Reflections on Writing Scientific Articles

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Reflections on Writing Scientific Articles
Thierry Olivry, DrVet, PhD NCSU College of
Veterinary Medicine June 4, 2008
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Scientific Article Writing Some Questions to be
Addressed

• Where should I publish my article?
• Who should be an author, in what order?
• How to make my abstract effective?
• How long should my introduction be?
• How detailed should the methods be?
• Presenting results tables, figures or text?
• How should I structure my discussion?
• How can I deal with so many references?

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Scientific Article Writing Where Should I
Publish?

• What is the impact factor?
• IF average number of times articles from the
  journal published in the past two years have been
  cited in the journal citation report year
• IF 1.0 means that, on average, the articles
  published one or two year ago have been cited one
  time
• What is most important? impact factor or most
  relevant readership?

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Scientific Article Writing Where Should I
Publish?

• Maximizing publication effectiveness
• Citation databases Medline (Pubmed), Web of
  Science, CAB abstracts
• Favor journals with rapid publication
• Journals with e-pubs ahead of print
• Open journals

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Scientific Article Writing Authorship

• Who should be an author?
• Uniform requirements for publication in
  biomedical journals (www.icmje.org)
• Authorship qualifications 1 2 3
• substantial contributions to conception and
  design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and
  interpretation of data
• drafting the article or revising it critically
  for important intellectual content
• final approval of the version to be published

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Scientific Article Writing Authorship

• Important considerations (ICMJE)
• Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or
  general supervision of the research group, alone,
  does not justify authorship
• All persons designated as authors should qualify
  for authorship, and all those who qualify should
  be listed
• Each author should have participated sufficiently
  in the work to take public responsibility for
  appropriate portions of the content

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Scientific Article Writing Title and Key-Words

• Title
• Must be informative about the study
• Consider using hot words that may be searched
  often
• Key-words
• Consider homonym variation between title and
  key-words to enhance retrieval chances
• Examples
• Discipline e.g. immunology, allergy
• Species e.g. dog (or canine)
• Organ e.g. skin
• Disease e.g. atopy, pemphigus
• Category e.g. pathogenesis, treatment, clinical
  signs

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Scientific Article Writing Abstract

• Important points
• Balanced, precise, relevant, accessible
• Follow journal guidelines!
• Structured versus narrative
• Example of abstract structure
• Background statement 1-2 sentences
• Objectives 1 sentence
• Method summary short and to the point!
• Results major points
• Conclusions implication for research, practice

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Scientific Article Writing Introduction

• Important points
• Short, relevant, informative, enticing
• Hourglass concept

• Sinusoid, not reverse sigmoid!

• Start with an outline!

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Scientific Article Writing Introduction

• Example of introduction structure
• Definition of the problem, disease
• Importance, prevalence, relevance
• Areas of controversies
• Missing information
• Study objectives
• Short teaser?

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Scientific Article Writing Material Methods

• Important points
• Short, clear, informative, structured
• How much detail? Enough to permit the
  reproduction of experiments
• Online supplements
• Example of Material Methods structure
• Study subjects, tissues, cells
• (Main reagents)
• Techniques 1, 2, 3.
• Statistical analyses

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Scientific Article Writing Results

• Important points
• Short, clear, informative, structured
• Text, figures or tables?
• Avoid duplication of information
• Avoid discrepancies between text, tables and
  figures
• Dont discuss the findings yet!
• Example of results structure
• Same headings as in material methods

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Scientific Article Writing Tables

• Main objectives
• Should complement the text
• Should be short and not too wide
• Not too much information (i.e. not too tight)
• Not too many abbreviations
• Clear, easily read
• Should stand alone for comprehension
• Dont forget title, caption or abbreviation
  explanation (separate section)

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Tables Which One is Better?
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Tables Which One is Better?
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Scientific Article Writing Figures

• Main objectives
• Should complement the text
• Clear, easily read and understood
• Should stand alone for comprehension
• Be artistic! play with composite figures
• Judicious use of color, grayscale
• Beware of ethical enhancements
• Minimum resolution 300 dpi (6-8 wide)
• Dont forget title, caption or abbreviation
  explanation (separate section)!

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Scientific Article Writing Figures
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Scientific Article Writing Discussion

• Important points
• Short, focused, relevant, structured
• Dont stray away from your main objectives!
• Sterile versus emphatic style
• Use the richness of the English language!
• Hourglass concept
• Sinusoid, not reverse sigmoid!

• Make an outline!

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Scientific Article Writing Discussion

• Example of discussion structure
• Introductory statement main results?
• Paragraphs corresponding to similar sections in
  material methods and results
• Implication for research
• Implication for practice
• Concluding statement

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Scientific Article Writing References

• Important points
• Follow journal guidelines for reference format!!!
• Verify that all in text citations have matching
  references!
• Attempt to use primary citations except for
  common knowledge (e.g. reviewed in 17)
• Use reference management software RefWorks,
  Endnote, Reference Manager
• Other alternative Words endnote function

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Scientific Article Writing Other Important Items

• Acknowledgements
• For reagent gifts
• For technical help
• For funding source
• For advice on content or manuscript
• Conflict of interest
• May be required
• List any consulting/lecture honoraria or research
  funding that could have any direct or indirect
  link with the current study

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Scientific Article Writing Conclusions

• A published article should be the final outcome
  of all (most) research projects
• Excellent time to gather all results and digest
  them for others
• Peer-review assessment of your work
• Availability for present and future generations
• Important outcome measure for obtaining a faculty
  position and for promotion
• Excellent exercise in penmanship, logic,
  organization and artistry be creative!
• Follow journal guidelines!!!