Scientific
Writing
Andreas Kämper
SS 2010
3. Title and Abstract
Div. for Simulation of Biological Systems
WSI/ZBIT, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Recapitulation
Historical Development
• The first scientific journals appeared in
A.D. 1665
Journal
des
Sçavans
Philosophical
Transactions
of the Royal
Society
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Standard Structure (I)
• Journal space is precious
– Reduction of verbosity and of redundancy
– Organization of manuscripts in a standard
form
• The historical development resulted in
today’s standard structure:
The Introduction, Methods, Results, and
Discussion (IMRAD) format
Standard Structure (II)
• Introduction
– What is this all about? Why was this work
done? Why do you write this paper?
• Materials and Methods
– How was the evidence obtained?
• Results
– What are the facts? What was found?
• Discussion and Conclusion
– What do your findings mean?
Outline
• Title
• Abstract
• Grammar and Style Corner
– Plural forms of nouns
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Title
Abstract
Style and Grammar Corner
Purpose of the Title
• What is the paper about?
• Properties
– Interesting
– Concise
– Informative
• Many, if not most, readers will read the
title only and decide on the paper’s
relevance for their research on the title
alone
Length and Style of the Title
• The title should be brief
– Typically less than 100 characters
– Typically less than 10 to 12 words
• Choose words with great care
• Avoid two part or series titles
– Example:
Heteropoly Compounds. IV. The Basicities
of Some Heteropoly Tungstic and Molybdic
Acids and the Charge of Their Anions
J. R. Matthews, J. M. Bowen, R. W. Matthews, Successful scientific writing, 2nd Ed., p. 66;
example from: E. Matijević, M. Kerker, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1959, 81(21), 5560–5566.
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Hints for Selecting a Title
• Avoid trivial phrases
–
–
–
–
–
“Notes on …”
“A study of …”
“Studies on …”
“Investigations
Investigations on …”
“Observations on …”
• Avoid articles at the beginning
– “A …”
– “An …”
– “The …”
J. R. Matthews, J. M. Bowen, R. W. Matthews, Successful scientific writing, 2nd Ed., p. 66;
R. A. Day, B. Gastel, How to write and publish a scientific paper, 6th Ed., p. 40.
Hints for Selecting a Title
• Do not use uncommon abbreviations
• Do not make claims about your findings,
be neutral
– Do not write “A and B are correlated”, use
Correlation of A and B
“Correlation
B” instead
• Do not try to put “a short abstract” into
the title
When to write the Title?
• When starting your research you have a
rough “working title”
• During writing the paper, collect a
number of alternative titles
• Finally,
Finally select the most appropriate
title for the final manuscript
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Title
Abstract
Style and Grammar Corner
Purpose of the Abstract
• Provides an abbreviated but accurate
representation of the contents of the
entire article
– “Summary of the information in a
document”
– Informative for people who never read the
article
– Used by secondary sources (e.g. Chemical
Abstracts)
Types of Abstracts
• “Informative” abstract
– States the problem, the methods, the
principal data and conclusions
– A substitute for the paper, “the paper
condensed”
– For primary research papers!
• “Indicative” or “descriptive” abstract
– More like a table of contents
– Cannot serve as a substitute of the paper
– Use for reviews only!
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Length and Style of an Abstract
• Typical length: 250 words
– Often a hard limit set by the journal
– If you can tell your story in 100 words, do
not use 200.
Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue parce que je
n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
I write the present [letter] only longer,
because I have no leisure/time to make it
shorter.
Blaise Pascal
Quotation: B. Pascal, Lettres provinciales, Letter XVI, Dec 4, 1656; French text: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/
bpt6k205164n; figure: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Blaise_pascal.jpg (public domain).
Structured Abstracts
• Use one paragraph only, unless the
journal uses “structured” abstracts
Example: S. Böcker et al., BMC Bioinf., 2009, 10(Suppl. 1), S61.
Hints on the Abstract
• Never put something into the abstract
that is not contained in the article
• The abstract must be self-contained,
often it is published by itself
– Do not cite references in the abstract
– Do not refer to tables or figures
– Do not use uncommon acronyms or
abbreviations. Do not use any abbreviation
at all, unless you need it several times in
the abstract
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When to write the Abstract?
• The abstract should be the last part of
the paper you write
• Complete everything else; rewrite
everything else. Then, at the very end:
write the abstract
Title
Abstract
Style
Grammar C
Corner
St l and
dG
Plural Forms of Nouns (I)
• In general (regular plural)
– Add an ‘-s’ to the noun
table  tables, tree  trees
• If the noun ends in a sibilant sound,
i e with ‘-s’
i.e.,
s , ‘-ss’
ss , ‘-sh’
sh , ‘-ch’
ch , or ‘-x’
x
– Add ‘-es’ to the noun
class  classes, fax  faxes
Sources: J. Crump, English irregular plural nouns, http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/crump.htm;
K. M. Mallory, Irregular nouns list, http://www.english-zone.com/spelling/plurals.html; and others.
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Plural Forms of Nouns (II)
• If the noun ends with ‘-y’
– If the ‘-y’ follows a vowel
– Or if the noun is a proper name
• Simply add an ‘-s’
• play  plays
• The two Germanys united in 1990.
– Else
• ‘-y’ changes to ‘-ies’
• fly  flies, body  bodies
Irregular Plural Nouns (I)
• Nouns that end with ‘-f’ or ‘-fe’
– For some: replace the ‘-f’/‘-fe’ by ‘-ves’
half  halves, self  selves, wife  wives
Regular: cliff  cliffs, roof  roofs
• Change of vowels (Old English roots)
foot  feet, (fire)man  (fire)men, louse
 lice, mouse  mice, tooth  teeth,
woman  women
• Old English plurals forms retained
child  children, ox  oxen
Irregular Plural Nouns (II)
• Nouns ending with ‘-o’
–
–
–
–
If it’s a short form
If it’s the name of peoples
If the word originates in another language
If a vowel precedes the ‘-o’
o
• Simply add ‘-s’
kilo  kilos, Navajo  Navajos, macho 
machos, video  videos
– Else
• Depending on the word, ‘-oes’ and sometimes
‘-os’ is correct. If in doubt: use ‘-oes’.
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Singular and Plural Identical
• In some words the singular and plural
forms are identical
– Chinese  Chinese, Japanese  Japanese,
Swiss  Swiss
– cod  cod,, fish  fish ((or
fishes), salmon  salmon,
perch  perch, trout  trout
– deer  deer, grouse  grouse, moose 
moose, sheep  sheep
– offspring  offspring, means  means,
series  series, species  species
Figures top to bottom (all public domain): Atlantic cod, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atlantic_cod.jpg; Coho salmon,
…:Oncorhynchus_keta.jpeg; European perch, …:Aborre,_Iduns_kokbok.jpg; brown trout, …:Bachforelle_Zeichnung.jpg.
Plural of Foreign Nouns (I)
• Foreign nouns retain their plural form
from the other language
– Most nouns ending in ‘-a’ become ‘-ae’
(Latin)
g  algae,
g , amoeba  amoebae,,
alga
antenna  antennae (antennas also used),
formula  formulae (formulas also used),
larva  larvae, nebula  nebulae (nebulas
also used), vertebra  vertebrae
– Exception (Greece)
schema  schemata, stigma  stigmata
Plural of Foreign Nouns (II)
• Foreign nouns retain their plural form
from the other language
– Nouns ending in ‘-is’ become ‘-es’
analysis  analyses, axis  axes, basis 
g

bases,, crisis  crises,, diagnosis
diagnoses, emphasis  emphases,
hypothesis  hypotheses, neurosis 
neuroses, oasis  oases, parenthesis 
parentheses, synopsis  synopses, thesis
 theses
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Plural of Foreign Nouns (III)
• Foreign nouns retain their plural form
from the other language
– Nouns ending in ‘-o’ become ‘-i’ (Italian)
graffito  graffiti, libretto  libretti,
p  tempi,
p , virtuoso  virtuosi
tempo
– Nouns ending in ‘-on’ become ‘-a’
(Greek/Latin)
automaton  automata, criterion 
criteria, phenomenon  phenomena, …
Plural of Foreign Nouns (IV)
• Foreign nouns retain their plural form
from the other language
– Nouns ending in ‘-um’ become ‘-a’
addendum  addenda, bacterium 
bacteria,, curriculum  curricula
(curriculums also used), datum  data,
erratum  errata, medium  media,
memorandum  memoranda (memorandums
also used), ovum  ova, serum  sera
(serums also used), stratum  strata,
symposium  symposia (symposiums also
used), …
Plural of Foreign Nouns (V)
• Foreign nouns retain their plural form
from the other language
– Most nouns ending in ‘-us’ become ‘-i’
alumnus  alumni, bacillus  bacilli,
g 
cactus  cacti,, focus  foci,, fungus
fungi, nucleus  nuclei, octopus  octopi,
radius  radii, stimulus  stimuli,
syllabus  syllabi, terminus  termini, …
– A few nouns have different plural forms
corpus  corpora, genus  genera
– Exception: virus  viruses (regular)
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Plural of Foreign Nouns (VI)
• Foreign nouns retain their plural form
from the other language
– Nouns ending in ‘-ex’ become ‘-ices’
apex  apices (also apexes), index 
), vortex  vortices
indices ((also indexes),
– Nouns ending in ‘-ix’ also become ‘-ices’
appendix  appendices (in books) but
appendixes (in the abdomen), cervix 
cervices, matrix  matrices
Words Always in Singular
• These words are never in plural and
are always combined with a verb in
singular
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
advice
dust
furniture
information
knowledge
news (although there’s an ‘-s’ at the end!)
progress
Words Always in Plural
• These words are never/rarely in
singular and are always/most often
combined with a verb in plural
barracks (barrack is uncommon),
binoculars, briefs, clothes, congratulations,
dentures, environs, glasses, goggles, goods,
headquarters (use with plural verb more
common), jeans, outskirts, pants, people,
pliers, police, pajamas, scissors, shears,
spectacles/specs, surroundings, trunks,
thanks, tights, tongs, trousers, underpants
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