HOW TO WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER

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HOW TO WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER
Walter A. Zin, MD, DSc
Laboratory of Respiration Physiology Carlos
Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro
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What is a Scientific Paper ?

• A scientific paper is a written and published
  report describing original research results

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Writing a Research Paper

• No single best way
• Varies from paper to paper
• Wait till data analyzed
• Background reading
• not too extensive
• make notes make notes of notes
• write down sentences or parts of them
• not during writing time

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Whom Writing For?

• To please yourself?
• Referees - to persuade the toughest one
• Journal
• - Choose before writing
• - General vs. subespecialty journal

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Whom Writing For?

• Strategies to choose the journal
• Where many of the papers cited were published?
• Where do cited scientists publish their work?
• Read the avertising statements of journals
• Read the scope paragraph in the I for A
• Read the table of contents of potential journals
• Examine several articles in potential journals

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Sequence

• Fix realistic schedule (moderate)
• Decision is final
• Adherence foresees a good outcome
• Figures, tracings, tables
• Methods and Results
• Discussion and Introduction
• Abstract and Title

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Structure

• A good article has a definite structure, makes
  its point, and does not was space and time
• The most difficult part in writing a scientific
  paper is planning its structure

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Structure

• Biggest problems come first
• A scaffold of headings and subheadings
• IMRAD each on a separate sheet
• - In the first draft random order, telegraphic
  style
• - Afterwards the ideas must be numbered and
  an order generated

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Subheadings

• Signposts to reader
• Every paragraph in early drafts
• Final version never over single paragraph
• Hierarchy of sub-subs
• Max of 3 for typographical distinction

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Writing Tools

• Dictionary, well-thumbed
• Thesaurus
• Synonyms, shades of meaning
• Check every word
• Pencil, pen, computer
• Paper bin

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Methods Section

• Enough information for an experienced
  investigator to repeat your work
• Avoid tiresome detail
• Cut-and-paste from previous work of the
  author(s), not somebody elses
• It is the first section of the paper in which
  subheadings should be used

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Results Section

• Refer to data (Fig. X, Table Y)
• Dont repeat numbers in Tables
• Can state numbers from Figures if precision is
  required
• A lot of numbers, make Table

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Introduction

• 2-3 paragraphs, lt450 words
• First paragraph
• Introduce broad area
• Second paragraph
• Explicit rationale
• Last paragraph
• - Hypothesis

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Discussion Section

• First paragraph
• State major findings
• Paraphrase abstract
• Last paragraph
• In summary (2-3 sentences)
• In conclusion (biggest mensage, return to
  Intro, avoid speculation, avoid need more work

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Discussion Section

• Middle paragraphs
• Base each on a major result
• Always focus on your results
• Never discuss prior work without reference to
  your work
• Refer Tables and Figures

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Abstract

• Précis writing
• Informative, not descriptive
• Some numbers, but not in excess
• Determines if paper will be read
• Is distributed freely in databases

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Title

• Max info in least words
• lt12 words
• lt100 characters
• The title is a label
• Should almost never contain abbreviations
• Question easier to understand, more impact
• State results

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Figures

• Do before writing
• Redraw, redraw, prune clutter
• Least non-data-ink
• Max 4 lines, all solid
• No caption
• Reduce to 1 column in journal
• Reduced xerox copy to check out
• Original should be lt3x final

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Figures

• Axes
• Minimize tick marks
• Dont number each tick
• Lettering
• Uniform, lower case
• Minimize, avoid bold
• After reduction, 2-3 mm high
• Legend
• Gives message

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Tables

• Single unit, understood without text
• Prune, prune columns, lines
• Exceed 1 sheet redraw
• Avoid narrow/broad rotate all 90o
• No added vertical/horizontal lines
• If small move data to text

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Of Writing

• At assigned time write (not read)
• Dont wait for the muses
• A craft, not an art practice
• Ideas come while writing
• Read good writers, especially non-medical

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Momentum

• Fix a schedule
• Monitor progress
• Write by a biological clock
• One page a week torture
• Skip trouble spots
• Writers block unacceptable

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Concentration

• Need stretch of several hours
• When time is short prepare, revise
• Avoid distractions phone, beeper
• Location
• - Very boring area
• - Nothing to distract

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First Draft

• Write as quickly as possible
• As if thinking out loud
• Get everything down
• Ignore spelling, grammar, style
• Skip troublesome words
• Correct and rewrite only when the whole text is
  on paper
• Do not split the manuscript among the co-authors

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Good Writing

• Content, accuracy
• Clarity
• Precision
• Logic
• Order of presentation

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Clarity

• Clear
• Exact
• Ambiguity, inconsistency
• Wooly words
• Concise
• Least words
• Short words
• One word vs many

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Simplify
a majority of most at the present time
now give rise to cause in some cases
sometimes is defined as is it is believed that
I think on the basis of by pooled together
pooled subsequent to after with the result that
so that
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Use and Misuse of English

• Tense
• Previously published work present tense
• Your own work past tense
• Voice
• Active more precise and less wordy than passive
• Name the agent, even I or we
• Singulars and plurals

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Use and Misuse of English

• Punctuation
• Hyphens
• Pile-ups of nouns or phrases
• Numbers

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Bad Writing

• Words dont do justice to your ideas
• If multiple mistakes in spelling and syntax,
  reviewer suspects similar sloppiness in the lab

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Style

• Clear, orderly presentation
• Reads comfortably
• Science vs literature

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Writing

• Reshape, refine, tighten up
• Juggle words, change sentences around
• Strengthen transition between sentences
• Check narrative flow
• After several drafts ask for a second opinion

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Writing Clutter

• All first drafs have too many words
• Successive drafts prune vigorously
• Strip every sentence
• Look for excessive adverbs, adjectives
• Writing improves in proportion to deletion of
  unnecessary words

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WritingAbbreviations and Acronyms

• Liked by authors, hated by readers
• Reading should not require a glossary
• Unwieldy word occurring gt 10 times

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Writing Sentences

• Only one idea in a sentence
• Keep short lt20 words
• Vary length
• Long sentences greater risk of grammatical
  error

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Writing Paragraph

• The unit of thought in a group of sentences
• Subheading over each one in early drafts
• Not too long solid block of printing (lt125
  words)
• Long paragraph bad

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Writing Narrative Flow

• Telling a story
• Reader follows from start to end
• Writing is sequential logic is the glue
• Sentences hold hands
• Smooth transitions
• Every step is inevitable

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Rewriting

• Secret of writing is rewriting
• Secret of rewriting is re-thinking

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Typing

• Clean
• Wide margins (2.5 cm)
• On one side of the sheet only
• Adherence to the style of the journal
• Proofread, proofread, proofread

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Authorship

• Decided as early as possible
• Should include persons who
• Can defend the intellectual content, including
  data and conclusions
• Must be willing to concede publicly any errors
• In the case of fraud be willing to state
  publicly the nature and extent, and account for
  its occurrence

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Authorship Criteria

• All the following criteria should be met
• Generate at least part of the intellectual
  content (conception or design, data analysis
  and interpretation)
• Drafting, reviewing or revising critically for
  important intellectual content
• Final approval of the version to be published

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Authorship Order

• Some journals use the alphabetical order
• Most of them assume an order based on each
  authors importance to the study
• The first author is primarily responsible for
  collecting and analyzing data, and writing
• The last one, an established investigator,
  assumes the overall responsibility for the study
• The middle authors are listed according to their
  order of importance to the study

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Authorship Responsibilities

• The authors must comply with the following rules
  when submitting the manuscript for publication
• The manuscript is not under consideration
  elsewhere and the research will not be submitted
  elsewhere until a final decision has been made
  by the journal
• The manuscript is a trustful, original work
  without fabrication, fraud or plagiarism
• The authors have made an important scientific
  contribution and are familiar with the primary
  data
• The authors have read the manuscript and take
  responsibility for its content, and understand
  that if the paper, or part of it, is found to be
  faulty or fraudulent, they share responsibility

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Authorship Conflict of Interest

• All funding sources supporting the work and all
  institutional or corporate affiliations of the
  authors must be acknowledged
• The authors must certify that they have no
  commercial association that might pose a
  conflict of interest in connection with the
  submitted paper

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Benefits of Writing

• Benefit greater to author than reader
• Invaluable mental discipline
• Enhances clear thinking
• Making a subject intelligible to others means
  you understand it
• Improve your reading skills
• Satisfies a creative instinct

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