A Roadmap to Successful Scientific Publishing: The Dos, the Don’ts and the Must-Knows

124 Pages·2022·3.771 MB·English

by  Sarah Cuschieri

Sarah Cuschieri
A Roadmap
to Successful
Scientific
Publishing
The Dos, the Don’ts
and the Must-Knows
A Roadmap to Successful Scientific
Publishing
Sarah Cuschieri
A Roadmap to Successful
Scientific Publishing
’
The Dos, the Don ts and the
Must-Knows
SarahCuschieri
DepartmentofAnatomy
FacultyofMedicineandSurgery
UniversityofMalta
Msida,Malta
ISBN978-3-030-99294-1 ISBN978-3-030-99295-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99295-8
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To my beloved husband who have had my
back, shown great moral support and love
during my professional career
Preface
Intheeraofpublishorperish,thisone-stopbookwillprovideeverythingoneneeds
toknowaboutconductingresearchandpublishingit,beitinascientificjournaloras
a media article. The aim of this book is to provide a step-by-step guideline to
students and professionals alike, in the medical/health field to; (i) familiarize with
differentresearchstudydesigns,(ii)understandtheimportanceandhowtoacquire
the different permissions and ethics approvals, (iii) achieve the skills of scientific
writing,and(iv)successfullypublish.Thisbookwillalsoplungeintoan“invisible
aspect”ofscientificpublishing,yetanimportantonethateveryoneshouldbeaware
ofandunderstand,i.e.,theartofjournalselection(subscriptionvs.thevariousopen
accessmodalities),avoidingpredatoryjournals,understandingtheeditor’sperspec-
tive,andfamiliarizingwiththevariousresearchmetrics(fromauthortojournal),all
ofwhichcanmakeorbreakone’ssuccess.Thebookiswritteninaninformalstyle
with the author sharing personal perspectives and experiences along the course of
thebook.
Msida,Malta SarahCuschieri
vii
Introduction
Atsomepointinyourscientificprofessionallife,whetheryouareanundergraduate
or a postgraduate student or a qualified doctor/healthcare professional, you will be
taskedtowriteascientificarticleorabstract.Manyconsiderthisasadauntingtask
andkeepondoggingitlikeit’sadeadlybullet,othersembracethis(andenjoysit!),
while some havenoother optionbuttoengage inscientificwritingaspart of their
academicjourney.Nowadays,withthepublishorperishmantra,evenwhenstillan
undergraduate student, it has become almost a requisite that one starts exploring
research and scientific writing from an early stage in his/her career. It has become
commonpracticethatthenumberofpublicationsandthequalityofjournalsthatone
managestopublishin,arejudgedassuccessandconsideredas“browniepoints”ina
jobinterview.Intheacademicworld,successfulpublishingispartoftheprerequisite
longlistofessentialtaskstocompletetosecureaprofessor’stitle.However,thereis
more to scientific writing than the skill of writing the article. There are several
“hidden” aspects that need to be considered to reach your goal, ranging from
obtainingethical and data protection clearances, todata collection andanalyses,to
shapingyourresultsintoapublishablearticle,referencing,andavoidingplagiarism,
choosingthebestjournalforyourarticle,anddealingwitheditors.
Ifyouareaimingforanacademicpostoraverycompetitivejobinterview,having
several publications published in peer reviewed journals is just the beginning.
Successfully managing to publish an article is just the tip of the preverbal iceberg,
as the research metrics, both yours as an author, as well as the articles and the
journal’syouhavepublishedin,willcometoplay.Thisstep-by-stepbookintendsto
coveralltheseaspects,fromformulatingyourresearchideatoconductingyourstudy
andsuccessfullywritingyourscientificarticle,submittingittothemostappropriate
journalanddealingwiththeaftermath.
Acknowledgments This book is inspired from the “Writing a Scientific Article”
(WASP)coursethathasbeenrunningforseveralyearsinMaltaandInternationally.
ix
x Introduction
References
GrechV,CuschieriS(2018)Writeascientificpaper(WASP)-acareer-criticalskill.
EarlyHumDev117:96–97.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2018.01.001
Grech V (2017) WASP – Write a Scientific Paper course: why and how. J Vis
CommunMed40(3):130–134
Contents
PartI GettingStarted
1 TheWhyandtheWhatofScientificResearchandPublishing. . . . 3
1.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 WhatCanIPublish?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 ObservationalStudies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 ExperimentalStudies.. . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . 7
1.3 DoINeedEthicsandDataProtectionClearances?. . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.1 EthicalClearance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.2 DataProtectionClearance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.3 OtherPermissions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 CreatingaResearchProposal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4.1 TheStructureoftheResearchProposal. . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5 ConductingaLiteratureReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.1 StepstoConductaLiteratureReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5.2 AppraisalofLiterature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.6 Research:PublicationFunding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.6.1 TheStudy’sBudget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.6.2 TheGanttChart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.6.3 FundingBodies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.6.4 GrantProposal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.6.5 Non-conflictingFundingBodies. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . 23
1.6.6 RoleofFundingBodiesinResearch
andPublication(s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.7 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2 UnderstandingResearchEthics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 ResearchMisconduct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.1 DataFabricationandFalsification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.2 Plagiarism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.3 ResearchBias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.4 DataIntegrity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
xxii
xii Contents
2.3 DeclarationofConflictofInterests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.4 DeclarationofFunding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 HowtoStructureaScientificArticle,ConferencePoster
andPresentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2 TheTitle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2.1 HowtoConstructaWinningTitle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3 TheAbstract. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.3.1 CraftingaStructuredandanUnstructuredAbstract. . . 38
3.3.2 IntroductiontotheIMRaDFormat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3.3 StructuringanAbstractforaConference
Submission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.4 Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4 TheIntroduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5 TheMaterialsandMethods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.6 TheResults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.7 TheDiscussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.8 TheConclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.9 Referencing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.9.1 DifferentReferencingStyles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.9.2 HowtoFacilitateReferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.10 CreatingAttractiveConferencePosters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.10.1 ThePoster’sTitle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.10.2 TheLeadSentence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.10.3 KISSPrinciple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.10.4 TheMethodandResults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.5 DiscussionorMainMessage?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.6 PosterPresentationPracticalities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.7 Post-conference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.11 CreatingthePerfectOralPresentationPowerPoint. . . . . . . . . . 54
3.11.1 PreparationofanOralPresentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
PartII TheHiddenBumps
4 WhoGetsAuthorshipStatus?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2 WhoMeritsanAuthorship?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.1 LeadAuthor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.2 CorrespondingAuthor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.3 GuestAuthor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.4 Author’sListOrder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.2.5 Author’sContribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.2.6 GhostAuthorship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 WhoShouldBeMentionedintheAcknowledgments?. . . . . . . 63