Scientific publishing can feel like a black box—opaque, intimidating, and full of unwritten rules. This seminar brings that process into the open through a panel discussion focused on publishing and peer review in STEM fields.

Together, we will unpack how editorial decisions are made, why manuscripts are rejected, and the most common pitfalls to avoid when writing and submitting your work. We will also explore the perspective of the peer reviewer: what constitutes a strong, constructive review, how to decide which review invitations to accept, and how to recognize and avoid predatory journals.

Panelists:

Marc Abernathy
Marc is a freelance developmental editor, workshop trainer, and writing coach who has been helping researchers—from the PhD level to professors—translate their research into compelling peer-reviewed journal articles for more than 15 years. Marc helps STEM researchers, among others, navigate the peer-review and publication process and get their important research published.

Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros
Carlos is a Senior Researcher leading a a soil functional ecology group at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He experienced first hand the publishing world as an author, reviewer and associate editor in scientific journals in the fields of Ecology and Evolution.

Patrick Zobel
Patrick is a Senior Editor at Nature Communications where he handles manuscripts in material science and physical chemistry. With his prior experience conducting, publishing, and reviewing primary research, he has seen the many sides of the scientific publishing process.

This seminar takes the form of a panel discussion and participants are encouraged to submit questions in advance via Moodle, with additional time reserved for open discussion during the seminar.

The zoom link for the seminar can be found in the corresponding moodle course.