How to Write a Good Scientific Paper

✍ Scribed by Chris A. Mack

• Publisher: SPIE Press
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 124
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Many scientists and engineers consider themselves poor writers or find the writing process difficult. The good news is that you do not have to be a talented writer to produce a good scientific paper, but you do have to be a careful writer. In particular, writing for a peer-reviewed scientific or engineering journal requires learning and executing a specific formula for presenting scientific work. This book is all about teaching the style and conventions of writing for a peer-reviewed scientific journal. From structure to style, titles to tables, abstracts to author lists, this book gives practical advice about the process of writing a paper and getting it published.

✦ Table of Contents

Copyright
Preface
Chapter 1 Getting Started
1.1 Why Write and Publish a Paper?
1.2 The Literature Search
1.3 Plan and Execute Research with Publication in Mind
1.4 Conclusions
References
Chapter 2 Structure and Organization
2.1 The Standard Structure of a Scientific Paper
2.2 Introduction
2.3 Method
2.4 Results and Discussion
2.5 Conclusions
2.6 The Structures of Papers in the Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS
2.7 Conclusions
References
Chapter 3 Language and Style
3.1 Some Books on Style
3.2 The Scientific Style
3.2.1 Truth
3.2.2 Presentation
3.2.3 Scene
3.2.4 Cast
3.2.5 Thought and language
3.3 Writing in the Scientific Style
3.4 Acronyms
3.5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 4 Figures and Tables
4.1 The Goals of Using Figures
4.2 Errors in Graphs
4.3 Graphical Integrity
4.4 A Few Guidelines
4.5 The x-y Scatterplot
4.5.1 The x-y scatterplot in Excel
4.5.2 Other scatterplot examples
4.6 Figure Quality from a Production Standpoint
4.7 Tables
4.8 Example: Figures and Tables in JM3
4.9 Conclusions
References
Chapter 5 Citations
5.1 The Five Goals of Citations
5.2 The Literature Search
5.3 Verify, Verify, Verify
5.4 Other Problems with Citations
5.5 More on Self-Citations
5.6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 6 Abstract and Title
6.1 Writing an Abstract
6.2 Structured Abstracts
6.3 Important Additional Thoughts on Abstracts
6.4 Titles
6.5 Keywords
6.6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 7 What an Editor Looks For
7.1 Scope
7.2 Quality
7.3 Novelty
7.4 Significance
7.4.1 Measuring significance
7.4.2 In praise of the null result
7.5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 8 Picking the Right Journal
8.1 The Specialization Spectrum
8.2 Reading in the Age of Search Engines
8.3 Avoiding the Wrong Journal
8.4 Conclusions
References
Chapter 9 Cover Letter
9.1 The Purpose of the Cover Letter
9.2 A Structured Cover Letter
9.3 Conclusions
Chapter 10 The Editorial Review Process
10.1 The Goals of Peer Review
10.2 Characteristics of a Well-Done Review
10.3 The Peer-Review Process at JM3
10.4 Responsibilities
10.5 Criticisms of the Peer-Review Process
10.6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 11 Review Articles
11.1 What is a Review Article?
11.2 The Structure of a Review Article
11.3 What Makes a Review Article “Good”?
11.4 Conclusions
References
Chapter 12 The Ethics of Scientific Publication
12.1 The Primary Ethic of Scientific Publication
12.2 Author Responsibilities before Publication
12.3 Author Responsibilities during the Peer-Review Process
12.4 Author Responsibilities after Publication
12.5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 13 Authorship
13.1 Defining Authorship
13.2 No Guests or Ghosts
13.3 Do Not Forget the Acknowledgments
13.4 Author Order
13.5 Authorship within JM3
13.6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 14 Plagiarism
14.1 Copying Another’s Ideas
14.2 Copying Another’s Images
14.3 Copying Another’s Words
14.4 Duplicate Publication, or Self-Plagiarism
14.5 Cultural Issues
14.6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 15 Double Publication
15.1 Something Old, Something New
15.2 The Role of Conference Proceedings
15.3 Conclusions
Chapter 16 Editorial Ethics
16.1 Editors’ Responsibilities
16.2 Conclusions
References
Appendix: A Checklist for Editors, Reviewers, and Authors
Author Biography