How to write a

scientific paper
Sorin Barac, MD PhD
Division of Microsurgery
Victor Babes University of Medicine and
Pharmacy, Timisoara

1. Introduction
Scientific papers = important though poorly
understood method of publication.
important: you cannot get money from the
govt/univ
poorly understood: they are not written very
well

1. Introduction
Example:
the introduction is supposed to introduce
the reader to the subject, so that the paper
will be comprehensible even if the reader
has not done any work in the field.

1. Introduction
The real purpose of introductions, of course, is to cite
- your own work
- the work of your advisor
- the work of your spouse
- the work of a friend from college
- the work of someone you've never met, IF your name is
on the paper
Note! citations should not be limited to refereed journal
articles, but should also include conference proceedings,
and other published or unpublished work.

1. Introduction
At the end of the introduction:
you must summarize the paper by reciting the
section headings.
In this paper, we discuss:
scientific research (R) (section 2),
scientific writing (section 3),
scientific publication (section 4), and
draw some conclusions (section 5).

2. Scientific research
The purpose of science
=
to get paid for doing fun* stuf
*young and bright people are curios as how things work,
they are attracted to exploration

2. Scientific research
science
=
discovering something new about the Universe

but this isn't really necessary

what is really necessary is a gr

2. Scientific research
Rules for obtaining a grant
- your R will discover something incredibly
fundamental
- you are the best person to do this particular
R
so you should cite yourself both early and often
cite other papers as well, if you are on the
author list

2. Scientific research
Once you get the grant, your university,
company, or government agency will
immediately take 30 to 70% of it so
that they can:
- heat the building
- pay for Internet connections, and
- purchase large yachts

2. Scientific research
Now it's time for the actual R.
You will quickly find out that
(a) your project is not as simple as you
thought it would be and
(b) you can't actually solve the problem.

However -- and this is very important

you must publish anyway!!!

3. Scientific writing
You've spent years on a project and have
finally discovered you can't solve the
problem you set out to solve.
Nonetheless, you have a responsibility to
present your R to the scientific community.
Be aware!
- () results can be just as important as
(+) results
- if you don't publish enough you'll never
be able to stay in science.

Prepare to write a
publishable paper
1. Organize your material
Cover letter
Copyright transfer page
Title page
Abstract and key words
Text - Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion, with conclusions
Acknowledgement
References
Tables
Figure legends
Copy of each figure

Writing
1. Title
Give a snappy title:

- interesting, easy to understand, simple,

concise
- short
- indicate study design
- begin with a key word

Provide the species of animals used in

the study

Writing
2. Abstract
Take time to polish the abstract

- make a good impression with a well written

abstract
- most people read only your abstract!
- structure it: background; methods, results,
conlusions
- clearly describe the problem in the first
sentence, begin with
a key word
- indicate study design
- avoid using the same sentences in
abstract/body of the paper

Keep it short
Provide the species of animals used in

Writing
3. Introduction
Begin with thunder
- write an introductory reader grabber: a
provocative question, a

new perspective, a good

quotation
- explain why your study is necessary

Provide adequate background

information
- start with a general, yet concise description of
the problem - reference previous work that supports
your ideas

Writing
3. Introduction
Articulate the purpose of your study
- the aim and hypothesis should b easy to find
and understand
- provide a map showing the direction of your
study

Remember! A good paper has one main

problem to solve, not 2 or 3

Writing
4. Methods
Replicability of results is the heart of
science
- present clear, but detailed description of
research design Organize the methods
- study design - describe it carefully
- eligibility
- randomisation, blinding
- intervention and compliance
- statistical analysis

Describe your data collection method

- who, what, when, where, how, why

Writing
4. Methods
Eligibility
- describe the

- source of the study

subjects
- inclusion/exclusion criteria
- provide the beginning / ending dates of the
study
- describe the informed consent process

Writing
4. Methods
Intervention and compliance
- describe medical devices, dosage, route of
administration,

- include the trade, name, and the

manufacturers name, location

in parentheses

- provide evaluation of the tests

- diagnostic tests - determine the presence of
disease
- screening tests - detect individuals that need
more testing
- prognostic tests - predict the outcome of
disease

Writing
4. Methods
Sample size
- description of the sample size calculations is
CRUCIAL

Statistical analysis
- describe the statistical analysis carefully
- provide reproducible details of your statistical
methods
- explain why did you choose specific tests

Writing
5. Results
Organize the results
- present your results enthusiastically
- remember Archimedes reaction
- summarize the similar types of numbers in tables,
refer the reader

to them and shorten the text the

Results

Present the results in a natural order

Start your Results section with the major
positive findings, report negative

Writing
5. Results: Use statistical terms skillfully
Significant = probably caused by something other
that mere chance
- statistically significant - probability of the finding to
occur by chance is less than 5% (P < 0.05).
Random = each element in a set has an equal
probability of occurrence (not unplanned, incidental)
A sample = a finite part of a statistical population
whose properties are studied to gain information about
the whole
A random sample = a chance selection in which
all members of the base population presumably

Writing
5. Results: Describe people sensitively and diplomatically

Subject, individual, case

Man, woman, patient
(pt), participant
45 males
45 male patients, 45 men
67 females
67 female patients, 67
women
Had surgery
Underwent surgery
Patients with complications Pt who experience
complications
Epileptics
People with epilepsy
Mental disorder
Impaired cognitive function
In 43 pt used as controls
For 43 pt who served

Writing
5. Results: Tables
Checklist for creating a high quality table
Simple and self-explanatory
Not a repetition of the text
Double spaced
Units provided for each variable
values are either SD or SE of the mean
Exact P values included
No vertical lines

Writing
5. Results: Figures
1. Use graphs to illustrate only the
major points, particularly those that
cannot be easily expressed in the text
or tables
2. Obtain written permission for any
figures or tables that you borrow
from published work

Writing
5. Results: Figures
Checklist for creating a high quality figure
Thick lines
Large text
Exact P values included
Clear, detailed legend
Information that is not included in the text
Self explanatory

Writing
5. Discussion
Start the discussion with your most
important point
You should start with one sentence that
clearly shows that your paper contains new
information: We found that
Then describe your findings and explain their
importance
The Discussion is the place to discuss the
implications of your findings - not simply

Writing
5. Discussion
Describe the NEW INFORMATION your
paper provides
Compare your study with previous studies
Discuss how your results compare with
landmark papers
When your conclusions differ - explain why
Say what you mean, mean what you say, but

Writing
5. Discussion
Be skeptical of published work
Do not fail to consider the null hypothesis
Most people - especially younger doctors and
students - assume that any published report is
true and unconsciously add their name to the
author list
It is safer to assume that the author was
wrong and see if he or she can overcome your
skepticism
Ex: are conclusions based on recent data?, a large

Writing
5. Conclusions
Conclude with a Bolt of lightning
What do you recommend?
Provide conclusions that are fully
supported by your data
Are the conclusions correctly derived from the
data presented?
Are the recommendations too general?

Writing
5. Conclusions
Answer the question: Who cares?
What are the clinical applications of your
findings?
Describe precisely what further research is
needed
If you recommend additional research explain
why
Ex: a larger sample is needed to permit more
statistically significant conclusions - explain

Writing
5. References
Use full length articles from peer reviewed
journals
Abstracts are not allowed
Paper submitted but not accepted are not
allowed
Limit references to key citations (20-40)
Place reference citations properly
- Previous reports have shown an incidence

Writing
5. Referencing systems
1. Citation-Order, Citation-by-Reference, or
Vancouver System
2. Author-Date, Name-and-Year, or Harvard
System
3. Alphabet Number System
Format references correctly (see abbreviations)

3. Scientific writing
While writing a scientific paper, the most
important thing to remember is that the
word "which" should almost never be
used.
Be sure to spend at least 50% of your
time (i.e., 12 hours a day) typesetting the
paper so that all the tables look nice.

4. Scientific publishing
You've written the paper, and now it's time to
submit it to a scientific journal.
The journal editor will pick the referee most likely
to be ofended by your paper at least the referee
will read it and get a report back within the
lifetime of the editor.
Referees who don't care about a paper have a
tendency to leave manuscripts under a growing
pile of paper until the floor collapses, killing the
27 students who share the ofice below.

4. Scientific publishing
Be aware! every scientific paper contains serious
errors.
If your errors are not caught before publication, you'll
eventually have to write an erratum to the paper
explaining (a) how and why you messed up and
(b) that even though your experimental results are now
totally diferent, your conclusions need not be
changed.

4. Scientific publishing
Errata can be good for your career. They are easy
to write, and the convention is to reference them
as if they were real papers, leading the casual
reader--and perhaps also the Science Citation
Index--to think that you've published more
papers than you really have .

5. Conclusions
The conclusion section is very easy to write:
- take your abstract and change the tense from
present to past.
- mention at least one relevant theory only in the
abstract and conclusion.
By doing this, you don't have to say why your
experiment does (or does not) agree with the theory,
you merely have to state that it does (or does not).

5. Conclusions
We (meaning I) presented observations on the
scientific publishing process which (meaning that)
are important and timely in that unless I have more
published papers soon, I will never get another job.
These observations are consistent with the theory
that
1. it is dificult to do good science
2. write good scientific papers, and
3. have enough publications to get future jobs.

Thank you