How To Write And Illustrate A Scientific Paper PDF
Preview How To Write And Illustrate A Scientific Paper
HOW TO WRITE AND ILLUSTRATE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER THIRD EDITION This compact and easy-to-read book contains essential advice on how to take amanuscriptfromplanningrightthroughtopublication.Itwillhelpbothfirst- time writers and more experienced authors, to present their results more effec- tively.Whileretainingtheeasy-to-readandwell-structuredapproachofprevious editions,thisessentialguidehasbeenexpandedtoincludecomprehensiveadvice ondrawinggraphs andinformationaboutOpenAccesspublishing.Illustrations are discussed in detail, with poor examples taken from real papers from top- rankedjournalsredrawnforcomparison.Suchbefore-and-afterexamplesarealso provided to demonstrate good and bad writing styles. The reader is offered practicaladvice–fromhowtopresentapaper,wheretosubmitthemanuscript, through to responding to reviewers’ comments and correcting the proofs – all developedthroughtheauthor’sextensiveteachingexperienceandhismanyyears spentworkingasajournaleditor. BJÖRNGUSTAVIIhasbeenteachingcoursesinscientificwritingfordoctoral(Ph.D.) studentsinmedicineformorethan30years.Hebringshispersonalexperiencetothis book, both fromwriting more than100 of his own research papers and from his workasajournaleditor. How to Write and Illustrate a fi Scienti c Paper Björn Gustavii LundUniversityHospital,Sweden Third Edition UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107154056 ©B.Gustavii2003,2008,2016 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. OriginallyPublishedinEnglishbyStudentlitteraturLund,Sweden2000 FirstpublishedbyCambridgeUniversityPress2003 Reprint2005,2006 SecondEditionPublished2008 Thirdprinting2009 ThirdEditionPublished2016 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd.PadstowCornwall AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Gustavii,Björn,1932– Howtowriteandillustrateascientificpaper/BjörnGustavii,LundUniversityHospital,Sweden. Thirdedition.|Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,[2016]|Includesbibliographical referencesandindex. LCCN2016009207|ISBN9781107154056(alk.paper) LCSH:Technicalwriting. LCCT11.G862016|DDC808.06/65–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016009207 ISBN978-1-107-15405-6Hardback ISBN978-1-316-60791-6Paperback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Preface to the third edition xi Acknowledgments xiii 1 Basic rules of writing 1 Brevity 1 Logicandclarity 2 Physicallyattractive 2 fi 2 Comments on scienti c language 3 Englishasaforeignlanguage 3 Followthe“leitmotif” 5 Verbosity 5 He/she 6 Activeorpassivevoice 7 Tense 9 Nounclustersandmodifiers 9 Prevalenceandincidence 10 Avoidtheuseof“respectively” 11 The“and/or”construction 11 Unnecessaryhedging 12 Howoldisyoung? 12 Avoidsynonymstoachieveelegantvariation 14 Theremoteverb 14 3 Drafting the manuscript 15 Writedownyourthoughtsastheyarise 15 Whereandwhentowrite? 16 Howitcanworkinpractice 16 Theotherwayaround 17 Contents v 4 Choosing a journal 18 Impactfactor 18 Facultyof1000 19 Openaccess 19 5 How to begin 22 Beginwiththegraphs 22 Usingagraph 22 Computergraphicprograms 23 Programsused 23 Graphsinthisbook 23 Illustrators 24 6 Figure captions (legends) 25 Twoitemsinthecaption 25 Mainmessage 26 Abbreviations 26 Typeface 26 7 Preparing a graph 28 Thelinegraph 28 Curvesandgridlines 28 Ratio1:1 29 Texttoosmalltoread 30 Labeling 30 Whatthegraphismeanttosay 31 Thebarchart 45 Theareagraph 58 Bandgraph 59 Groupedareagraph 60 Thepiechart 61 Theboxplot 66 Thethree-dimensionalgraph 70 False3-Dgraphs 70 True3-Dgraphs 74 Individualinsteadofsummarydata 79 8 Graph combination 84 Barchartandlinegraphcombined 84 Thegraphcombinedwithatable 90 9 Drawings 94 10 How to design tables 96 Thedescriptivetitle 96 Thedeclarativetitle 97 Roundingoff 97 vi Contents Tableorgraph? 98 Typingthetable 101 11 Title 102 Wheneverpossible,useadeclarativeratherthananeutraltitle 102 Titlesendingwithaquestionmark 103 Beginwiththekeywords 104 Useverbsinsteadofabstractnouns 104 Avoidabbreviationsinthetitle 105 Atitleforyourthesis 105 Runningtitle 106 12 Authors 107 Guidelinesonauthorship 107 Thecontributorslist 108 Aquestionfromastudentaboutcoauthorship 109 Deceasedauthor 110 13 Abstract 111 Theconventionalabstract 111 Thestructuredabstract 112 14 Introduction 114 15 Methods 116 Thesubjects 117 Informedconsent 117 Omissionsinreportingofrandomizedcontrolledtrials 118 Randomization 118 Blinding 119 Numberofsubjects 120 Guidelinesandchecklists 120 16 Results 122 Participantflowandfollow-up 122 Dropouts 123 Lossofparticipantstofollow-up 124 Detailsofrandomizedparticipants 124 Studyoutcome 126 17 Discussion 128 Astructureforthediscussion 128 Evaluatetheresults–nottheauthors 130 Avoidclaimingpriority 131 Thereference-13trick 132 Contents vii 18 Acknowledgments 133 Thankpeoplewhohavehelpedyou 133 Alwaysgivecreditforfinancialsupport 134 19 References 135 VancouverversusHarvardstyle 135 Accuracyofreferencesandquotations 139 Yourownauthorname 140 Chinesenames 140 Anonymous 141 Recordtitlesinthelanguageofpublication 143 Citingelectronicmaterial 144 20 Ph.D. and other doctoral theses 145 Compilations:thethesesofthefuture 145 Contributors 146 Thesisataglance 148 Generalintroduction 148 Aims 149 Methodsandresults 149 Generaldiscussion 150 Acknowledgments 151 Coverillustration 152 Acloserlook 153 Thestructureofthethesisoverview 153 21 Letters and case reports 155 Thethalidomideletter 155 Formatandsizeofaletter 156 Transformingapaperintoaletter 156 Casereports 157 Formatandsizeofcasereports 157 22 Numbers 159 Numbersbelow10 159 Twonumberssidebyside 160 Decimalpoint 160 Thousands 161 Numberswithseveralzeros 161 Quotientsofunits 162 Percentages 162 Roundingtotwosignificantdigits 163 Enumeration 163 Whatdowemeanby“often”? 164 viii Contents 23 Abbreviations 165 Unitsofmeasure 166 Generalprinciples 167 24 How to present statistical results 168 Usingmeanwhenmedianismeant 168 Usingstandarderrorinsteadofstandarddeviation 169 Failuretodistinguishbetweenstatisticalsignificanceandbiological importance 169 Selectedpresentationofmultiplestatisticaltesting 170 Overinterpretationofsubgroupeffects 171 Usingrelativeinsteadofabsolutefigures 171 Somefurthercomments 172 25 Typing 174 Amodelfortypingthemanuscript 174 “Twainspacing” 182 12-pointTimes 182 Avoidusingblockcapitals 183 Up-and-down-styleversusdownstyle 183 Thelengthofthemanuscript 184 Theimportanceofpunctuation 184 26 Dealing with editors and referees 186 Dealrespectfullywithreferees’comments 186 Dorefereesdelay? 187 Unpublishedwork 187 Shorteningthemanuscript 188 Acceptedorrejected 189 27 Correcting proofs 191 Whattocorrect 191 Makingcorrections 192 ’ 28 Authors responsibilities 195 Subjects’righttoprivacy 195 Duplicatesubmission 196 Borrowingpublishedmaterial 196 Savingyouroriginaldata 199 Literature needed on your desk 201 Onphraseology 201 Onsynonyms 201 Onmanuscriptpreparation 201 Onhowtoabbreviateajournal’stitle 202 Contents ix
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