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Betsy Shenkman, PhD
Department of Health Outcomes and Policy
College of Medicine
& the Institute for Child Health Policy
Writing a Scientific Paper
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WHY WRITE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS?
“Scientists are motivated by two things: (1) to understand the world,
(2) to get credit for it”
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A scientific career is all about expansion of human knowledge
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In the academic and public sectors, scientific papers ARE the means for this
expansion.
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“Publish or Perish” should indeed be the rule for scientists working as
individuals - scientific papers ARE your professional contribution.
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Quantity doesn’t matter beyond an expected number – quality is what matters
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What determines the perceived quality of a scientific paper? (now routinelymeasured by the citation index)

Originality and importance of ideas
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Effectiveness of communication, particularly when it comes to planting the
flag for new ideas
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Advertising: presentations, communications at meetings and with visitors,
email exchanges, citations…
VIEW PAPER WRITING AS PART OF YOUR RESEARCH,
+ A POST-RESEARCH ACCOUNT
NOT
“The paper is not a description of the work, it IS the work”

Start writing the paper as soon as possible – view it as a tool of your
research. Iterate and agonize over the paper as part of your research

Write the intro as you engage into your research – what are you trying to
do? Why is it important? What has been done before?
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Write the Methods once you think they are mature – can you defend them
in writing? If you have difficulty in the writing that often means there is a
problem with the methods

Write results and discussions as the ideas come to you – spend an hour
here and there writing them down in paper form. That will help crystallize
them in your mind and may lead to new ideas

Spend a bit of time each day with your evolving paper. Try to go through it
with the eyes of a critical reader (be your own worst critic!)
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More Signatures of Professional
Attitude

Membership in a professional society
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Reading journals – some believe you should have a
subscription
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Familiarity with literature not directly related to research.
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Attendance at seminars, scientific meetings; discussion with
colleagues; helpfulness;
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Presentation of research results.
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Eagerness to publish findings.
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The Goal is Not Just to Publish but
to Publicize Your Work!
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Publish in the best (e.g. highest impact, more prestigious,
largest circulation journals).
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Use an intriguing title
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Use attractive illustrations, visual materials.
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Write well
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Read a style guide first
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Use a dictionary, a thesaurus, a spell checker, and a grammar
program.
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Writing Style

Short declarative sentences are easier to write and easier to
read and they are usually clear. However, too many short
sentences in a row can sound abrupt or monotonous. It is
easier to start with simple declarative sentences and then
combine some of them than to start with long rambling
sentences and then try to shorten them.

By all means, write in your own personal style, but keep in
mind that scientific writing is not literary writing. Scientific
writing serves a completely different purpose from literary
writing, and it must therefore be much more precise. Some
hints follow.
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 Writing Style

Avoid slang and jargon

Use strong verbs – they are essential for clear concise writing

Use active voice – less wordy and less ambiguous
The fact that such processes are under
strict stereoelectronic control is
demonstrated by our work in this area.
Our work in this area demonstrates that
such processes are under strict
steroelectronic control.
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Writing Style
 Be
brief. Wordiness adds nothing but confusion,
and the resulting paper loses the reader’s interest.
 Use
the first person.
 Jones reported xyz, but we found….
 Our recent work demonstrated ..
 For these reasons, we began a study of …
 However, avoid phrases like “we believe”, “we
feel”, etc.
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Writing Style
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Place familiar information at the beginning of a sentence and
complex information to follow:
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
Macular degeneration is affected by diet. One of the diet
components that affects macular degeneration is vitamin B6.
Although vitamin B6 seems to reduce the risk of macular
degeneration, it may have side effects.
Get to the subject quickly

Due to the non-linear and hence complex nature of ocean
currents, modeling these currents in the tropical Pacific is difficult.

Modeling ocean currents in the tropical Pacific is difficult due to
their non-linear and hence complex nature.
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Where to Publish?
Choose
the most appropriate journals
with the highest “impact” (average
citations per paper), prestige, and the
largest circulation.
+PREPARING YOUR PAPER FOR
CONSUMPTION
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Play to your customer base! Think of HOW scientists (e.g., you!)
read papers.
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Title and abstract are for the search engines…most readers will not go
beyond that.
Figures + captions and Tables + footnotes must be self-contained…a lot
of readers go through those w/out reading the text. Some may look for
quick explanation in text, so discussion of figures/tables in text should
jump at reader (I like paragraphs starting with “Figure X shows…”
Make your figures attractive for use in presentations, both by you and
others.
Many readers are interested in your paper mainly because they want
some specific numbers, or a synthesis or references to previous work;
oblige them by being scholarly.
The take-home messages of the paper should be “in your face”, I.e.,
in abstract, in intro, in conclusions, to make sure the “diagonal
reader” gets the message. Do not be shy!!
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The Title and Abstract
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Title. The title should accurately, clearly, and concisely reflect
the emphasis and content of the paper. The title must be
briefand grammatically correct. Series numbers should not
be used.
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Abstract. All manuscripts (Communications and
Articles)must contain an abstract, which should briefly state
the reason for the work, the significant results, and the
conclusions.
+ THE INTRODUCTION
write it first – do it early, revisit often; use it to think about what your paper is
about, to test your command of the literature
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Provider Pertinent Background Information – Do Not Review the
Literature First paragraph: state the problem succinctly – do not
encumber with too many references
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Begin with a broad background statement
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The provide specific background
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In mammals, auditory hair cells of the inner ear are the sensory
receptors of the auditory system…
The molecular basis of this mechanism is thought to be a the moto
protein prestin…
Unknown problem: elaborate on what you will be doing in your paper
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Although prestin has been studied intensively, its molecular function
is not fully established.
+ A few words about references…
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Showing command of the literature is extremely important.
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You need to describe the foundation on which your contribution is based.
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So be serious about literature search and reading papers – devote a bit of
time to this each day.
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Never cite a paper for which you have not read at least the relevant part.
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Cite papers in a context that makes it clear what the paper did – otherwise
the reference is useless. If you are not clear, go back and (re-)read the paper
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There is nothing wrong with citing yourself or your group extensively – in
fact that is normal because that is the work you typically build on, and that is
part of advertising. But do not ignore what others have done!
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References should be helpful to the reader, not of historical interest (unless
you are writing a review)
+ Methods section following the Intro
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Write this as soon as you think that your methods are mature –
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Often you will be working with a complicated model or using a
messy data set. Focus your methods section solely on what is
important for your paper.
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Provide enough detail for a trained scientist to evaluate or
complete your work.
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To classify native species, orchids were collected
To classify native species, orchids were collected in the Everglades in
January 2010. (note passive voice is often preferred in the methods
section)
Reason – places emphasis on materials and methods and it is not
important for readers to know who performed the action, in most cases.
+ Methods section following the Intro
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Use precise words
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After 3 hours the old medium was dumped and the same amount of
fresh medium was added.
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After 3 hours the old medium was replaced with an equivalent
amount of fresh medium.
Indicate that Human Subjects approval was obtained or other
ethical issues that need to be addressed
A
few
words
about
math…
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Equations are often necessary to describe methods, but can also be an excellent
way to set the stage – sometimes your arguments can be encapsulated neatly in
an equation. Peripheral equations should be avoided or moved to an Appendix –
don not force the reader to understand something that not crucial to the paper
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There is no excuse for math errors, yet they happen to the best of us – check and
double-check.
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Define all terms in your equations.
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Your notation should be textbook-quality.
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Use standard notation and terminology as much as possible – it makes it easier for
the reader to follow.
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Results sections
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Progress from general to specific
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Start by presenting your results (Figure X shows…) and then discuss
what they mean – always provide an interpretation for your reader
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The sequences for the proteins K 309 and K 415 were compared (Fig 4)
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When the sequences for the proteins K 309 and K415 were compared,
their c-terminal sections were found to be 90% homologous.
Logical, linear flow of thought is essential - you have thought a lot
about your results and what they mean, share this progression with
reader
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Place results that answer the question of the paper at the beginning of the
results section – move from the most to least important findings
+ Results
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Choose precise and descriptive wording and avoid extraneous
words
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Figure 6 clearly shows that the growth rate of K103 was reduced when
Ca2 was added
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Figure 6 shows that the growth rate of K103 was reduced when calcium
was added.
Use past tense when presenting your results unless it is a
descriptive paper – the results occurred in the past but your
description is still true
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Results Section: Common Problems
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Inclusion of irrelevant or peripheral information
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A total of 34 outliers were identified in this study and they are
listed in Table 3.
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34 outliers were identified in this study (Table 3).
Avoid general conclusions and speculation
Discussion/Conclusions
+ …can wait to be written until rest of paper is mature
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Most (but not all!) papers need a conclusions section.
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First paragraph: focus on what you did. Begin with “We have
used…”, “We have investigated…”State and interpret your key
findings
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Our goal was to determine…
Our findings suggest…
Summarize supporting evidence
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Organize from most to least important
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Compare and contrast your findings with other published work
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Explain discrepancies, unexpected findings and limitations
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Provide generalizations where possible
+- Some general editorial remarks…
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Strive for logical, linear flow. Put yourself in the perspective of the reader.
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Be as short as possible. “Every word must hurt”
Be on the lookout for unnecessary words and sentences.
 Use short words (e.g., “use” vs. “utiilize”)
 Remove value judgments: “Surprising”, “interesting”, “unfortunately”
have no place in a scientific paper.
…but not all words must be short. Use strong, effective words with precise meaning.
Build your vocabulary . Love the English language.
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Use scientific words as much as possible but with their precise meaning.
Beware of words with different scientific vs. lay meanings, such as
“significant”, “ideal” Use them in their scientific meaning.
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A scientific paper is above all about being clear, objective, to the point.
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Tables and Figures
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A figure and its legend should be self-explanatory
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Graphs show more visual detail than tables and can allow the
reader to see patterns more easily
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A Quick Test of Your Proofreading
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There are no tricks in this test.
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Read the sentence on the next slide only once, counting the
number of F’s.
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Count them only once (as you would if you were
proofreading).
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Be honest. Do not go back and count them again or the test
will be no fun.
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Proofreading
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF
SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
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Proofreading
 Answer
There are six F’s in the sentence !
 We tend to overlook Fs!
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Moral
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Proofreading is similar. “Unimportant” details tend to be
overlooked.
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Exmaple : Inetrsteinig
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny
iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not
raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
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Some great references….
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Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English
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Scientific Writing and Communication
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Presentations
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Grants
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Papers