Scientific Writing

Scientific Writing 譚賢明助理教授生科系/生醫所

A naturalist’s life would be a happy one if he had only to observe and never to write Charles Darwin

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair Mary Heaton Vorse

I. When to stop doing experiments and write • When do you have what it takes to make a paper? • draft -> bench -> draft -> bench…. • Drafting is a useful exercise as soon as you know the direction of your paper • Lay out what the figures or tables would look like -> write a sentence about each • Do the sentences look as if they tell a story?

I. When to stop doing experiments and write • Decide what to leave out can be as important as deciding what to include. • Getting started is the hardest thing. • There is something about a blank page that causes the mind to go just as blank. • Write early and often!

II. Writing the manuscript • Title page • Look at actual journal • Specific information and format is needed (key words or not?) • Abstract • Summary: only new results; as little background as possible. • Reference? More than one section? • No abbreviations.

II. Writing the manuscript • Introduction • Brief but comprehensive. (paper vs. thesis) • General outline -> What’s known from previous work (sub-field) -> key new results • Materials and Methods • Sometimes at the end of manuscript.

II. Writing the manuscript • Results • Figures and tables. • New results; presented in past tense (“showed” not “show”). • What was found but not what it means. • Discussion • What does it mean? How does it fit into the “bigger picture”? • Don’t repeat Intro. and Results. • Sometimes combined with Results.

II. Writing the manuscript • Acknowledgements • Grants and people. • References • Not too many, not too few. See recent papers for examples. • Endnote! • Figure legends • Do not repeat what is said in Results and Materials/Methods. • “… is performed as described in Materials and Methods.”

II. Writing the manuscript • The bottom line • The results • The methods section • The discussion • The introduction • Figures • Acknowledgements

To write simply is as difficult as to be good W. Somerset Maugham

Men of few words are the best men William Shakespeare

II. Writing the manuscript • The bottom line • You are writing a paper because you have something important to tell the scientific community. What is it? • Decide on the one thing you want to get across in this paper, it’s your bottom line and it should come out clearly in the manuscript.

II. Writing the manuscript • The bottom line • The introduction should be written with a background for the bottom line and why it matters. • Repeat the bottom line over and over again – at the end of the abstract, in the introduction, in the results, and in the discussion.

II. Writing the manuscript • The results • Lay out the figures -> sequence of your story • Delete any thing that’s irrelevant to the bottom line. • In your notebook, always write down why you did the experiment and what the conclusions are. • A good first draft: simply put together info from notebook.

II. Writing the manuscript • The methods section • List the methods for your experiments. • Don’t just cut and paste, check all the details. • Define abbreviations.

II. Writing the manuscript • The discussion • What to include: a matter of taste. • More than just repeat the results. • Put your findings in perspective, propose a model, outline a direction of investigation, make the reader think. • Don’t go too far. Stay with the relevant, avoid discussion of interesting side issues.

II. Writing the manuscript • The introduction • Cover aspects of field that raised the questions you address • Ideally, you know all the background points. However, the background usually evolve for you as you do your work. • Give a coherent reason for thinking your question is interesting. • At the end, give a summary and why it’s important.

Next to torture, art persuades best Ward Beecher

II. Writing the manuscript • Figures • Each figure should have a clear point/purpose. Write it down (=title of the fig.) • Make sure the figure is clearly labeled and symbols are defined in the legend. • Avoid complicated figures. Try different ways. • Make sure the resolution (especially for color photos) is correct.

II. Writing the manuscript • Acknowledgements • Don’t miss someone who deserves to be acknowledged.

III. General tips for clear writing • The flow of logic • How do you make the logic clear to the reader?

I see only one rule: to be clear. I am not clear, then my entire world crumbles into nothing Stendhal

III. General tips for clear writing • Signposts • Start the paragraph with a questions. • Subheadings

III. General tips for clear writing • Bottom line in each paragraph • What’s your point? What should the readers have learnt after they finish? • Make outlines, then expand into paragraphs

III. General tips for clear writing • Link, or transition, between paragraphs • The paragraphs should follow a logical order. • Again, outline helps.

III. General tips for clear writing • Sentences • Should be connected by a flow of ideas. • Short, and to the point. Avoid putting too many ideas into one sentence (or paragraph)

III. General tips for clear writing • Phrases should be connected with each other. • “There are several differences between microtubules and actin filaments; first, they are larger..”

III. General tips for clear writing • Help the readers understand why and how different lines of evidence support each other and the conclusion • “1 is true, 2 is true, 3 is true. The conclusion is…” • “1 is true, suggesting this conclusion. Similarly, 2 is true, and furthermore 3. Thus it seems clear that…”

III. General tips for clear writing • Don’t be afraid to say what you think is going on. But don’t claim that it’s proven if it’s not. • “An obvious explanation is… but many other explanations are possible” • “a plausible explanation is that…”

III. General tips for clear writing • Use of tense in scientific writing • Abstract/Summary: unpublished results -> past • Introduction: previously established knowledge -> present • Methods and Results: describe what the authors did and found -> past • Discussion: most difficult; both past and present tenses

IV. Ways to improve your writing • Practice, practice, and more practice

IV. Ways to improve your writing • While in the process of writing • Try writing the way you’d talk first. • First draft: just worry about organization and making sense, don’t worry about using the same words over again. • Outside advice: get a colleague not in your field to read the draft.

IV. Ways to improve your writing • In general • Take notes when you read papers (in or outside of your field). Try to copy it. Good readers make good writers. • Oral presentations: style also works well in written form. Presenting your work may help organize the draft.

V. Where to send paper • Make the decision early. • Read “Guide to Authors” or “Info. for authors”. • Narrow down to two or three choices when the paper is almost complete; journals which publish papers on similar subjects.

V. Where to send paper • Depends on: topic and field, quality of research, time constraint, format of manuscript. • “High-profile” or “trendy” journals: politics? luck? (quite likely to be rejected) • Nature-quality papers aren’t published in Nature.

V. Where to send paper • What are Cell/Nature/Science looking for? • Cross-discipline advance (“general interest”): ex. discovery of cyclins and CDKs. • A result that connects two previously unrelated areas of research: ex. EBV affects human memory. • A really big advance in a trendy (hot) field, even if it isn’t relevant to anyone outside of field.

V. Where to send paper • What are Cell/Nature/Science looking for? • VERY important methods: ex. PCR. • Criteria constantly change: ex. KO mice. • Editors: professional vs. academic. • Professional: Cell/Nature/Science, EMBOJ… • Academic: PNAS, MCB, JBC… • Advantages vs. disadvantages.

V. Where to send paper • Before submission, also include a “cover letter” • Explain the major conclusions of the paper, and why they are important • Reviewers advice, but never decide

V. Where to send paper • My own story: • G&D, Mol. Cell, NCB, Current Biology, EMBOJ.

Additional Info. • “Successful scientific writing: a step-by-step guide for biomedical scientists (Cambridge). • “How to write and publish a scientific paper” (Greenwood Press).

Scientific Writing