ScientificScientific WritingWriting: : How to How to Prepare ManuscriptPrepare Manuscript forfor

PublicationPublication

ScientificScientific WritingWriting: : How to How to Prepare ManuscriptPrepare Manuscript forfor

PublicationPublication

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jaroon Jakmunee

DepartmentDepartment ofof ChemistryChemistry FacultyFaculty ofof ScienceScienceChiangChiang MaiMai UniversityUniversity

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jaroon Jakmunee

Scientific Research

•Problem(s)

•Objective

•Hypothesis

•Experimental design

Report to Scientific Community

•Report

•Thesis

•Journal paper•Experimental design

•Perform experiment

•Gather results

•Interpretation of results

•conclusion

Manuscript Submit to

Journal

Peer review Paper/article

Elsevier’s Flow

chart of MS

evaluation

Manuscript

Paper or Article

How to get published?

What are the editor or reviewers look for?

Scientific:

Novelty / New finding / Discovery

Contribution of the work to the advancement of knowledge.

Show enough evident to support the conclusion. Show enough evident to support the conclusion.

Writing:

Good writing / easy to understand / concise

Exciting to follow the story

Why is research performed?

ToTo researchresearch::

•• To discover new thingTo discover new thing

•• To solve problem(s)To solve problem(s)

•• ToTo seesee whatwhat allall peoplepeople havehave seenseen andand toto thinkthink whatwhat nobodynobody hashas thoughtthought

A.SzentA.Szent GyorgyiGyorgyiEducationEducation andand TeachingTeaching inin AnalyticalAnalytical ChemistryChemistry, , byby G.E.G.E. BaiuleseuBaiuleseu, , C. C. PatroescuPatroescu, , R.A.R.A. ChalmersChalmers EllisEllis HorwoodHorwood, , ChicheserChicheser, , 19821982, p., p.6363..

RESEARCH

Input Output

INNOVATION

-Proto type

-Knowledge

HUMAN RESOURCES

-LogicalGrant

Instrument/Apparatus/Chemicals

RESEARCHPUBLICATION

-Journal

-Meeting/conference

PATENT

etc.,

-Vision

Time

Knowledge/Vision

STANDARDSTANDARD

Lab reportSenior project report,

Research project reportPaper in a journalAbstract

IntroductionExperimental

Results and DiscussionAbstract

Results and DiscussionConclusionReferences

Acknowledgements

AbstractIntroduction

Materials and MethodResults

DiscussionConclusionReferences

Acknowledgements

Concise report

Informative but short

Raw (primary) data

process

Digested data

graph, table, summarized form

Four questions of Scientific Writing:

1. What was the problem studied?2. How did I study it?3. What did I find?4. What do the findings mean?

The Answers become the

IntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussion

The Answers become the

The four parts of a scientific paper

Organization of a Scientific ArticleOrganization of a Scientific Article

GeneralParticular General

Objectives:

a.

b.

c.d.

Introduction: What was the

problem/topic studied?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Methods/Procedures: How did I study it?

In order to (do this), I (did this)

Subheading 1:

Subheading 2:

Subheading 3:

Subheading 4:

Results: What did I find?Results: What did I find?Subheadings:

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

Discussion: What does it mean?

Subheadings:

I.

II.

III.

IV.IV.

V.

Conclusion

Objectives a.-d.:

Why publish in international peer-reviewed journal?

“A naturalist’s life would be a happy one if he

only had to observe and never write”Charles Darwin

Scientists must not only DO science, they must alsoScientists must not only DO science, they must also

WRITE about science.

Good scientific writing does not lead to the publication of poor science. Poor writing does, however,delay the publication of good science.

Scientists become known or remain unknown through their publication.

The first publication of original The first publication of original research results in a form research results in a form whereby peers of the author can whereby peers of the author can

The first publication of original The first publication of original research results in a form research results in a form whereby peers of the author can whereby peers of the author can whereby peers of the author can whereby peers of the author can repeat the experiments and test repeat the experiments and test the conclusions in a journal or the conclusions in a journal or other source document readily other source document readily available within the scientific available within the scientific communitycommunity

whereby peers of the author can whereby peers of the author can repeat the experiments and test repeat the experiments and test the conclusions in a journal or the conclusions in a journal or other source document readily other source document readily available within the scientific available within the scientific communitycommunity

•Novelty (New findings) Highlight, claim

•Correctness of scientific discussion

•High impact / advantages•High impact / advantages

•Good story, easy to follow, concise

•Good English language

• To prepare manuscripts that have a high probability of being accepted for publication.

• To be completely understood when they are published.published.

• To write a scientific paper, we must know WHATto do and WHY we do it.

• Preparing a scientific paper is not a literary skill, it

is ORGANIZATION.

Types of Articles Appearing in Journals

1. research paper (8-10 pp.)

2. review articles (20-30 pp.)

3. commentaries (1-2 pp.)

See journal

website for

Author Guidelines

3. commentaries (1-2 pp.)

4. reviews [individual books or software (<1-2 pp.);

comparative reviews (2-3 pp.)]

5. working papers (1-2 pp.)

Concise

Keywords

Put sequence of keywords

Novelty !!!What?

Why?

How?

•Title:

concise but show the image of the manuscript

•Authors:

Name(s) & Address(es)

Corresponding author

•Abstract: •Abstract:

the last part to be written

•Introduction:

Review literatures,

why this work to be investigated?

•Experimental part:

Methodology

•Results:

Digested results; one form to present the results

(e.g. not present both graph and table)

•Discussion:

Correlation of the observation in the results. Correlation of the observation in the results.

Using theory to support the observation.

•Conclusion:

very short

Concept:• Theme of the work

Make a good story!

Think and put in your own language.

• Put topics and subtopics as many as you can scopescopeof your manuscript.

• Consider the language after having your good story.

Draft 5

Draft 6Draft 7

Draft 1

Draft 2

Draft 3Draft 4

Some more remarks

• “aging” of manuscript helps

• pre-submission reviews

Titles

Too short? RarelyToo long? Avoid “waste words”“Studies on.…” “Investigations of… ”“Observations on. ..”“Observations on. ..”

•The fewest possible words that adequately describe the

contents of the paper

A title is a labelNot a sentence

Title• Specific

– “Actions of antibiotics on bacteria”

• Short but tells us little

– “Preliminary observations on the effect of

certain antibiotics on various species of

bacteria”bacteria”

• Longer but tells us no more

– “Action of streptomycin on Mycobactrium

tuberculosis”

• Better, but still too general

– “Inhibition of growth of Mycobactrium

tuberculosis by streptomycin”

Authors and addresses

• Order of names

• No universal agreement

• Most popular is listing in order of seniority (in relation to the study)

• First author should be the one who did most or all of the research

• Subsequent authors should be in order of importance to the study

Introduction

•A description of what you did

•Goes from general to specific

•Presents the nature and scope of the problem•Presents the nature and scope of the problem

•Indicates how this study fits into the problem

•Reviews pertinent literature

•Present goal/objectives of study and paper

Materials and Methods

•A description of how you did it

•Add Subheadings for approaches used

•in outlining use: “In order to do/determine •in outlining use: “In order to do/determine

………..,I did………..”

•Give copy of methods to colleagues, asking

whether they could repeat the experiment based

on what is written

Results• A description of what you found in your experiments

• Separate facts from inferences

• Present results in a logical sequence that

corresponds to objectives

• Best if short difficulties of repetitive data in Tables

and figures

• Do not include material that does not relate to

objectives

Figures or Tables?

Exact numerical values (Tables)

•Trends (Figures)

•Design tables and figures with format(1 or 2 column) of journal in mind.

SAMPLE FIA ROUTINE METHOD

D19 6.4 15.8

A1 5.5 21.3

A23 8 21.1

B4 8.4 18.7

C13 6 21.4

D20 11.1 25

E19 8.5 26.1

C7 7.8 21.7

C5 3.4 4.5

C8 2.9 2.7

D3 5.4 4.8

D9 4.1 4.7

D18 7.3 18.4

ExampleExample

Correlation Curve

25

30

Ro

un

tin

e m

eth

od

D18 7.3 18.4

E24 4.8 4.6

A9 1.8 2.9

A8 3.1 5.5

A28 2 2.5

B2 2.2 2.5

C2 1.7 1.1

C11 1.4 2

C12 1.2 2.2

C16 2.7 2.4

D2 1.3 2.2

E7 1.9 2.1

E10 2 1.9

E20 8.5 17

A4 2.6 2.9

B6 1.3 2.2

B11 2.2 2.9

B13 1.9 2.5

0

5

10

15

20

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

FIA method

Ro

un

tin

e m

eth

od

Discussions•A description of what your experiments mean

•Shows relationships among results observed

•Shows how results agree or disagree with previously

published research

ConclusionConclusionMost often-quoted part of article

•State conclusion summarizing evidence

•Ideas for future research (not a call for more

research);

•questions?

Acknowledgement

•Simple and courteous

•“I thank” not “wish to thank”

•Limited to those who contributed to study

(technical, funding, editorial)

Literature Cited (see Guideline for authors)

• references cited should be restricted to significant

journal articles, not reports if possible

• format specific to journal

* name and year

* number from an alphabetical list

* number in sequence of citation

• check citations and text for congruence

• check citations against original articles

• use literature cited to determine appropriate

journal for submission

• avoid “ghosts”

150 citations checked (Public Health journals)

31% had errors

10% of citations could not be found

• cite literature correctly• cite literature correctly

30% of citations differed from original

author’s statements

15% of citations do not relate to original

author’s statements

Aims and ScopeGeneral Information

Original research paperPreliminary communicationsannotations

Editor(s), Editorial board,

General InformationManuscript submissionPresentation of ManuscriptsAuthor enquiriesProofsReprintsElectronic manuscripts

Editorial board, Advisory board

Impact factor

A Quick Review of Terms

•The ISSN is a unique International Standard Serials

Number assigned to a journal.

• Total Cites represents the number of times the journal

has been cited by all journals in the ISI database in has been cited by all journals in the ISI database in

a particular year.

•The Impact Factor is the average number of times

articles published in a specific journal in the two

previous years were cited in a particular year

•The Immediacy Index is the average number of times

current articles in a specific journal are cited during

the year they were published.

• Total Articles represents the number of articles

published in a given year.

•The Cited Half-Life is the number of years, going

back from the current year, that account for 50% ofback from the current year, that account for 50% of

the total citations received by the journal in the current

y e a r .

•The Citing Half-Life is the number of years, going back

from the current year, that account for 50% of the total

citations given by the journal in the current year.

A measure of how �visible! and �generally useful! a

particular journal is to the readership of a particular

scientific field.

The impact factor is a quantity that reflects the

Journal Impact Factor

The impact factor is a quantity that reflects the

average number of time all manuscripts from a given

journal, published during the two previous years, have

been referenced in other manuscripts during the following

year in all journals from a particular scientific field of study.

J o u r n a l I m p a c t F a c t o r1 9 9 7

I m p a c t F a c t o r2 0 0 0

S c i e n c e 2 4 . 6 7 6 2 3 . 8 7 2C h e m R e v 1 9 . 2 8 6 2 0 . 0 3 6J A m C h e m S o c 5 . 6 5 0 6 . 0 2 5A n a l C h e m 4 . 7 4 3 4 . 5 8 7L C - G C 3 . 4 0 0 3 . 6 5 5J A m S o c M a s s S p e c t r 2 . 8 5 5 3 . 0 4 0J C h r o m a t o g r A 2 . 6 9 7 2 . 5 5 1S p e c t r o c h i m A c t a B 2 . 4 4 8 2 . 6 0 8T R A C - T r e n d A n a l C h e m 2 . 3 7 3 2 . 9 0 8J M i c r o c o l u m n S e p 2 . 1 2 5 2 . 4 8 7C h r o m a t o g r a p h i a 2 . 0 7 9 1 . 6 1 9H R C - J H i g h R e s C h r o m 1 . 9 5 0 2 . 0 6 2A p p l S p e c t r o s c 1 . 8 4 8 1 . 9 4 8A n a l C h i m A c t a 1 . 7 7 8 1 . 8 4 9J C h r o m a t o g r S c i 1 . 6 9 6 1 . 2 4 7A n a l y s t 1 . 6 1 4 1 . 8 1 8A n a l y s t 1 . 6 1 4 1 . 8 1 8J C h r o m a t o g r B 1 . 5 8 8 1 . 8 0 2F r e s e n J A n a l C h e m 1 . 3 9 8 1 . 4 1 8C h e m o m e t e r I n t e l l L a b 1 . 3 4 8 1 . 4 6 2J C h e m o m e t e r 1 . 1 7 4 2 . 0 8 1T a l a n t a 1 . 1 4 9 1 . 5 5 4A n a l C o m m u n 0 . 9 8 0 2 . 1 8 4I n t J E n v i r o n A n C h 0 . 9 7 9 0 . 6 4 3A n a l S c i 0 . 8 9 2 1 . 0 9 4J C h e m E n g D a t a 0 . 8 8 5 0 . 9 8 8S e n s o r A c t u a t B - C h e m 0 . 8 5 8 1 . 4 7 0S p e c t r o c h i m A c t a A 0 . 7 7 6 1 . 0 2 3S e p a r S c i T e c h n o l 0 . 7 6 1 0 . 7 2 5A m l a b 0 . 6 6 3 0 . 5 9 3I n s t r u m S c i T e c h n o l 0 . 5 7 4 0 . 5 2 1M i c r o c h e m J 0 . 5 6 2 0 . 8 8 4L a b R o b o t i c s A u t o m a t 0 . 3 4 5 0 . 4 3 9

Submission:

•Submit by post

•On-line submission (e-mail, website)

Informations:Informations:

•copyright transfer form

•guideline for manuscript preparation

•manuscript template

•guideline for submission

How is the manuscript review process conducted?

• First, manuscript submission is made to the journal editor.

The editor may reject and return to the authors a

manuscript at this stage if the manuscript does not meet

the Aims and Scope of the journal

• Second, referee selection of experts in the field is made • Second, referee selection of experts in the field is made

by the journal editor, and the manuscripts are sent out

for review

• Third, completion and return of referee reports is

followed by an editorial decision regarding status of

the manuscript. A decision may be made with only

one referee report in rare cases

Peer-reviewed Journals

• Editor

• Editorial Board

– Helps the editor establish editorial policy

• Manuscript reviewers

– Help the editor identify manuscripts for

publication

• Accept

• Reject

• Accept after modifications

Peer-reviewed Journals

• Manuscript reviewers

– Editor usually selects 2 or 3 reviewers per manuscript

– Very specific instructions

• Evaluate the experimental procedure

• Do the results justify the conclusions?

• Check one third of the references for

accuracy

Review / evaluating process?

• Peers must be able to

1) assess the observations

• Did you do a proper literature review?

• Did you design the experiment properly?• Did you design the experiment properly?

2) repeat the experiments

• Are they described in sufficient detail that I can repeat them? and

3) evaluate intellectual processes

• Are your conclusions justified by the results?

•Accept•Major revision•Minor revision•Resubmit elsewhere•Resubmit after more analysis or research•Reject

AuthorAuthor

Editor (Associate editor/Editorial board)

Reviewers (Editorial board)

Author

Editor (preliminary decision)

Editor (final decision)

1) No Double Publishing

The same “body of data” is used to produce two

articles that are published in two different places.

2) No Multiple Submissions

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHOR

2) No Multiple Submissions

The same article is submitted to more than one

journal at a time.

3) No Copyright Violations

Any repeat use of material after copyright has been transferred to the publisher.

Comments -•how to revise according to the reviewers’ comments

•Don’t be panic to reviewer comments, carefully consider each point with positive thinking

If have time, see example (in word file)

See submission demonstration if See submission demonstration if

internet is available….

More information visit website:

“How to … Manuscript Preparation”

http://www.chem.science.cmu.ac.th/user/viehttp://www.chem.science.cmu.ac.th/user/vie

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