Take Your Content From Meeting to Manuscript

Publish with Polish

Take Your Content From Meeting to Manuscript
Learn how to turn your Summit abstract or other research into a manuscript worthy of an APS journal.

Welcome home from the 2024 American Physiology Summit! After immersing yourself in three days of science, you are probably feeling inspired to publish your own work or turn your abstract into a journal submission. Now, APS journals make it easier than ever to prepare and submit your manuscript. Review the guide for the journal selection process to manuscript preparation and submission. Let’s get started. 

With APS, you know that you will publish with purpose. This means, as a self-publishing society, APS reinvests journal revenue directly into the research community we support. By publishing your research with us, you are supporting your scientific meetings, awards and fellowships, and career and educational resources. 

Not sure which of APS’ 16 journals to submit to? Check out the summary of each journal’s topic focus. From there, you can easily access detailed scope descriptions to find the perfect home for your research. The APS Publications team revamped the Information for Authors page to streamline what you need to prepare your manuscript. We have several handy tables that illustrate which article types and special features are specific to each journal. 

Need help structuring the sections of your manuscript? We have a manuscript template for that. Formatting figures should be a stress-free process, too, so we have detailed guidance on how to prepare figures, including handouts on best practices for different imaging software. APS also still offers FlexSubmit, which allows initial manuscripts to be in a format-neutral style, even as a single-merged PDF. If the required information is present (author details, full text, figures and tables, etc.), the manuscript will be evaluated on its scientific merit. It’s a great way to get your research in front of the editors’ and reviewers’ eyes as quickly as possible. 

All revised submissions must follow detailed manuscript instructions, as described above. Review the Submission Checklist to ensure your manuscript is ready. When you’re ready to submit, in addition to submitting your manuscript file(s), you’ll need a few other bits of information, such as your funding details and an ORCID for the corresponding author. We’re also happy to say that we shortened the initial submission process to be more streamlined and user-friendly. For example, supplemental and source data may be uploaded as PDF files at initial submission, not requiring repository upload until the revised submission stage.

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t throw in a few general writing tips to help with discoverability after publication. Craft an engaging title that concisely sells your data and conclusions, and let your abstract summarize your results and promote the significance of your findings. And don’t underestimate the value of using keywords, which drive discoverability and increase readership. You have what it takes to turn your American Physiology Summit abstract into a manuscript submission. You’ve already done the hard work in the lab—now go get published.

This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue of The Physiologist Magazine. Copyright © 2024 by the American Physiological Society. Send questions or comments to tphysmag@physiology.org.