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Brian Quinn, PhD
Effective Scientific Writing
www.icet.ie
My Background
• EPA funded environmental toxicologist & PI
• Published 17 papers (inc. invited review) & 2 book chapters
• No expert in writing…
• Review papers for several journals • Aquatic Toxicology; Comparative Biochemistry & Physiology;
Chemosphere; Ecotoxicology & Environmental Safety; Molecular
Biology Reports; Marine Pollution Bulletin; Toxicology In Vitro;
Environmental Pollution; Mutation Research; Water Research
• Reviewing helps to identity common mistakes
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Structure of talk
WHY?
• Objectives of scientific writing?
WHO?
• Target audience?
WHERE?
• Journal choice & impact factor?
WHAT?
• How to structure a paper, where to start?
• The logical progression through the paper
• Identify mistakes
Explain review process for peer reviewed paper
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WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO WRITE
SCIENCE???
WHY: Objectives of scientific writing
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WHO: Target Audience
• Write papers to communicate your results & ideas, but to who?
o Scientific peer reviewed journal
o Popular science magazine
o Newspapers (Funding agencies love good PR!!!)
• Important to pitch your results/argument at appropriate level
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WHERE: Journal Choice
• Obviously one relevant to your field of research!!!!
• Check has previously published similar work
• Different journals take different types of paper
• E.g. larger journal: High impact, more results, larger paper
• Are your results good/novel enough?
• Better to have several smaller papers than one really big one??
• Quantitative tool for evaluating journals
• Frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a given period of time.
• Google it!
• Aquatic Toxicology V Nature…
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Journal Impact Factor
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Reviewer comments:
• “The paper presents a method to obtain primary cell cultures from
gill, mantle and digestive gland from the freshwater Zebra mussel. It
is, to my knowledge, one of the first papers describing development
of primary cell cultures from a freshwater Mollusc. Unfortunately I
don't think the manuscript, as currently presented, is very well placed
in AQTOX. The paper is a method paper describing basic cell/tissue
culture methodology and a more appropriate venue would be a cell
culture journal like Cell Tissue Research or similar”
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials & Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• References
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**Format paper according to Journal’s specific guidelines**
Where to start
WHAT: Paper structure
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Abstract
• Mini-paper
• Possibly most difficult part of paper writing
• Therefore leave it till last…
• Concise and to the point (less is more…)
• Clear structure
• Will this make the reader want to read your paper??
Introduction
M & M
Results
Discussion
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Introduction
• Background information
• Setting the scene
• Tendency to waffle… Keep concise and to the point
• You are not giving a review… giving an overview
• Short, concise with relevant information
• Try to string sentences together, not just series of quotes referenced
from other papers…
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Introduction
• Background information
• Setting the scene
• Tendency to waffle… Keep concise and to the point
• You are not giving a review… giving an overview
• Short, concise with relevant information
• Try to string sentences together, not just series of quotes referenced
from other papers…
“Good background into area, explanation as to what research done
previously, outlining knowledge gaps in area”.
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Materials & Methods
• Important section
• Here you are proving to the reviewer / audience that the work
undertaken & results obtained are sound
• Balancing act: Need to put in enough information to ‘validate’ the
results, but not enough room to include all details…
• Sample size
• Statistics, justify use of statistical methods
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Results
• Generally short section
• Do not describe results, only present them. Described later in
discussion
• Follow guidelines for graphs & tables
• Don’t show same results in graph & table
“Too many words used to describe results…”
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Discussion
• Put results into context
• Compare your results to those found by others
• What contribution are your results making to the field of research
• Show you have read around and understand the subject area
• Make recommendations
“Good discussion. Adequately covers all the points raised in the
results section and places them in context of other research
undertaken”.
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Conclusion
• Summarizing the key points of the paper
• Not all journals include a conclusion, check…
• Would reading the conclusion encourage you to read the entire
paper?
“Conclusions supported by the work and are relevant”
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Logical progression
• Keep similar flow throughout paper…
“Good layout of paper, easy to follow and understand.”
“The paper is well written, easy to read and has good logical flow”
“This paper contains valuable results, but is badly structured and difficult to
read.”
“Good background to area, has all necessary information but is not easy to
read. Also several basic grammatical errors. The English needs
to be checked and the quotes are referenced incorrectly with the inclusion of
initials and listed alphabetically instead of chronologically. Basic mistake.”
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Review process
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Review process
• Submit paper to journal. Often asked to suggest referees
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Review process
• Submit paper to journal. Often asked to suggest referees
• Paper sent to 3 referees who have fixed time to respond
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Review process
• Submit paper to journal. Often asked to suggest referees
• Paper sent to 3 referees who have fixed time to respond
• Review paper based on certain questions: o Suitable for journal
o The subject addressed in this article is worthy of investigation
o The information presented is new
o The conclusions supported by the data
o Is there a financial or other conflict of interest between your work and that of the
authors?
o Please give a frank account of the strengths and weaknesses of the article
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Review process
• Submit paper to journal. Often asked to suggest referees
• Paper sent to 3 referees who have fixed time to respond
• Review paper based on certain questions: o Suitable for journal
o The subject addressed in this article is worthy of investigation
o The information presented is new
o The conclusions supported by the data
o Is there a financial or other conflict of interest between your work and that of the
authors?
o Please give a frank account of the strengths and weaknesses of the article
• Reviewer submits comments to authors and private comments to editor
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Review process
• Submit paper to journal. Often asked to suggest referees
• Paper sent to 3 referees who have fixed time to respond
• Review paper based on certain questions: o Suitable for journal
o The subject addressed in this article is worthy of investigation
o The information presented is new
o The conclusions supported by the data
o Is there a financial or other conflict of interest between your work and that of the
authors?
o Please give a frank account of the strengths and weaknesses of the article
• Reviewer submits comments to authors and private comments to editor
• Submit recommendation
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Review process
• Submit paper to journal. Often asked to suggest referees
• Paper sent to 3 referees who have fixed time to respond
• Review paper based on certain questions: o Suitable for journal
o The subject addressed in this article is worthy of investigation
o The information presented is new
o The conclusions supported by the data
o Is there a financial or other conflict of interest between your work and that of the
authors?
o Please give a frank account of the strengths and weaknesses of the article
• Reviewer submits comments to authors and private comments to editor
• Submit recommendation
• If necessary author given fixed time to respond to reviewer queries
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Review process
Keep the reviewer on your side…
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Spelling & Grammar
• Can create a very bad impression. Reviewer will look for other holes…
“For example, Minamata disease (MD) is a mass neurotoxicity disasters in
Minamata and Niigata, Japan, in the 1950s and in the 1960s respectively,
which developed among the inhabitants longly consuming large quantities of
fish and shellfish polluted with methylmercury from local industrial
discharge…”
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Spelling & Grammar
• Can create a very bad impression. Reviewer will look for other holes…
“For example, Minamata disease (MD) is a mass neurotoxicity disasters in
Minamata and Niigata, Japan, in the 1950s and in the 1960s respectively,
which developed among the inhabitants longly consuming large quantities of
fish and shellfish polluted with methylmercury from local industrial
discharge…”
“To develop the hEGF fusion protein with high yields and high permeability
are important in solution of the issue”
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Paper length & illustrations
Closely follow guide for authors given
by journal….
• Keep illustrations clear and easy to read
• Do not replicate results in graph & table (common mistake)
• Photos, scale bar
• Captions, stand alone. Describe results adequately
• Good quality illustrations
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General mistakes
• Tenses. Don’t mix future and past
• Reference material correctly, common mistake
• References cited in the text should be (generally) ordered
chronologically, not alphabetically
• Describe acronyms
• Figure captions
• Units: mg/L or mg l-1? Refer to authors guide
• Spelling, particularly species names…
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Publication: Key points
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Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
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Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
• If you don’t know, ask…. Co-authors, supervisors, fellow students…
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Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
• If you don’t know, ask…. Co-authors, supervisors, fellow students…
• Try to keep sentences short and concise. When you write a sentence, look
at it to see if it can be re-written in fewer words
www.icet.ie
Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
• If you don’t know, ask…. Co-authors, supervisors, fellow students…
• Try to keep sentences short and concise. When you write a sentence, look
at it to see if it can be re-written in fewer words
• Most journals want shorter, more concise papers
www.icet.ie
Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
• If you don’t know, ask…. Co-authors, supervisors, fellow students…
• Try to keep sentences short and concise. When you write a sentence, look
at it to see if it can be re-written in fewer words
• Most journals want shorter, more concise papers
• 2 paper types, longer full of lots of data in high impact journal, or shorter
less data, lower impact journals
www.icet.ie
Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
• If you don’t know, ask…. Co-authors, supervisors, fellow students…
• Try to keep sentences short and concise. When you write a sentence, look
at it to see if it can be re-written in fewer words
• Most journals want shorter, more concise papers
• 2 paper types, longer full of lots of data in high impact journal, or shorter
less data, lower impact journals
• Follow guide for authors. Attention to detail
www.icet.ie
Publication: Key points
• Practice makes perfect…
• If you don’t know, ask…. Co-authors, supervisors, fellow students…
• Try to keep sentences short and concise. When you write a sentence, look
at it to see if it can be re-written in fewer words
• Most journals want shorter, more concise papers
• 2 paper types, longer full of lots of data in high impact journal, or shorter
less data, lower impact journals
• Follow guide for authors. Attention to detail
• Question and dissect what you read. Review papers yourselves…
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There is no mystery???
Unfortunately…
