HOW TO WRITE A TECHNICAL PAPER?

Sheikh Ali Akbar CISM, Dept. of Materials Science & Eng. The Ohio State University

Some general guidelines Based on personal experience

UM July 20, 2011

Where is Ohio? Where is Columbus?

OSU - largest (~60,000 students)

Where am I?

How to write a good technical paper?

How to give an engaging technical talk?

Organizing a successful presentation is a major step toward writing a scientific paper.

Important Parts
Part 1: Specify what problem (topic) is being addressed Why is the problem (topic) interesting! Part 2: What is the current state of the art of solutions? Or, how is the topic currently being addressed in literature? Why is the current literature inadequate? Part 3: What is the proposed solution? Why is it interesting? This mostly constitutes the Introduction

Important Parts (contd.)

Part 4: Experimental/Theory Present methodology.

Part 5: Results and Discussion Present key results with figures and data. How does the proposed solution compare with others?
o In theory? o In practice?

What are the weaknesses?

Part 6: Conclusion Summarize proposed solution and why it is interesting. Summarize weaknesses/limitations. Identify open questions/unresolved issues.

PLANNING AHEAD
- Right from the beginning of your project, think about experiments in terms of future papers, especially the FIGURES. For example, for photomicrographs, think about the best magnifications and orientations to show the important features. Keep consistent backgrounds. Record the magnifications for the scale bars. Decide what are the key conclusions of the paper - the important message you want to convey. Do you have all the data AND the figures to prove your point?

- Have printed/e-copies of key references and read them.

- Start a Database for references e.g. ENDNOTE will format references for different journals.

SHORT PAPER (Letter)

In many ways this is the hardest to write, even though it is the shortest. The paper has to be concise and engaging, right from the opening sentence. For some journals the first paragraph of a short format paper (Letter) is also the abstract and describes both the significance of the work and the major results.

FULL-LENGTH PAPER
General considerations: - Download Instructions for Authors. - Note limitations like
page number, word and/or character count number of Figures, number of references word length of Abstract. It is best to know the limits in advance than have to go back and change the paper later.

- Print out one or two examples of a high quality paper in your field in this journal. - Note specific styles (Italics/bold for headings; Hours/hrs; Fig/Figure and other special features)

Authorship
- The main contributor should be the first author; typically student/post-doc - Corresponding author is usually the senior author (e.g., thesis advisor, center director); typically the last author Criteria for authorship:
Generate at least part of the intellectual content Conception or design of the work Data analysis and interpretation Draft, critically review or revise the intellectual content

Spell and Grammar Check Use software with judgement

Use Spelling and Grammar option in Microsoft Word. However, remember that Spell-check will only highlight words that do not correspond to an entry in the dictionary. For example, if you typed We added halt and than heater fur too ours to denature the protean. versus

We added salt and then heated for two hours to denature the protein.
Spell-check will not find any mistakes!

Use Of Tenses
- Text can be in either the past or present tense; personal taste. - Past tense is OK for describing results of an experiment, but use present tense for a general conclusion. We observed that the growth rate WAS increased. This suggests that the growth IS regulated by temperature.

- Present tense is more immediate and indicates that a process is ongoing.

In the early stage, the HOS cell is in contact with the surface nanostructures, and calcium deposition has begun to develop as a thickening of the nano-structure. versus In the early stage, we found that the HOS cell was in contact with the surface nano-structures and calcium deposition had begun to develop as a thickening of the nano-structure.

WHATEVER TENSE IS USED, BE CONSISTENT AND DONT SWITCH BACK AND FORTH IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH !!!

Use of suggest that ; hypothesize that possible that

- These phrases do not need may, might Examples: Our results suggest that Hoxa3 may be involved in thymus development (not correct) Our results suggest that Hoxa3 is involved in thymus development (correct) It is possible that Shh in the endoderm may regulate Bmp4 expression in the mesoderm. (not correct)

It is possible that Shh in the endoderm regulates Bmp4 expression in the mesoderm. (correct)

Use the active voice

The passive voice is respectable but it DEADENS your paper.

NO
It can be seen that... 34 tests were run

YES
We can see that... We ran 34 tests

We = you and the reader

These properties were thought desirable

It might be thought that this would be a type error

We wanted to retain these properties

You might think this would be a type error

We = the authors

You = the reader

Use simple, direct language NO

The object under study was displaced horizontally On an annual basis

YES
The ball moved sideways Yearly

Endeavour to ascertain

Find out

It could be considered that the speed of storage reclamation left something to be desired

The garbage collector was really slow

Use Short Sentences

A very long sentence Genes A, B, C and D and their antagonists are expressed at high levels in the thymus of the wild type embryos but in the heterogeneous mutants they are lower and in the null mutant they are absent except in a small region where the latter are expressed at low levels. This is better Genes A, B, C and D, and their antagonists are expressed at high levels in the thymus of wild type embryos. Transcription of all genes is lower in heterogeneous mutants. By contrast, in homogeneous null mutants no expression of any gene could be detected, except in a small region in which the genes encoding the antagonists are still fully active.

Before Sending to the Journal

- Have the paper read by several people.
Listen to what they say, especially if same criticism comes up several times.

- Check and recheck spelling, figures, references, legends, etc.

Reviewers can be really annoyed by careless editing and mistakes reflect badly on your science.

- Make sure you have followed all the requirements of the journal about electronic submission, etc.
Some have a specific Checklist and Front Page format (key words; contact information; e-mail address etc.)

- Include a cover letter outlining the originality and important findings and why it will be of interest to the typical reader of the journal you have selected. - Suggest possible referees, especially if the topic is unusual.

Listening to your reviewers

Read every criticism as a positive suggestion for something you could explain more clearly Be (truly) grateful for criticism as well as praise

This is really, really hard But its really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really important

Thank you Questions?

UM July 20, 2011