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CH450 CH450 CHEMICAL WRITING AND CHEMICAL WRITING AND

PRESENTATIONPRESENTATIONAlan Buglass

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WRITING CHEMICAL RESEARCH PAPERS

GENERAL SUMMARYGENERAL SUMMARY

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Why Publish?Why Publish?Why Publish?Why Publish?

• Expected activity of researchers

• To gain experience in writing papers

• To get yourself known in the broader academic community

• Increase chances of funding for further projects

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Why Publish?Why Publish?

• Increase publication record

• Responsibility to scientific

community/grant giving

body/society to disseminate

information

• Professional development and

advancement

• Personal satisfaction

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Types of Scientific PublicationsTypes of Scientific Publications

• Research journals (full papers, letters, technical notes, etc)

• Review journals

• Conference proceedings

• Books and chapters in books

• Internet journals

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Whose Responsibility is it to Whose Responsibility is it to Publish?Publish?

• Student’s or supervisor’s?

• No definite rules. – Depends upon circumstances. – In general both the student(s) and

supervisor will work together on a publication.

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AuthorshipAuthorship

• Co-authors – people who have made significant contributions

– writing

– practical work

– interpretation of results

– planning project

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AuthorshipAuthorship

• Most scientific papers are multi-authored

• Student and supervisor(s) normally co-authors - varies between disciplines

• Acknowledge other contributions

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Order of AuthorsOrder of Authors

• Order of contribution• Alphabetical• First author usually considered to be ‘lead

author’– Kudos of “name et al”

• If leading author not first, can be indicated by e.g. *

• See “Writing Papers – 3: Titles and Authors”

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Selecting a JournalSelecting a Journal

• Very important – one of first things to do

• Match subject of paper to interests of journal

• Status of journal (impact factors)• Read “Instructions for Authors”• Familiarize yourself with journal style

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Impact FactorsImpact Factors

These vary from year to year!A = no. of times articles published in 2009-2010 were cited in 2011B = no. of articles published in 2009Impact factor for 2011 = A/B

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Process of WritingProcess of Writing

• Who writes it?– Can be student, supervisor or both

• Iterative process of redrafting and revising

• Seeking advice from others

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Structure of PapersStructure of Papers

• Title• Authors and affiliations• Abstract • Introduction• Methods/Experimental

• Results• Discussion• Conclusion• Acknowledgements• References

All research journals have their own house style (particularly for references), but the following is normal.

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• Title– Read more than any other section– Needs to be informative but as

short as possible• Abstract

– Short summary of aims, methods, main findings – no references

– Very important: used by on-line searches and abstracting journals

– Key words

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• Introduction– Background to project– Places project in context – Rationale and aims– Fully referenced

• Methods/Experimental– Precise account of how results were

obtained so can be repeated by others– Style depends upon discipline and

journal– May come after Results and Discussion

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• Results and Discussion

– May be in one or two sections

– Clear presentation of results (tabular, graphic)

– Discussion of relevance in light of published work

– Fully referenced

– Limitations of method, accuracy of data etc

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•Conclusions

–Summarizes main findings

–Further work

–Should not be a copy of the Abstract

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•References

–Gives bibliographic details of text citations

–Usually at end

–Must follow house styles

–Must be error free

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• Acknowledgements

• Thank people (other than co-authors) who have helped you in the project: for technical support, for provision of materials, for help with spectra or statistics, etc.

• Thank financial supporters

• Thank reviewer for useful comments

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Some things to watch for in the Some things to watch for in the reference sectionreference section:

Methods of citing references in text e.g. using numbers or Harvard System

Order of surnames and initialsUse of stops Use of brackets for year of publicationStyle to indicate volume numberStyle for referencing papers in edited volumes

and booksCiting web sites

☺EndNote™ Reference Manager™ RefWorks ™

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Matters of StyleMatters of Style

• Clarity (lack of ambiguity)• Importance of correct punctuation

– The student says his supervisor is useless. The student, says his supervisor, is useless.

• Succinctness• Interesting to read• Active or passive?

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Some Golden RulesSome Golden Rules

• Be as brief as possible but include all essential information

• Use clarity of expression and avoid ambiguities

• Ensure conclusions follow logically from the evidence

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Some More Golden RulesSome More Golden Rules

• Make it as interesting to read as

possible

• Ensure that you cite the relevant

literature and that your list of

references are all in the required

style, free of errors, and agree with

citations in text.

• Set out according to the

Instructions for Authors.

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Dear Editor,Thank you for your kindcomments, suggesting many revisions to my paper…..

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