Scientific Writing and Publication Skills

Dr. Naim Rashid

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Chemical Engineering
CUI, Lahore Campus

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 I dare to ask.?
o Grant proposal
o Published/written an article
o Written a thesis
o Written a synopsis
o Written final year project
o Statement of purpose
o Cover letter
o Scholarship application

• Application not successful

• Being criticized (poor English)
• Receiving rejections
• Writing fear
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 Learning Objectives

To polish writing/publication skills

To publish the results
To avoid repeated rejection Writing master
To undergo fast-track and timely publication
To learn from the experiences
To minimize the mistakes I am sorry !!!
To standout among the peers

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 Contents
 The important of scientific writing
 How to write an article
o Components of a scientific publication
o Title, abstract-practice session
o Conclusions, introduction, graphical abstract, and
highlights
 Rules of scientific writing
o Tense
o Redundancy/Words to avoid/Dead phrases
o Reduce words/alternative words
o Punctuation

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 Be Mindful of Your Hard Work

-Working day and night

-Putting your time and energy
-Bearing the supervisor
-Facing a typical and bureaucratic system attitude
-Suffering for your family and friends

For what ???

-Job
-Scholarship
-Project funding
-Recognition/prestige
-Standout among the peers
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 Manage Your Expectations
You are not there yet….final step
Harvesting is equally (even more) important as
cultivation
Materialize your hard work and turn into a product to
sell
Broadcast Yourself
Recognition by the scientific community
Bring your thoughts onto a paper

You are brilliant, what if you can’t communicate

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How to write an article.?

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 Writing an Article-pyramid

 Highlights
 Graphical abstract
 Video abstract

https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/writing-research/writing-skills
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 How to Write a Title
Shortest but the most important
-Identifies scientific investigations
-Advocate research
-Determine your field of expertise

General rules:
 The title should truly reflect the findings
 Avoid exaggeration and superficial statements/words e.g Novel
 Make it concise and simple- avoid too short or lengthy title
 Don’t start your title with article “the” unless otherwise un-avoidable
 Avoid abbreviation
 Should not be a complete sentence
 Capitalize the word following a colon (:)
 Capitalize each word except conjunctions (of, at, on)
 Must differentiate with your previously published results-use alternative words
 Envision it with your “future objectives” –add few words which can serve as
identifiers for your future employment/journal requirement

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https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/writing-research/writing-skills
 Criticize

Polyamide thin-film nanofiltration membranes containing

TiO2 nanoparticles

Comparison of characteristics of twenty-one types of biochar and

their ability to remove multi-heavy metals and methylene blue in
solution

Biomass from marine microalgae Nannochloropsis oculata

dewatering by dissolved air flotation

Enhanced electricity generation by using algae biomass and

activated sludge in microbial fuel cell

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 The Abstract

 The most-read and must-read component of an article

 Overview of the main story
 Gives highlights from each section of the paper
 Stands on its own

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 Components of the Abstract
Provides:
 Background (why)
 Question asked (what)
 Experiment(s) done--- How
 Results found
 The answer to the question asked
 Implications

Limited word space, 150-250

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 Basic principles-Abstract

 Write in active voice-more lively, less wordy

 Be consistent in using the tense
 Prefer to choose present tense
 Be specific, avoid generic and vague terms
 Include statistical analysis (standard deviation)
 Be realistic, don’t exaggerate
 Provide take home message

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 Criticize
Recently, interest is growing to explore low-cost and sustainable
means of energy production. In this study, we have exploited the
potential of sustainable energy production from wastes. Activated
sludge and algae biomass are used as substrates in microbial fuel cell
(MFC) to produce electricity. Activated sludge is used at anode as
inoculum and nutrient source. Various concentrations (1–5 g/L) of dry
algae biomass are tested. Among tested concentrations, 5 g/L
(5000 mg COD/L) produced the highest voltage of 0.89 V and power
density of 1.78 W/m2 under 1000 Ω electric resistance. Pre-treated
algae biomass and activated sludge are also used at anode. They give
low power output than without pre-treatment. Spent algae biomass is
tested to replace whole (before oil extraction) algae biomass as a
substrate, but it gives low power output. This work has proved the
concept of using algae biomass in MFC for high energy output

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 Criticize
Recently, interest is growing to explore low-cost and sustainable
means of energy production. In this study, we have exploited the
potential of sustainable energy production from wastes. Activated
sludge and algae biomass are used as substrates in microbial fuel cell
(MFC) to produce electricity. Activated sludge is used at anode as
inoculum and nutrient source. Various concentrations (1–5 g/L) of dry
algae biomass are tested. Among tested concentrations, 5 g/L
(5000 mg COD/L) produced the highest voltage of 0.89 V and power
density of 1.78 W/m2 under 1000 Ω electric resistance. Pre-treated
algae biomass and activated sludge are also used at anode. They give
low power output than without pre-treatment. Spent algae biomass is
tested to replace whole (before oil extraction) algae biomass as a
substrate, but it gives low power output. This work has proved the
concept of using algae biomass in MFC for high energy output
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 Components of an Introduction

 What’s known
 What’s unknown (audience perspective)
 Limitations and gaps in previous studies
 Your burning question
 Your experimental approach
 Why your experimental approach is new and different and
important

From: Essentials of Writing Dr.

Biomedical
Naim Rashid
Research Papers by Mimi16Zeiger
 Introduction

 Moves from general to specific (funnel phenomenon)

 Write it in plain English, not tech-speak.
 Take the reader step by step from what is known to what is unknown. End
with your specific question.
 (KnownUnknownQuestion)
 Develop a hypothesis
 Emphasize what is new and important about your work.
 Do not state the answer to the research question.
 Do not include results or implications.

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 The Results

 Report results pertinent to the main question asked

 Failure is your data-defend with your argument
 Provide justification against each important point
 Never think that everything is accomplished
 Understand the difference between “Results & Discussion
 Summarize the data (big picture); report trends
 Cite relevant figures or tables that present supporting data
 Add supplementary results (if needed)

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 The Discussion

 Key finding (answer to the question(s) asked in Intro.)

 Supporting explanation, details (lines of evidence)
 Context
 Compare your results with other people’s results
 Strengths and limitations
 What’s next
 Recommended confirmatory studies (“needs to be confirmed”)
 Future directions
 Strong conclusion (kicker!)

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 Conclusions

 Provide take home message, understandable to non-technical

even

 Don’t repeat the abstract

 Don’t present numerical values-only concluding statements

 Address the implications of the work

 Write in bullets or straight language

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 Tables and Figures

 Clear, easy to read and comprehend

 Choose the chart type carefully
 Brief title-be particular
 Should stand-alone, tell complete story
 Experimental details
 Write trend within caption
 Definitions of symbols or line/bar patterns
 Statistical information
 Choose proper scale and units (important)
 Choose proper aspect ratio

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 Graphical abstract
An impression to appeal the reviewer/editor
The eye-catching for the readers
Highly rewarding component
Consider spending several days to prepare graphical abstract

Should be:

 Stand alone
 Easy to comprehend/digest
 Only present key findings
 Avoid abbreviations
 Avoid text, unless inevitable
 High resolution picture

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 Highlights

Another impression to appeal the reviewer/editor

An opportunity to receive citations
The eye-catching for the readers
Its like a 30 sec news

Should be:

 Brief, simple and concise

 Only present key findings
 Careful in words selection (80 words max)
 Choose active voice (less wordy)
 Include statistical data (standard deviation/error)
 Add one sentence about the implementation of the work
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 Basic rules of scientific writing
• Clear and brief
• Consistency (tense, words, concept etc.)
• Avoid wordiness
• Logical flow of information (well-connected sentence)
• Write short sentence (one info in each)
• Don’t use un-common words
• Avoid adverbs (thus, therefore, however, etc.)
• Understand the difference between literary and scientific
writing
• Think as if you are talking to someone
• Respect the audience level of understanding

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 1. Use proper tense
Present vs past
Active voice vs passive voice
No rule of thumb, clarity and brevity is important

 Abstract, Present
 Introduction: Active voice, Present tense,
 Material and methods: Passive voice, past
 Results: Passive voice, past
 Discussion: Active voice, more flexible
 Conclusions: Present, active voice
 Highlights, Present, active voice

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 2. Avoid redundancy
At the temperature of 25°C At 25°C
In a time period of 25 years In 25 years
Blessed with a new baby Blessed with a
baby
A total of five members Five members
Biography of her life Biography
In my personal opinion In my opinion
Each and every Each
Extremely important Important
By means of By
New innovations Innovation
Rectangular in shape Rectangular
The future to come The future
Repeat again Repeat
Shorter or longer in length Shorter/longer
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3. Words to avoid (superficial/emotional)

 Absolutely  Utmost important

 Obviously  Clearly shows
 Apparently  Particularly
 Significantly  Presently
 Very clear  Currently
 Very first day  Recently

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 4. Dead phrases

 in the event that  for the most part

 in the nature of  for the purpose of
 it has been estimated that  in a manner of speaking
 it seems that  in a very real sense
 the point I am trying to make  in my opinion
 what I mean to say is  in the case of
 it may be argued that  in the final analysis

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 Reduce words

Wordy phrase Equivalent

• Due to the fact that Due to
• A majority of most
• A number of many
• Are of the same opinion agree
• At the present moment now
• By means of by
• Less frequently occurring rare

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How to use punctuation.?

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 Terminologies

Noun: a noun is a word that identifies a person, animal, place, thing, or

idea. e.g. Lamp, Pen, Mosque, Money, Love etc.

Pronouns: the words that can replace nouns. e.g. I, We, They, You, He,
She, It

Adjective: a word naming an attribute of a noun, such as sweet, red,

or technical. Highly, Significantly

Proverb: a short, well-known saying, stating a general truth

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Use of the Comma(,)

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Use of the Comma(,)

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Use of the semicolon(;)

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 Use of Colon (:)
Join two independent clauses with a colon if the second interprets
or amplifies the first:
Companies use Marsh for the same reason that home sellers use real-
estate agents: the agent’s knowledge and experience is supposed to
help the client get the right deal at the right price.
“The hydrogen bonds are made as follows: purine position 1 to
pyrimidine position 1; purine position 6 to pyrimidine position 6.”
Quotations,Formal quotations, cited as documentary evidence, are
introduced by a colon and enclosed in quotation marks.

The provision of the Constitution is: “No tax or duty shall

be laid on articles exported from any state.

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Take Home Message.?

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 Reference/Contact detail

E.mail: naimrashid@cuilahore.edu.pk

Office: Room # 25, Faculty block , CUI, Lahore Campus

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers
https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/writing-research/writing-skills
https://www.springeropen.com/roadmapasia/author-workshop
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