The Writing & Revision Process of Journal Publication
While there very likely are scenarios in which a scholarly author drafts an article, sends it off to an appropriate journal and is fortunate enough to have it accepted immediately and unconditionally, such situations are extremely rare, and it is never wise to submit a first draft for publication. Instead, the first draft of an article should be carefully read and revised by its author, ideally quite soon after completion when both content and structure are fresh in the mind. The revised article can then be shared with other readers such as colleagues and a professional proofreader, whose comments should be considered as objectively as possible and incorporated in new revisions if deemed necessary or helpful. Finally, once all aspects of a paper seem ready for editorial eyes, set the article aside for a week (or however long you have) to gain a little objectivity and distance, then return to proofread it very carefully one last time, ensuring that any errors are corrected, descriptions and arguments are absolutely clear and all aspects of the paper meet the requirements indicated in the journal’s instructions for authors.

At this point, the article is ready to be submitted to the journal, and although it is possible that it could be accepted unconditionally, it is highly unlikely that no further editing will be required before it is actually published. Often acceptance for publication will be offered only on the condition that certain changes are made. These can range from minor matters of formatting to more significant problems with methods and results, but all such requests will need to be considered very carefully, and some changes will be far more easily achieved than others. It may be that you are not able to make all the required changes without compromising what you believe to be essential to your work, in which case you have two options: change as much as possible in response to the editor’s requests and explain in a letter to accompany your resubmission exactly what has been done (and not done), or submit the paper afresh to a different journal. Even if a different journal is chosen, some editing may be required, particularly if the reviewers for the first journal have highlighted necessary corrections or valuable improvements. In addition, once a paper is formally accepted for publication, the author is usually involved to some degree in the proofreading and other editorial procedures prior to publishing, so the writing process is never truly complete until the article is actually published in its final form (whether electronic or print) and available to readers.

Producing an academic or scientific article from inception through to successful publication can prove to be a good deal lengthier and more time-consuming process than many authors initially anticipate, but each bit of writing and revision amounts to progress, and a published piece of quality scholarship is always worth the effort invested.