Writing scientific articles: strategy and steps

318 Pages·2013·5.57 MB·English

by  Cargill

Contents
Preface to the second edition
Preface to the first edition
SECTION 1: A framework for success
CHAPTER 1: How the book is organized, and why
1.1 Getting started with writing for international publication
1.2 Publishing in the international literature
1.3 What do you need to know to select your target journal?
1.4 Aims of this book
1.5 How the book is structured
CHAPTER 2: Research article structures
2.1 Conventional article structures: AIMRaD (Abstract,
Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion)
and its variations
CHAPTER 3: Reviewers’ criteria for evaluating
manuscripts
3.1 Titles as content signposts
SECTION 2: When and how to write each
article section
CHAPTER 4: Results as a “story”: the key driver of an
article
CHAPTER 5: Results: turning data into knowledge
5.1 Figure, table, or text?
5.2 Designing figures
5.3 Designing tables
5.4 Figure legends and table titles
CHAPTER 6: Writing about results
6.1 Structure of Results sections
6.2 Functions of Results sentences
6.3 Verb tense in Results sections
CHAPTER 7: The Methods section
7.1 Purpose of the Methods section
7.2 Organizing Methods sections
7.3 Use of passive and active verbs
CHAPTER 8: The Introduction
8.1 Argument stages towards a compelling Introduction
8.2 Stage 1: Locating your project within an existing field of
scientific research
8.3 Using references in Stages 2 and 3
8.4 Avoiding plagiarism when using others’ work
8.5 Indicating the gap or research niche
8.6 Stage 4: The statement of purpose or main activity
8.7 Stages 5 and 6: Highlighting benefit and mapping the article
8.8 Suggested process for drafting an Introduction
8.9 Editing for logical flow
CHAPTER 9: The Discussion section
9.1 Important structural issues
9.2 Information elements to highlight the key messages
9.3 Negotiating the strength of claims
CHAPTER 10: The title
10.1 Strategy 1: Provide as much relevant information as
possible, but be concise
10.2 Strategy 2: Use keywords prominently
10.3 Strategy 3: Choose strategically: noun phrase, statement, or
question?
10.4 Strategy 4: Avoid ambiguity in noun phrases
CHAPTER 11: The Abstract
11.1 Why Abstracts are so important
11.2 Selecting additional keywords
11.3 Abstracts: typical information elements
CHAPTER 12: Writing review articles
12.1 What editors want to publish
12.2 The “take-home message” of a review
12.3 The structure of review articles
12.4 Visual elements in review articles: tables, figures, and boxes
12.5 Checklist for review article manuscripts
12.6 Submission and revision of review articles
SECTION 3: Getting your manuscript published
CHAPTER 13: Submitting a manuscript
13.1 Five practices of successful authors
13.2 Understanding the peer-review process
13.3 Understanding the editor’s role
13.4 The contributor’s covering letter
13.5 Understanding the reviewer’s role
13.6 Understanding the editor’s role (continued)
CHAPTER 14: How to respond to editors and reviewers
14.1 Rules of thumb
14.2 How to deal with manuscript rejection
14.3 How to deal with “conditional acceptance” or “revise and
resubmit”
CHAPTER 15: A process for preparing a manuscript
15.1 Initial preparation steps
15.2 Editing procedures
15.3 A pre-review checklist
SECTION 4: Developing your writing and
publication skills further
CHAPTER 16: Skill-development strategies for groups
and individuals
16.1 Journal clubs
16.2 Writing groups
16.3 Selecting feedback strategies for different purposes
16.4 Becoming a reviewer
16.5 Training for responding to reviewers
CHAPTER 17: Developing discipline-specific English
skills
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Error types and editor expectations of language use
17.3 Strategic (and acceptable!) language re-use: sentence
templates
17.4 More about noun phrases
17.5 Concordancing: a tool for developing your discipline-
specific English
17.6 Using the English articles (a/an, the) appropriately in
science writing
17.7 Using “which” and “that”
CHAPTER 18: Writing funding proposals
18.1 Introduction
18.2 A process for preparing and submitting a funding proposal
18.3 Easy mistakes to make
SECTION 5: Provided example articles
CHAPTER 19: PEA1: Kaiser et al. (2003)
Introduction
Results
Discussion
Experimental procedures
Acknowledgements
References
CHAPTER 20: PEA2: Britton-Simmons and Abbott
(2008)
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
Supplementary material
CHAPTER 21: PEA3: Ganci et al. (2012)
1. Introduction
2. HOTSAT satellite monitoring system
3. MAGFLOW lava flow simulator
4. LAV@HAZARD web-GIS framework
5. Case study: 2008–2009 Etna eruption
6. Concluding remarks
Acknowledgment
References
Answer pages
Task 2.1 Article headings and subheadings
Task 2.3 Structure of the PEAs
Task 2.4 Prediction
Task 3.1 Where would referees look?
Task 3.2 Information extracted from titles
Task 5.3 Identifying parts of figure legends
Task 6.1 Separate location sentences in Results sections
Task 7.1 Materials and methods organization
Task 7.3 Active/passive sentences
Task 7.4 Top-heavy passive sentences
Task 8.1 Introduction stages
Task 8.2 Introduction Stage 1 analysis
Task 8.3 “Country” to “city” in Stage 1
Task 8.4 Identifying old or given information
Task 8.6 Identifying plagiarism
Task 8.7 Signal words for the research gap or niche
Task 8.9 Stage 4 sentence templates
Task 8.11 Topic sentence analysis
Task 8.12 Old information before new information
Task 8.13 Revising top-heavy sentences
Task 9.2 Information elements in the Discussion section
Task 9.5 Negotiating strength of claims with verbs
Task 10.1 Analysing article titles
Task 11.1 Analysing Abstracts/Summaries
Task 12.1 Analysis of review abstracts
Task 12.2 Analysis of introduction closings in reviews
Task 13.1 The contributor’s letter as sales pitch
Task 17.1 Types of errors
Task 17.2 Drafting a sentence template for Stage 4 of an
Introduction
Task 17.6 Generic noun phrases
Task 17.7 Specific noun phrases
Task 17.8 Articles and plurals in a science paragraph
Task 17.9 Punctuation with which and that
APPENDIX: Measures of journal impact and quality
A.1 Journal impact
A.2 Using indices of journal quality
References
Index

This edition first published 2013 © 2013 by Margaret Cargill and Patrick
O’Connor
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