Thank you for approaching us with your question. We can understand how worried this must be making you. First of all, don’t panic. This was an oversight on your part, but journals understand that these mistakes can happen and generally try to accommodate corrections when possible (see also similar questions answered here and here).   It appears that your manuscript is not at a revision stage (which would have made the process a bit easier) but has already been published. Here are some steps to consider in your case:  1. Follow up promptly with the journal editorial office. Explain the situation clearly—that you inadvertently left out your grant number in the acknowledgments section and need to get it added. Most journals have a process for making post-publication corrections.  2. Get the exact grant number/funding source details you need to add. Double check with your supervisor or institutional grants office if needed.  3. Offer to provide the updated acknowledgments text exactly as it should be published in the correction. This makes it easy for the journal production team. Plus, you do not want to request another round of changes!  4. Thank them for their understanding and willingness to publish the correction. Most...

Manuscript status indicators and related timelines depend on the publisher and journal to some extent. “Awaiting Production Checklist” is a term used by some academic journals during the publication process. This is the stage where the manuscript is queued for printing/online publication. In other words, your paper is nearing publication! The status “Awaiting Production Checklist” typically indicates that the manuscript has been accepted for publication, and it has been through the initial copyediting and formatting stages to prepare it for typesetting and final production. It could also mean that the journal’s production team is waiting for the authors to complete and submit a “Production Checklist” or similar checklist/questionnaire. This checklist requires authors to confirm that the manuscript title, author names, affiliations are correct; provide any final updates or corrections; sign off on any copyright transfer agreements, etc.Did you receive such a list (perhaps as a clickable link), and if so, did you fill it up and send it back? Once authors submit the completed checklist, the production team can proceed to finalize the manuscript formatting and move it into the publication production workflow. If the “Awaiting Production Checklist” status has disappeared from the manuscript tracking, it likely means you submitted...

Hello and thanks for reaching out. I admit that I found it a bit difficult to understand your question, but I hope I can provide some clarity and insights that will help you resolve the issue you are facing.Your question in the title mentions 100% similarity. However, you mention that the initial file showed 13%, similarity, and after the first revision, the file showed 63% similarity (I assumed that you were referring to that file and not the other one you are working on). It is surprising that the same file would show such varied similarity values, but I assume that extensive changes might have been made at the revision stage.Now, let me explain how Turnitin and other similarity checking/plagiarism detection tools work. Users upload their written work to Turnitin, which compares the submitted work against a vast database of academic materials and identifies similarities between the submitted work and the content in its database. After the comparison, Turnitin generates report that highlights any passages that match content in its database and provides a similarity score (expressed as a percentage). The similarity percentage represents the proportion of the document that matches other sources in the database. How to interpret Turnitin’s...

Hello there and thank you for writing in to us. Many researchers have difficulties with writing research papers in English, and you are not alone! And it is true that one cannot always depend on their advisor for language and editing advice. Here are the options you can explore: Help from your peers: Reach out to your fellow graduate students or colleagues who are familiar with academic writing conventions and your subject matter. You can share drafts with them, and they can provide valuable feedback on the language, grammar, and academic tone. They might even offer useful tips. Professional editing services: There are numerous professional editing services available that cater specifically to academic writing like Editage. These services employ experienced editors with expertise in various fields and can provide comprehensive editing, proofreading, and formatting assistance. Online editing tools: Finally, while not a substitute for human editing, online tools such as ChatGPT can be useful for catching basic grammar, spelling, and style errors. These tools can be helpful for initial drafts before seeking more comprehensive editing assistance. As you mentioned, ChatGPT-like options have their limitations. They should be used carefully and in conjunction with human editing and review.  For high-quality academic writing at the Master’s...

The question ‘Is a thesis considered a publication?’ admits of no simple answer. However, to begin with, I assume here that typically, in the context of higher education in the United States, a ‘thesis’ – as opposed to a ‘dissertation’ –implies an argument based on existing research and is usually a requirement for a master’s degree whereas a dissertation requires its author to undertake original research and discuss its implications and is usually a requirement for a doctorate (PhD). Note that in the UK, it is often the other way around.     Next, take ‘considered’: considered by whom? The author of the thesis and the educational institution to which the thesis is submitted will certainly consider the thesis a publication, but if we assume ‘publication’ to be synonymous with ‘making public’, the matter becomes less clear-cut. (According to the Oxford dictionaries, a publication is ‘a book or journal issued for public sale’.) If the thesis is available to anyone, whether gratis or on payment, it can be considered a publication; if access to a thesis is restricted irrespective of payment, it would be inappropriate to designate it as a publication.    To sum up, the question can be answered only...