4. Publishing in journals with few or bad papers
Publishing in journals that university library
doesn’t carry. If you can’t access the journal,
others in your field also can’t, so your work will
be unread and thus wasted, like Mendel.
Problem 1: Junk journals
5. Ignoring the journal formatting requirements
Paper could be rejected.
Paper could be delayed.
Copyeditor could introduce errors when formatting the paper.
Check format requirements when choosing a journal.
Find them in the journal’s Instructions for Authors. Examples:
http://eneuro.org/information-for-authors
http://www.springer.com/medicine/neurology/journal/415?
detailsPage=pltci_1753915
Length (maximum number of words)
Figures and tables (maximum number)
References
Use journal’s format.
Use RefWorks or other software to save time to reformat if a
journal rejects your paper and you thus need to submit to
another journal.
Problem 2: Journal format
6. Unlike a short story, writing a paper from start to
finish may not best help it flow smoothly.
Why?
Different types of sections
Analogy with a painting
Outline first
Figures: skeleton to hang the meat of the paper
Results
Order
1. Conclusions
2. Introduction
3. Methods
4. Abstract
Problem 3: One direction
7. Authors may emphasize their favorite
experiments.
Those that took the most time and effort
Those that were successful
But these may not be the most important for the
reader. They don’t care how many hours you
put into it.
Focus on what the reader needs to see in order
to understand the main point.
Problem 4: Effort bias
8. The point is to help the reader understand.
Tell a story.
Make it clear and simple.
Use active voice.
Use few and short words.
As if you’re explaining to a friend: a general
scientist or even a lay person, not a specialist
You do need details.
But details shouldn’t derail the train of the story.
Problem 5: Shoveling details
9. Problem 6: No paragraphs
Not using paragraphs
Use paragraphs
To focus readers on one
point at a time to get
your message across
Left indent (Enter, Tab)
or Blank line (Enter twice)
10. Problem 7: Hidden paragraphs
Using Enter key to separate paragraphs
Show paragraphs correctly
Left indent (Enter, tab), or
Blank line (Enter twice)
←¶?
13. Sentences stuck together
Examples:
“A significance threshold of 0.05 was applied for all linear
regression analyses, for all voxel based analyses and ANOVA a
threshold of 0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons was applied.”
“The EOAD and LOAD groups consisted of 24 and 36 patients,
respectively, and did not significantly differ in clinical severity and
APOE ε4 genotype but the MMSE score was significantly lower in
the LOAD group.”
Make two sentences or a compound sentence
Examples:
“A significance threshold of 0.05 was applied for all linear
regression analyses; for all voxel based analyses and ANOVA a
threshold of 0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons was applied.”
“The EOAD and LOAD groups consisted of 24 and 36 patients,
respectively, and did not significantly differ in clinical severity and
APOE ε4 genotype, but the MMSE score was significantly lower in
the LOAD group.”
Problem 9: Run-on sentences
14. Many papers have many language errors.
Ways to reduce language errors:
Spell-checker
Helps, but misses correctly-spelled wrong words.
Example: “The statistical significances of differences in frequencies
of variants between the groups were tested using the personal chi-
square test.”
Co-authors
All co-authors should read the paper before agreeing to have their
name on it.
In reading it, they should proofread it.
If they’re too busy to even read the paper, they don’t deserve to be
a co-author.
You need someone other than the author to proofread because the
author is too familiar with the paper and won’t recognize errors.
Proofreading services
There are many.
Fee may be fixed or depend on length or time.
Problem 10: Poor proofreading
15. Problem 11: Too many digits
How old are you?
Why didn’t you tell me the exact answer?
Use a similarly practical expectation in papers.
Significant digits
2 for standard deviation
1 more than might be relevant
16. Problem 12: Nonsense numbers
Not checking numbers for obvious errors
Greek letters deleted or converted (µl to ml or l)
Wrong units
Examples:
“The cells were incubated for 8 minutes in 25 ml lysis solution
containing DNase I at room temperature. The incubation
was subsequently quenched with 2.5 μL of stop solutions”
“neurons were seeded in a 96-well culture plate.... the left
cells were incubated with 100 mL (0.5 mg/mL) of 3-(4,5-
Dimethyl-2-Thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide
(MTT....”
Proofread. Do numbers and units make sense?
17. Problem 13: Fonts
Using inconsistent or wrong fonts
Greek letters deleted or converted (µl to ml or l)
Chinese font for degrees C (℃).
Superscript or subscript converted to normal font (H2O, cm2).
Different size fonts for equivalent text (It can look messy.)
Check each time you copy and paste from other files.
Txt
Good: Can paste into, then copy from, plain text files to erase unwanted formatting
(as when pasting text from a pdf into a Word file)
Bad: But also erases any wanted formatting (superscript, subscript)
Pdf: need to delete Enter characters and correct other changes
Web page: need to change font and correct formatting
Proofread to find and correct
If you want to only use one font, you can Select All and choose the font and
size. But check carefully in case you forgot that you wanted a different font
buried somewhere.
Can magnify when you proofread to see easier.
18. Should support each claim with at least one reference.
Problem 14: Bad references
“Alzheimer’s disease is epidemic with an incidence that increases with age
such that its onset is nearly assured for those who live long enough. For
example, it is estimated that about 40% of those aged 85 or older have AD.
It is predicted that by 2050, over 100 million people will have AD. Those with
a history of head injury are at increased risk as may be those with obesity,
diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and renal disease. Clearly, interventions that
prevent, stabilize, remediate, or cure AD are desperately needed.”
Check the studies you cite.
Are they the papers you intended?
Do they actually prove your claim?
Cite in or near the sentence with the claim.
Use the journal’s citation format consistently.
Original paper vs. review or confirmation
Prefer original
But can cite both
20. Shoveling details on a poster is an even
bigger problem for posters than papers.
That’s because people view a poster for
only a few moments.
Think of billboards:
Problem: Busy poster
21.
22. How many words on each billboard?
Do they get their message across?
You don’t need to flood the viewer with
information to make your point.
Make posters easy and fast to absorb.
Aim for a few seconds for the key point and a
few minutes for all points.
Cut, cut, cut until only essentials remain.
Graphs & photos can be better than text.
Introduction, methods, results, conclusion
Readable from 1 m away
Problem: Busy poster