Q: The journal wants a list of my previous publications, but I don't have any published papers. What should I do?
I recently submitted a manuscript to a journal. I got a mail from the journal editor yesterday. He has requested me to provide my publication list. I have not received such a request before. Why does he do so? I have 2 papers accepted but not published yet, so how should I reply? Here's what the editor says: Thank you for submitting your manuscript to XXX. In order to proceed with the peer review of your manuscript, we need the list of published articles by each of the authors of the current manuscript (including at least those articles published between 2005 and 2014).
This is probably part of the procedure followed by the journal in question. Some journals want such information as part of complete disclosure policies. This is done mostly to ensure that there is no major overlap or duplication of content with your previous publications. They might also want to be able to access these articles in case you have cited them in your present study.
You need not worry about this. You can reply to the editor clearly and honestly explaining that you do not have any published articles, but you have articles that have been accepted and will be published soon. You can give the details of your accepted papers and mention the names of the journals where they will be published.
This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage