Writing and publishing a scientific paper

Writing and publishing journal articles are essential aspects of a successful scientific career. Unfortunately, many scientists find the process of communicating about their work intimidating and confusing. Now in its eighth edition, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper teaches how to apply clear focus, good organization, and simple, straightforward language to write papers

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What Is Scientific Writing?

1. THE SCOPE OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING The term scientific writing commonly denotes the reporting of original research in journals, through scientific papers in standard format. In its broader sense, scientific writing also includes communication about science through other types of journal articles, such as review papers summarizing and integrating previously published research. And in a

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Historical Perspectives IMRAD organization of scientific papers

1. THE EARLY HISTORY Human beings have been able to communicate for thousands of years. Yet scientific communication as we know it today is relatively new. The first journals were published about 350 years ago, and the IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) organization of scientific papers has developed within about the past century. Knowledge,

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Approaching a Writing Project

1. ESTABLISHING THE MINDSET The thought of preparing a piece of scientific writing can intimidate even the best writers. However, establishing a suitable mindset and taking an appropri­ate approach can make the task manageable. Perhaps most basic, remember that you are writing to communicate, not to impress. Readers of scientific papers want to know what

What Is and how organize a Scientific Paper?

1. DEFINITION OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER A scientific paper is a written and published report describing original research results. That short definition must be qualified, however, by noting that a sci­entific paper must be written in a certain way, as defined by tradition, editorial practice, scientific ethics, and the interplay of printing and publishing pro­cedures.

Ethics in Scientific Publishing

1. ETHICS AS A FOUNDATION Before writing a scientific paper and submitting it to a journal—and indeed, before embarking on your research—you should know the basic ethical norms for scientific conduct and scientific publishing. Some of these norms may be obvious, others not. Therefore, a basic overview is provided below. Graduate students and others seeking

Where to Submit Your Manuscript to academic journals

1. WHY DECIDE EARLY, WHY DECIDE WELL Too often, authors write scientific papers and then consider where to publish them. The decision, however, is best made early, before the writing begins. That way, the paper can be geared appropriately to the audience (for example, read­ers of a general scientific journal, a journal in your discipline

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How to Prepare the Title of a Scientific Paper

1. IMPORTANCE OF THE TITLE In preparing a title for a paper, you would do well to remember one salient fact: This title will be read by thousands of people. Perhaps few people, if any, will read the entire paper, but many people will read the title, either in the original journal, in one of

How to List the Authors and Addresses in your Scientific Paper

1. THE ORDER OF THE NAMES “If you have co-authors, problems about authorship can range from the trivial to the catastrophic” (O’Connor 1991, p. 10). The easiest part of preparing a scientific paper is simply entering the bylines: the authors and addresses. Sometimes. We haven’t yet heard of a duel being fought over the order

How to Prepare the Abstract of a Scientific Paper

1. DEFINITION An abstract should be viewed as a miniature version of the paper. The abstract should provide a brief summary of each of the main sections of the paper: introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion. As Houghton (1975) put it, “An abstract can be defined as a summary of the information in a

How to Write the Introduction of a Scientific Paper

1. GUIDELINES Now that we have the preliminaries out of the way, we come to the paper itself. Some experienced writers prepare their title and abstract after the paper is written, even though by placement these elements come first. You should, however, have in mind (if not on paper or in the computer) a provisional

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How to Write the Materials and Methods Section of a Scientific Paper

1. PURPOSE OF THE SECTION In the first section of the paper, the introduction, you should have stated the methodology employed in the study. If necessary, you also defended the reasons for your choice of a particular method over competing methods. Now, in “Materials and Methods” (also designated in some cases by other names, such

How to Write the Results of a Scientific Paper

1. CONTENT OF THE RESULTS So now we come to the core of the paper, the data. This part of the paper is called the results section. Contrary to popular belief, you shouldn’t start the results section by describ­ing methods that you inadvertently omitted from the materials and methods section. There are usually two ingredients

How to Write the Discussion of a Scientific Paper

1. DISCUSSION AND VERBIAGE The discussion (which some journals term a comment, especially for short papers) is harder to define than the other sections. Thus, it is usually the hard­est section to write. And, whether you know it or not, many papers are rejected by journal editors because of a faulty discussion, even though the

How to State the Acknowledgments of a Scientific Paper

1. INGREDIENTS OF THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The main text of a scientific paper is usually followed by two additional sections, namely, the acknowledgments and the references. As to the acknowledgments, two possible ingredients require consideration. First, you should acknowledge any significant technical help that you received from any individual, whether in your laboratory or elsewhere. You

How to Cite the References of a Scientific Paper

1. RULES TO FOLLOW There are two rules to follow in the references section, just as in the acknow­ledgments section. First, list only significant published references. References to unpublished data, abstracts, theses, and other secondary materials should not clutter up the references or literature-cited section. If such a reference seems essential, you may add it

How to Design Effective Tables in Scientific Paper

1. WHEN TO USE TABLES Before proceeding to the “how to” of tables, let us first examine the question of “whether to.” As a rule, do not construct a table unless repetitive data must be presented. There are two reasons for this general rule. First, it is simply not good science to regurgitate reams of

How to Prepare Effective Graphs in Scientific Paper

1. WHEN NOT TO USE GRAPHS In the previous chapter, we discussed certain types of data that should not be tabulated. They should not be turned into graphs either. Basically, graphs are pictorial tables. The point is this. Certain types of data, particularly the sparse type or the type that is monotonously repetitive, do not

How to Prepare Effective Photographs in Scientific Paper

1. PHOTOGRAPHS AND MICROGRAPHS If your paper is to be illustrated with one or more photographs, there are several factors to keep in mind. The most important factor to worry about, however, is a proper apprecia­tion of the value of the photographs for the story you are presenting. The value can range from essentially zero

Rights and Permissions versus the Scientific Paper

1. WHAT IS COPYRIGHT? Before you submit your paper to a journal, you should be aware of two items regarding copyright. First, if your paper includes illustrations or other materi­als that have been published elsewhere, you will need permission to republish them unless you hold the copyright. Second, you may need to transfer the copy­right