From Research to Manuscript

A Guide to Scientific Writing

By: Michael Jay Katz

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Paperback | 28 January 2009 | Edition Number 2

At a Glance

Paperback
224 Pages

Edition Type
Revised

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.19

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$156.18

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Observations Plus Recipes It has been said that science is the orderly collection of facts about the natural world. Scientists, however, are wary of using the word 'fact. ' 'Fact' has the feeling of absoluteness and universality, whereas scientific observations are neither ab- lute nor universal. For example, 'children have 20 deciduous [baby] teeth' is an observation about the real world, but scientists would not call it a fact. Some children have fewer deciduous teeth, and some have more. Even those children who have exactly 20 deciduous teeth use the full set during only a part of their childhood. When they are babies and t- dlers, children have less than 20 visible teeth, and as they grow older, children begin to loose their deciduous teeth, which are then replaced by permanent teeth. 'Children have 20 deciduous [baby] teeth' is not even a complete scientific sta- ment. For one thing, the statement 'children have 20 deciduous teeth' does not tell us what we mean by 'teeth. ' When we say "teeth," do we mean only those that can seen be with the unaided eye, or do we also include the hidden, unerupted teeth? An observation such as 'children have 20 deciduous teeth' is not a fact, and, by itself, it is not acceptable as a scientific statement until its terms are explained: scientifically, 'children have 20 deciduous teeth' must be accompanied by definitions and qualifiers.

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Acknowledgements	p. v
Tools and Techniques
The Standards of a Scientific Paper	p. 3
A Stereotyped Format	p. 3
Precise Language	p. 3
A Single, Clear Direction	p. 4
Reviewed and Made Available to Others	p. 4
Scientific Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs	p. 5
Scientific Text Needs Exactness and Clarity	p. 5
Write with Precision	p. 5
Scientific Use of Tenses	p. 7
The Paragraph Is the Unit of Exposition	p. 8
Each Paragraph Makes One Point	p. 8
Inside a Scientific Paragraph	p. 9
Connect Succeeding Paragraphs	p. 10
Writing Scientific Text	p. 13
Begin to Write While You Experiment	p. 13
Start Broadly, Work on the Details Later	p. 13
A Magnified View of the Writing Process	p. 14
Use the Skeletal Outlines	p. 14
Pile in Ideas	p. 15
Collect Information from Outside Resources	p. 16
Form Rough Sentences	p. 17
Arrange the Sentences into Themes	p. 18
Make Your Themed Lists into Rough Paragraphs	p. 19
Take a Break and Clear Your Mind	p. 21
Put Together One Paragraph for Each Topic	p. 21
Shape a Working Draft	p. 22
Smooth Transitions	p. 26
Polishing	p. 27
When to Stop Writing	p. 33
Advice to Speakers of Other Languages	p. 34
Presenting Numerical Data	p. 35
Tables	p. 37
Organize Your Data	p. 37
Inside Tables Use Numerical Order	p. 40
Examples	p. 42
Statistics	p. 43
Descriptive Statistics	p. 43
Inferential Statistics and Hypothesis Testing	p. 50
Use Statistics Thoughtfully	p. 57
Constructing Scientific Figures	p. 59
Basic Guidelines	p. 59
Figure Legends	p. 62
Numerical Figures	p. 62
Graphs	p. 62
Relationships Between Variables	p. 66
Aesthetics of Numerical Figures	p. 69
Preparation for Submission to a Journal	p. 70
Scientific Patterns Should Be Reproducible	p. 70
Writing a Research Paper
Writing During Research	p. 75
Keep a Computerized Notebook	p. 76
The Diary-Record Your Work Notes	p. 76
References-Archive Your Sources	p. 77
Begin a Draft Early	p. 78
Composing the Sections of a Research Paper	p. 79
Materials and Methods	p. 80
Recipes	p. 80
Writing Your Materials and Methods Section	p. 82
An Example of a Complete Materials and Methods Section	p. 92
Commit to a Few Key Variables	p. 93
Appendix	p. 95
Results	p. 97
Carving Out Your Results from Your Observations	p. 98
Exploratory Data Analysis	p. 101
Writing the Results	p. 105
An Example of a Complete Results Section	p. 117
Discussion	p. 118
Recap Your Results	p. 118
Archive Your Results	p. 121
Try to Make a Proposal	p. 125
An Example of a Complete Discussion Section	p. 132
Conclusion	p. 132
Limitations of This Study	p. 136
Introduction	p. 137
Define the Gap	p. 138
Begin with the Known	p. 138
Take a Direct Path to the Unknown	p. 139
Summarize Your Plan-of-Attack	p. 139
A Sampler of Introductions	p. 140
An Example of a Complete Introduction Section	p. 148
Abstract	p. 149
The Simple Abstract	p. 149
The Abstract with Subsections	p. 152
Key Words and the List of Nonstandard Abbreviations	p. 154
Key Words	p. 154
Alphabetical List of Nonstandard Abbreviations	p. 155
Title	p. 155
Footnotes	p. 157
Acknowledgements	p. 158
References	p. 159
Cite Original Sources	p. 160
Don't Cite Incomplete Sources	p. 160
Find the Appropriate Citation Formats	p. 161
Use Bibliographic Software	p. 162
Check Your Text Citations and Your Reference List	p. 162
Preparing a Manuscript for Submission
Choosing a Journal	p. 165
Make a List of Candidate Journals	p. 165
Consider Open Access Publishing	p. 166
Rank the Journals by Quality	p. 167
Aim for the Best and Toughest Journal	p. 167
Style Rules	p. 168
A Final Rewrite	p. 171
Get a Friendly Critique	p. 172
Read the Paper Back wards	p. 172
Recheck the Spelling	p. 174
Preparing and Submitting the Manuscript	p. 175
Print and Page Format	p. 175
The Manuscript Packet	p. 175
Page One	p. 175
Page Two	p. 176
Page Three	p. 177
Page Four	p. 177
The Last Pages	p. 177
The Introductory Letter	p. 177
Responding to Editors and Referees	p. 179
Homework	p. 179
The Comment-by-Comment Letter	p. 180
Stay Calm	p. 181
Words That Are Often Misused	p. 183
Simplifying Wordy, Redundant, and Awkward Phrases	p. 189
Standard Scientific Abbreviations	p. 191
Basic Rules	p. 191
Typical Bibliographic Formats	p. 195
Formats for Text Citations	p. 195
Bibliographic Formats for the References Section	p. 195
Articles	p. 195
Books	p. 196
Other	p. 197
Additional Reading	p. 199
Software Suggestions	p. 201
Index	p. 203
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

From Research to Manuscript

A Guide to Scientific Writing

At a Glance

Paperback

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