Introducing a New Series on Effective Writing And Publishing of Scientific Papers Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

Most often the phrase scientific writing is used to refer to reports of original research in journals. It may also, however, be used in reference to other kinds of writing such as review articles which summarize and synthesize previous research , annotated bibliographies which aid others in performing research , abstracts which summarize experiments or studies , and grant proposals which seek funding for research. In any case, the point of scientific writing is communication by a scientist with an audience of peers. Since the purpose is communication and not entertainment, scientific writing should be precise, clear and objective. When you are writing a paper, try to get your ideas across in such a way that the audience will understand them effortlessly, unambiguously, and rapidly.

There is no need to write about science in unusual, complicated, or overly formal ways in an effort to sound scientific or to impress your audience. To construct sentences that reflect your ideas, focus these sentences appropriately. Use your current topic that is, what you are writing about as the grammatical subject of your sentence see verbs: choosing between active and passive voice . When writing a complex sentence a sentence that includes several clauses , place the main idea in the main clause rather than a subordinate clause. In particular, focus on the phenomenon at hand, not on the fact that you observed it. To ensure they are readable, make sure your sentences do not tax readers' short term memory by obliging these readers to remember long pieces of text before knowing what to do with them.

Then, work on conciseness: see whether you can replace long phrases with shorter ones or eliminate words without loss of clarity or accuracy. Specifically, they discuss how to use verbs effectively and how to take care of your text's mechanics. No descubro nada nuevo si digo que la escritura y publicación de un artículo científico no es un trabajo sencillo. Para ayudar en esta tarea se están publicando a lo largo de 2013 en la revista journal of clinical epidemiology  una serie de artículos mensuales de una página, cada uno resaltando un paso esencial en la preparación y redacción de un trabajo de investigación. En total son 12 artículos y están especialmente recomendados a los investigadores noveles aunque los autores de mayor experiencia que supervisan a los colegas con menos experiencia también pueden encontrar consejos útiles de escritura.

Además, cada artículo contiene una lista de comprobación o checklist con un breve resumen de los puntos principales. Aquí copio el correspondiente a las referencias y a la elección del artículo: aún no ha terminado la publicación de esta serie pero ya están disponibles las siguientes:

knottnerus ja, tugwell p. Pubmed pmid: 23452724.

the wellcome trust science writing prize 2014 launches today and to help inspire your entries we’re publishing a series of how to blogs here on the wellcome trust blog. Over the next few weeks we’ll be covering a range of topics, including how to conduct an interview, how to write a feature, and how to pitch to editors. The prize is run in association with the guardian and the observer and so start us off, and to help you in your search for the perfect story for your entry, the guardian’s science correspondent ian sample shares his tips on how to write a news story from a research paper. most journalists want to break exclusives, but a lot of what scientist journalists write is based on the latest findings published in academic journals. So here are some guidelines on how to write a great news story from a research paper. You need to read the introduction for context, the discussion and conclusions for take home messages.

Was the experiment well designed? was it large enough to draw conclusions from? find weaknesses and flaws. Have the authors omitted key data? look at odds ratios, error bars, fitted curves and statistical significances. Are the results robust? do they back up the scientists’ conclusions? remember: nematodes, fruit flies and mice are not humans, and what happens in a petri dish won’t necessarily happen in a person. If your story is about chimps in guinea using cleavers and anvils, you might mention the different tools that chimps in the republic of congo use for termite fishing.

Interview the authors write from the paper alone and your news story will be dull. How did the face transplant patient react when they looked in the mirror? what possessed the authors to study spiders on cocaine? how did it feel to unearth the remnants of an ancient hearth, knowing a neanderthal sat in the same spot 40,0 years ago? get them to explain their results and justify their conclusions. What do the results mean in plain english? what do they not mean? ask your questions in simple language to get answers you can quote. Remember that papers can take months to appear in journals, so find out how the work has moved on since the work was submitted. First authors are generally the graduate students or postdocs who did all the work. On a good day, a senior author will give you the clearest explanation, the perfect quote, and the richest context. Get other scientists’ opinions send the paper to a handful of experts to check.

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You might salvage a sentence or two, but email makes for clunky quotes: people do not speak the way they write. What does it add? what is the striking result? will it be controversial? what fresh questions does it raise? comments from other scientists will always improve your story. Find the top line you’ve read the paper, interviewed the authors and discussed the work with other experts.

What stood out as most fascinating, alarming, amusing, or important? does it make for a stronger angle? bear in mind that the story you should tell your readers might not be the story the authors want you to tell your readers. But do not assume they are scientists, or that they have time to read boring, unimportant or incoherent stories. Most scientific papers are wrong, thanks to poor study designs, author biases, small sample sizes and other problems. Find a clear path through the story and build one paragraph after another in logical order.

What is the 'audience' for a scientific writer? instructor of a class advisor amp committee seminar audience attendees at scientific meeting: state, regional, national, or international readers of theses readers of scientific journals: state, regional, national, or international educated public 1. For example, how would research on avian mating strategies be presented to an ornithological journal, to a departmental seminar audience, amp to a local bird club. The primary literature includes: 1 state, regional, national, amp international professional journals 2 conference proceedings if edited or peer reviewed 3 annual reviews 4 some books if edited amp containing original results 5 theses amp dissertations 6 technical reports of government agencies or private organizations 7 on line journals if edited or peer reviewed , e.g. Plos one the primary literature is indexed in such forms as biological abstracts, zoological record, science citation index, amp dissertation abstracts. A primary publication is: 1 the 1st publication of original research results, 2 in a form in which peers can repeat the experiments amp test the conclusions i.e.

Methods amp results included , 3 in a journal or other form readily available within the scientific community there is also a secondary literature more general works that are based on primary sources: 1 textbooks amp lab manuals not original results , 2 review papers that summarize amp interpret primary literature, 3 some books unedited or not containing original results , 4 articles in popular magazines e.g. Natural history, audubon, amp scientific american 5 scientific encyclopedias amp dictionaries the relative prestige' of journals in the primary literature varies: 2 top national/international journals in particular fields 3 lesser national journals in particular fields 4 regional journals e.g. Southeastern naturalist the format of publications in these various journals varies but, wherever a paper is submitted, an author should strive to write the best paper possible. 5 editor assigns manuscript to particular volume amp , at the appropriate time, sends it to the publisher. 6 several weeks before that volume is to be published, the author receives page proofs manuscript in form that it will appear in the journal.

The author carefully reviews proofs to make sure there are no typos or other problems. A limited number of changes can be made in the manscript at this point but the authors must pay for any changes not the fault of the publisher. The author is also informed about page charges at this point amp the availability of reprints.

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