Graduate Writing center

Why you publish

  Before you start writing a paper, you need to think about “why I publish?” If you do not recognize the necessity of publication, you are not ready to be a good scientist, as publication is almost everything for competent scientists. It is obvious that publication is the most powerful weapon for scientists to combat and survive in a scientific world. The followings are reasons why you have to publish.

• Writing for publication is the ultimate test of the skills that a student has to learn from graduate school. The skills include critical thinking, conducting experiments, data analysis and presentation, literature review and synthesis, and language abilities.
• Awarding a graduate degree in a research-based graduate research program is based on the student being able to complete a thesis.
• Publication record affects a student’s chances of getting a job.
• Publish is the most effective way to communicate with peers in scientific society and with the general public.
• Publish is the way to realize the value of the investment in scientific research.
• Publish is a requirement for your success including promotion, getting research grants, and receiving prestigious awards.
• Publication may be rewarded with cash or may affect your salary level.

How to succeed in publishing scientific papers in English

   Writing a scientific paper is like putting together a lot of puzzle pieces to complete the jigsaw puzzle. The completed jigsaw puzzle is a scientific paper. You have to collect all pieces of the puzzle, arrange them, and place the pieces in the right places. If it does not work, try it again. Remember how you had put the puzzle pieces together when you were a kid.

1. General rules

• Observe how others write; model after a good paper.
• Write, write, and write; practice makes it perfect.
• Write right now; quick starters become the most productive and noted scientists.
• Up-to-date on the literature and be able to criticize the literature and ask “novel” questions on what is known and unknown.
• Take note of important points when reading literature so that you can cite them later when writing your paper.
• Know how to design and conduct a cutting-edge experiment and research. Without “novel” data, it is impossible to write a “novel” paper.
• Have the technical knowledge in the subject area; the most successful scientists typically focused on narrow areas of their expertise with overall insight into a large area.

2. English is not a problem

• If starting with the English language is too difficult, begin with writing in your mother tongue and translate later; the important is not language but the logic and story of a paper.
• The key is to remember the simple rules of English writing and pay attention to details. If you are able to pay attention to details, you would eliminate 50% of the mistakes you will ever make while writing your paper.
• English is easy to fix if the writing is logical and technically competent.
• The key is to apply what you learnt from your English classes and grammar books.
• Use the proper scientific terminology and don’t use any terminology that is not used in the scientific society.

How to write a paper

  The general rules of good writing are “Begin with the END (conclusion) in mind,” “Know your message (What you want to say),” “Don’t include unnecessary materials and Do include all necessary materials,” and “Use simple language and concise sentence,” Keep the rules in mind when writing any parts of the scientific paper.

1. Title

• It is very important to have a high-impact title.
• Start the title with the most important word.
• Don’t start with “Effects of... ”, “Studies of...”, or “Responses of.. ”
• Use the shortest title possible.
• Refer to newly published articles.
• Try to show the main conclusions of the study in the title.

2. Abstract

• Start with an opening statement that highlights the scientific problem being studied.
• Include objectives and hypotheses statement.
• Briefly describe the key methodology used and provide the abbreviations when they first appear.
• Provide some numerical values in described important results. A well-written abstract should have good statements and numerical results (e.g., as % relative control).
• Explain and interpret the results.
• Provide conclusions and implications of the results.

3. Introduction

• Address all contents of Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions in detail or in brief, depending on the importance of the contents.
• Present the general problem to be addressed in the study.
• Review the relevant literature to orient the reader to the problem. Don’t list the individual findings of the literature but digest the findings to raise and support a novel problem of the study.
• Let the reader know the novel aspects in the paper.
• Formulate the hypotheses and describe the specific questions and objectives to be answered.
• Identify the uniqueness (“Novelty”) of the study that includes new ideas, new approach, new application, improvement of old concepts, resolving a controversy, improvement of an existing method, syntheses of several methods, or application in a new system.
• Define abbreviations used in the paper or use Latin names of plants as they first appear in the Introduction. This is independent of what has already been defined in the Abstract as the main body of the paper is independent of the Abstract.

4. Materials and Methods

• Report all methods used to generate the data and provide enough information to allow others to replicate the research.
• Don’t report well-known methodology in details, but simply cite relevant references if the methodology were not developed by yourself.
• Arrange the sections logically; study site → experimental design → field measurement and sampling → lab analysis → calculations → statistical analysis
• Include additional information for the major equipment used; model, manufacturer, city and county, and country.

5. Results

• Prepare appropriate Tables and Figures after statistical analysis. Don’t present the same data in both Tables and Figures.
• Results should be stand-alone, but should also be connected to the objectives and hypotheses in the Introduction and the flow of Discussion. Always, keep in mind the objectives and hypotheses and report results that are related to objectives and hypotheses.
• Make sure that all contents of the Results section are supported by your data being consistent with data in Tables and Figures.
• Don’t repeat all the details in Tables and Figures, but state the patterns and trends to show the key points of the data.
• Don’t discuss the results and don’t cite references in Results. If “Results” and “Discussion” are combined into a single “Results and Discussion” section, it is OK to have discussion and references.
• Additional check-lists for Tables and Figures
  • Do they have a stand-alone title?
  • Have all abbreviations been explained?
  • Have the statistical notations been explained?
  • (For Tables) Is the format appropriate (e.g., no horizontal lines separating the data rows)?
  • (For Figures) Are the font size and scale consistent among graphs?
  • Try to minimize Tables and Figures by combining similar ones.
  • Think which one is better for data display: table vs. figure?

6. Discussion

• Don’t repeat Results too much. Mention only the patterns and trends that are strongly associated with Discussion.
• Always keep in mind the hypotheses and objectives when writing Discussion. Otherwise, Discussion is very likely to be descriptive.
• Interpret the result in the context of the hypotheses and objectives, and by referring other literature related to the results.
• Try to advance theories and generalize what’s observed by addressing the meaning of the results.
• Draw conclusions based on the results and describe implications.
• Address limitations of the study and suggest future research.
• Additional suggestions for Discussion
  • Don’t use too many statements such as Choi et al. (2022) reported/found/stated that...
  • Rather than, digest and integrate the information like “Water availability affects plant photosynthesis (Choi et al., 2022)”.
  • Don’t speculate too much in the Discussion. Try to develop Discussion based on the results and literature.

7. Conclusions

• This section is different from the Abstract; Don’t describe methods and Don’t repeat the results.
• Draw implications of the study from the results and suggest future studies.

8. References

• Cite “Recent”, “Only key”, and “Correct” references.
• Read “Instruction for Authors” and cross-check with recent articles published in the journal.
• Check formats for journal articles, book chapters, books, theses, reports, and online materials.