Scientific communicationSyBBURE Searle

Manuscript Preparation

Scientific communicationSyBBURE Searle
Manuscript Preparation

Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to give students basic information on how to write a scientific research paper. This guide is not the end all be all of scientific writing.

The Basics

Preparation

  1. Read a lot of articles

    • This can give you an idea of the style of writing for your field

    • Can give you specific journals to get their style of writing and how much data they want in their admitted articles

  2. Questions to ask your PI / Grad Student 

    • What journals they submit to

    • Which journal is the best for your field - This can give you a goal or something to reach towards in terms of best papers to write

  3. Things reviewers look at

    • Importance and timeliness of the problem

    • Quality of writing - Here the readers are making sure that the paper is written well so that it is clear to understand and follows a logical progression of ideas

    • The study design - This is so that the readers can confirm that the experiments carried out were appropriate for the aims that were outlined

    • The literature review - Here they are looking to make sure that the sources used were relevant to the project and recent. This confirms that the experiments and results produced were new findings 

    • Sample size - Sample sizes are imperative to the accuracy of the statistical analysis as the incorrect sample size can skew the intended results 

  4. Top reasons reviewers reject papers

  • Inappropriate statistics - Picking the correct statistical test can also influence your results. Choosing an appropriate statistical analysis technique is important. If you have more questions about statistics please consult this ppt. 

  • Over-interpreted results

  • Inappropriate instruments or populations

  • Small or biased samples 

Important Sections

  1. Title

    • Q1: What is the subject of the paper?

    • Concise representation of your research

  2. Abstract

    • Q2: What is the TLDR?

    • Do

      1. Highlight the major aspects of the paper

      2. State the purpose or questions you investigated

      3. Explain basic experimental methodology without getting too detailed

      4. Report major findings such as key quantitative results or trends

      5. A brief summary of the implication of your experiment

      6. Write it last after the rest of the paper

    • Don’t

      1. Have lengthy background info

      2. Have references

      3. Have abbreviations or large terms

    • Examples

      1. A Lion cub crown prince is tricked by a treacherous uncle into thinking he caused his father's death and flees into exile in despair, only to learn in adulthood his identity and his responsibilities. (The Lion King) - Kenneth Chisholm

      2. To save her father from death in the army, a young maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroines in the process. (Mulan) - Kenneth Chisholm

      3. Three musical chipmunks are discovered by an aspiring songwriter who wants to become famous by using their amazing singing abilities. (Alvin and the Chipmunks) - Kenneth Chisholm

  3. Introduction

    • Q3: What did I need to know before I began this research?

    • The order should be Context -> Rationale -> Purpose

    • Cite articles that you needed to read in order to gain information

    • Establish the context of the work being reported by citing relevant primary research and summarizing our current understanding of the problem

    • Briefly explain your rationale and approach, whenever possible, and the possible outcomes your study can reveal

    • State the purpose of the work in the form of a hypothesis, question, or problem you investigated

    • Questions that this section should answer

      1. What was I studying?

      2. Why was it an important question?

      3. What did we know about it before the study?

      4. How will this study advance our knowledge?

      5. What is the importance of this project?

      6. What is currently missing from how this problem is approached?

      7. What evidence is there that my potential solution could be effective?

      8. What question am I answering in this paper?

  4. Methods

    • Q4: What did I do to achieve results?

    • Explain clearly how you carried out your study in the past tense

    • Include

      1. Description of the organism studied

      2. How the experiment was structured

        1. Controls, treatments, variables measured, number of samples collected

      3. Analysis Steps

    • Follow a logical flow

    • Be concise

    • Use diagrams

    • Another scientist should be able to reproduce your experiment

  5. Results

    • Q5: What did you get?

    • Present key results

    • Tips

      1. Past tense

      2. No interpretation

      3. Write objectively

      4. Avoid repetitive paragraph structure

  6. Discussion

    • Q6: What does it all mean?

    • Interpret your results

    • Describe their implications

    • Relate to previous studies

    • No new data

    • Questions this section should answer:

      1. Do your results provide answers to your testable hypotheses?

      2. Do your findings agree with what others have shown? If not, do they suggest an alternative explanation or perhaps an unforeseen design flaw in your experiment?

      3. Given your conclusions, what is our new understanding of the problem you investigated?

      4. If warranted, what would be the next step in your study?

Professional Tips From Former SyBBURE Students

  1. Omar Moustafa Omar

    • On Getting Started

      1. Check how papers in your field are written

      2. Check how the sequence of figures tells a story

    • Create informative graphs and figures using

      1. GGPlot

        1. R based 

      2. Seaborn

        1. Matplotlib based / Uses Python code

      3. Prism

        1. Available on the Gidhub computers

    • Avoid

      1. Using Excel for data visualization

      2. Uninformative illustrations like pie charts and 3D plots

    • Learn

      1. Statistics

      2. Data Structures

      3. To seek advice from experienced people in your lab

  2. Chiaki Santiago

    • On Getting Started

      1. Layout the figures

        1. “the art that you are showing off.”

        2. Put figures in PPT and use the notes section to begin writing the legends

        3. Move your figures around, change the order of it and see how it changes the story until you find a great fit. 

    • Methods

      1. You just write down all the things you did. 

      2. But, if it’s a new technique, don’t spare details. 

      3. Scientists need to be able to reproduce your work. 

    • Introduction

      1. You need to introduce your work without over-introducing it. 

      2. Just explain how much the field doesn’t know. 

      3. The way you’ll know that is by reading a ton of articles. (Make it a habit) 

    • Discussion

      1. Summarize the work 

      2. Say how it’s beneficial to the field in maybe even a small way

      3. Prepare topic sentences for paragraphs and then finish them there