国际学术刊物文章写作与投稿

安若鹏 博士
Ruopeng An, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Kinesiology and Community Health

11/22/2021
 文章刊发的客观要素

• 文章立意的新颖程度
• 文章方法论的坚实程度
• 文章所分析数据的质量
• 文章选题与刊物的契合程度
• 文章是否符合国际学术研究和写作规范
 文章刊发的主观要素

• 作者的态度决定一切
• 作者的投稿战术至关重要
• 作者的学术道德是能否走得长远的决定因素
• 编辑和审稿人所起的作用
 Key Determinants of Productivity

Writing skills vs. management skills

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 Key Determinants of Productivity

Time management: the metaphor of ball juggling

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 Key Determinants of Productivity

Time management: protect against time fragmentation

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 Key Determinants of Productivity
Team management: cornerstone of mass production

 Rule of relative advantage: Talents are not born equal

 One big team vs. multiple small teams

 Hierarchy pyramid vs. flat network

 Rule of reciprocity: Everything is business, and business lasts…

 Equality vs. motivation

 “Let's make everything clear at the beginning”

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 Outline: 8 Essential Steps
• Research question formation
• Data collection
• Methods and analysis
• Result interpretation
• Manuscript drafting
• Journal selection
• Revision & resubmission
• Post-publication activities
 Research Question Formation

Research question first or data first: chicken

or egg?
 Research Question Formation

Where can a research question come from?

-Academic reading
-News reading
-Chatting & discussion
-Daily experiences & observations
-Nowhere
…
 Research Question Formation

How do you tell if it is a good one?

FINER criteria (Cummings et al., 1988):
• Feasible
• Interesting/innovative
• Novel
• Ethical
• Relevant/refinement
 Research Question Formation
A checklist of potential research questions:
• Is the research question something I/others care
about?
• Is it arguable?
• Does the research question shed light on a
practical or theoretical problem?
• Is it too broad or too narrow?
• Is the research question researchable within the
given time frame and resource?
 Research Question Formation
A research question can almost always be
simplified to the relationship between A and B,
sometime via the mediating effect from C.
For example:
A B
A B
A B
A C B
 Research Question Formation
What do you think of the following research
questions? Why?

• Air pollution is an important issue in the US

• Air pollution negatively impacts human health
• Small particulate matter (PM2.5) is positively
associated with physical inactivity among U.S.
adults
 Research Question Formation

How much should I read before developing

or refining a research question?
 Data Collection

A decision to make: use existing data, or collect

my own?
• Research question
• Resources available
• Time sensitivity
• Client’s perspective
 Data Collection

Measures: what do we need and how do we get

them?
• Outcome(s) of interest
• Subjective vs. objective
• Precision (intensity) vs. sample size
(extensity)
• Resources & time frame
• Validity & reliability
 Data Collection
Study design: driving data collection or driven
by collected data?

Case 1: difference in emergency room use rate

among children living in close neighborhoods

Case 2: difference in obesity prevalence across

racial/ethnic groups in the U.S.
 Methods and Analysis

Study design first, then analysis…

 Methods and Analysis

Weigh the pros and cons of alternative study

designs:
• Randomized controlled trials
• Prospective studies
• Retrospective studies
• Pre-post studies
• Cross-sectional studies
• Case studies
 Methods and Analysis
Qualitative vs.
quantitative:

• Is there a hard line?

• Does qualitative
study care less about
study design and
analytical methods?
 Methods and Analysis
• Do I need statistics?

• How much do I
need to know about
statistics?

• Is statistics a silver
bullet?
 Methods and Analysis
Think twice: Can I satisfactorily answer my
research question using the proposed methods?
• Pitfalls
• Limitations
• Loopholes
• Alternative explanations
• Borrow a few other brains for different
perspectives!
 Methods and Analysis
Enrich your study and make it more population-
specific by conducting subgroup analysis
• By gender
• By age group
• By race/ethnicity
• By income level
• By education attainment
• By geographic location…
 Results Interpretation
• Summarize study results: do they make sense?
Why or why not?
• Results < -- > analyses: an iterative loop
• Statistical significance: science or religion?
• Result presentation: a battle between
precision/comprehensiveness,
concision/selectiveness, and comprehensibility
• Put result in the context of literature and
practice
 Manuscript Drafting
• Abstract: focus on the “meat”
• Is there an order in manuscript drafting?
• Introduction: concise but significant
• Methods: for the purpose of replication
• Results: no comments allowed; order by
importance
• Discussion: a well-rounded argument
 Journal Selection
• Go by the order of impact factor?
• Relevance first!
• Journal goal vs. latest issues
• Rules on authorship
• Time sensitivity
• Reviewer suggestion/avoidance: does it
make a difference after all?
 Practice
• Journal goal: http://www.nature.com/ejcn/about.html

• Journal ranking:
• http://
www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=2916

• Latest issue:
• http://
www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/vaop/ncurrent/index.ht
ml#21102015
 Revision & Resubmission
• What to do following a rejection?
• Editor & or vs. reviewers?
• Review comments: consensus vs.
polarization
• Resubmission: to do or not to do?
• Revision: what to do and what not to do?
 Post-publication activities
• Do a press release? Pros and cons
• Study of what charteristics attract media the
most?
• How best prepared for a media interview?
• Ready for critics and questions: importance
of organizing/storing your completed
project
• Future work? Season 2, 3, and 4…
 Practice
• Read a few media stories about the
assigned paper. Do they go toward the
direction as the author intends them to
go?
Guardian

Los Angeles Times

07/20/2015

07/20/2015
Why restaurant food is unhealthy as fast version, by study

Is fast food better for you than a sit-down restaurant meal? Study suggests yes

TIME 07/17/2015 Restaurant food may be unhealthier than fast food

FOX 07/16/2015 Restaurant food not much healthier than fast food

Washington Post 07/15/2015 Restaurant meals may be as full of fat, calories, cholesterol and sodium as fast foo
d, study says
Reuters 07/15/2015 Restaurant food not much healthier than fast food

NPR 07/07/2015 Why sit-down meals may be just as unhealthful as fast food

CBS 07/06/2015 Is fast food more diet-safe than full-service restaurant food?

CBS 07/01/2015 Restaurant meals can be as bad for your waistline as fast food

UIUC News Bureau 07/01/2015 Study: Restaurant meals can be as bad for your waistline as fast food is