How to Write a Scientific Paper

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How to Write a Scientific Paper

• Ed Bullmore

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You should already have started to write your
first/next paper, whether you know it or not!

• Ethics committee applications, job applications,
  grant applications, protocol presentations etc
  allow you to rehearse in writing
• context, background, literature review
• emergent hypotheses
• a sense of motivation for the study
• major study design elements

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Introduction (1) Context, background,
literature review

• Make a short, simple opening statement of the
  context in a few, accessible sentences - avoiding
  over-ambitious vagueness or immediately
  impenetrable jargon
• Hitherto, the nature of consciousness has proved
  elusive.
• AR models of residual autocorrelation will fail
  for 1/f noise
• Background, literature review
• remember this is not a review - so be selective,
  play favourites
• remember your paper will be peer-reviewed, by
  prior autors in the field, so dont be too
  selective...
• acknowledge history!

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Introduction (2)

• Hypotheses
• inevitable, refutable, empirically specific,
  statistically testable
• written down a priori
• Motivation
• why should you bother writing this paper and why
  should I bother reading it?

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MethodsMajor study design elements

• Sample
• size, with respect to power
• composition, with respect to population and
  stratification
• Measurements
• observational
• experimental
• Statistical models and testing
• factorial structure
• test statistics or outcome measures
• distributions including priors
• hypothesis testing, type 1 and type 2 error
  control

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Results

• Use figures and tables with self-contained
  legends to convey your most important results at
  a glance
• Let your readers see as much as possible of the
  data for themselves, without losing narrative
  coherence
• use descriptive statistics/graphics as well as
  hypothesis tests
• oragnise presentation so that logically or
  substantively related results are juxtaposed

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Discussion

• It is OK to use a less constrained, more
  conversational style
• Start positive, headlining key results in context
• return to hypotheses
• be thoughtful about any differences between your
  work and the existing literature
• Do not simply rehearse results
• interpretation, synthesis, predictive speculation
• avoid blob-by-blob decompositions of complex
  function in fMRI papers
• pay attention to unexpected/discrepant results
• Explicitly consider the limitations of your work

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Title, authors, abstractThe really important
stuff
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Title, authors, abstractthe really important
stuff

• The title is the only part of your paper most
  people will read - make it clear, self-contained,
  descriptive
• The abstract is vitally important - without doubt
  the most important 200 words in the paper
• tailor it to target journal
• report results
• use key words for literature searching
• Authors - first, second, last and corresponding
• seek guidance from your supervisor

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How to publish a scientific paper (1)

• Think about target journals early on
• high impact equals tight word count
• impact is not always a six letter word
• if you aim low you cant subsequently move up the
  food chain
• if you aim high you may have to allow for
  turnaround time (rejection) or second album
  syndrome (success)
• Obey instructions to authors
• use a bibliography manager
• acknowledge grant support, conflict of interest

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How to publish a scientific paper (2)

• Dealing with reviews
• anticipate revision it is almost inevitable and
  generally beneficial
• organise the final version of the paper and all
  ancillary data carefully before submission
• try not to take criticism personallyor as a
  reflection of incompetence on the part of
  reviewers
• their failure to understand is your lack of
  clarity
• be respectful, exact and direct in responding to
  the editor
• if the reviews are too negative to justify
  acceptance, incorporate any helpful comments and
  resubmit
• whatever you do - do it sooner rather than later!
• Dealing with proofs
• Dealing with fame!