ORCID iD

Record your ORCID iD.

Use your ORCID iD consistently across your manuscript, journal submission, grant records, researcher profile, and Research Profiles and Repository record.

Western Sydney University email address

Do you have an active Western Sydney University email address, e.g., @westernsydney.edu.au or @student.westernsydney.edu.au?

This is important for:

• confirming your affiliation during journal submission
• eligibility for Read & Publish agreements

IMPORTANT: Higher Degree Research candidates should check eligibility and timing before conferral, as access to student email may change after candidature ends.

Manuscript definition

Record:

• working title
• main research question, argument, or aim
• article type, for example original research article, review, case study, methods paper or short communication
• key message, finding or contribution
• abstract or short project summary
• keywords for the topic, method, population, place, discipline or impact area. Refer to your Field of Research (FoR) codes, Social-Economic Objectives (SEO), and SciVal SDG keyphrases.
• structure and scope
• related outputs, such as a dataset, protocol, code, supplementary file, preprint, report or creative output

Purpose, audience, and timeframe

Consider whether the manuscript aligns with outputs or outcomes identified in your work plan policy, e.g., publishing in Q1 journals, project plan, grant application, candidature plan or research strategy.

This may include:

• research project milestones
• grant deliverables
• School, Institute or Centre priorities
• Higher Degree Research candidature requirements
• planned policy, practice, clinical, community, education or industry outcomes

You will use these details to target suitable research outlets, such as discipline-approved journal lists or open access Q1 journals. Watch this video on how to find Q1 journals in Scopus.

Audience, reach and accessibility

Identify the intended audience for your manuscript.

This may include:

• researchers in your field
• researchers in adjacent disciplines
• practitioners or professionals
• policymakers
• industry partners
• community organisations
• clinical, education, or government audiences
• international readers
• students or educators

Consider:

• whether the work needs plain language summaries, use of accessible language for an international audience, accessible figures, supplementary resources, community-facing outputs or other formats to support reach and use.
• whether you need to translate your research into another language to reach your intended audience. In which case, consider investigating the primary language(s) of that country/region to improve engagement and/or accessibility.
• adding a few SciVal keyphrases to your title, keywords and abstract to improve research discoverability in Scopus.
• adding keywords to the first 60 characters of a title to maximise Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
• using Google Scholar to check whether your article appears in research results alongside similar research.

Timing and publishing pathway

Record your intended publishing timeframe.

Consider:

• journal submission deadlines
• funding or reporting requirements
• career milestones
• Higher Degree Research candidature dates
• promotion, grant or fellowship timelines
• time-sensitive findings
• conference, policy or industry deadlines
• likely time required for peer review, revision and possible resubmission

A publishing pathway is the planned route for taking a research output from manuscript preparation through to publication, access, sharing and ongoing discovery. This may include publishing through a journal or book publisher, using a Read and Publish Agreement, publishing with Western Open Books or depositing an eligible version in the Research Profiles and Repository.

For example:

• a research output (e.g., a journal article, book, conference paper, report, dataset or open educational resource)
• a suitable publisher, journal, platform or repository
• a publishing model: Read & Publish Agreement, open access (e.g., Diamond, Gold, Green open access), subscription/traditional with self-archiving (Green open access) or simply self-archiving in an open institutional or discipline-specific repository (Green open access)

Preprints

Record the preprint server, planned timing, licence and any implications for later journal submission.

If you intend to share the manuscript on a preprint server before journal submission or publication, check whether this is appropriate for your discipline, funder and co-authors and acceptable to your publisher.

Research classification and impact

Make a note of the research codes relevant to your research. Review the Field of Research (FoR) and Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) codes. Use these codes to clarify the disciplinary location, application area, keywords for searching and likely audiences for your research.

WSU’s focus on research impact emphasises the importance of extending the reach of research, making important discoveries and insightful solutions accessible and applicable in the real world. Consider opportunities to maximise engagement, collaboration (in particular, international collaboration) and impact of your research – for example: economic impact, e.g., mention in patents; health impact, e.g., mentioned in policies; knowledge impact, e.g., citations, author FWCI, and CNCI and societal impact, e.g., online mentions in social media and support for achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Consider whether the research supports one or more UN SDGs and describe the connection clearly where relevant. Refer to the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings methodology for indicators and measures of societal impact.

Authorship, contribution, and collaboration

Record all collaborators details, e.g.,

• name
• affiliation
• ORCID iD
• area of expertise
• expected contribution
• authorship position or contribution role, if known
• external, international, industry, community or partner involvement, where relevant

Confirm authorship expectations early, especially where the manuscript involves multiple institutions, student authors, industry partners, community partners or interdisciplinary teams. Also include relevant details for all collaborators in the cover letter to your publisher, especially the ORCID iDs.

The Research Identifiers guide includes instruction on how to set up an ORCID, develop and use your ORCID iD and how to link your ORCID iD to the Australian Research Council’s Research Management System.

Funding and compliance

Funding

Record whether you have access to approved funds to cover publishing costs.

For example:

• article processing charges (APCs)
• page charges
• colour charges
• submission fees
• editing or proofreading
• translation
• image, figure or map permissions
• data hosting or repository charges
• other publication or production costs

Read & Publish agreements are available to eligible academics and Higher Degree Research candidates to publish in eligible open access journals with no article processing charges (APCs).

Compliance, ethics, and reporting requirements

Check whether the research is subject to publishing, funder, institutional, ethics or compliance requirements.

Consider:

• open access requirements
• funder mandates
• Western Sydney University policies
• ethics approvals
• data management requirements
• data availability statements
• reporting guidelines
• authorship expectations
• conflict of interest declarations
• funding acknowledgements
• clinical trial, protocol or registration requirements
• Indigenous data, cultural knowledge or community approval considerations, where relevant

Review the information provided by WSU Research Ethics and Integrity to determine whether your research requires ethics approval.

Rights, content, data, and sharing

Third-party content and rights

Record any third-party content that will be used in the manuscript.

This may include:

• images
• figures
• tables
• maps
• diagrams
• survey tools
• interview excerpts
• datasets
• screenshots
• materials supplied by partners, communities, or organisations

For each item, record the source, copyright owner, licence, permission status, attribution wording and any restrictions on reuse.

Use a third-party content tracker to document permissions to use content such as figures, tables and data in your research.

Research data and related outputs

Record whether the project will generate or reuse research data.

Consider how the data will be managed, described, stored, cited, shared, licensed, linked to the publication, preserved, restricted and where access cannot be fully open.

A Research Data Management Plan must be developed at the beginning of every research project.

Digital Object Identifiers

Consider whether related outputs need a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). You may not be required to provide a DOI if you are submitting your research to an external publisher.

A DOI can be minted for a dataset, code, software, protocol, supplementary file, preprint, report, policy brief, educational resource, media item, or community-facing output you intend to deposit, for example, in the Research Profiles and Repository. Check the DOI eligibility guidelines for further details.

If your research output is eligible, request a DOI through the Library.

Storage, sharing, and repository planning

Record where you will store and share research outputs, including:

• published article
• accepted manuscript
• preprint
• research data
• supplementary files
• protocols
• code or software
• related reports or resources

You may be able to make your research openly available through self-archiving, also known as Green open access, by depositing a version of your research in an open repository such as the Research Profiles and Repository, a discipline-specific repository, a preprint server, or another trusted platform. Before depositing your work, check any applicable funder requirements and review your publishing agreement to confirm which version you may share and whether an embargo applies.

Contact the IT Service Desk for assistance with working data storage solutions, or to enquiry about alternative storage options for research data.

Resources

• School work plan policies
• Developing your Research Data Management Plan (RDMP)
• How to set up or manage your ORCID iD
• How to find Q1 journals in Scopus
• Instruction on which metrics to use to find high-quality journals
• Finding relevant FoR and SEO research codes
• How to assess if a journal is reputable
• Where to find indicators for societal impact in the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings Methodology
• How to find the SDG keyphrases in SciVal
• Video on how to use Ulrichsweb to search for a peer-reviewed journal, find key databases it is indexed in, the journal’s frequency of publication and browse its table of contents. Also use this instructional guide to help you search Ulrichsweb
• How to request a DOI.

Contact

Contact the Open Publishing Librarian for help with developing your publishing plan.