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Scientific Writing and Communication Eric LICHTFOUSE INRA, Dijon, France [email protected] Nov. 17-18, 2014, 1-4 pm room 219

Scientific Writing and Communication

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Workshop presentation at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014. Topics: education, writing, novelty, selection by journals, visuals, culture influence, internet, social media. Hands-on writing exercise using the Micro-Article.

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Page 1: Scientific Writing and Communication

Scientific Writing and Communication!

Eric LICHTFOUSE! INRA, Dijon, France

[email protected]!Nov. 17-18, 2014, 1-4 pm room 219!

Page 2: Scientific Writing and Communication

CV - Eric Lichtfouse

1986-1991GEOCHIMIST

PhD France! Post-doc USA Germany!

1992-2003 SCIENTIST Soil scienceC, pollutants!

2003- EDITOR

Agronomy for Sustainable Development Environmental Chemistry Letters!

Page 3: Scientific Writing and Communication

Contents!

EDUCATION!

WRITING! INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA!

STORIES!

ISSUES!

Micro-article!

NOVELTY!

SELECTION!

VISUALS!

CULTURE!

Page 4: Scientific Writing and Communication

ISSUES!

Page 5: Scientific Writing and Communication

INFORMATION OVERDOSE!

Articles - Web of Science!1982 : 711 808!2012 : 2 141 759 !

Reading: 24 minutes per paper!!Bits reading!Non-linear reading!

Each part/section/figure of a document should be understandable and citable without reading the rest!

Page 6: Scientific Writing and Communication

Impact factor!

Fang 2011. Retracted science and the retraction index!

Retraction index!

IMPACT FACTOR!

- Favours misconduct!- Measures citations, not novelty !- Topic dependent!- Citation date dependent!

Page 7: Scientific Writing and Communication

Sand-Jensen, Oikos 2007

Boring papers!

Congratulations, you are now capable of !writing technical , impersonal and boring papers !

like myself and the other genlemen -!Welcome to Academia!

ISSUES!

Page 8: Scientific Writing and Communication

The law of the impact factor!

Challenge for journal editors!How to attact authors by a poor journal?!!

Decreasing sales!Lower visibility!

Low and rare submissions!

Must publish!Low selection!

Decreasing impact factor!

ISSUES!

Page 9: Scientific Writing and Communication

Scientific article!

Communication tool!

Communicative!!

Novelty versus known!

Explained novelty!

Authors usually write only for themselves!

ISSUES!

Page 10: Scientific Writing and Communication

EDUCATION!

EDUCATION!

Page 11: Scientific Writing and Communication

Increase readership!

Scientific paper!

Specialists!

Students in and OUT of the field!

Press, journalists!

Politics, public!

Corporations, farmers, etc.!

No education no reader no citation!Even specialists like obvious facts!

EDUCATION!

Page 12: Scientific Writing and Communication

Albert Einstein advice!

If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well. !Most of the fundammental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone. !

EDUCATION!

Do not make science ‘secret’!Do not use complex words and expressions to look ‘serious’!Do not ‘invent’ abbreviations !

Page 13: Scientific Writing and Communication

WRITING!

WRITING!

Page 14: Scientific Writing and Communication

Scientific documents!

PhD thesis!Original article!Data paper!Review article!Methodological article!Meta-analysis!Essay, opinion paper!Meta-analysis!Press, public scienceAdvertising!Slideshare, Wiki, Blog, !Facebook, etc.!

One experiment – Ten papers!

WRITING!

Page 15: Scientific Writing and Communication

Original article skeleton!

BACKGROUND!ISSUES

EXPERIMENTAL

MAJORS RESULTS!INTERPRETATION!

NOVELTY!BENEFITS!

GENERAL ISSUES!

SCIENCE ISSUES!

EXPERIMENT 1!

EXPERIMENT 2!

EXPERIMENT 3!

DESCRIPTION!

DISCUSSION!

DESCRIPTION!

DISCUSSION!

DESCRIPTION!

DISCUSSION!

MAJORS RESULTS!INTERPRETATION!

NOVELTY!BENEFITS!

ABSTRACT!

INTRODUCTION!

EXPERIMENTAL!

RESULTS !AND!

DISCUSSION!

CONCLUSION!

REFERENCES!

TITLE!

WRITING!

Page 16: Scientific Writing and Communication

Text: what the eye sees !

WRITING!

Page 17: Scientific Writing and Communication

Text: what the mind sees!

SPACE!

SPACE!

SPACE!

SPACE!

Write wisely titles, first and last sentences!

Story begins!

Story ends!

WRITING!

Page 18: Scientific Writing and Communication

Title flaws!

Potential use of essential oil from lemon-scented eucalypt (Eucalyptus citriodora Hook.) for the IM of little seed

canary grass (Phalaris minor Retz.)!

WRITING!

Page 19: Scientific Writing and Communication

Title flaws!

Potential use of essential oil from lemon-scented eucalypt (Eucalyptus citriodora Hook.) for the IM of little seed

canary grass (Phalaris minor Retz.)!

Too long!

Edited title!Alternative control of canary grass using eucalypt oil!

WRITING!

Page 20: Scientific Writing and Communication

Abstracting!

Readers love contrast!Abstract: last written, first read!!

ABSTRACT!

INTRODUCTION! RESULTS AND DISCUSSION!

PROBLEM! SOLUTION!

WRITING!

Page 21: Scientific Writing and Communication

Abstract !

BACKGROUND – ISSUESGeneral, global, societal, economic!

Specific, scientific!Knowledge limits, hypothesis!

EXPERIMENTAL Location, samples, methods !

Duration, parameters!

33% - 4 sentences!

RESULTS - NOVELTY1-3 Trends with data!

Interpretation!Novelty!Benefits!

33% - 4 sentences!

33% - 4 sentences!

WRITING!

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Abstract flaws!

Organic residues and fresh materials are potentially important sources of!nitrogen (N) in crop production. A study was conducted to investigate the impact of!temperature on the release rate and profile of amino acids from fresh shoot material!from chicory (Cichorium intybus), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), and red clover (Trifolium!

pratense) under anaerobic conditions. Both amino acids and other organic N pools!constituted significant proportions of the soluble N that was released over a period of!240 hours. At incubation temperatures of 15ºC, up to 30% of the total added N was!

present in the watery phase already after 50 h without further increases in the!proportion. Increasing the incubation temperatures to 35ºC, caused the alfalfa material!

to release up to 100% of the total added N following a first order kinetic model. Release!rates of amino acids from red clover and chicory material in contrast did respond!

(P>0.05) to higher incubation temperatures. The three herbage sources released a!mixture of 16 amino acids but each source released different profiles of amino acids, in!total reaching around 20 mg N l-1. Shoot material from chicory only released four amino!

acids, in total reaching not more than 3 mg N l-1. Shoot material from alfalfa and red!clover and seed material from soybean in particular released ARG, GLU, ALA and HIS.!

In the watery solution from soaked soybean seed material, the early incubation period!were dominated by ARG, GLU and ALA whereas TYR, TRP and VAL were specific!

later in the incubation period. Three groups could be identified as behaving similar: (i)!ASP and SER, (ii) ARG, GLU, HIS, and CY2, and (iii) ILE, PHE and LEU. Knowledge!

of the amino acid release profiles should be included in future studies investigating the!rapid N releases from plant materials.!

WRITING!

Page 23: Scientific Writing and Communication

Abstract flaws!

ISSUES - BACKGROUND!Organic residues and fresh materials are potentially important sources of!nitrogen (N) in crop production. !

WRITING!

Page 24: Scientific Writing and Communication

Abstract flaws!

EXPERIMENTAL!A study was conducted to investigate the impact of temperature on the release rate !and profile of amino acids from fresh shoot material from chicory (Cichorium intybus), !alfalfa (Medicago sativa), and red clover (Trifolium pratense) under anaerobic conditions. !

WRITING!

Page 25: Scientific Writing and Communication

Abstract flaws!

! ! RESULTS - NOVELTY!Both amino acids and other organic N pools constituted significant !proportions of the soluble N that was released over a period of 240 hours. !

At incubation temperatures of 15ºC, up to 30% of the total added N was present !in the watery phase already after 50 h without further increases in the proportion. !

Increasing the incubation temperatures to 35ºC, caused the alfalfa material!to release up to 100% of the total added N following a first order kinetic model. !

Release rates of amino acids from red clover and chicory material in contrast !did respond (P>0.05) to higher incubation temperatures. !

The three herbage sources released a mixture of 16 amino acids but each source released !different profiles of amino acids, in total reaching around 20 mg N l-1. !

Shoot material from chicory only released four amino!acids, in total reaching not more than 3 mg N l-1. !

Shoot material from alfalfa and red clover and seed material !from soybean in particular released ARG, GLU, ALA and HIS.!

In the watery solution from soaked soybean seed material, the early incubation period!were dominated by ARG, GLU and ALA whereas TYR, TRP and VAL were specific!later in the incubation period. !

Three groups could be identified as behaving similar: (i)!ASP and SER, (ii) ARG, GLU, HIS, and CY2, and (iii) ILE, PHE and LEU. !

Knowledge of the amino acid release profiles should be included in future studies !investigating the rapid N releases from plant materials.!

WRITING!

Page 26: Scientific Writing and Communication

DIVING INTO THE INTRODUCTION!

GENERAL, GLOBAL, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC Background, issues!

Readable by the public! ... ..

. .

SPECIFIC, LOCAL, CONCEPTUAL!Knowledge limits, scientific issues

Hypothesis!Readable by ALL scientists!

Universe !

Galaxy !

Planet !

WRITING!

Page 27: Scientific Writing and Communication

Introduction flaws!

Introduction!

Bt is a facultative anaerobic, gram-positive bacterium that forms characteristic protein inclusions adjacent to the endospore. Bt subspecies can synthesize more than one parasporal inclusion, which are toxic for certain invertebrates, especially species of insect larvae belonging to the insect orders Coleoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera...!

WRITING!

Page 28: Scientific Writing and Communication

Results and discussion!

DESCRIPTION!

DISCUSSION!

DESCRIPTION!

DISCUSSION!

DESCRIPTION!

DISCUSSION!

WRITING!

Strategy of argumentation!

1. Major result first!First result ‘shows that’!Second result ‘strengthens’!Third result ‘definitively confims’ !

2. Major result last!First result ‘suggests’!Second result ‘strengthens’!Third result ‘confirms’!

Literature argument may replace a minor result, but wisely:!No ‘our results confirm the finding of Smith (2012)’!

Literature should be used to show clearly the advance of Your work !

Page 29: Scientific Writing and Communication

Results and discussion!

3.1 SUBSECTION TITLE!

Reminder of aim and experiments 2 sentences!

Detailed description of one trend – no reference 2 sentences!

Discussion 5-6 sentences - Interpretation - Novelty versus known – using references… if necessary- Benefits for science!- Benefits for society- Conclude on the major finding – 1 sentence

WRITING!

Page 30: Scientific Writing and Communication

Figure flaws!

WRITING!

Page 31: Scientific Writing and Communication

Figures!

Wisely designed to show one messageAlmost readable without reading the text!

WRITING!

Page 32: Scientific Writing and Communication

Figure flaws!

y = 12,1x + 1,7

R2 = 0,98

y = 9,3x + 3,5

R2 = 0,9619

y = -7,5x + 68,1

R2 = 0,9026

y = -9,9x + 69,7

R2 = 0,9743

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Cd

Morta

lité

Rats

Souris

ESCARG

Limaces

Linéaire (Souris)

Linéaire (Rats)

Linéaire (Limaces)

Linéaire (ESCARG)

0

20

40

60

80

0 2 4 6

Concentration en cadmium (mg/g terre)

Mortalité (%)

Rats!

Limaces!

WRITING!

Page 33: Scientific Writing and Communication

Captions!

Figures are separate objects published alone on the internet. !Understandable and citable without reading the article text. !

CAPTION Figure 1. Impact of copper on animal deaths. Note the unexpected decrease of snail deaths from 60 to 20. This finding evidences positive effects of copper on snails. Linar interpolation y = - 2,5x + 10, r2 0.96. EAB: explain abbrevations here. !

0

20

40

60

80

0 2 4 6

Concentration en cadmium (mg/g terre)

Mortalité (%)

WRITING!

Page 34: Scientific Writing and Communication

NOVELTY!

NOVELTY!

Page 35: Scientific Writing and Communication

Many forms of novelty!

My data/results!

New mechanim? New concept? !New interpretation? New species? New method? Improved method? !

First observation? First exploration? Contradictory finding? !Practical invention?...

Good news!!You – humans – are always inovating, !

you just don’t explain it clearly!

NOVELTY!

x!x!

x!x!

x!x!

x!

Page 36: Scientific Writing and Communication

Types of novelty!

Try to find the novelty category of those paper titles !

Technical/method?!Object/species?!Conceptual?!Trend?!

Page 37: Scientific Writing and Communication

How is novelty explained in the text?!

PROBLEM General issues - society!Specific issues - scienceFrontier of knowledge

Hypothesis!

SOLUTION!One major result

Interpretation NoveltyBenefits!

Démonstration!

NOVELTY!

Page 38: Scientific Writing and Communication

Creating contrast!

NOVELTY!

Page 39: Scientific Writing and Communication

Say the major point 3 times!

Explain the novelty in: TITLE (if possible)ABSTRACT RESULTATS ET DISCUSSION CONCLUSION!

Do not consider novelty obvious for the reader!Important facts must be repeated for readers memory!

NOVELTY!

Page 40: Scientific Writing and Communication

Hiding novelty!

Too much information kills information!Readers remember only one point, or less…!

10 results shown! 1 result shown!

NOVELTY!

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Communicabilité : 1. Focalisation : moyens !

NOVELTY!

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Communicabilité!

NOVELTY!

Page 43: Scientific Writing and Communication

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!

YIELD!

FERTILIZER!

YIELD!

FERTILIZER!

x!

x!

x!

x!x!

HYPOTHESIS! FIELD TRIAL! RESULTS!

REFORMULATION!OF THE!

HYPOTHESIS!

YIELD!

SOIL CARBON!

x!x!

x! x!

x!

NEVER start writing your initial objective!ALWAYS find first ONE main message from your data!Then INVENT the best contrasting hypothesis!

NOVELTY!

Page 44: Scientific Writing and Communication

Unpredictable science!

The greatest scientific advances couldn't be, and weren't, predicted. !Sir Harold W. Kroto, Nobel price winner!

The path of discovery is not straight. !Ahmed Zewail, Nobel price winner!

Often an experiment wants to tell you more than what you first expected. !Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel price winner !

NOVELTY!

Page 45: Scientific Writing and Communication

SELECTION!

SELECTION!

Page 46: Scientific Writing and Communication

Processus éditorial1. Evaluation scientifique!

Linear process!10-15 ‘invisible’ people involved!

50% volunteers !!

SELECTION!

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Review reports!

1. Overall decision!Accept with minor changes/Accept with major changes/Reject!

2. Rating and assessment of specific sections!Novelty/originality versus current knowledge/methods: X (0-10)!Article clearly focussed on major point(s): ! X (0-10)!Sufficient experimentation:!! ! X (0-10)!Experimental quality: ! ! ! X (0-10)!Statistical analysis: ! ! ! X (0-10)!English: ! ! ! ! X (0-10)!

Title: (appropriate?)!Abstract: (concise summary of work?)!Introduction: (background and problem clearly stated?)!Materials and Methods: (too short/adequate/too long? acceptable methods?)!Results and Discussion: (too short/adequate/too long? logical order? focussed? correct interpretation?)!Conclusions: (justified by results and correct interpretation?)!References: (appropriate? right number?)!Tables and Figures: (high quality? appropriate? right number? duplication? suitable legends?)!

3. Specific comments for authors!(Comments on the whole article)!

SELECTION!

Page 48: Scientific Writing and Communication

VISUALS!

IMAGES!

Page 49: Scientific Writing and Communication

Basic communication!

Simple figure!

Numbers!

Short title!

ONLY 1 message!

Spaces, blanks! to ‘breathe’!

1992-2003 SCIENTIST Soil carbon!

Readers are humans (!)!

IMAGES!

Page 50: Scientific Writing and Communication

FIGURES!

Author? !

IMAGES!

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FIGURES!

Albert Einstein!Abstract thinking !needs images!

IMAGES!

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FIGURES!

Author? !

IMAGES!

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FIGURES!

Charles Darwin!Evolution tree!

Image = imagination!

IMAGES!

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Back to the future!

ACS mobile!

IMAGES!

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Visuals = article entrance!

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CULTURE!

CULTURE!

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Symbolic meaning?!

CULTURE!

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Symbolic meaning?!

Singing Fish, MiroSpain!

Brandenburg GateBerlin!

Diversity of thought implies diversity of communication!10 scientists equals 10 different opinions on scientific writing!

Reviewers may have very different opinions!

CULTURE!

Page 59: Scientific Writing and Communication

Culture influences writing!

Southern authors! Northern authors!Long sentences! Short sentences!

Orphan sentences! Well-structured paragraphs!

Repeating not allowed! Repeating allowed!

Romance, flowery prose, unfocussed text! Straight to the point!

Too many results - quantity! 1-3 relevant results - quality!

Unexplained results! All results discussed!

CULTURE!

Page 60: Scientific Writing and Communication

Major writing flaws!

Non conform to instructions Apply instructions to the letter Slack presentation equals slack science

Outside journal topics Read topics, aims and scope

Low quality figures Make simple, pretty, one-message figures

Abbreviation overdose Avoid abbreviations

CULTURE!

Page 61: Scientific Writing and Communication

Major writing flaws!

Unexplained novelty Explain 3 times

No education Explain general, global, societal issues

Too many results Focus on one discovery

Inadequate reference use Distinguish Your results from literature results

CULTURE!

Page 62: Scientific Writing and Communication

INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA!

Page 63: Scientific Writing and Communication

Literature search!

PAST! NOW

Selection by titles then abstracts!Interdisciplinary science!

‘plant climate change’!2 000 000 papers !

Few papers!

Page 64: Scientific Writing and Communication

Downloads!

realtime.springer.com!

INTERNET!

Page 65: Scientific Writing and Communication

The article of the future!

Laptop screen adapted!http://beta.cell.com!

Graphical abstract!

Menus!

Interview!Video!

Main points!

Immediacy!INTERNET!

Page 66: Scientific Writing and Communication

Social networks!

Springer - Online tools and social media!

INTERNET!

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Social networks!

Sharing and ‘liking’ will probably be new forms of peer-review and selection !

INTERNET!

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Social networks!

Microblogging!

INTERNET!

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Social networks!

Get invited to meetings!

INTERNET!

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Social networks!

Get useful information!

INTERNET!

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Social networks!

Questions/Answers!

INTERNET!

Page 72: Scientific Writing and Communication

Social networks!

Your list of publications in the Web of Science!

INTERNET!http://www.researcherid.com/rid/F-4759-2011!

Page 73: Scientific Writing and Communication

Social networks!

Your list of publications on the web!

INTERNET!

Page 74: Scientific Writing and Communication

Social networks!

Sharing presentations!Statistics: reader interest:!allow you to see what can be improved!

INTERNET!

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STORIES!

STORIES!

Page 76: Scientific Writing and Communication

Don’t click too fast!

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 08:57:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Paper submitted to Agronomie To: [email protected]

Dear Éric Lichtfouse, Kindly find attached file (MS Word) of my paper entitled... for publication in Plant Science. I hope the paper meets the laid down criteria of publication.

Kindly acknowledge receipt. Best regards.

STORIES!

Page 77: Scientific Writing and Communication

Double shot!

Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006From: "Robert E. L. Naylor" <[email protected]>To: author Cc: [email protected]

Dear Author, We are in the process of reviewing the above manuscript submitted to the Journal of Agricultural Science (JAS) on 19 July 2006. It has come to our notice that the same paper has been submitted to the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development...

Professor Robert E. L. Naylor, Senior Editor, Journal of Agricultural Science!

Submitted July 19 to JASSubmitted July 21 to AgronomyReceived by the same reviewer! !

STORIES!

Page 78: Scientific Writing and Communication

Micro-article!

Distillation of results!

Page 79: Scientific Writing and Communication

Micro-article!

MICRO-ARTICLE!

Title!

Title!

Title!

Title!

Title!

Title!

Title!

Page 80: Scientific Writing and Communication

Micro-article!

MICRO-ARTICLE!

Increasing pesticide levels in groundwaters !

Climate change!Economic loss !Food security!

Page 81: Scientific Writing and Communication

Conclusion!

Improving writing is possible… BEFORE SUBMISSION!Article format and content is changing!More information: Slideshare, ResearchID, LinkedIn (Lichtfouse)[email protected]!

Page 82: Scientific Writing and Communication

Acknowledgements

Department of Tropical and Soil Sciences!University of Hawai’i at Manoa !