We’ve been considering submitting one of our recent projects to one of the prominent journals (Science, Nature, PLoS Biology and so forth). The process is somewhat different than normal. Not just the formatting, but also the focus on how interesting the work is to people outside the field and to a non-science audience. I’m a bit averse to the press release, spin-heavy mentality that can go along with these things sometimes, but it has helped me focus better on the bigger picture.

Since this is my first time doing this sort of thing, it’s also been a little bit intimidating. I’ve found it helps to mentally compare our work with other related papers that have been published in these journals, rather than some imaginary standard. That helps.