Watch the video

ACS Publications knows that effective communication of scientific research is vital both to the scientific community and to your scientific career. But sometimes the process of getting your research from the lab to a peer-reviewed journal isn't always simple.

That is why ACS Publications has introduced Publishing Your Research 101, a new educational video series, to assist authors and reviewers with the processes of writing, submitting, editing, and reviewing manuscripts.

The first video in the series, "How to Write a Paper to Communicate Your Research," features Professor George M. Whitesides of Harvard University, whose publishing record includes nearly 600 papers in 17 different ACS journals, and over 1100 articles overall; he has also served on the advisory boards of numerous peer-reviewed journals. He has made significant contributions to areas as diverse as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, organic synthesis, materials and surface science, microfluidics, and nanotechnology.

Professor Whitesides answers some of the key questions about manuscript preparation, such as:

• When should I begin to think about writing up my research for publication?
• How should I handle the approach of writing while I research?
• How do new technologies help scientists communicate their work?
• How many drafts should each paper undergo? Should they undergo an internal review?
• Do I need to be thinking of actively marketing my articles?
• How concerned should I be about the title and abstract of my papers?

>> Coming Soon

Episode 2: Writing Your Cover Letter will be released in June 2011. The video identifies topics to be discussed in the cover letter that accompanies your original research manuscript, such as how best to communicate the significance of the research to the field, and how the subject of the research study fits with the scope of the journal and its audience of readers. It features interviews with:

• Inorganic Chemistry Editor-in-Chief Richard Eisenberg, University of Rochester
• Macromolecules Editor-in-Chief TImothy P. Lodge, University of Minnesota
• ACS Nano Associate Editor Paula T. Hammond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• ACS Nano Associate Editor Jason H. Hafner, Rice University

Topics of future episodes will include:

• The essential elements of an accepted manuscript
• Ethical considerations for authors and reviewers
• Selecting a journal for submission
• Responding to reviewer comments and manuscript rejections
• Tips for non-native English speakers

Be sure to visit http://pubs.acs.org/r/publishing101 regularly for new episodes!