14

I am a nascent academic in a medical field. I want to start publishing early, even before my master's. I see people like me do a lot of systematic reviews, though they collaborate with one or two people with them.

I want to make systematic reviews alone and get published in an open-source journal.

Is it possible? Please also recommend where I can find people to make reviews with other than my workplace.

Improve this question
1
  • 3
    Going through the process of writing a systematic review is a good discipline for crystallizing your understanding; it may well not result in a paper but you can present your work at a talk, webpage, colloquium, discussion etc. and get valuable feedback/criticism. So do it anyway, just don't get hung up on whether it will result in an accepted paper, and don't sink too much time and hope into it until you get some indications.
    – smci
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 4:08

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
20

There is no reason why you cannot write a review on your own, but there are at least three possible problems:

  1. Many journals accept reviews on invitation only (but if you can find a journal that is willing to publish your review that is great).
  2. Writing a review takes a lot more time than you think, especially if you are starting in the field and are not familiar with the literature.
  3. You may need (or at least greatly benefit from) the experience of someone who has already published multiple papers or reviews: both to check and improve the article and to help choosing a journal to submit to.

But there is absolutely no reason not to try if you feel confident enough. Don't underestimate the time it takes though.

To answer your second question: your co-authors are usually your colleagues or people you have worked with. I doubt you will find "people to write reviews with" elsewhere.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    Beyond that, double extraction makes a review more robust - and you need a second person for that. So the chances of getting published somewhere worthwhile (eg not a predatory journal) would be much lower as a single author.
    – rhialto
    Commented Nov 19, 2017 at 23:21
  • 1
    Note that it is often possible to inquire to an editor if they'd be willing to invite a review.
    – Fomite
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 1:48

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .