General advice Laura A. Meyerson Zhejiang University, Hangzhou – 15/16 December 2008How to get published

General advice

Laura A. Meyerson

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou – 15/16 December 2008 How to get published

Outline of this talk

I. Writing styles - dos and don’ts

II. Brief overview of different manuscript sections

III. The order in which to write the manuscript sections


Do’s and don’ts1. Do Carefully follow the style of the journal that

you are submitting to:– Read the instructions for authors.– Read a few of papers to become familiar with the journal style.

2. Do write an outline.

3. Don’t use jargon or technical terms that you cannot easily define or explain:

– Very important for papers that will reach a wide audiences.– Say things in your own words.


Do’s and don’ts

4. Do use terms consistently: e.g. invasive species, aliens, exotics.

5. Do spell out acronyms when first used, then use only the acronym.

6. Do provide definitions for key terms the first time that you use them.


Do’s and don’ts7. Don’t include unnecessary information:

– Include only the essentials.– Longer papers are not better papers!

8. Do write in the active voice, not passive: – Okay to use “I” and “We”– Don’t worry about being humble

Examples:– “Experiments have been conducted to test the following

hypothesis.”– “We conducted experiments to test the following hypothesis.”


Do’s and don’ts

9. Don’t repeat yourself:– Carefully edit your paper for this.– But do restate key points of paper in

discussion or conclusion.

10.Don’t use empty sentences or fillers

such as:– “It is well known that”, “Clearly”.


Do’s and don’ts

11.Don’t cut and paste from other papers:– Too easy to mistakenly plagiarize!

12.Do give proper citations for ideas from the work and methods of others:– Don’t repeat information when the

citation will do.Zhejiang University, Hangzhou – 15/16 December 2008 How to get published

Do’s and don’ts

13.Don’t cite papers without reading the whole paper– Reading only the abstract is not enough!

14.Do make it clear how your work relates to past and present research in your field:– Do cite the most relevant research– The most cited publications may not represent the

current research

15.Do have colleagues and associates read your paper to see if they understand it– Do try and have a native English speaker read your

paper and provide you with comments


Overview of Paper SectionsSection Purpose

Title Clearly describes contents Authors Ensures recognition for the writer(s) Abstract Describes what was done

Key Words (some journals) Ensures the article is correctly identified in abstracting and indexing services

Introduction Explains the problem Methods Explains how the data were collected Results Describes what was discovered

Discussion Discusses the implications of the findings

Acknowledgements Ensures those who helped in the research

are recognised

References Ensures previously published work is

recognised

Appendices (some journals) Provides supplemental data for the expert

reader

The order to write paper sections

1. Data description and results2. (Methods)3. (Introduction)4. (key words)5. (Title)6. (References)7. Discussion8. Conclusions9. Abstract10.Acknowledgements


Electronic publishing and what it can do for you

Sue Silver


Electronic publishing

New tools in electronic publishing

Digital Object Identifiers: help you to find papers

Electronic prepress publication: gets papers published faster

Open access: some benefits and drawbacks

Internet tools: keep us up to date



As a reader, electronic publications make papers easier to: find

access….sometimes

afford….sometimes

store



As an editor or publisher, electronic publications are easier to: produce

proof read

change

distribute

reuse (and resell)

store


Basics of electronic publishing: DOI



Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A unique collection of letters and numbers

Provides a ‘name’ for a piece of electronic information (eg a scientific article)

Even if the original website disappears or moves, readers will always be able to find the paper using its DOI



Crossref (http://www.crossref.org) Publisher assigns a DOI to each paper Publisher registers the DOI with Crossref and prints it with the paper To find a paper, either

• click on DOI hyperlink, or

•go to Crossref website and type in DOI, which is linked directly to the paper



Beijing – 10/11 December 2008 How to get published



Online prepress publication

Two options:

• edited, checked, paged version + DOI (looks like the final journal article)

• original, unedited manuscript




Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry



Open access Traditional publishing system

• Costs of publishing supported mainly by subscriptions

• Society publication: some contribution from membership fees

• Authors may have to pay page charges and/or color charges



Open access ‘Author pays’ model

• Costs of publishing paid for by author fees

• Non-profit publishers may reduce fees for members

• Publishers may agree to reduce or waive fees if author cannot pay

• Usually online-only journals



Advantages

Many more readers see the paper

Online-only so faster publication time

Online-only so easy to find through search engines (and when you find it, it is FREE!)

Encourages interdisciplinary and international collaborations

Author retains copyright

Publicly funded research can be seen by the public



Disadvantages

Many authors cannot afford the author fees

Danger of acceptance based on ability to pay

Quality control – publishers may be tempted to accept more papers → more money!

Who pays for long-term storage?

A threat to not-for-profit journals


Using internet tools

Laura A. Meyerson


Google Scholar• www.google.com• Enter search term

(author, topic, etc.)• Click on Google Scholar• .pdf may be available• Find recent literature

“cited by”

• Related articles

http://www.google.com/

Web of Science

Lab Meeting/Reference Manager/ Endnote Web

• These are all reference database tools

• Free versions on the internet

• Import references/abstracts/keywords

• Creates a searchable reference database


E-mail alerts

• E-mail alerts:– free service that you can

sign up for – particular journal– publisher for a group of

journals

• E-mail alerts notify you of:– Table of contents – News alerts– Blogs– Particular topic

http://highwire.stanford.edu/cgi/alerts

RSS feeds

• RSS = “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”

• Similar to e-mail alerts:– Source of updates

from websites– Allows you to stay

informed


Cross-Reference


Cross-Reference• American Physical Society• Annual Reviews• Ashley Publications• Association for Computing Machinery• BioMed Central• Blackwell Publishing• BMJ Publishing Group• Cambridge University Press• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press• FASEB• IEEE• INFORMS• Institute of Physics Publishing• International Union of Crystallography• Investigative Ophthamology and Visual Science• Journal of Clinical Oncology• Lawrence Erlbaum Associates• Medicine Publishing Group• Nature Publishing Group• Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag• Oxford University Press• PNAS

• International Union of Crystallography• Investigative Ophthamology and Visual Science• Journal of Clinical Oncology• Lawrence Erlbaum Associates• Medicine Publishing Group• Nature Publishing Group• Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag• Oxford University Press• PNAS• Royal College of Psychiatrists• Springer-Verlag• Taylor & Francis• University of California Press• University of Chicago Press• Vathek Publishing• John Wiley & Sons• University of California Press• University of Chicago Press• Vathek Publishing• John Wiley & Sons• Royal College of Psychiatrists• Springer-Verlag• Taylor & Francis

ResultsMaterials and Methods

Laura A. Meyerson

Writing the paper I


Results


Why write the results first?

• Results = What did I find out?• Presenting your results is the main reason

for writing the paper• Other sections of the paper should relate

to your results:– By placing them in context of other research

in the introduction and discussion– Supporting or Contrasting your results with

other research


• Do objectively present your key results without interpretation.

• Do present results in an orderly and logical sequence using text, tables and/or figures where appropriate. • Do highlight the answers to the questions/hypotheses of your study in this section.

• Do report important negative results.

• Do use the past tense to report results, “Our data showed that…”

Results – Do’s


Some tips from my own writing:

• I make more tables of my data results than I need – this helps me to organize my thoughts and writing.

• Encourages new thoughts / uses of data.

• Helps to create a big picture.

• Helps to identify repetition.

• However, usually I don’t use most of them!


Example:

The Acacia species flowered at different times with respect to the rains, the smaller species flowering before the rains and the larger species flowering after the rains. Fruiting, in contrast, tended to occur towards the end of the rains irrespective of when flowering occurred. One interpretation of these patterns is that although rain may act to trigger reproductive events, there are other factors that promotes a greater degree of synchronized flowering and fruiting, than that predicted by rainfall.

Do not interpret your data in the results section


Example:

The Acacia species flowered at different times with respect to the rains, the smaller species flowering before the rains and the larger species flowering after the rains. Fruiting, in contrast, tended to occur towards the end of the rains irrespective of when flowering occurred. One interpretation of these patterns is that although rain may act to trigger reproductive events, there are other factors that promotes a greater degree of synchronized flowering and fruiting, than that predicted by rainfall.

Do not interpret your data in the results section


•Don’t restate each value in the text from a Figure or Table

•Don’t present the same data in both a Table and Figure - this is repetitive Instead, decide which format best shows the result and go with it.

•Don’t report raw data values when they can be summarized as means, percents, etc.

Results Don’ts:


When making a table:

• DO include a caption and column headings that allow readers to understand the table without reference to the text.

• DO present the data in a table or in the text, but never present the same data in both forms.

• DO choose units of measurement so as to avoid the use of an excessive number of digits.


When making a table:

• DON'T include tables that are not referred to in the text.

• DON'T present tables or figures that could easily be replaced by a sentence or two of text.

• DON'T include columns of data that contain the same value throughout. If the value is important to the table, include it in the caption or as a footnote to the table.


When making figures

• DO include a legend describing the figure. Make it brief but provide enough information for the reader to interpret the figure without reference to the text.

• DO provide each axis with a brief but informative title (including units of measurement).


When making figures

• DON'T include figures that are not referred to in the text.

• DON'T present figures that could easily be replaced by a sentence or two of text.

• DON'T extend the axes very far beyond the range of the data.


Materials and Methods

Materials and methods include

• Experimental and / or sampling design

• Protocol for collecting data

• How the data were analyzed

• Use the past tense throughout

• The Methods section is not a step-by-step instruction as you might see in your lab manual


Materials and Methods

• Explain clearly how you carried out your study.

• Describe how you addressed your hypotheses or questions.

• Describe the organism(s), or subjects, used in the study

• Describe the site where your field study was conducted– Physical and biological characteristics of the site– The date(s) of the study (e.g. 10-15 April 2007)– The exact location of the study area


• Describe your experimental design clearly. •Describe the protocol for your study in sufficient detail that other scientists could repeat your work to verify your findings.

• Equipment should also be descried clearly by brand or category:

“Camphor concentration was measured using a Hewlett-Packard 5880A Gas Chromatograph (Hewlett-Packard Analytical Division, Wilmington, DE, USA) with a cyanide capillary column (30 m X 0.25 mm) and flame ionization detector.”

Experimental Design and Protocol

For example:The experimental design was four replicates of four factorial treatments (± fertilizer x ± fencing) in each of two blocks (i.e. sites). Data were analyzed over years by Repeated Measures ANOVA (von Ende 1993).

“One way ANOVA was used to compare mean weight gain in weight-matched calves fed the three different rations.”

•Describe other numerical or graphical techniques used to analyze the data

Methods sections describe how the data were summarized and analyzed

Example site description:

“This experiment was replicated at two sites in areas of moderately open spruce forest (45-60% canopy cover, typically 160-220 stems/ha) with a well developed (>90% cover) herbaceous understorey. The first site is approximately 2 km to the south of Boutellier summit on the Alaska highway and the second 50 m to the north of Boutellier summit at km 1695 on the Alaska highway (61o 02'N 138 o 22'W).”

rather than: “In the game reserve beside the Alaska Highway.” • It is often a good idea to include a map

If you adapted your methods from another study or paper

• You must be clear on how you did your work.

• If you used methods from another paper, cite that paper.

• If you changed methods from another paper, cite that paper and describe the changes that you made.


Break!

Documents

General advice Laura A. Meyerson Zhejiang University, Hangzhou – 15/16 December 2008How to get published