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The Publication Cycle
The publication cycle starts with an event. Something happens, and you start to see posts
about the event on Twitter and Facebook. Depending on the size of the event you may start to
see reports on television news. At this stage the information that you find is dynamic and
changes frequently. It is important to keep in mind that the information presented may
not be correct.
In the days following the event newspapers start to cover the event. At this stage more
information about the event is known, but there still may be incorrect information presented.
Weeks after the event news magazines cover the event. At this stage most of the facts
about the event should be accurate. It is important to remember that the people writing
about the event are journalists, not experts in the area of the event.
At this point time passes and there is a gap between magazine articles and scholarly articles
covering the event. The reason for this is that researchers are studying the event, doing
experiments, and writing up the results. Once the results are written up, they are submitted
to scholarly journals. At this point the articles go through the peer review process.
The peer review process starts with the author submitting their article to a journal. The
journal decides if the article is something that the journal would cover. If it is, the
article has all information about the author removed, and then sends copies of the article
to a panel of readers. These readers, like the author, are knowledgeable about the topic
being written about. The readers read the article, and make suggestions about changes
that they would like to see made in the article. Maybe they would like the author to comment
about how the event relates to another event. Maybe they want the author to comment about
another paper written about the event.
The author gets the suggestions, and makes changes to the article. This process goes
on until everyone is happy with the article. The journal then publishes the article.
Months after the event, scholarly journals start to cover the event. Scholarly articles
contain higher quality information about events than a popular magazine article does.
Years after the event, scholarly books are written about
the event.