How to write a scientific paper?
My girlfriend Evi (who’s a PhD-student NeuroScience at Maastricht University) wrote a nice short summary about how to write a scientific paper. The summary is based on a keynote by Dr. Stuart Spencer, editor of “the Lancet”, the world’s leading general medical journal and specialty journals in Oncology, Neurology and Infectious Diseases.
Although the keynote was specific about writing medical papers the summary is still very helpful for anyone who needs to write a scientific paper regardless what science or domain.
WRITING SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
Evi Vlassaks
November 29, 2009
This summary is based on the keynote of Dr. Stuart Spencer, editor of “the Lancet”.
1 The article
- Where are journals interested in?
- Is the research question (RQ) important?;
- short, clear, precise title; begin with a keyword, no abbreviations, answer the question;
- clinically usefull;
- brevity: make it as short as possible ;
- keep it simple.
2 General tips
- Write the first draft as though you were explaining it for a layperson
- Write it in active form
- Write as you would speak
- Use short sentences
- Max 20-30 words;
- use variable length sentences.
- Use signposts:
- for example: First, second, third,…; on the other hand; by contrast; therefore; in summary
- Paragraphs: different topics in different paragraphs
- Attention for details
3 Article structure
- Abstract: 250 words focus on the interpretation of the results.
- Introduction: One page summary of:
- What we know;
- what we don’t know;
- why we did this RQ.
- Methods: Explain the methods in great detail (what, why and when)
- Results: Two to three page text
- Don’t duplicate text, figures or tables;
- discuss positive results first.
- Discussion: reflection of the introduction
- Two to four pages;
- start with the results;
- discuss strengths;
- discuss weaknesses and possible causes or solutions;
- compare the results with literature;
- discuss future directions;
- end with a positive note;
- don’t end with : `Future studies are needed…’.
- References : 20 – 35 references per article
- Only one or two references per point;
- add reviews to your references;
- Figure and table list
- The figures and tables should be clear and self explanatory;
- describe them in a meaningful title.
- Covering letter
- Use the editor’s name;
- make it a personal letter.
- Post review :
- be humble!!!!
Comments
4 Responses to “How to write a scientific paper?”
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About
Name: Steven Houben
Location: Belgium
Interested in: General Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering, Psychology, Sociology, science and technology in general....Read More
Nice summary, I’ll certainly use it when writing my own papers / thesis
Useful document. Thanks for the tips
Hi Steven,
Thanks for sharing! The main problem I encountered when writing papers in English was to avoid long sentences — which are common in Dutch but not in English
And you should indeed be very clear about your contribution.
By the way, I also compiled a list of articles about doing research which might be useful: http://jozilla.net/Research/Advice
Great, I didn’t know about that till now. Thx!!