How to write & illustrate a scientific paper

✍ Scribed by Bjorn Gustavii

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 180
• Edition: 2nd ed
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

As a graduate student entering a scientific field with a liberal arts degree, I have found this book to be a very helpful, straightforward and enjoyable introduction to scientific writing. I appreciated consulting it for guidance on designing tables and writing up the methods and results sections for my master's capstone project. The chapters are well organized and effectively cover a lot of material; they are very easy to quickly scan and find a useful piece of advice on a particular topic. This book has also made me a more critical reader of the literature. As astounding number of published peer-reviewed papers fail follow the most basic rules; confusing language and poorly constructed tables not only frustrate the reader but may also prevent the communication of potentially important results. This is a must-read for anybody who wants to clearly and efficiently convey scientific information. Highly recommended!

✦ Table of Contents

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Brevity......Page 13
Clean typing......Page 14
English as a foreign language......Page 15
Verbosity......Page 17
He/she......Page 19
Active or passive voice......Page 20
Tense......Page 21
Noun clusters and modifiers......Page 22
The "and/or" construction......Page 23
Unnecessary hedging......Page 24
How old is young?......Page 25
The remote verb......Page 26
Write down your thoughts as they arise......Page 27
How it can work in practice......Page 28
Handwriting or word processing?......Page 29
4 Choosing a journal......Page 30
Instructions to authors......Page 31
The line graph......Page 32
Relationship between the lengths of the axes......Page 34
Labeling axes......Page 35
The chart......Page 36
Before submission......Page 49
6 Drawings......Page 50
7 Figure legends......Page 52
The descriptive title......Page 54
The declarative title......Page 55
Table or graph?......Page 56
Typing the table......Page 59
Whenever possible, use a declarative rather than a neutral title......Page 60
Titles ending with a question mark......Page 61
Use verbs instead of abstract nouns......Page 62
A title for your thesis......Page 63
Running title......Page 64
Guidelines on authorship......Page 66
The contributors list......Page 67
A question of coauthorship......Page 68
The conventional abstract......Page 70
The structured abstract......Page 71
12 Introduction......Page 73
13 Methods......Page 75
Informed consent......Page 76
Randomization......Page 77
Blinding......Page 78
A checklist......Page 79
Participant flow and follow-up......Page 80
Dropouts......Page 81
Details of randomized participants......Page 82
Study outcome......Page 84
15 Discussion......Page 86
Avoid claiming priority......Page 89
The reference-13 trick......Page 90
16 Acknowledgments......Page 91
Always give credit for financial support......Page 92
Vancouver versus Harvard style?......Page 93
The Vancouver system – also called the numbering system......Page 95
The Harvard system – also called the name-and-year system......Page 96
Accuracy of references and quotations......Page 97
Chinese names......Page 98
Anonymous......Page 99
Record titles in the language of publication......Page 100
Names of journals......Page 101
How to refer to World Wide Web......Page 102
Compilations: the theses of the future......Page 103
Contributors......Page 104
General introduction......Page 106
Methods and results......Page 107
General discussion......Page 108
Acknowledgments......Page 109
Cover illustration......Page 110
The structure of the thesis overview......Page 111
The thalidomide letter......Page 113
Transforming a paper into a letter......Page 114
Format and size of case reports......Page 115
20 Numbers......Page 117
Decimal point......Page 118
Quotients of units......Page 119
Percentages......Page 120
Rounding to two significant digits......Page 121
What do we mean by "often"?......Page 122
21 Abbreviations......Page 123
Units of measure......Page 124
General principles......Page 125
Using mean when median is meant......Page 126
Failure to distinguish between statistical significance and biological importance......Page 127
Selected presentation of multiple statistical testing......Page 128
Overinterpretation of subgroup effects......Page 129
The ± sign......Page 130
P < 0.05 = the truth......Page 131
23 Typing......Page 132
12-point Times......Page 140
Up-and-down-style versus down style......Page 141
The length of the manuscript......Page 142
The importance of punctuation......Page 143
24 Dealing with editors and referees......Page 144
Unpublished work......Page 145
Shortening the manuscript......Page 146
Accepted or rejected......Page 147
How to read proof......Page 149
What to correct......Page 150
Electronic proof......Page 151
Subjects' right to privacy......Page 154
Borrowing published material......Page 155
Saving your original data......Page 161
On manuscript preparation......Page 162
On how to abbreviate a journal's title......Page 163
Guides to writing......Page 164
Punctuation......Page 165
Illustrations......Page 166
Statistics......Page 167
Literature cited......Page 168
Index......Page 176

✦ Subjects

Языки и языкознание;Английский язык;Английский язык как родной / English as a First Language;Scientific and Technical Writing;