How to Write a Scientific Paper

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How to Write a Scientific Paper (in English)
Concise, Comprehensive, Consistent
Professor Lin Ye, FTSE School of Aerospace,
Mechanical Mechatronic Engineering University
of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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General Points

• No Tricks
• My personal views
• Basic Principles
• Mother-/Grandmother-hood

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Background Motivation for Publication

• Good academic track record
• Good CV for job search
• Good for academic career path
• Exchange of research outcomes
• International collaborations

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What Is a Scientific Paper?
Views

• A claim/announcement for your achievement
• A milestone to record your progress
• A communication for your new knowledge after a
  study !

Fact You want others to understand you via
reading (you dont have a chance to explain and
add) and accept your views/ knowledge on the
topic.
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Some Typical Versions
An advertisement An announcement A laboratory
report Lack of SCIENTIFIC details!
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Observations on Scientific Research in China

• Good Research Support
• Good Research Infrastructure
• Good Researchers

Not Worse Than Those At Most Research
Institutions/Universities in Europe and USA !
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Observations on Scientific Manuscripts

• Common problem scientific quality is poor !
• Deliberately make the thing complicated
• Not concise in description
• English language problems
• Poor presentation (figures, tables, very long
  sentences)

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Lack of Confidence

• Deliberately make the thing complicated
• Make people confused
• Explicitly claim the unjustified achievements
• Use all shinning words where possible
• Follow the big Names

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Key Aspect for A Scientific
Fact You tell people a story of study. It
should elaborate the study for Why do you want
to do it? Aims and Objectives How do you do
it? Method and Approach What is the
outcome? Results and Discussions
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Concise
Situation Deliberately make the thing
complicated, significant, and bright Potential
issue people are confused! Suggestion Straigh
t in description Remove anything that can be
removed (without changing the contexts). Chew it
word by word.
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Test Standards (ASTM, ISO)

• Standard methods are vital in ensuring reliable
  data.
• True in all fields Thus ASTM ISO.
• If a property is to be claimed it must be backed
  by 1) a method and 2) statistical analysis
  (means, SD).
• For materials science, materials development must
  be supported by proper results.
• Recent confusion in Nano field is often a
  result of poor data.

It is not clever to have your own way. Always
follow the standards whenever it is possible.
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Example
Invalid Digits Stress calculation D 1.72
mm, P 1.2 N Normal stress P/A 0.5164578
N/mm2
Missing Units Stress calculation D 1.72 mm,
P 1.2 N Normal stress P/A 0.51
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Significant Differences ?
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Aims and Objectives

• Elaborate why you want to do the study with
  appropriate justification
• Your own reasons not others
• Have confidence
• But try to avoid
• so far no related studies have been reported
• this is the first time
• someones theory and experiment (20 years ago)
  were wrong
• because some of big names suggests..

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Method and Approach

• Elaborate all necessary scientific details that
  lead to the outcomes (results)
• Provide all necessary formulae and data (use
  appendix when necessary)
• Concise vs. Comprehensive

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Results and Discussions

• Justification
• What is the new?
• Elaborate the results around the aims
• Use others results (even similar) to support
  yours
• Should allow people to re-work out your results
  independently based on information in the paper

• Try not to
• Just list results without justification - a
  laboratory report

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Conclusions

• Focus on the facts of study rather than claims
• Focus on what is the new understanding/knowledge
  achieved
• Avoid to explicitly claim the achievements
  without context.

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Abstract vs. Conclusions
Problem they look the same or similar
What is an abstract ? A summary a skeleton
version highlighting aims, method/approach, major
outcomes
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Look Professional

• Consistent in
• Font size
• Margins
• Spacing
• Table size and format
• Figure size and format

Neat and Clean!
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What Should I Do?

• Start now and have your own standard!
• Have the confidence about your study.
• You know more than others about your study and
  results.
• Examine your own paper after two weeks of
  completion

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Guidelines

• All scientific journals have the very SIMILAR
  guidelines (standards) for preparation of
  manuscript
• It is always good to follow the standards.
• Get a professional editor if available

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University of Sydney

• First University in Australia (since 1850)
• Member of Group of Eight (Australias Top
  University Association)
• Member of Association of Pacific Rim Universities
  (Worlds Top University)

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University Standing

• First University to Offer Engineering Education
  in Australia
• Ranking of ISI Citation Worldwide (2003) 80th
  (Engineering), 60th (Materials Science)
• Ranking of all Scientific Papers Citation
  Worldwide (2003) 35th
• New Vision of University 11050 (top 1 in
  Australia, top 10 in Asian-Australasia, top 50 in
  the world)

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• 46,200 Full-time Students
• 35 Postgraduate Students
• 7000 International Students
• 6056 Full-time Staff
• 150 Departments
• AUD1B/year Total Research Income
• Highest Percentage of ARC Funding among
  Australian Universities
• 50 Sporting Club
• 180 Clubs and Societies
• 171 student/staff Ration
• 5.1 Million Library Holdings

2004 Statistics
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School of Aerospace, Mechanical Mechatronic
Engineering

• First Lecture on Mechanical Engineering in 1883
• Establishment of the Engineering Faculty in 1920
• Establishment of Dept. Aeronautics in 1932
• Introduction of Mechatronic Engineering in 1990
• Amalgamation of Depts. of Aeronautical
  Engineering and Mechanical Mechatronic
  Engineering on 1st January, 2001

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Statistics of AMME
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Education Programmes

• BE (BE/BSc, BE/BCom, BE/BA, BE/LLB, BE/BMedSc)
• Aeronautical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Mechatronic Engineering
• Mechanical (Biomedical) Engineering
• Aeronautical (Space) Engineering
• Mechatronic (Space) Engineering
• Mechanical (Space) Engineering
• MES (Master of Engineering Studies)
• MER (Master of Engineering Research)
• PhD

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Research Centres
The school is the home to a few leading research
centres supported by Australian Research Council
(ARC), including ARC Centre of Excellence in
Autonomous Systems and Australian Centre for
Field Robotics (ACFR). The school is also taking
a lead in a few commonwealth funded cooperative
research centres (CRCs). The school is
responsible for attracting about half of the
Facultys research funding. The School has 2
Australian Federation Fellows and 8 Professors.
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Research Strength
A survey of 265 universities worldwide was based
on the average number of Science Citation Index
(SCI) papers per staff member published from 2000
to 2002.

• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
  3.29
• Princeton University, 3.10
• Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
  Technology, 2.23
• Stanford University, 2.96
• Johns Hopkins University, 2.46
• University of Sydney, 2.36
• University of Toronto, 2.25
• Pohan University of Science and Technology, 2.23
• University of Hong Kong, 2.22
• University of California, San Diego, 2.15

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Research Strength

• Mechatronics (Field Robotics, UAV, Navigation,
  and Control)
• Materials, Structures, Manufacturing,
  Optimisation, Finite Element Analysis, Design
• Industrial CFD/Combustion, Energy and Environment
  
• Rheology
• Biomedical Engineering (Biomaterials, and Tissue
  Engineering)

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Good Luck! please visit School Web
www.aeromech.usyd.edu.au Faculty Web
www.eng.usyd.edu.au University Web
www.usyd.edu.au