Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Scientific publication process - part B
Stefan Lyocsa
Masaryk University, Faculty of Economics and Administration
Brno, Czech Republic.
MUNI
ECON
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary				
Ou	itl	in	e	
O Part I.
o Why to publish? o Where to publish?
• How to create a contribution?
O Part II.
• Paper sections:
o title, abstract, cover letter,
• introduction & lit. review, o data and methodology,
• results and conclusion.
• Publication process and the life-cycle.
• What skills and personal traits are useful for scientific work?
• Academic system, career paths, relationships and beyond.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Title, abstract, cover letter Introduction & lit. review Data and methodology Results and conclusion
Papers tend to have similar structure - variations exists and appear to be field specific and paper purpose specific.
• Seminal papers - set the tone. 9 Policy papers.
• Empirical papers.
9 Theoretical papers.
• Review papers.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Title, abstract, cover letter Introduction & lit. review Data and methodology Results and conclusion
• Competition is huge! Number of good universities from emerging countries grows: China, India.
• Many papers exists and you need to get noticed -remembered.
Title, abstract and cover letter (sent to the editor) are your first possibilities to attract readers.
What is it what the Editor wants?
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Title, abstract, cover letter Introduction & lit. review Data and methodology Results and conclusion
Some normal, just a little bit tricky, titles:
• To bet or not to bet: a reality check for tennis betting market efficiency.
• Think Again: Volatility Asymmetry and Volatility Persistence.
• Old wine in a new bottle: Growth convergence dynamics in the EU.
• A Tale of Tails: New Evidence on the Growth-Return Nexus.
• Fifty shades of Quantitative Easing. Now really courageous titles:
• Star Wars: The Empirics Strike Back.
• Macroeconomic Policy and the Optimal Destruction of Vampires.
• Size Matters, If You Control Your Junk.
This is all about personal taste & preference.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections	Title, abstract, cover letter
Publication process & Life-cycle	Introduction & lit. review
Miscellaneous	Data and methodology
Summary	Results and conclusion
Do we need both? You tell me...	
• Motivation - why should we	care?
• Relevant literature - you should not miss the most important papers.
• You should place your research into the existing literature.
• Contribution - oversell or undersell your contribution?
• Just using new data might not be enough.
• Just using new method might not be enough.
• Just using different data might not be enough.
• An original idea has great value - it's like a weapon.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Data
Title, abstract, cover letter Introduction & lit. review Data and methodology Results and conclusion
Empirical papers need data - boundaries to your research.
• Publicly available data - easy to access, more difficult to be different from others.
• Paid subscriptions to databases. How to spot a research University? Some topical data-sets in Finance:
9 Bloomberg, Eikon, Refinitiv Tick History (expensive).
• Orbis (BvD).
• Surveys represent unique data sources. However, they are time consuming and risky:
• Population? Administration of questionnaires?
• What questionnaire to use (standardized or not)? How to acquire sensitive data?
• What if something goes wrong?
• Lab experiments.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary								Title, abstract, cover letter Introduction & lit. review Data and methodology Results and conclusion
1	M	letl	h	od	lol	lo;	gy	
You need to describe your methodology in order to make your research reproducible. What methods to use? You guess...
• Economics (finance) is a technically driven discipline.
9 How deep should be my understanding?
• In order to survive in the long-run:
• You need to constantly update your toolbox.
• How much should I learn?
• The minimum is Basic Econometrics (e.g. Wooldridge).
• Specialize given your field of study.
• Learn to script your analysis - use R, Julia, Matlab, Python (if you are also business oriented). Programming (even bad programming...) takes 50 — 60% of my time.
Making your codes and data (if possible) publicly available is a
new trend.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections	Title, abstract, cover letter
Publication process & Life-cycle	Introduction & lit. review
Miscellaneous	Data and methodology
Summary	Results and conclusion
• Do not just describe all numbers from tables.
• Show Figures - be creative (it takes time to make a nice Figure).
• Look for interesting (controversial?) results - you do not need to discuss everything.
• Connect your results and conclusion to previous research (see lit. review).
• If possible make a separate section on policy implications.
• If suitable, discuss research limitations and suggest paths for further research.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
• When should I think about the target journal?
• What language should I use?
• Academic writing - difficult to learn.
• Cover letter.
• Can you pick reviewers?
• Adverse selection —>► signals matter!
o Use LaTeX (overleaf) - now!
• Manuscript needs to look good too.
• Figures & Tables & Equations.
• Take care of equations.
• Language polishing - almost surely necessary for
non-native speakers.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
How long it takes to start working on a research paper to publication?
• Field specific.
• Are you a junior researcher?
• Publication strategy - where and how many papers should I publish?
• Can you work on multiple research papers - in parallel? o Depends on your career stage.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Steps in the journal submission process:
• You submit and... desk rejection - is it good?
• What was my fastest desk rejection?
• Under review.
• Rejection. Do I have at least good comments? How do I spot a traveling paper?
• Reject and re-submit. Is it worth the effort?
• Major revision - my chances just got really up!
• Minor revision - I am not going to let that go!
• Accept
• Modal number of rounds? Maximum number of rounds till acceptance?
• What are acceptance rates? From 3% for QJoE to say 28% for FRL - note selection bias!
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections . .
r-, . ..    . o i -r       i Academic system
Publication process & Life-cycle ^ .
...    .. Career paths
Miscellaneous r, ...
_ Skills and pers. traits
Summary
It's a fun job, but it's still a job
Cypress Hill - (Rock) Superstar
Understand the system:
• What I need to do to get the PhD?
• What I need to do to get a post-doc position?
• How to get promoted?
• What is the hierarchy - where do I stand?
• How to have more fun at work?
o How the system works elsewhere?
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections . .
r-, . ..    . o i -r       i Academic system
Publication process & Life-cycle ^ .
...    .. Career paths
Miscellaneous r, ...
_ Skills and pers. traits
bummary
Leave to return!
Multiple career paths exist:
• You stay - in-breeding.
• You leave. But where? opportunity, a You concentrate on research.
• You concentrate on teaching.
• You develop your business activities as well (consulting or unrelated).
• Research institution - National banks, Government offices, International, etc.
9 You can be interested on admin. & management, i.e. senate, union, department (country bias).
• You can be interested on acquiring research grants -networking around the World.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
• Fast reading.
• Ability to concentrate.
9 Leaning towards quantitative methods - investment that pays off!
9 Do not count on others yet! (Latter it comes naturally)
• Communication skills.
• Teaching.
• A little bit of showmanship.
• Conferences.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections . .
r-, . ..    . o i -r       i Academic system
Publication process & Life-cycle ^ .
...    .. Career paths
Miscellaneous r, ... .
_ Skills and pers. traits Summary
Academic career is a marathon run.
Useful traits:
• Tenacity and patience.
• Be ambitious not jealous.
• Ability to co-operate.
• How many papers have just one author?
• Number of co-authors is a performance measure!
• Science is driven by team-work.
• A good co-author is precious.
Good co-authors deserve to be treated like Gollum treated
the ring.
9 Ability to cope with rejections.
• Follow and enforce ethical rules.
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Paper sections Publication process & Life-cycle Miscellaneous Summary
Methodology - Scientific publication process
Summary_J	
• Paper sections.	
• Publication process & Life-cycle.	
• Personal traits and skills.	
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology
Scientific publication process - part B
Stefan Lyocsa
Masaryk University, Faculty of Economics and Administration
Brno, Czech Republic.
MUNI
ECON
Štefan Lyócsa Methodology