Title: Writing the paper III: Discussion, Conclusions, Literature cited
1Writing the paper IIIDiscussion,Conclusions,L
iterature cited
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2008
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2Discussion
-
- The purpose of the Discussion
- To interpret your results.
- To answer the question What do the data mean?
- To explain the new understanding of the problem
your results have provided. - To put your results in the broader context of
other existing research.
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
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3Discussion
- The Discussion relates to the Introduction, but
it does not simply repeat or rearrange the
Introduction. - Instead, the discussion describes how your study
has advanced our knowledge of the problem, from
where we were at the end of the Introduction. - The Discussion brings a new perspective or new
information, based on your results. - Additional literature sources may be cited here.
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4Discussion Fundamental questions to answer
- Do your results provide answers to your testable
hypotheses? - If so, how do you interpret your findings?
- If not, why not?
- Do your findings agree with what others have
shown? - If so, describe.
- If not, suggest an alternative explanation or an
unanticipated design flaw in your experiment (or
theirs?). -
5DiscussionFundamental questions to answer
- Given your conclusions, what is the new
understanding of the problem that you
investigated and outlined in the Introduction? - If warranted, what would be the next step in your
study? - i.e. what study would you do next?
- Do not waste space repeating your results
- Do not introduce new results in the Discussion
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6Conclusions
- Purpose
- The purpose of the Conclusions section is to
briefly state your major final points, based on
the synthesis of your results and the
introduction and discussion. - In other words, in this section you are drawing
conclusions based on the discussion of the
results in the previous section - The Conclusion section of your paper is generally
the final text of your paper and emphasizes why
your work is important. - The conclusion section is usually brief and to
the point. - Not all papers have distinct Conclusions sections
- Be sure to check the style of the journal that
you are submitting to.
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7Conclusions Example
- The major implication of our work is that a
species immigration history can have profound
consequences for fundamental evolutionary
processes regulating its geographic range. First,
depletion of genetic diversity at the periphery
of a species range is generally thought to slow
down its geographic spread but, large scale and
repeated introductions may overcome genetic
bottlenecks and create genetically diverse
peripheral populations that have the potential
for continued range expansion. Second, repeated
introduction may allow the emergence of genetic
novelties that are necessary to exploit new
environments by increasing the probability of
recombination between introduced conspecific
genotypes (22, 34) or between interfertile
introduced species (35). Finally, our results
shed light on the relative roles of drift and
natural selection after colonization events and
suggest that natural selection can be stronger
than drift in recently founded populations, which
contrasts with the classic assumption that
Fisherian evolution may be negligible during
colonization processes (36, 37).
8Conclusions Dos and Donts
- Dont simply repeat what you have previously
stated, including over-summarizing. - Dont over-reach with the conclusions.
- Dont summarize again.
- Do look at other papers to determine if including
implications, or giving suggestions for future
research, is appropriate - Journals differ on
what they want you to include in the conclusions.
- Do read the instructions to authors carefully!
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9Literature Cited
- Check that all citations appear in both the text
and the reference section. - Have a hard copy of your paper and your
Literature Cited section and check them off. - Then check again.
-
- Check that all citations are correct.
- Go to hard copies or .pdf copies of the papers
that you are citing to double check. - Then check again.
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10Literature cited Dos and Donts
- Do cite appropriate and relevant work.
- Do try to be complete without overdoing it (use
the most relevant citations). - Do be meticulous with all of your citations
(spelling, journal, volume, page s, etc.). - Dont just rely on the most cited papers.
- Dont cite friends and colleagues just to raise
their citation numbers. - Dont over-cite yourself (unless it is really
appropriate). - Never cite a paper that you have not read all the
way through! - Your paper will lose credibility if you make an
error.
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11Citation styles and what to cite
Sue Silver
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2008
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12Citations
Why you need to cite other authors
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13Citations
- Why you need to cite other authors
- To provide background information on what you
have done - To acknowledge the source of ideas and results
upon which your work is based - To provide support for your ideas and conclusions
- To provide information for others wishing to
repeat your work
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14Citations
- Why you need to cite other authors (continued)
- To allow comparison with other results
- To show that you are aware of the current state
of research directly related to your study - To tell interested readers where to find to
related work
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15Citations
- Why you need to cite other authors (continued)
- To save space dont describe a method that is
described in another paper - To show how your method has been used before
- If you use data from another paper, cite the
source
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16Citations
- What to cite
- Any information not from your experiment and not
common knowledge should be supported by a
citation - Check Instructions to Authors for limit to the
number of citations - Even if no limit, do not cite everything!
- Choose papers that can be easily accessed by
readers
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17Citations
- Reducing the number of citations
- Include recent references
- Use two or three citations to support each point
- Reduce the number of citations by choosing the
most important papers - If there are many important citations, cite one
or two good reviews (Yang et al. and references
therein)
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18Citations
- Citation styles
- Different journals use different styles to list
citations look at the journal to see which
style it uses - Change your citations to match the journal style
- Two well known styles but each journal has slight
variations copy the style carefully - EndNote and Procite will convert all your
citations to the style of many well-known journals
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19Citations
- Harvard style
- In the text, include the author(s) and the year
- Fire suppression has been the primary management
tool in fire-prone forests - (Ohlsen et al. 2006 Wang et al. 2007)
- In the Reference list, put citations in
alphabetical order (first by author, then by year)
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20Citations
Harvard style
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21Citations
- Vancouver style
- For each citation, put a number in the text
- Fire suppression has been the primary
management tool in fire-prone forests (1, 2). A
number of factors have probably contributed to C
storage (3) - In the Reference section, list the citations in
number order
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22Citations
Vancouver style
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23Citations
- Many small differences within these categories
- And or (Able, Smith Brown OR Able and Brown)
- Authors initials (P Jones LP Hartley or Jones P
Hartley LP) - Journal title in full or abbreviated Environ
Pollut or Environmental Pollution - How is punctuation used? (, .)
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24Citations
Examples of subtle differences Clements, F.E.
(1934) The relict method in dynamic ecology.
Journal of Ecology, 22, 3968. Clements FE.
1934. The relict method in dynamic ecology. J
Ecol 22 3968. Copy the journal citation
style before submitting
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25Citations
Journal title abbreviations http//library.caltec
h.edu/reference/abbreviations
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26Citations
- Citing different types of resources
- Book
- Pim, S.L. (1982) Food Webs. Chapman and Hall,
London. - Government or other report
- Pitcher T.J. (2005) Strategic management of
marine fisheries Nice, France NATO Advanced
Study Institute on Strategic Management of Marine
Ecosystems. - Website
- Global (1996). Trials and tribulations. from
Bradley Campus resources website. Viewed 27
September 2008 http//www.bradley.edu/campusorg/ps
iphi/DS9/ep/503r.html
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27Writing the paper IVAbstractKey WordsPre-review
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28AbstractWhat is its purpose?
- An Abstract is a summary of the information in
your paper. - The Abstract is always the last section written.
- This is because you wont know what to include
until you have completed a full version of the
paper. - Abstract lengths vary by journal
- Usually between 150 350 words
- Usually written as a single paragraph
- Check instructions to authors!
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29AbstractWhy is it important?
- Usually the first part of your paper that is read
- If you cannot capture the reviewers or readers
attention with your abstract, your cause is lost. - Reviewers may make a preliminary judgment based
on your abstract alone and you want this to be
favorable. - A good Abstract is usually followed by a good
paper. A bad abstract often indicates a bad paper.
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
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30AbstractHow is it used?
- A well-written Abstract helps readers to
- Identify the basic content of a paper quickly
and accurately - Determine its relevance to their interests
- Decide whether or not they want to read the whole
paper.
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31AbstractWhat to include?
- The question(s) you investigated
- State the purpose of your paper very clearly in
the 1st or 2nd sentence - The experimental design and methods used
- Clearly express the basic design or approach of
the study - Name or briefly describe the basic methodology
used - The major findings, including key quantitative
results, or trends - Report those results that answer your questions
- Identify trends, relative change or differences,
etc. - A brief summary of your interpretations and
conclusions - Clearly state the implications of your results
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32AbstractWhat not to include?
- Dont include any information in the abstract
that is not stated in the paper - Dont cite references in the abstract
- Dont include acronyms, e.g., NSF (National
Science Foundation) in the abstract if possible. - Dont use abbreviations in the abstract. Wait
until the introduction, where they can be
introduced and defined. - Dont use 250 words when 200 are enough.
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33Keywords
- What is a key word
- A search term for people to use and that will
help them to find your paper - They alert the reader to elements in a paper that
might not appear in the abstract - Keywords dont have to appear in the title
- They help the paper to reach a target audience
- How used?
- What for?
- How to choose?
- What makes a really good key word?
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34Acknowledgements
- Contributors not on author list
- Sample and data collection
- Data processing and analysis
- Granting agencies
- Reviewers
- Colleagues
- Anonymous reviewers?
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35Acknowledgements
- Example
- This work resulted from a workshop of the
Collaboratory on the Population Biology of
Invasive Species conducted in October 1999 at the
National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA. The
Collaboratory is funded by the National Science
Foundation (supplement to DEB98-15878). The goal
of the Collaboratory is to highlight both the
contributions that population biology can make in
studies of invasion biology, as well as the
opportunities for studies of basic concepts in
population biology using invasive species. We
thank E. Lyons, S. Scheiner, and M. Courtney for
their encouragement and J. Heacock and T. Culley
for their technical assistance.
36The Value of Pre-review
- Pre-review simply means getting your manuscript
reviewed before submitting it to a journal. - This is common practice and very wise.
- Ask your colleagues, lab mates, students, etc. if
they would be willing to read your manuscript and
comment on it.
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
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37The Value of Pre-review
- Pre-review can greatly improve your manuscript
and improve your chances of having it accepted. - If you are writing a paper that is not in your
own language, be sure to have a native speaker
read and review your paper carefully for grammar
and meaning. - Be sure that you are willing to do the same for
others!
38Exercise 4
- Who should be an author on a paper?
- With your team, spend 15 minutes discussing the
most important criteria for being included as an
author on a paper - Write down these criteria and give them to Sue or
Laura
39Who should be an author?
Sue Silver
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40Who should be an author?
- Definition of author
- The writer of a text, article, or book
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41Who should be an author?
- ESA Code of Ethics (www.esa.org/aboutesa/codeethic
s.php) - Authorship may legitimately be claimed if
researchers - conceived the ideas or experimental design
- participated actively in execution of the
study - analyzed and interpreted the data
- wrote the manuscript.
- Researchers will not add or delete authors from
a - manuscript submitted for publication
without consent of - those authors.
- Researchers will not include as co-author(s)
any individual - who has not agreed to the content of the
final version of the - manuscript.
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42Who should be an author?
Weltzin, Belote, Williams et al. (2006)
Authorship in ecology attribution,
accountability, and responsibility. Frontiers in
Ecology and the Environment 4(8)
43541. Weltzin et al. suggest that authors
include a statement in a box, somewhere in the
paper, describing the contribution of each
author.
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43Who should be an author?
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44Finding Co-Authors
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45Benefits of Co-authors
- Can strengthen a paper by adding expertise or
perspectives. - Can lighten the load by helping to pull a paper
together. - Can increase the prestige of a paper if a
co-author is well-known in the field.
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46Disadvantages of co-authors
- Single author papers are often highly valued by
institutions. - Authorship order does not always reflect who did
the most work and who contributed original ideas. - Can complicate and can delay writing.
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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47Finding co-authors
- Do you have colleagues inside or outside of your
institution that you would like to collaborate
with? - Approach the author and ask whether they would be
interested in collaborating. - Did you hear a paper at a meeting or read a paper
that you admired? - Approach the author and ask whether they would be
interested in collaborating.
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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48Finding co-authors
- For students
- Other students or your Major Professor can be a
great co-author - Is there a technique that you would like to apply
to your work but cannot do yourself? - Find an expert and ask them to work with you and
co-author a paper. - Dont be afraid to ask - people are usually
flattered to be asked.
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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49Break!