1. How to write first research
paper
Shameel Farhan
PhD student
2013 batch
NPU Xi’an China
2015/10/10

2. About me
 Development of carbon foam containing in situ nano
materials like CNTs, nano-wires and particles
 Paper published as 1st author (2013-to date)
 SCI-2 04 papers
 SCI-3 02 papers
 Journals
 Ceramics International (Elsevier) SCI-2
 Materials Letters (Elsevier) SCI-2
 Journal of Applied and Analytical Pyrolysis (Elsevier) SCI-3
 J Porous Materials (Springer) SCI-3

3. Fantastic or weedy just do it!!
Fantastic Idea Knowledge Get Published
Any Idea Knowledge Get Published
Insignificant Idea Knowledge Get Published
Fantastic idea is a fallacy.
any idea,
no matter how weedy and insignificant it may seem to
you

4. Your research paper
 Here is a problem
 It’s an interesting problem
 It’s an unsolved problem
 Here is my idea
 My idea works (details, data)
 Here’s how my idea compares to other
people’s approaches

5. • Author behaviour
– Want to publish more
– Peer review essential
– Other journal
functions crucial
– Wider dissemination
• Reader behaviour
– Want integrated
system
– Browsing is crucial
– Quality information
important
– Want to read less
Author versus Reader Behaviour

6. Lets start writing first paper
step by step

7. First Step
 Download at least 25-30 research papers.
 Science Direct, Scopus, ACS, AIAA, Google etc.
 Be careful in paper selection, citation, affiliation etc.
Statistics
Journal IF =6
SCI-1
Article References = 218
Citation = 3

8. First Step
 Be careful in paper selection, citation, affiliation etc.
Statistics
Journal IF =26.9
SCI-1
Article References = 239
Citation = 235

9. Step Two
 Read the selected papers and make a list of target journals
and conferences taken from most common references. For
example I made the following list.
 Journal of European Ceramics Society SCI-1
 Carbon SCI-1
 Nano Letters SCI-1
 Composite Science and Technology SCI-1
 Ceramics International SCI-2
 Materials Letters SCI-2
 Microporous and Mesoporous Materials SCI-2
 Journal of Applied and Analytical Pyrolysis SCI-3
 J Porous Materials SCI-3
 Nano-micro Letter SCI-3
 Chemical Vapor Deposition SCI-4

10. Step Three
 Read and select further 15 out of 25-30 and print.
 15 papers = Review papers+Full length+Letters+Conference
 Underline/ mark important information related to your
idea.
 Make first draft of your paper with sections as following;
1. Proposed Title
2. Introduction
3. Methods/Experimental
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. References

11. • Title
• Authors
• Abstract
• Key words
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References
• Acknowledgments
Expanded IMRAD Model

12. Copied First Draft
 Introduction
Cut/paste important lines/paragraphs from introduction of 15
most important papers.
 Methods/Experimental
Cut/paste important lines/paragraphs from methods
/experimental of 15 most important papers.
 Results
Cut/paste important lines/paragraphs from results of 15 most
important papers.
 Discussion
Cut/paste important lines/paragraphs from discussion of 15 most
important papers.

13. Copied First Draft
 Copied First draft is ready now. Be careful that you
only cut/paste the most relevant
information/tables/graphs/equations etc. out of the
15 papers to make your first copied draft of your
first paper.
 Replace all data in the first copied draft with your
actual data/information/results etc.
 You will get Your First Draft.

14. Your First Draft
 Your first draft with your original data /information
/results is ready now.
 Discuss your observations/calculations/results in the
light of others’ work, who have already published the
work similar to you.
 Compare and contrast.
 Now Your First Draft with Experimental and results
is ready.

15. Your Second Draft
For your second draft;
 Rearrange the introduction part. Give the
background of your research by citing others work in
brief.
 Select the references from the journal more where
you want to submit your paper.
 Give objective and novelty in your work at the last
paragraph of the introduction and must be very
clear.

16. Your Third Draft
 Your third draft is ready without abstract and
conclusions.
 Rethink the title of the paper if not appropriate,
change.
 Write the conclusions and abstract.
 Format the references.
 Write down the acknowledgements.
 Check for English language and spelling errors.
 Your third draft is ready now.

17. Final Draft
 See the guidelines of the target journal and re-format.
 Mostly the journals accept the paper in your own style
without extensive formatting.
 The minimum requirement is just to follow the common
paper writing rules like;
 Double space
 Times new roman
 Wide margin
 Align text to the right
 Write cover letter/graphical abstract/ Significance
etc.
 Submit.

18. The abstract
 I usually write the abstract last
 It should summarize the research contributions,
not the paper.
1. State the problem
2. Say why it’s an interesting problem
3. Say what your solution achieves
4. Say what follows from your solution

19. The conclusion
It is just a reminder.
A reminder of what you’ve said and why it’s important.

20. Review Process
After paper submission it may take some time for;
 Editorial review, 1-4 weeks
 Technical Review, 1-24 weeks
 Minor/Major Revision
 Rejection
 Rebutal

21. Review Process
Treat every review like gold dust
Be (truly) grateful for criticism as
well as praise
This is really, really, really hard
But it’s
really, really, really, really, really, really,
really, really, really, really
important

22. Listening to your reviewers
 Read every criticism as a positive suggestion for
something you could explain more clearly
 DO NOT respond “you stupid person, I meant X”. Fix
the paper so that X is apparent even to the stupidest
reader.
 Thank them warmly. They have given up their time
for you.

23. Impact Factor
Impact factor is a measure of the frequency with
which the “average article” in a journal has been
cited in a particular year.
The impact factor will help you evaluate a journal’s
relative importance, especially when you compare it
to others in the same field.

24. Consider a journal named X,
2014 impact factor
Citations in 2014 to articles published in 2013 = 168
Citations in 2014 to articles published in 2012 = 293
TOTAL = 461
Number of article published in 2013 = 54
Number of article published in 2012 = 54
TOTAL = 108
X’ 2014 impact factor: 461 ∕108 = 4.269
Understanding impact factors

25. IF variations between disciplines
 Medical
• Annual Review of Immunology = 54
• JAMA = 24
 General
• Nature and Science IF = 30
 Materials science
• Carbon = 6
• Journal of European Ceramic Society = 2.9
 Aerospace Engineering
•Progress in Aerospace Science = 2.9
•AIAA Journal = 1.08
Variation in Impact Factor!!

26.  Cave paintings were the first attempts to leave records.
 In 105 AD, the Chinese invented paper.
 In 1100 AD, the Chinese invented movable type.
 In 1455 AD, Gutenberg printed his 42-line Bible from movable type
on a printing press.
 In 1665, the first scientific journals were published.
 Early journals published descriptive papers.
 By the second half of the 19th century, The methods section
became all important since Louis Pasteur. confirmed the germ
theory of disease.
 IMRAD format slowly progressed in the latter half of the 19th
century.
Historical overview

27. Visual structure

28. Visual structure

29. Visual structure

30. Visual structure