Writing research paper

Krishna Misra
IIITAllahabad

February 2, 2022
Major steps in research process
❖ Reading literature for the topic of research
❖ Identification of what is known /unknown.
❖ Formulation of problem resulting in testable
hypothesis
❖ Collection of data through experimentation or
interviewing people (design materials and methods)
❖ Analysis of data and interpretation
❖ Conclusion drawn (a new patch is added to the
knowledge puzzle)leading to new approaches(cycle)
A scientific publication and other forms of
communication
Improve your writing

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain

no unnecessary words , a paragraph no unnecessary
sentences , for the same reason that a drawing should
have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary
parts . This requires not that the writer make all
sentences short , or avoid all detail and treat subjects
only in outline, but that every word tell”

[From the Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr .and E. B. White (2000

by Allen and Bacon)]
Writing paper is like building a house
► Like building a house scientific paper is also putting pieces together
► Before you build the walls and rooms (material, methods, results, tables,
figures)you need a plan (outline) and a foundation ( basic knowledge).
► The door and the windows (introduction and literature review) are
produced separately and put in place later.
► The house is kept together by the roof (discussion) ending up with a
chimney for smoke (conclusions) to be spread widely
► For a sound structure parts must be adjusted to fit together just like
logical transitions are needed throughout in the paper.
► Once the house is in place it is simple to make an overview picture
of it (abstract)
► Start writing early in your research career, sooner you start better it
is
 Alternative
forms of Question ?
communication Answer
known or
Abstract unknown
Infer new
knowledge
Scientific paper Concept of
Conclusion problem
Main
Discussion Sections Of Introduction Hypothesis
A Scientific
Results Paper
Interpretation Materials & Plan of work
+ conclusion Methods

Analysis of
results Major Steps In Research Process

Experiment (Data
collection)
Main sections of a scientific paper
Most scientific journals follow a standard format i.e.,
⮚ Title
⮚ Abstract
⮚ Introduction
⮚ Materials and Methods
⮚ Results
⮚ Discussion
⮚ Conclusion
⮚ References
⮚ Acknowledgement/supplementary material/tables/figures are optional
⮚ Sometimes Results and Discussion are combined in one section, theory
may replace materials and methods.
 Using the appropriate word

An epigenomic study to find (locate)the

genes involved in antistress mechanism in
Arabidopsisthaliana using highthroughput
genomic data
Abstract (Title)

The recent State of the World's Plants report from the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew estimates that 50,000 of the ∼390,000
known vascular plant species are at risk of extinction. Given the
rarity of so many plants, coupled with widespread environmental
destruction over the past quarter-century, we might expect that
a lot of plants should have gone extinct. Indeed, estimates made
in the early 1990s suggest that up to 30,000 species should have
gone extinct by 2015 . Yet, the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species
database for 2016 has fewer than 150 extinct species. How can
we explain this discrepancy?
 Title for abstract

►Plant extinctions take time

►Rate of extinction of plants is much slower
than estimated
►Estimated number of extinct plants is much
less than expected
 Abstract & Key words
❖ Most important, should be indicative for audience to read
the whole paper or reject
❖ Abstract indicates objectives of research and suggests results
in general terms.
❖ It makes reader inquisitive so he/she want to read it.
❖ An informative abstract describes the research problem and
supports conclusion with data.
❖ It should stand alone without referring to full paper.
❖ Start briefly with motivation, justification(present
tense) ,state objectives (past tense), continue with
approach, main results (past tense) and end with important
conclusions and impact (present tense).
❖ Key words must form the subject index of the journal and
best describe your research
 Introduction

⮚ Introduction should make it clear to the reader that topic is

important and objective is justified.
⮚ Should provide necessary background
⮚ Explain rationale of study, clearly stating objectives and
approach
⮚ Relevant literature should be summarized briefly with
references
⮚ State the gap between known and unknown, how question
has been answered and hypothesis answered
 Introduction ……….
► Review papers have generally short introduction followed
with long discussion of literature with appropriate
headings and subheadings
► Objectives (past tense) and review of literature (past
tense or present perfect tense), motivation/justification
(present tense)
► Example :
► I did research (Past tense) (Emphasizes past effect)
► I have done research (Present perfect tense) (Emphasizes
present effect)
 Recent literature should be cited

All relevant recent references should be given

Try to cite review references for all old literature,

e.g. if a review is written in 1990 , please try to
check references given therein and do not include
references published earlier than that year in your
paper.
Materials and Methods
❖ Must provide clear, concise and complete description for experimental , analytical
and statistical procedures.
❖ Give source /quality/catalogue no. of materials/chemicals and name and model of
equipments used
❖ An already published procedure should not be described in detail, only give
reference but mention modifications.
❖ Should be written in such a way that any other researcher can repeat it.
❖ State quantities in standard units
❖ Microorganisms must be named by genus, species and strain
❖ For enzymes EC no. (Enzyme commission no.)should be given
❖ For drugs chemical names should be used not trade names
❖ Sampling procedures to be given for surveys
❖ For data analysis mention software used along with mathematical model(s) and
statistical methods used
 Correct nomenclature

The plant Phalaris minor is reported not

always in the same way: phalaris minor or
P. minor.
Phalaris minor should appear in full text
only the first time and in all other cases
should appear as P. minor
 Results and Discussion
⮚ May be separate or combined (see instructions to
authors)
⮚ If separate , give summary of your research (only
results) no comparisons
⮚ If combined give comparison with literature
⮚ Results can be best written in the form of figures and
tables (select the most important and send the rest
as supplementary material).
⮚ Data from tables need not be repeated in text
⮚ Figure and table number must be mentioned in text
⮚ Results can be expressed as Means and standard
deviations from data in tables
 Results and Discussion cont….
⮚ Results should be interpreted clearly, concisely and
logically under discussion section (no repetition of data)
⮚ Results should be correlated with objectives
⮚ Mention whether literature report supports or contradicts
your results. Give logical explanation for contradictions.
⮚ Importance of negative (non-significant) results must also
be given.
⮚ Limitations of your work e.g. design of experiment,
statistical analysis etc should be mentioned
⮚ Results to be written in past tense, interpretation of results
in present tense and literature citation in past tense.
⮚ Combining Results and Discussion can avoid repetition
Combining Results and Discussion avoids repetition

Results
It was found that X was more active than Y

Discussion
Since X was more active than Y the implication……..

Results and Discussion

It was found that X was more active than B which implies that
………..
 Conclusion
❖ Summary of research results and their meaning in
general.
❖ No extrapolation (the action of estimating or concluding something
by assuming that existing trends will continue or a current method will
remain applicable.)

❖ Interpretation of the impact of research results.

❖ No reference to literature.
❖ Future plan of work
❖ Present tense
 Acknowledgement

⮚ General and specific

⮚ General: Gratitude to Institute, laboratory or
sponsoring agency
⮚ Specific: For colleagues, technicians or reviewer
⮚ Dedication
⮚ Whether part of thesis or dissertation
 References
⮚ Citation in text or reference list should be in
accordance with the style of the journal
⮚ All references in the list should be mentioned in the
text and visa versa
⮚ Latest publications upto the year of paper submission
must be mentioned.
⮚ If numbered in the text sequence must be followed
⮚ EndNote is the industry standard software tool for
publishing and managing bibliographies, citations and
references on the Windows and Macintosh desktop.
 How does EndNote help you in research

► In searching hundreds of online resources for references

► To find full text for any reference in one click
► To read, review, annotate (the act of adding notes or
comments ) and search PDFs
► To create rules to automatically organize references as
you work
► To keep your data accurate with automatic reference
and link updating
► To share a library or just a portion with new group
collaboration options
 Applications of End note contd……

►To build your bibliography using the latest

reference types
►To ensure bibliographic accuracy with refreshed
journal and referencing styles
►To track your teammates’ changes and view their
activity on your shared library
►To access research from your desktop, online, or
your iPad
Appendix (Supplementary material)

⮚ Material which is not essential for understanding

paper but is helpful.
⮚ Examples are, derivations of mathematical formulae
or proofs, questionnaires, details of analytical
procedures like spectral data, new computer
programs, algorithms etc.
⮚ May be procured from author on a web site, if
address is available
what should be sent as supplementary
material
❑ Chemical syntheses constitute a huge amount of work
that is not emphasized in the Results section.
❑ However, this part in the Material and Methods should
be revised as they are redundant for the scope of the
selected journal.
❑ I suggest to provide more comprehensive schemes of
synthesis by adding for examples extraction,
purification and characterization of the product, and to
move the remaining part in Supplementary Material.
Summary of main sections of a scientific paper

Section Type of information for reader

⮚ Title What the paper is about
⮚ Abstract Short summary which can stand alone
⮚ Introduction Known and unknown about the problem
(Objectives)
⮚ Material and Methods What work has been done
⮚ Results What has been found
⮚ Discussion How you interpret the results
⮚ Conclusion Probable implications and impact
⮚ Acknowledgement Who contributed and how
⮚ References How to find the referred papers
⮚ Appendix Supplementary material
 Impact factor (IF) of Journal
► The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic
journal is a scientometric index that is a measure of the frequency with
which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular
year.
► It is used to measure the importance or rank of a journal by calculating
the times it's articles are cited
► The IF of a journal is not associated to the factors like quality of peer
review process and quality of content of the journal, but is a measure
that reflects the average number of citations to articles published in
journals.
► Impact factor can be calculated after completing the minimum of 3
years of publication; for that reason journal IF cannot be calculated for
new journals.
► The journal with the highest IF is the one that published the most
commonly cited articles over a 2-year period.
 Impact factor of Journals
► IF was first introduced by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for
Scientific Information (ISI,an academic publishing service) in 1956
► Garfield E. [The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. JAMA.
2006;295:90–3. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
► The relative number of citations an individual article receives is better
evaluated as “citation impact.”
► In a given year, the IF of a journal is the average number of citations
received per article published in that journal during the 2 preceding years.
► IFs are calculated each year by Thomson scientific for those journals that
it indexes, and are published in Journal Citation Reports
(http://www.thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_pro
ducts/a-z/journal_citation_reports/).
 SCI indexed journals, Clarivate, Scopus

► The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), developed and produced the Science
Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and the Arts and
Humanities Citation Index (AHCI).
► In 1992, the Thomson Corporation acquired ISI.
► In 2016, the scientific and scholarly information business of Thomson Reuters,
including the products and services of the former ISI, was spun out to private
ownership and rebranded as Clarivate.
► In general, Scopus provides a higher citation count than ISI, both in the Sciences
and in the Social Sciences and Humanities and provides a fairer comparison.
► To check if your manuscript is indexed in the ISI Web of Science, you can log on to
the following url http://mjl.clarivate.com/. Once you log in you can simply search
by the full journal name or the ISSN number. The search result will show if your
target journal is indexed in SCI.
The concept of impact factor is confusing

►What factor we have to take into consideration?

►Some high quality reputed journals are not
forwarded to the Thomson Reuters and not having
IF .
►Other e-journals are having different impact
factor but are considered.
►Therefore the concept of IF is complex and
confusing to the authors especially academicians.
 Calculation of Impact factor

► For example, Nature had an impact factor of 41.577 in 2017:

► This means that, on average, its papers published in 2015 and 2016 received roughly 42
citations each in 2017.
► Note that 2017 impact factors are reported in 2018; they cannot be calculated until all of
the 2017 publications have been processed by the indexing agency.
 Difference between the SJIF and the RJIF

►The SJIF refers to "Scientific Journal Impact Factor"

and RJIF to "Research Journal Impact Factor."
►The former is an indexing service for journals while
the latter is used to evaluate the prestige of
journals.
►Both products are owned by different companies
and could be considered offshoots of the Journal
Impact Factor (by Thomson Reuters now Clarivate).
 SJIF and RJIF
❖ Even though SJIF and RJIF exist and are used by
some (not a majority of) journals, they are not
considered in major academic decisions, e.g.,
those related to tenure.
❖ Also their credibility is not yet established,
whereas the JIF, being patented by a well-
established company is well known and
comparatively more credible.
❖ Note that publishing in a journal with a high
impact factor is not the only way or even the best
way to advance your career or boost your profile.
Learn Computer for technical writing

Thank you
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