How to write a paper

1
How to write a paper And be read. And respected.
Heike Langenberg Senior Editor, Nature
Motivation and preparation Frame of mind Style
and structure Dirty Tricks
Richard Feynman, 1979
2
Motivation
Writing papers (that are read) is the only way to
be respected as a scientist

• Science only useful if communicated
• Conference talks transitory
• Reproducibility from detailed papers

Authors need to maximise every opportunity
to get their message heard literacy will be
seen, increasingly, as something that could make
or brake a paper, and with it, the career of the
authors. Henry Gee, Senior Editor, Nature
3
Preparation
Read and critique (edit) your colleagues papers
before submission

• You will
• develop a sense what constitutes a good paper
• learn to see traps (e.g. overstating) and avoid
  them
• learn to critique your own work
• hopefully be of use to your colleagues, rather
  than lose all your friends!

Ideally, an editor makes the changes that the
writer would make himself, after letting the
piece lie for a year. Nicola Jones, Online News
Editor
4
Preparation
Keep up with the relevant literature

• Develop a data base of references that may need
  to be cited
• Keep thinking about the relation of your own
  work to that of others
• Understand the arguments used in relevant work
• Try to explain and resolve differences between
  results (and design experiments to do so, if
  necessary)
• Make sure you cite all the relevant work

5
Preparation
Discuss your work with people inside and outside
your group It is better to hear whats wrong
before your paper is submitted!

• Give talks or present posters at conferences
• Seek out those who have worked on the subject
• Discuss (by email or in person) with authors of
  relevant work
• Find out if your colleagues think your line of
  reasoning makes sense
• Pursue all the criticisms received and find an
  answer to those questions

? Jim Watson
6
Frame of Mind
Writing a paper is a chance, not a chore!

• Recap the context of your work
• Think through your results and arguments in
  detail
• Check your logic
• If you get stuck while writing, be open for new
  ideas of interpretation

? Zen
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Frame of Mind
Get the time balance right between writing and
producing data

• A week is not enough to write up five years of
  research!
• Allow time to perform extra checks and
  experiments you will be surprised how many
  issues come up once you think through the results
  properly.

8
Structure
Scientific writing is very formulaic

• Background Research questions
• Method used to address the question
• Results of the experiment/calculation
• Discussion of the results in context of previous
  work
• Conclusions (distilled version of the new
  insights)
• Implications/Outlook

Stick to the formula it has evolved to maximise
accessibility! But the length and format can
vary widely.
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Example in a nutshell a Nature first
paragraph (from Nature 434, 1118-1121 (28 April
2005)
Background Massive iceberg discharges from the
Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, 'Heinrich
events', coincided with the coldest periods of
the last ice age1. There is widespread evidence
for Heinrich events and their profound impact on
the climate and circulation of the North Atlantic
Ocean,
Research question but their influence beyond
that region remains uncertain1.
10
Example in a nutshell (from Nature 434,
1118-1121 (28 April 2005)
Method to address the question Here we use a
combination of molecular fingerprints of algal
productivity and radioisotope tracers of
sedimentation
Main results to document eight periods of
increased productivity in the subpolar
Southern Ocean during the past 70,000 years that
occurred within 1,000-2,000 years of a Northern
Hemisphere Heinrich event.
11
Example in a nutshell (from Nature 434,
1118-1121 (28 April 2005)
Discussion in the context of previous work We
discuss possible causes for such a link,
including increased supply of iron from upwelling
and increased stratification during the growing
season,
Conclusion which imply an alteration of the
global ocean circulation during Heinrich events.

12
Example in a nutshell (from Nature 434,
1118-1121 (28 April 2005)
Implications/Outlook The mechanisms linking
North Atlantic iceberg discharges with
subantarctic productivity remain unclear at this
point. We suggest that understanding how the
Southern Ocean was altered during these extreme
climate perturbations is critical to
understanding the role of the ocean in climate
change.
But note abstracts are generally different.
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How to get started

• Distill your main new insight in your mind, in
  one sentence
• Then try and argue your case.
• Start with a section you find easy (Methods?
  Introduction?)
• Do not worry too much about wording and word
  count cut and edit later
• Imagine you explain your work to a colleague
  write down what you would say, in plain language

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Style Clarity first!

• Write with care and try to communicate
• Think of those with limited command of English
  (but superior command of physics)
• Make short, simple, concrete sentences avoid
  buzzwords
• Use only words whose meaning you know

? Henry Gee (I and II)
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Technicalities

• Look at the journal you are planning to submit
  to
• Adhere to the Guide to Authors
• Test your figures on your grandmother can she
  read the symbols?
• Do not use 20 shades of green
• Make sure you cite all relevant work - few
  referees like being ignored

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Finishing touches

• Critique your own work
• Think hard about the main new message of your
  paper then write the Abstract and Conclusions
• Ask a critical colleague to read and edit
• Fill in any holes with literature or new
  experiments

this can take several iterations
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Dirty tricks (may backfire)

• Do not
• acknowledge people who havent seen the paper
  because you want to exclude them as referees
• leave out relevant references in the hope that
  the editor wont ask them to review the paper
• over-reference people whom you would like as
  referees

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Personal style
Feel free to ignore aspects of these
recommendations different people have different
styles
A centipede was happy quite, until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?" This
raised his doubts to such a pitch He fell
distracted in the ditch Not knowing how to run.
Richard Feynman in What is Science? 1966
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Last Words
And when you get blue And youve lost all your
dreams There is nothing like a campfire And a can
of beans
Tom Waits in Lucky Day, The Black Rider 1993
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Further Reading

• Henry Gee The write stuff doi10.1038/news041129-
  14
• James D. Watson The Double Helix
• Robert M. Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
  Maintenance
• Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice Sense and
  Sensibility
• Michael Frayn Copenhagen