Plan & Publish, or Perish Tips for Writing Well

Amanda S. Barnard Leader, Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory

CSIRO

Who am I, and Why am I Qualified to Speak about this?

• Quick CV….. – Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience

• Nanomorphology and Environmental Nanoscience

– PhD in Physics (Theoretical Condensed Matter) • Finished in 16 months, and resulted in 19 publications

– Distinguished Research Fellow (Postdoc) at Argonne National

Laboratory (2 years)

– Prestigious Senior Research Fellowship (Glasstone Fellow) at University of Oxford (3 years)

– QEII and Leader of the Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory (VNLab) at CSIRO

Who am I, and Why am I Qualified to Speak about this?

– Published over 130 papers and 14 book chapters in 9 years (average >1 paper every month)

– Associate Editor of Journal and Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience (American Scientific Publishers), 2005-2011

– Guest Editor of Special Issues (American Scientific Publishers, Wiley Interscience, Royal Society of Chemistry)

– Member of 5 international Editorial Advisory Boards – Member of the Nature Index Panel (Physical Sciences) – Referee for >23 journals including Nature, Nature

Commun., Nature Mater., Nature Nanotech, Science, ...

Publications Count

• Why? Because we are counting them… – Your CV – Job performance criteria – Future and present Grant applications – …and getting more papers

• The reason we publish is to share our data and findings with other

researchers, and so the impact of our research is measured by how our papers are accepted by the community...

• The ultimate aim is not a long list of papers – it is a long list of citations! – 90% of papers in academic journals never get cited* * L. I. Meho, Citation Analysis, Physics World, January 2007

Research & Planning • Each research paper should increase the knowledge base in the field,

and not just recombine existing knowledge – You may need to “value add” to make sure each paper fulfils this

requirement (i.e. “get more out than you put in”)

• Research planning and Publication planning are not mutually exclusive – Plan paper titles and topics when you plan the project

• Converting research plans to a paper outline

– Sections in papers are pretty standard (Introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions), but they show how the links between project and paper are made

– List the methods you will use up-front (will they help “value add”?) – List some dot-points of planned results (they will remind you what

you are aiming to include)

Planning Data Presentation • Papers are not the same as reports

– Papers are aimed at qualified and experienced individuals – Do not over write, you can add extra detail into “Supplementary

Information”. If more information is required, or if it should be moved into the main text of the paper, referees and/or editors will ask you for it. Too much detail on methods (when a well chosen citation will suffice) makes you look amateurish and inexperienced

• Figures and tables – For each piece of data, use one or the other. Do not list/depict the

same data twice. Editors and publishers save money by saving space (pages)

– Tabulating data can allow your readers to graph it if they want. Extracting data from graphs is more difficult

– Do you want it to be easy to share data, or difficult? (such as propriety work)

Your Writing Style

• Know it – accept it – use it! – Find your own writing style, and don’t fight it – Don't hate yourself if you seem to write best under pressure, or

at the very last minute; just recognize that so you can plan for it – If you write slowly, don’t worry, just give yourself an early start

• Allow yourself to do whatever weird thing it takes to get your

writing done – Coffee, snacks, music, a special location, a different time of day

or night – What ever gets you in “the zone”

Structure - I

The Introduction • What is it all about, and why it this

topic worth reading about? • What are the specific most

important and exciting results published over the years?

• What challenges remain t be addressed – where are the gaps in the currently knowledge?

• What are you about to do, and how does it fill one of those gaps?

• FIELD

• DISCIPLINE

• SPECIALITY

• PROJECT

Structure - II

The Methods and Techniques • How did you do it? What approach did

you use?

• Why is this a good approach, what are the advantages and disadvantages?

• What assumptions did you make, and what level of accuracy can you expect?

• Make sure you provide sufficient information that you results could be reproduced!

• For EXPERTS

• For Non-EXPERTS

• For NOVICES

• For EVERYONE

Structure - III

The Results • Clearly state you findings, using the

most appropriate method • Make sure you include your

uncertainties, and explain what they mean

• Text, table or graph...

• Related to methods? Or assumptions?

The Discussion • Compare your results to others in the

literature, don’t just describe your data • Explain why your results agree and/or

disagree – there is always a reason!

• With citations

• Disagreement is interesting!

Structure - IV

The Conclusion • This is not a summary! Though sometimes a summary can

help frame your conclusions • Explain how your results have answered the underlying

questions you were attempting to answer, and how this fills in one of those “knowledge gaps” from your introduction

• Explain the implications your results have upon the field • Explain the impact your results have on field as a whole (the

Bigger Picture)

• THIS IS THE ORDER OF A PUBLICATION – BUT IT IS NOT NECESSARILY THE ORDER YOU HAVE TO WRITE IN!

My Method

• Title and Section headings • Figures and tables • Captions • Dot points to describe figures and tables • Methods – how I got the results • Intro and references • Some brief Conclusions that link my results to the

gaps in the existing literature • Abstract • DRAFT 1 is done! – let the re-writing begin!

Write Long Well and Prosper • Be succinct.

– Instead of: Injuries to the brain and spinal cord have long been known to be among the most devastating and expensive of all injuries to treat medically.

– Try: Injuries to the brain and spinal cord are among the most devastating and expensive.

• Use parallel sentence structure.

– Instead of: The initial symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are difficulties in memory for recent events and learning new material

– Try: The initial symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are difficulties in remembering recent events and learning new material.

• Use the active voice. – Instead of: A recommendation was made by the DSMB committee that

the study be halted. – Try: The DSMB committee recommended that the study be halted.

• Don't bury the main verb.

– Instead of: A careful monitoring of achievement levels before and after the introduction of computers in the teaching of our course revealed no changes in students' performances.

– Try: We monitored student achievement levels before and after the introduction of computers in our course and found no detriments in performance.

• Use colons, semicolons, dashes, and parentheses. – Instead of: Many types of cells and tissues develop a kind of directionality.

Certain events happen toward one end of the cell or tissue or the other. It's a phenomenon called cell polarity.

– Try: Many types of cells and tissues develop a kind of directionality called cell polarity: certain events happen toward one end of the cell or tissue.

Jargon • While jargon is necessary in any field, the excessive use of jargon will limit

the accessibility of the work, and does not necessarily make you sound “smarter”.

• If you want your work to be enjoyed by a wide audience, use minimal jargon, and use it strategically.

• EXAMPLE (Unnecessary jargon): muscular and cardio-respiratory performance – Instead of: Increased athletic activity has been associated with

improved muscular and cardio-respiratory performance. – Try: Increased athletic activity has been associated with improved

fitness.

Repetition does not Increase Understanding

• EXAMPLE (Repetitive words or clauses): examples/studies, illustrate/demonstrate, challenges/difficulties, "successful" solutions

– Instead of: This paper reviews cancer biology study design, using as examples studies that illustrate the methodological challenges or that demonstrate successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological research.

– Try: This paper reviews cancer biology study design, using examples that illustrate specific challenges and solutions.

– Instead of: A robust cell-mediated immune response is necessary, and

deficiency in this response predisposes an individual towards active TB. – Try: Deficiency in T-cell-mediated immune response predisposes an

individual to active TB.

Overcoming Writers Block • How long should it take?

– It depends. Perhaps you don’t have writers block at all, maybe it just takes that long to digest the data.

• It is hard when you don’t see any progress, so use some tricks to make it feel like it is progressing. This will keep the momentum up – Use your plan to keep you moving along, even if you are just re-

phrasing the outline – Don’t try and write “stream of consciousness” unless you are an

extremely competent writer – It is easier to re-write than to write from scratch – make it

easy on yourself

How can you tell when it is ready? • Although there are likely to be many drafts, no paper is ever perfect.

– Academic writing is understood as a contribution to an ongoing intellectual dialogue

– It is not the last word on the subject, even text books get revised

• Present your ideas as clearly as you can, address any weaknesses to the best of your ability,….. and then let it go.

• Take time to proof read everything carefully to ensure that you don't send out sloppy work. – Co-authors are invaluable in helping with this, or ask a trusted

colleague. Getting advice is not a sign that you are inexperienced or lack confidence – we all do it!

Polishing it up for Submission

• Think about who your audience are, and make sure you write for them. – Use key concepts and jargon they use, cite research in the field that

they will be familiar with (perhaps published in the same journal), and frame your work as a contribution to the issues of concern to your readers.

• Make sure the length is right - do not violate word limits.

– Too short and it may seem “insignificant” (“Letters” are the obvious exception)

– Too long and people only read sections, not the whole thing (risk of being misquoted)

• PROOF READ IT – typographic and grammatical errors make you look unprofessional

Keeping up the Good Work • Keep your publishing program moving.

– There are multiple stages to publication and each one can take considerable time.

– It's typical for manuscripts to take months to be reviewed and up to 6 months be published after acceptance.

• Try to have several projects in the works at different stages:

(1) ideas, (2) research, (3) planning, (4) manuscript drafts, (5) manuscripts under submission, (6) forthcoming publications, (7) published work.

• Make writing a normal part of your academic life. It gets easier, and (even) more enjoyable over time.

Thanks for listening...

Questions?