Manuscript reflects knowledge and ability of a scholar to gather the relevant sources. Before submitting your manuscript to a high impact journal, you should take a look at it thoroughly. Look out for text improvement, a list of references, keywords, citations, and the layout. Some common reasons resulting in manuscript rejection by journals are grammatical errors, improper sentence structure formation, lack of logical flow, plagiarism, etc. Try to improve those areas where you find flaws, or where you think that your paper needs slight improvement. As you improve your manuscript, you will be satisfied with it.
Follow these steps for the editing process.
General structure
Begin with the introduction chapter. Inspect if the significance and scope of your research are summarized in the introduction chapter. Prepare an outline of your work and check the overall structure of your work. Also ensure that all the chapters are organized in a consistent order and there is logical flow between them.
Ask your colleagues for critique
It could be difficult to pick holes in your work especially when you have taken a long time to carry out. Seek feedback from your friends, colleagues and peers. Note down their comments and edit those areas where they stumbled upon either due to lack of flow, coherence or use of ambiguous terms.
Check for citations and clarity
While editing your manuscript, check if the quotes/ paraphrases/ facts taken from various sources are cited properly and in an appropriate format. Visit the website of a journal to read instructions about the type of format style that need to be used. Choose the format that is demanded and follow that consistently in your whole paper. Make sure that appropriate words are used to convey your ideas/ interests. Also, ensure that the meaning of each and every sentence is clear and adequate details about crucial terms are defined.
Recheck Spellings and Punctuations
Spellings and punctuations are part of compelling and lucid writing. Look out for misspelt words and correct them. If you are not confident, use software that detects wrong spellings and grammatical errors. Also, ensure that the punctuations are placed aptly. A wrongly placed punctuation can change the meaning of your content.
Style and paragraph organisation
Determine if an appropriate tone is used within your manuscript ( informal/ formal). Vary the structure of the sentences and avoid the overuse of passive voice. Make sure that every single paragraph consists of concise sentences and no sentences are misplaced within the paragraphs.
Wrap up
Submitting a perfect manuscript can enhance greater chances of its acceptance by a journal. A final revision of your manuscript can help you with this process. Follow the above-mentioned editing tips to acquire publishing ready manuscript.