Research Paper Writing & Publishing

Dr.Nikhil PansePlastic & Reconstructive Micro surgeon

Pune,India.Contact: drnikhilpanse@yahoo.co.in

Why to publish?

• Academic responsibility.• Academic growth.• Peer recognition.

How to publish?

• Know – what is published!• Read literature, journals.• Attend conferences, interact with peers and

faculty.• Maintain records and clinical images.• Review your records periodically.• Develop a research plan.

Types of manuscripts

• Review article.• Invited CME.• Original article.• Case reports.• Brief communication.• Letter to the editor.

Writing for publication

• Write for a specific audience.• Research the market.• Target the Journal.– Indexing-Pubmed.– Impact factor.– Subject specific.

• Different from Thesis writing.

Writing Tips

• Use journal checklist, instruction to authors.• Be simple and concise.• Do not write complex sentences.• Know your audience, know your subject, know

your purpose of writing.• If your writing can be interpreted in more than

one ways, its wrong.• Identify an ideal article from the selected

journal.

Writing tips..

• Acknowledgement.• Use credits – Statistician,Photographer,etc.

Title

• Identify main issue of paper.• Accurate, unambiguos,specific and complete.• Does not have abbreviations.• Attract readers.

Abstract

• Structured/Non-structured.• Background/Motivation.• Problem statement.• Approach.• Results.• Conclusion.

Key words

• Most relevant words must be used.

Introduction

• Make general statements about the subject.• Present an overview of the current research

project.

Body

• How was the research question addressed(Material & Methods)

• What was found(Results)

Discussion

• Comparison of results with previously published studies.

• Conclusions from the result with summary of evidence for each result.

• Proposed follow up research paper.

References

• Different systems define different formats of citing text.

Images and Animation

• Good quality- are not pixilated.• Identity of patient not to be revealed.• Long term follow up.• Images /Videos showing function.• Video clips/animation images.

Identity not to be revealed when not necessary

Crop the unnecessary/unwanted backgrounds

Plagiarism.

Review process

• Common causes of rejection:– Not adhering to journal formatting/word

count/other guidelines.– Papers focus is not within the scope of the journal.

What does a reviewer look for?

• Journals have their guidelines.• Originality of work.• Novelty of the concept.• Coverage of relevant literature.• Clarity of writing- readability,

organisation,clarity of thoughts, technical quality of the paper.

• Appropriate title and abstract.

• Sound conclusion and relevant discussion.• Length of paper relative to its usefulness.• Appropriate use of Clinical images.

Review process

• Accept.• Modify- Major changes.• Modify-Minor changes.• Reject.

Most of our barriers are more mental than physical…….

Publish or Perish !!!!