Kevin Petrie

1. How to write a good publication and
prepare sound figures
Kevin Petrie
Wroclaw
17th September 2015

2. 2
Writing a paper
Be clear and concise
There is no great mystery here
But there are a few things to consider…
#1 consideration – YOU ARE WRITING FOR THE REVIEWERS
If you annoy them the game could quickly be up for you
• Don’t waffle – this isn’t a thesis
A benchmark for how you split up your sections would be:
25% intro, 50% results, 25% discussion
• Figure legends!
Badly written legends are a problem – this really annoys reviewers

3. 3
Writing a paper
Formatting
• Make sure to carefully read the journal submission guidelines
• Read several recent manuscripts from your journal of choice
Keep an eye out for how flexible they are with the formatting – high impact
journals tend to be very strict
• You spent years on this thing – take your time to make it look professional
• This goes for cover letters as well
• Do not rely on the spellchecker!!!
• Find a friendly native English speaker to proof it

4. 4
Writing a paper
Strategy
• We may not like the IF system but we have to deal with the world as it is not as
we would wish
• Aim high! Don’t regard rejection as a personal insult.
• Top journals always want to see a strong narrative and a lean product
#1 Tip – do not be afraid to submit your precious work that you slaved over
for the last 3-4 years as a 4-figure short report if it means getting into a better
journal. It’s not unusual to see 10+ supplemental figures.

5. 5
Writing a paper
Get in the saddle
• Read, read, read…
• Start writing drafts as early as possible
• Don’t worry too much about the flow of the text in the first draft
• You can begin with bullet points and then put in linkers
• Beware of long sentences and big paragraphs
• Every statement should be backed up by data or a reference
• I personally hate the phrase “data not shown” – if you have the results then put
them in. If you don’t have them or they are not good enough then keep quiet!

6. 6
Writing a paper
Papers versus grants
• Much of the same applies, but…
• This is not a peer-reviewed publication – you are trying to sell an idea
• The language used should reflect your enthusiasm for your proposed research
• Be realistic in your aims – a common mistake is to promise too much
• For a good grant it is imperative to present solid preliminary data
• Reviewers may have to look through many applications, often there is a triage process
• There is often either a word or page limit, sometimes also figure and CV space limits –
you can push limits by altering margins, line spacing, font increments etc
• If no limit on figures is stated, you can safely abuse this
• Flow charts and tables are a good idea to give an overview of proposal/work plan
• Don’t be afraid to call the point of caontact at the funding body – they will often give you
the green light to bend the parameters

7. 7
Writing a paper
Figures
• Aplogies to PC users but this section will be on a Mac
• #1: Adobe Illustrator is better than Powerpoint – this is fact, not opinion
• Many people have some fear of Illustrator – not user friendly
• I primarily use Graphpad Prism, and Adobe Suite

8. 8
Writing a paper
Figures: Graphpad
• It may just be my opinion but I hate thick lines – I use 0.5 pt as standard
• Fonts: Arial or Myriad (Myriad Pro in Illustrator)
• Most journals do not permit bold type text in Figures – no point in using it in
Prism
• I set my default height of graphs to 4cm
• Tick length “very short”
• No borders
• To import into Illustrator on a Mac simply cut and paste
• Important first step!
• Top menu > Object > Clipping mask > Relase
• Top menu > Object > Compound Path> Relase

9. 9
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
• Specific tips I will go through:
• What menus are most useful
• Selecting, aligning and distributing items
• How to generate borders for pictures
• Lines – making them straight and joining them
• Exporting to Photoshop – making high resolution/small size Tiffs
• Acrobat – making high resolution/small size pdfs
• There are many online resources for Adobe products – use them!!!

10. 10
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
• What menus are most useful
Align
Transform
Appearance
Stroke
Character
Paragraph
Good Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHrtKN9gdjA&list=PL9k8t41FVBP5WyLq3kR
4U5t4CDCgPjD49
There’s a lot more out there…

11. 11
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
Drawing straight lines!
Press shift before drawing the line
Joining lines:

12. 12
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
Aligning objects
Learn to make use of the align and distribute to key object functions:
1. Select objects, using either trackpad/mouse or shift+right click
2. Release and click to select key object. This can be use to align or distribute.
I like the distribute spacing function – this will distribute objects at the increment
selected

13. 13
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
Adding a border to an object
Add new stroke
I use 0.25-0.5 pt
Select object
Extra width and height needs to set to 0 mm

14. 14
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
• Exporting to Photoshop – making high resolution/small size Tiffs
• First simply copy your figure from Illustrator, select “New” in Photoshop and
paste
1
2
3
Use these settings

15. 15
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
• Acrobat – making high resolution/small size pdfs
Sorry – Mac tips only!
To make a pdf of an Illustrator file just open it with Acrobat Pro save as a pdf
To add a pdf use “insert page from another file”
• Save file and re-open in “Preview”
• Select “export as pdf” – give it a new name
• Make sure your default paper size is set to
the one you want (e.g. US letter) in System
preferences “printers and scanners”
• Re-open new file in Acrobat Pro
• Select “save as other…”
• “Optimized pdf…”
• See next slide

16. 16
Writing a paper
Figures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat
• Acrobat – making high resolution/small size pdfs