Writing the paper III: Discussion, Conclusions, Literature cited

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Writing the paper IIIDiscussion,Conclusions,L
iterature cited

• Laura A. Meyerson

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Discussion

•  
• 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.

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2008
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Discussion

• 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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Discussion 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?).

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DiscussionFundamental 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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Conclusions

• 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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Conclusions 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).

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Conclusions 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!

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
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Literature 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.

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Literature 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.

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Citation styles and what to cite
Sue Silver
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Citations
Why you need to cite other authors
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2008
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Citations

• 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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Citations

• 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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2008
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Citations

• 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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Citations

• 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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2008
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Citations

• 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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2008
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Citations

• 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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2008
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Citations

• 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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Citations
Harvard style
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Citations

• 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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Citations
Vancouver style
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Citations

• 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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2008
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Citations
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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Citations
Journal title abbreviations http//library.caltec
h.edu/reference/abbreviations
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Citations

• 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

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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27
Writing the paper IVAbstractKey WordsPre-review

• Laura A. Meyerson

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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AbstractWhat 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!

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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AbstractWhy 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
2008
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AbstractHow 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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2008
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AbstractWhat 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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2008
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AbstractWhat 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.

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Keywords

• 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?

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Acknowledgements

• Contributors not on author list
• Sample and data collection
• Data processing and analysis
• Granting agencies
• Reviewers
• Colleagues
• Anonymous reviewers?

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Acknowledgements

• 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.

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The 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
2008
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The 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!

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Exercise 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

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Who should be an author?
Sue Silver
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Who should be an author?

• Definition of author
• The writer of a text, article, or book

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2008
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Who 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.

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Who 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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Who should be an author?
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Finding Co-Authors

• Laura A. Meyerson

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Benefits 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.

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 15/16 December
2008
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Disadvantages 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.

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2008
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Finding 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.

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2008
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Finding 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.

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Break!