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[交流] [转帖]WRITING A SCIENTIFIC DATA-BASED PAPER

WRITING A SCIENTIFIC DATA-BASED PAPER

Maureen Dennis
Brain & Behaviour Program, The Hospital for Sick Children
Departments of Surgery & Psychology, University of Toronto

Xylocastro, June-July, 2004

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
• “I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.” (novelist, Peter De Vries)
– So far as we know, Mozart was the only person to whom God gave dictation, so
– Write the paper yourself; don’t wait for inspiration
• Produce a full first draft as quickly as possible
– It is rewarding to see a full draft
– It is easier to edit a full draft than to keep obsessing about more literature for the Introduction
• Edit the full draft until it is ready for submission to a scientific journal

PRODUCING A FIRST DRAFT
• Write from the inside out (SEQUENCE principle)
– Scientific papers are non-linear
– If you write linearly, the Introduction will be overwritten and the Discussion will be underwritten
• Write different sections with different degrees of polish (VARIABLE QUALITY principle)
- Very polished and elegant
–     Rough, but information is down on paper
• Stay with the draft until it is complete (DELIBERATE SPEED principle)
– Keep writing; don’t stop because something is not working
–
KEEPING IT GOING
• Reinforcement Schedule
– Positive + negative rewards.  “When I have completed the next ________, I can have {Coffee/chocolate/sex}
• Strategies if you are having difficulty writing
– Write something. Move to an easier section of paper
– Try writing only the first sentence of each paragraph in the section you are writing; you may find that you get unblocked for a later paragraph
– Do editorial housekeeping: enter references, check style manual and edit text for format and style
– Change font of entire text. This helps you break set
• Remember: You are allowed a writer’s block, but not until your next paper

ELEMENTS OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER
• INTRODUCTION
– Problem to be studied
– Literature review
– Specific aims of study: Aim 1, Aim 2…Aim n
• METHOD
– Participants
– Tasks
• RESULTS
– Data analysis procedures
– Data Aim 1, Aim 2….Aim n
• DISCUSSION
– Recap important results  and relate to Aim 1, Aim 2…Aim n
– Domain-specific issues that data address :Issue 1, Issue 2… Issue n
– Broader implications and domain-general issues
– Take-home message

LITERATURE REVIEW
• You DO need to read the literature relevant to your paper
• You DO NOT need to tell the reader everything you have read
• Purpose of data-based scientific papers is to add NEW INFORMATION, not to review old information
• Need-To-Know Principle. “Does the reader need to know about this particular journal article in order to understand the data I am reporting?  If yes, I will include it; if no, I will delete it, even if
– I find it fascinating
– I want everyone to  know I know about it”

FIGURES AND TABLES
• BEFORE YOU WRITE THE PAPER
– Decide on the balance of text, tables, and figures
– Ensure that same information is not presented in both tables and figures
– Compose tables and draw figures according to format of journal for which you are writing
• WHILE YOU WRITE THE PAPER
– Have tables and figures in front of you
– Remember that reader will see them together in the printed version of your paper, so make sure that what you write matches what is in the tables and figures

SEQUENCE OF WRITING, FIRST DRAFT
• INTRODUCTION
– 1 Problem to be studied
– 9 Literature review
– 2 Specific aims of study: Aim 1, Aim 2…Aim n
• METHOD
– 4 Participants
– 5 Tasks
• RESULTS
– 3 Data analysis procedures
– 6 Data Aim 1, Aim 2….Aim n
• DISCUSSION
– 7 Recap important results  and relate to Aim 1, Aim 2…Aim n
– 8 Domain-specific issues data address :Issue 1, Issue 2… Issue n
– 10 Broader implications and domain-general issues
– 11 Take-home message

QUALITY OF WRITING, FIRST DRAFT
• INTRODUCTION
–     Problem to be studied
–     Literature review
–     Specific aims of study: Aim 1, Aim 2…Aim n
• METHOD
–     Participants
–     Tasks
• RESULTS
–     Data analysis procedures
–     Data Aim 1, Aim 2….Aim n
• DISCUSSION
–     Recap important results  and relate to Aim 1, Aim 2…Aim n
–     Domain-specific issues data address :Issue 1, Issue 2… Issue n
–     Broader implications and domain-general issues
–     Take-home message

AFTER THE FIRST DRAFT…..EDIT!
• REMEMBER
– Editing improves every first draft
– Usually,only you will see the first draft. If you have co-authors who see it, they will be in no position to tell
– The only draft that counts is the last one, and that depends on how well you edit
– No one but you will know how many edits you do
– Donald Hebb, a great writer in neuropsychology, edited through 15 drafts, according to one of his students
• HOW LONG TO EDIT?
– Ideally, until the paper flows like oil (Mozart’s phrase)
– Editing is going badly if you have the sensation that the paper is getting more complicated with each edit
– Editing is going well if you have the sensation that the paper is getting simpler with each edit
EDITING: INTRODUCTION & METHOD
• INTRODUCTION
– Read aloud the first sentence of each paragraph. If this sounds like a coherent line of thought leading into the specific aims at the end of the Introduction, stop. Otherwise, keep editing
– Are specific aims absolutely clear?  Keep editing until they follow logically from the statement of the problem and the literature review
• METHOD
– Will reader know why this population was chosen to investigate the problem?
– Are inclusion/exclusion criteria for participants well described?
– Describe tasks in sufficient detail so that reader understands what was done but not in so much detail that reader could reconstruct the day-to-day running of the study

EDITING: RESULTS & DISCUSSION
• RESULTS
– Ensure that reader understands how each analysis bears on a specific aim.  Add a few sentences if this is not clear
– Check that the sequence of statistical results follows the sequence of specific aims
– Describe results but do not interpret them here. The reader needs to be able to separate what you found from what you think about what you found
• DISCUSSION
– Is there clear recap of results in relation to specific aims?
– Ensure that reader will understand both domain-specific  and domain-general significance of the results
– The Rondo Check: Read aloud the last paragraph of the Introduction, the first paragraph of the Discussion, and the last paragraph of the Discussion. If this flows like a rondo in music whereby you return to a main theme, stop. Otherwise keep editing

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