How to write a high impact
paper
A few pragmatic tips
that might help in
getting a high impact
paper to your name
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How to write a high impact
paper ?
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How to write a high impact
paper ?
© Crown copyright Met Office
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
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The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Develop a nose
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The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Develop a nose
• Go for it
© Crown copyright Met Office
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Develop a nose
• Go for it
• Sell it
© Crown copyright Met Office
Being able to answer the
So What ? question
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Being able to answer the
So What ? question
• “ Is there anything I can do before being interviewed? ”
Tom Feilden, Radio 4’s Today programme:
• Do a bit of homework, sit down and think ‘What
do I want to say here? What are the things that
are fun, or interesting, or original, or novel, or
useful about whatever it is that I’ve done?’
Think of the masters. When Steve Jones
answers a question, he won’t say ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or
go into an elaborate description of the genetics
of what he’s done, he’ll tell you a little story. Ask
yourself how would you tell your grandparents
about what you’ve done at work today?
© Crown copyright
• Sense about Science Standing up for Science, A guide to
the media for early career scientists
Met Office
So what ?
• What was the question we were trying to
answer ?
• What did I do ?
• What did I find ?
• Why does it matter ?
© Crown copyright Met Office
So what ?
• What was the question we were trying to
answer ?
• What did I do ?
• What did I find ?
• Why does it matter ?
© Crown copyright Met Office
© Crown copyright Met Office
August
2003
© Crown copyright Met Office
Develop a nose
• This idea was already in the air in
2003 when Stott traveled though
the worst heat wave in recorded
European history on a wedding
anniversary trip to Italy and
Switzerland. One of the striking
consequences he noticed was
that the Swiss mountains were
missing their usual melodious
tinkling of cowbells. "There was
no water in the mountains, and
the farmers had to take all their
cows down in the valley,” he
says.
© Crown copyright Met Office
Go for it
• He decided to see if he
could pin part of the blame
on climate change after he
returned to his office in
Exeter, England. "I didn't
expect to get a positive
result," he says
© Crown copyright Met Office
Temperature anomaly (wrt 1961-90) °C
Human influence has very likely at least doubled the
probability of European summer temperatures as hot
as 2003 (Stott et al, 2004)
4
3
2
1
0
1900
© Crown copyright Met Office
1950
2000
Stott, Stone, Allen, Nature 2004
Sell it
• In a landmark
paper in
Nature Stott
and colleagues
concluded that
the chances of
a heat wave
like the 2003
event have
more than
doubled
because of
climate
change.
© Crown copyright Met Office
The European summers of 2003 and
2006 could be normal by 2040 and cool
by 2060
Black line – Observed temperatures
Red lines – Model forecast including human influence
Blue line – Model forecast without human influence
HadGEM1
© Crown copyright Met Office
Source Gareth Jones, Hadley Centre
Criteria for Nature
www.nature.com/nature
• Criteria for publication
• The criteria for publication of scientific
papers (Articles and Letters) in Nature are
that they
• :report original scientific research (the main
results and conclusions must not have been
published or submitted elsewhere)
• are of outstanding scientific importance
• reach a conclusion of interest to an
interdisciplinary readership.
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www.nature.com/nature
• Submissions should be accompanied by a
cover letter stating briefly why the conclusion is
an important scientific advance and the author’s
case for the work being published in Nature
rather than in a specialist journal.
• Authors are strongly encouraged to attempt
two 100-word summaries,
• one to encapsulate the significance of the work for
readers of Nature (mainly scientists or those in
scientifically related professions);
• and the other to explain the conclusions at an
understandable level for the general public.
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www.nature.com/nature
• Submissions should be accompanied by a
cover letter stating briefly why the conclusion is
an important scientific advance and the author’s
case for the work being published in Nature
rather than in a specialist journal.
• Authors are strongly encouraged to attempt
two 100-word summaries,
• one to encapsulate the significance of the work for
readers of Nature (mainly scientists or those in
scientifically related professions);
• and the other to explain the conclusions at an
understandable level for the general public.
© Crown copyright Met Office
So What ?
© Crown copyright Met Office
www.nature.com/nature
• Submissions should be accompanied by a
cover letter stating briefly why the conclusion is
an important scientific advance and the author’s
case for the work being published in Nature
rather than in a specialist journal.
• Authors are strongly encouraged to attempt
two 100-word summaries,
• one to encapsulate the significance of the work for
readers of Nature (mainly scientists or those in
scientifically related professions);
• and the other to explain the conclusions at an
understandable level for the general public.
© Crown copyright Met Office
Being able to Answer the
So What ? question
• “ Is there anything I can do before being interviewed? ”
Tom Feilden, Radio 4’s Today programme:
• Do a bit of homework, sit down and think ‘What
do I want to say here? What are the things that
are fun, or interesting, or original, or novel, or
useful about whatever it is that I’ve done?’
Think of the masters. When Steve Jones
answers a question, he won’t say ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or
go into an elaborate description of the genetics
of what he’s done, he’ll tell you a little story. Ask
yourself how would you tell your grandparents
about what you’ve done at work today?
© Crown copyright
• Sense about Science Standing up for Science, A guide to
the media for early career scientists
Met Office
Respect the reader
• There aren’t enough hours in the day for your
readers either
• Think of all those papers out there
• Why should your prospective reader want to
spend time with your paper ?
• “Arouse and fulfill” (“Don’t be such a scientist:
Talking substance in an age of style” by Randy
Olsen)
• The importance of the abstract
© Crown copyright Met Office
Pity the
poor IPCC
Lead
Author
• We have 600 references in
Chapter 10 of AR5
• 10 minutes on each is 100 hours,
An hour on each is 75 eight hour
working days, 15 working weeks
• We need to assess confidence in
the validity of each finding
• So we need to understand
• What the finding is
• Its robustness and limitations
• The papers need to be as clear
as possible
• The abstract is crucial
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• There is nothing to stop you
sending the relevant Lead author
your 2 or 3 sentence assessment
of it when you alert them to your
paper
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Think very hard if you could be onto something
that could have wider significance than your
immediate science clique
© Crown copyright Met Office
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Think very hard if you could be onto something
that could have wider significance than your
immediate science clique
• Go for it – drop everything else if you can
© Crown copyright Met Office
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Think very hard if you could be onto something
that could have wider significance than your
immediate science clique
• Go for it – drop everything else if you can
• When you’ve written it up (First draft : the
question, what did we do, what did we find) take
a big step back (go for a long walk) and ask
yourself again
• Why does this matter to a lot of people ?
• How can I encapsulate what I’ve shown and why it
matters in 2 or 3 sentences ?
© Crown copyright Met Office
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Think very hard if you could be onto something
that could have wider significance than your
immediate science clique
• Go for it – drop everything else if you can
• When you’ve written it up (the question, what
did we do, what did we find: First draft) take a
big step back (go for a long walk) and ask
yourself again
• Why does this matter to a lot of people ?
• How can I encapsulate that in 2 or 3 sentences ?
© Crown copyright
• Then write the paper all over again (Second
Met Office
draft)
The three point plan to writing
a high impact paper
• Think very hard if you could be onto something
that could have wider significance than your
immediate science clique
• Go for it – drop everything else if you can
• When you’ve written it up (the question, what
did we do, what did we find: First draft) take a
big step back (go for a long walk) and ask
yourself again
• Why does this matter to a lot of people ?
• How can I encapsulate that in 2 or 3 sentences ?
© Crown copyright
• Then write the paper all over again (Second
Met Office
draft)
© Crown copyright Met Office
The So what ? question
• Take a lot of trouble over the two 100 word
paragraphs
• Be as clear as possible in the abstract about
what this new work has shown
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Is writing a high impact paper
the same as doing good
science?
Posted by Tom Webb on Jul
28, 2011
Mola Mola
A Nature network blog by
Tom Webb
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