How to write a scientific paper

1
How to write a scientific paper?

• Course for graduate students of BTU
• G. Wiegleb

2
Aim and scope of the course

• To enable participants to write a structured
  scientific paper
• To enable participants to improve their writing
  skills in the English language

3
Basic literature

• Day, R.A. 1998. How to Write and Publish a
  Scientific Paper. 5th ed. Oryx Press, Westport.
  (on the first glance the contents of the book may
  look trivial. However, at least chapters 4-10 as
  well as chapters 32-34 contain valuable
  information, not only for beginners).
• Swan, M. 1982. Practical English usage. Oxford
  Univ. Press, Oxford. (any later edition will do
  as well)
• Dainty, P. 1998. Express proficiency. Students
  Book. Phoenix, New York. (there are also a
  teachers book and cassettes)

4

• Part 1 The structure of a scientific paper with
  special emphasis on ecology

5
Some basics

• A scientific paper is usually defined as a
  primary or original scientific publication
• Other forms of scientific writings are e.g.
  review papers, conference reports, meeting
  abstracts

6
EssentiaI components
7
The title
8
How to prepare a title? Numeric aspects

• No. of words, according to a survey of BAE and
  PB (5)10-19(21) (13.3), including names and
  abbreviations)
• 5-9 (6.9) nouns (taxon, place and author names
  counted as 1)
• 0-2 (1.5) adjectives (including true adverbs and
  participles)
• 2-7 (4.5) particles (articles, pronouns,
  prepositions, modal adverbs etc.)
• 0-2 (0.4) verbs (only in questions and
  full-sentences)

9
How to prepare a title? Style

• Elliptic style
• X and Y
• Something Specifications
• Effect of x on y and z in habitat a in place b
• Full sentence style
• X y affect z in habitat a
• X and y change property z1 and z2 of organism b
• Question style
• Is property a of organism b important for c?

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How to prepare a title? Some statistics
11
How to prepare a title? Summary

• A good title of an ecological paper consists of
  at least 3 of the following items
• An agent causing something (in experimental
  studies only)
• The object of study (a species, a community, an
  ecosystem, a property of such unit)
• 1-2 processes, structures or indicators which
  specify the study object
• The method used (in methodological papers)
• The habitat, ecosystem or landscape type (if
  restricted to such)
• The area or region of the study (optional)

12
The abstract
13
How to write an abstract? What to do?

• Start with a general statement on an interesting
  or unsolved problem
• Make the hypothesis or question of this paper
  explicit
• Mention specific methods if necessary
• Give a narrative of the most important results
  and conclusions

14
How to write an abstract?What to avoid!

• Avoid any conclusion that is not found in the
  text
• Caution The abstract is usually written after
  the paper has been finished completely
• Avoid to write more than 200 words

15
The introduction
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How to write an introduction?General aspects

• Introductory sentence
• A general statement, a truism
• A citation of an authority
• A self-citation
• State-of-the-art description
• How detailed?
• Questions and hypotheses of this paper
• Clear statement of what is intended

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How to write the introduction? Pattern of
Quotations 1

• Goropashanya et al., Molec. Ecol. 13 1849-1858,
  2004
• No citation in Abstract
• 14 citations in Intro, first own citation on
  place 14, most citations younger than 5 years
• 12 citations in Material and Methods, 3 times own
  papers
• 5 citations in Results, mostly referring to own
  previous results
• 12 citations in Discussion, 1 source cited twice,
  only 5 citations shared with Intro

18
How to write Introduction? Pattern of Quotations 2

• Schmid, BAE 3 339-2346. 2002
• No citation in Abstract
• 26 citations in Intro, starting with a classic
  paper of 1901, first own citation on place 24
• No citation in Methods, except for a Reference
  Book for statistics
• No citation in Results
• 25 citations in Discussion, 7 shared with Intro

19
How to write Introduction?Embedding in own world
view

• First mentioning of own previous work
• In first sentence (see above)?
• In state-of-the-art description?
• Casual?
• Logical structure
• Avoid writing two introductions (introduction of
  new and additional ideas after having formulated
  aims and objectives)

20
How to write Introduction? Desired structure

• Intro Introduce first important item (what is
  important, what is specific, what makes it a good
  research object)
• Intro cont. Introduce second important item (the
  study object itself e.g. rodent communities,
  disturbance, biodiversity, spatial pattern)
• What is known? Start with general aspects
  (ecology of rodents proceed to more specific
  items, true mice in Schlabendorf), 1 or 2
  paragraphs depending on previous knowledge
• What do I want to know? Questions (in more
  explorative studies) and/or hypotheses (in
  experimental studies or follow-up studies)

21
How to write Introduction?

• Uniformity of expression
• The study area (the wider area, e.g. Lusatia)
• The investigated sites (the area, where
  investigations took place, e.g. mining area
  Schlabendorf-Nord)
• The sample sites/plots (the points, where the
  pitfall trap have been dug in)
• Precision of speech
• The opencast brown coal mining area of Lusatia
  (Lusatia during the ongoing mining process), may
  be abbreviated as mining area later
• The post-mining landscape (those parts where
  mining has already been abandoned, may be used in
  plural to denote important differences)

22
How to write Introduction?

• Permanent
• Check for repetition
• Check for contradiction
• Check for logical argument and red thread
• Towards the end
• Check for match with Title, Abstract, Results and
  Discussion

23
Materials and Methods
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How to write Materials and Methods? General

• Ultimate goal Reproducibility
• When (years)
• Where (Study Site, maps or coordinates). This
  means that the description of the Study Area is
  part of this chapter!
• Embedding in a research project, if available
• Details of data collection (separate
  transparency)
• Details of statistical analysis (how detailed?)

25
How to write Materials and Methods? Data
collection

• Experimental design (refer to previously
  published papers)
• Sample design (how parameters were measured, in
  clear prose)
• Field methods and sample design
• Plant or animal material
• Biological characteristics of important species
• Chemical analyses (Reference book)

26
How to write Material and Methods? Figures and
Tables

• Material and Methods may contain up 3 tables or
  figures (12 articles per journal reviewed)

27
Results
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How to write Results? 1

• Results chapter should be structured with
  subheadings
• Substructure should follow main aspects of the
  title
• The bulk of tables and figures should appear in
  Results

29
How to write Results? 2

• Omit all statements on methods and shift them to
  the Methods chapter
• The text of the Results mostly consists of the
  description of tables and figures (in past tense)
• This may sound boring but it is necessary.
• Not every detail of the tables and figures should
  be repeated but the most important aspects should
  be summarized
• All tables and figures should be referred to in
  the text

30
How to write Results? 3

• The Results chapter is the most boring part of
  the paper.
• The selection of the right tables and figures is
  crucial.
• Do not overload the paper. If the number of
  tables and figures exceeds 8 think about dividing
  the paper into 2 papers.
• The new papers should deal with significantly
  distinct aspects.
• There is no general rule but if the whole paper
  consists of 6600 words, no more than 2000 words
  can be allocated to the results

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How to write Results? 4

• The results of the work are condensed in
  carefully selected and designed tables and
  figures.
• From that moment on, the results are defined by
  the information found in tables and figures (and
  nothing else). Thus the text of the results
  chapter is nothing more than the description of
  what can be found in tables and figures.
• The text should not refer to other own
  information, unless it is not necessary for the
  immediate understanding of the text (as a
  reminder). often such information is better
  placed under methods. in such case, a small
  cross-reference to the methods chapter may save
  some explanations.
• The text should not refer to generalizations of
  the own data or comparisons with other peoples
  data. this should be saved for the discussion.
  The boundary between a result and a discussion is
  crystal-clear.  
• Tables should be described in an orderly way,
  either from the top to the bottom or from the
  right to the left. No column or row should remain
  completey unmentioned. However, the text must
  summarize (not repeat) the content, or give
  emphasis on what is important, surprising or new.
• Figures should be described in a similar way.
  However it depends very much on the complexity of
  a figure.

32
How to write Results

• Tables must be enumerated
• Figures must be enumerated separately
• In larger texts (e.g. theses) lists of tables and
  figures are necessary
• Tables must have an informative heading (above
  the table)
• Figure must have a figure caption (below the
  figure). Often a separate legend is necessary
• Neither tables nor figures are completely
  self-explaining

33
Discussion
34
How to write Discussion?

• Discussion should be structured by subheadings
  following the subheadings of the Results
• Tables and figures rarely appear in Discussion
  (except generalized conceptual models)
• Only in BAE, 4 papers out of 12 Discussions
  presented 1-2 new items

35
How to write Discussion?

• Writing a discussion is more delicate than
  writing the Results. A good discussion may
  contain the following items
• A summary of the results (not a recapitulation)
  in terms of confirmed principles or relations
• Points that remained open or unanswered
• Critical considerations of the methods used (but
  not too critical)
• Possible generalisations, comparison with other
  authors data
• Theoretical importance of the work, outlook on
  necessary future work
• Possible applications of basic research

36
How to write Discussion?

• Avoid the following
• Ad hoc hypothesis which are not supported by the
  data
• Introduction of new aspects or theoretical
  speculations which came to your mind while
  reading your own paper again (which are not
  covered by the results)

37
How to write Conclusions and Recommendations

• In applied papers often a chapter Conclusions and
  Recommendations follows
• Conclusions must follow from the data presented
• Recommendations should be based on the dated
  presented plus additional information
• They must be specific and indicate a priority of
  actions

38

• Part 2 Linguistic aspects

39
History of English 1
40
History of English 2
41
History of English 3
42
Structure of Modern English

• English is an agglutinative language with some
  remnants of an inflection system (in strong
  verbs).
• Tendencies
• Use of invariable monosyllabic words of C-V or
  C-V-C type (you can make me whole again, Atomic
  Kitten)
• Easy shift of words between word classes (a good
  swim, up town girl)

43
Structure of Modern English

• Agglutination is reached by a few prefixes (un-,
  re-) and suffixes (-s, -ing, -ed, -ly, -er, -est)
  with varying functions
• Determiners can substitute nouns (articles,
  demonstratives, possessives)
• All word classes can be connected by prepositions
• Two ideas are connected by conjunctions or -ing
  forms

44
Structure of Modern English

• Continuity of an action plays a great role, not
  only in verb formation (go vs. going) but also in
  the choice of adjectives (current vs. recent) and
  adverbs (until vs. by)
• (Modal) auxiliary verbs take various functions
  that are fulfilled by an inflection system
  (conjugation) in other languages

45
An example of phonology the U sound
46
An example of phonology the consonants c and g
47
Concise style the use of tenses

• In English the present tense denotes habitual
  action and still existing facts
• Past tenses denote things that happened in the
  past (seen from the time in which the speaker is
  living or about which the speaker is reporting)

48
Concise style the use of voices

• English tries to avoid passive construction
  except a passive notion is really intended
• One possibility to circumvent passive
  constructions is the use of impersonal
  constructions

49
Concise style false friends

• Old words
• to go has a broader notion in English, while
  German gehen often corresponds to to walk
• Loan words
• Actually in fact, indeed
• Aktuell topical, current, recent, up-to-date
• Eventually finally, in the end
• Eventuell probably, possibly, potentially

50
Concise style Quasi-synonyms

• Boundary, bounds, border, border line, margin,
  limit, frontier
• Erroneous, mistaken, false, forged, wrong,
  untrue, fictitious, misplaced, out of place
• Different, differential, differing, varied,
  various, distinct, miscellaneous

51
Before

• Space, preposition in front of, forward, before,
  at, against
• Space, figurative in front of, in the presence
  of
• Time, preposition before, ago, to
• Time, conjunction before
• Time, adverb in advance, before

52
Nearness

• Adjective near, close, nearby, next of,
  forthcoming, short-distance, further
• Adverb near, close, closely, close by, in the
  vicinity, (to be) about (to), local, surrounding,
  around the corner
• Preposition near, next to, close to, on the
  verge of, adjacent to, in proximity, at close
  range, around (here)
• Implicit, often figurative suggest, be obvious,
  seem, appear, approach, access, approximate, be
  oriented to, go into, be precise

53
Comparison

• Great, greater, greatest, very great, extremely
  great, too great, great enough, hardly as great
  as, as great as (of same size, the size of ),
  less great
• Synonyms large, big, grand, tall, major, huge,
  vast, long(-distance), gigantic, large-scale,
  wide, upper-, pan-, capital, grown up, most
  (part), bulk, whole-, macro-, loud-, main-,
  -sized
• Implicit greatness spacious, extensive,
  proportion, scale, order of (magnitude),
  vastness, largesse, excellence etc.

54
Periphrastic constructions

• Used to go (a habit in the past)
• Have to go (an obligation)
• Going to do something (an intention, in the near
  future)
• To be supposed to do something

55
Concise style the position of participles

• The dumped soil the soil dumped
• The participle usually follows the noun,
  replacing a relative clause
• The change of position may involve a change in
  meaning

56
Concise style countable vs. non-countable nouns

• Uncountable biodiversity, species richness,
  succession, disturbance, dumping, vegetation,
  colonization, grassland, sand, amelioration,
  agriculture, mining, abundance,
• Uncountable nouns are usually used in singular.
  They rarely take a definite article for denote
  specific properties, or an indefinite article for
  comparative purpose
• Countable ecosystem, tree, diaspore, stand,
  beetle, hypothesis, sex-ratio disturbance event,
  mining site
• Countable nouns are used in singular and plural.
  Singular forms always require an article, while
  plural forms lose the article in general
  descriptions

57
Concise style punctuation

• Truss, L. 2003. Eats, shoots and leaves. Profile
  Books.
• There are not so many strict rules in English.
  Rather, punctuation is structuring the sentence,
  making distinctions or giving emphasis were
  necessary.
• Compare the meaning of
• Eats, shoots and leaves vs.
• Eats shoots and leaves
• The reason for this possible confusion is the
  multiple use of the suffix s (denoting both
  plural and 3rd person singular)

58
Concise style how to acquire?

• The only way to acquire a concise style in a
  foreign language is ongoing practice.
• Active conversation, writing e-mails and
  listening to elaborate pop lyrics such as Bob
  Dylan will improve the vocabulary but not
  necessarily the style.
• The own writing style can only be improved by
  imitation. May be imitation of scientific texts
  is not really recommended as BAE papers may be
  written by non-native speakers
• One should rather take as an example the great
  novelists. Their will convey a certain feeling of
  what is possible and what is not. Some
  recommendations follow.

59
What to read some recommendations 1

• Graham Greene The Human Factor, The Silent
  American, The Honorary Consul, and other works,
  all published by Penguin, London. (This year is
  the authors 100th birthday. His work is still
  very much up-to-date. He was short-listed 20
  times but never received the Nobel prize)
• Further recommended authors (non of which is
  really native speaker)
• Salman Rushdie Shame. Penguin, 1983
• V.S. Naipaul A House for Mister Biswas. Penguin
  1992
• W.G. Sebald Austerlitz. Penguin, 2001
• J. M. Coetzee Disgrace. Vintage, London, 1999

60
What to read some recommendations 2

• More modern stuff
• Lodge, D. 2001. Thinks
• Ishiguro, K. 1989. The remainder of the day.
• Gordimer, N. 1991. A sports of nature.
• Penguin Classics, easy redable
• Swift, J. Gullivers travels. Penguin classics.
• James, H. The turn of the screw
• Carrol, Lewis. Alices adventures in Wonderland.
  Through a looking glass. Penguin Classics