《writing_a_research_paper》.ppt

* WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER: Some general guidelines for students and postdocs BEFORE WRITING In the long term: Right from the beginning of your project, think about experiments in terms of future papers, especially the FIGURES. For example, if you are doing immunoprecipitation studies imagine a future figure as you load your samples on the gel. Arrange the control, experimental and marker samples in the optimal sequence for a future figure so you don’t have to go back and redo it. For photomicrographs, think about the best magnifications and orientations to show the important features. Keep consistent backgrounds. Record the magnifications for the scale bars! It is easier to assemble all the data BEFORE writing the paper, than during the process. Decide what are the key conclusions of the paper- the important message that you want to put across. Do you have all the data AND the figures to prove your point? If possible, give an informal ORAL presentation of the work before you start to write the paper. This way you will clarify the story you want to tell and can anticipate objections or misunderstandings that must be addressed in the text. Short term: Assemble draft FIGURES and lay them out in order on a table or desk. Decide what are the key points that you need to make, and write them out. Focus on hypotheses that you tested. Decide on a format. This will strongly influence the style in which you write. Short format papers (e.g. Nature, Science, Current Biology, PNAS ) versus Long format (papers with Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion). Resolve Authorship issues. Corresponding author is usually senior author. Have printed copies of key references at hand. Start a Database for references e.g. ENDNOTE will format references for different journals. SHORT FORMAT PAPER In many ways this is the hardest kind of paper to write, even though it is the shortest. The paper has to be concise and engaging, right from the opening sentence. F