a single go etc. But finally, I listened to myself started focusing on the paper, followed the journal guidelines and sent it. My first attempt was that the paper was rejected. I again sat on the paper and tried very had with new experiments and improved my writing and presenting skills and again submitted the paper. Now, my hard work paid me. My paper was accepted.