Writing Scientific Research Articles

Strategy and Steps

Margaret Cargill, Patrick O'Connor, Patrick D. T. O'Connor

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781119717270
• eBook ISBN: 9781119717324
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Writing Scientific Research Articles

The new edition of the popular guide for novice and professional scientists alike, providing effective strategies and step-by-step advice for writing scientific papers for publication

For scientists writing a research article for submission to an international peer-reviewed journal, knowing how to write can be as important as knowing what to write. Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps provides systematic guidance on writing effective scientific papers with the greatest chance for publication. Using clear language, this highly practical guide shows scientists how to apply their analysis and synthesis skills to produce a compelling research article and increase their competence in written communication of science.

The third edition is fully revised to reflect changes in the review process and science journal publication. Incorporating current developments in technology and pedagogical practice, brand-new sections cover mapping and planning manuscripts, choosing results, systematic reviews, structured abstracts, and more. Updated material on referee criteria offers valuable insights on what journal editors and referees want to publish and why. Offering a hands-on approach to developing the academic writing skills of scientists in all disciplines and from all language backgrounds, Writing Scientific Research Articles

• provides a genre-based pedagogy and clear processes for writing each section of a manuscript across the full range of research article formats and funding applications
• presents tested strategies for responding to referee comments and developing discipline-specific language skills for manuscript writing and polishing
• pairs each learning step with updated practical exercises to develop writing and data presentation skills based on expert analysis of well-written papers, including provided example articles
• includes chapters on the difference between review papers and research papers, and on skill development using journal clubs and writing groups
• features a wealth of new information on topics including Open Access publishing, online reviews, and predatory conferences and journals

Designed for use by individuals as a self-study guide or by groups working with an instructor, Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps is a must-have guide for early-career researchers with limited writing experience, scientists for whom English is an additional language, upper-level undergraduates and graduate students writing for publication, and STEM and English language professionals involved in teaching manuscript writing and publication skills and mentoring students and colleagues.

SECTION 1
A framework for success

CHAPTER 1
How to use this book

1.1 Getting started with writing for international publication

This book is for all authors who want improved strategies for writing effective scientific papers in an efficient way, including those new to the task. The focus is on writing in English, but many of the strategies are equally effective for writing science in other languages. Plurilingual authors – those using English as an additional language (EAL) – will find their situations and needs addressed alongside those of authors with English as a first language (EL1), as well as those common to both groups.

In this book, we will use other terms as well as paper for what you are aiming to write: it may be called a manuscript, a journal article, or a research article. (See Chapter 2 for comments on other types of scientific articles, Chapter 12 for writing review articles, and Chapter 18 for how to apply the book’s approach to writing funding grant proposals.) All of these terms are in use in books and websites providing information and advice about this type of document: this genre. The concept of genre is important for the way this book works, as we have based our approach in writing it on the findings of researchers who work in the field of genre analysis. These researchers study documents of a particular type to identify the features that make them recognisable as what they are.

One of the key concepts in use in this field of research is the idea of the audience for a document as a key factor in helping an author write effectively. Whenever you write any document, it is helpful to think first about your audience: whom do you see in your mind’s eye as the reader of what you are writing? The idea of audience belongs as part of a “communication matrix” made up of four elements: audience (as described in the previous sentence), purpose (what do you want the document to achieve?), format (how will the required format constrain how you write the document?), and assessment (what criteria will be used to decide if the document is successful?). We will use all the elements of this matrix to guide our discussion of the genres we will analyse in the book, and we begin now by thinking about the audience for a scientific research article.

Who is your audience?

Often the audience that you think of first is your scientific peers – people working in areas related to yours who will want to know about your results – and this is certainly a primary audience for a research article. However, there is another “audience” whose requirements must be met before your peers will even get a chance to see your article in print: the journal editor and reviewers (also called referees; see Chapters 3, 13, and 14 for more information). These people are often thought of as gate‐keepers (or as a filter), because their role is to ensure that only articles that meet the journal’s standards and requirements are allowed to enter or pass through. Therefore, it can be useful from the beginning to find out and bear in mind as much information as you can about what these requirements are. In this book, we refer to these requirements as reviewer criteria (see Chapters 3 and 14 for details), and we use them as a framework to help unpack the expectations that both audiences have of a research article written in English. We aim to unpack these expectations in two different but closely interrelated ways – in terms of:

• the content of each article section and its presentation; and
• the English language features commonly used to present that content.

To do this, the book uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from experienced science authors and reviewers about content with those from specialist teachers of research communication in English about the language. Elements of language that are broadly relevant to most readers of the book will be discussed in each chapter. In addition, Chapter 17 focuses on ways in which users of EAL can develop the discipline‐specific English needed to write effectively for international publication. This chapter can be studied at any stage in the process of working through the book, after you have completed Chapter 1.

1.2 Publishing in the international literature

If you are going to become involved in publishing in the international literature, there are a number of questions it is useful to consider at the outset: Why publish? Why is it difficult to publish? What does participation in the international scientific community require? What do you need to know to select your target journal? How can you get the most out of publishing? We will consider these questions in turn.

Why publish?

We have already suggested that researchers publish to share ideas and results with colleagues. Other reasons for publishing include

• to leave a record of research which can be added to by others;
• to receive due recognition for ideas and results; and
• to attract interest from others in the area of research.

However, there are two additional reasons that are very important for internationally oriented scientists:

• to receive expert feedback on results and ideas; and
• to legitimise research; that is, to receive independent verification of methods and results.

These reasons underscore the importance of the review process we discussed earlier. However, there are difficulties associated with getting work published – difficulties that operate for all sci...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Writing Scientific Research Articles
• Copyright
• Preface to the first edition
• Preface to the second edition
• Preface to the third edition
• SECTION 1: A framework for success
• SECTION 2: When and how to write each article section
• SECTION 3: Getting your manuscript published
• SECTION 4: Developing your writing and publication skills further
• SECTION 5: Provided example articles
• Answer pages
• Appendix: Measures of journal impact and quality
• References
• Index
• End User License Agreement