Roles and Responsibilities in Publishing

In the community of researchers, the tasks are always divided. The counting starts with the authors and finishes with the readers. Let's say an article is like a room having four pillars. These four pillars can be categorized as follows: 

1. Authors:

Authors and within the list of authors, the first and corresponding authors are the leading persons. It does not mean that other authors are not important. Remember in collaboration, like a group activity, all authors have their importance the same as the pillars of a room. If anyone of the pillars is defective, the whole room will be affected. The ingredients that can make this pillar strong are the intellectual capacities of the authors, their knowledge about ethical morals, their attitude, their research ability, and above all their grip in the field of study. All these ingredients will work as concrete in the construction of this pillar. If you drop the quantity of these ingredients, the quality of the pillar and consequently the quality of the room will be influenced. 

2. Editorial Team: 

Once the job is finished by the authors, the article moves to the next stage i.e. publishing. This pillar also has certain ingredients that can make it strong and capable of sharing the load of the room. The major ingredient is being fair to the authors. The quality of the publishing drops when there is favoritism. Irrespective of the names of authors, judging the work, and sending it to the peer reviewers without any favoritism makes the pillar strong. If there is a leakage, the pillar will lose its strength and one better knows the consequences.  The share is always equal. Whether it is the benefit or loss or right or wrong, just like the pillars of the room, the editorial board members are also equally responsible. 

3. Reviewers: 

Reviewers are the virtual teachers and mentors to the authors. Whatever, they will suggest, it will directly impact the intellectual competence of the authors. A constructive reviewer always encourages the authors to go for corrections and gives them fair chances to improve their manuscript. It acts as a virtual guide to the authors. It shows them their mistakes and holds their hands towards the corrections. So, the ingredient that can make this pillar strong, is the behavior of the reviewer. A good reviewer always acts like a teacher. He starts with pointing out the mistakes and finishes by telling them how to correct these mistakes and guides them until the authors finish their job successfully. Now, on the other hand, by reducing this ingredient of behaving like a teacher, one is actually damaging the third pillar and ultimately, the damage is done to the room. 

4. Readers: 

The fourth and utmost pillar of this building is the reader, a general audience.  A reader should be bold enough to appreciate and criticize at the same time. Appreciate it when you see the worth of the published material. Criticize when you see the deficiencies. Don't be selfish to remain busy with your own work. Spare some time for what others have prepared for you. Read it and let them know what you perceived from their piece of work. Read it and do justice to the community. 

Summary

In short, all the pillars are bearing an equal share, equal responsibility, and an equal weight of the published material. Wherever there is a leakage, the damage will be done to the whole material. It is much needed to become aware of your responsibility as a member of the research community and own it.

Dr. Ghulam Rasool, 

Ph.D. Applied Mathematics.