Successful scientific writing a step by step guide for the biological and medical sciences

Preface to the second edition Mend your speech a little, lest it mar your fortune. – Shakespeare The catch phrase “Publish or Perish” – or its more upbeat variant, “Publish and Flourish” – seems to have as much validity as ever in the minds of scientists everywhere. The scientific community has long emphasized quantity and quality of scholarly publications as a way to judge the eminence of scientists. Granting agencies appear to do the same. Scores received by renewal applications for National Institutes of Health funding for research in universities and hospitals have been shown to correlate very strongly with the number of publications resulting from NIH grants. Perhaps it is not surprising that the publication rate of scientific information doubles about every 12 years (Stix, 1994), although few of us will be likely to match the output of a Russian chemist whose scientific productivity over 10 years totaled 948 papers, or about one publication every four days! All this writing . . . Does it really make any difference whether it is good, bad, or ugly? We believe it does, and that it matters a great deal, for words are tools of science no less than numbers are. Research is not complete until it is communicated, and publication in a refereed journal is the fundamental unit of scientific communication. The decision not only to write, but to make the effort to write well, lies at the heart of scientific literacy. To most minds, sloppy scientific writing indicates sloppy thinking, and both are disastrous to research and research reporting. The published word has remarkable persistence. A sloppily written or prematurely published paper can haunt a scientist to the end of his or her days. Over 30 years ago, an examination of the reasons why research grant applications were turned down showed that 12% of the rejected proposals were not approved because the investigators’ previously published work did not inspire confidence. Despite vast technological advances, there is no reason to expect that scientific writing is any less important today. Still, we never set out to be writers. Few scientists do. During our graduate training, we learned about statistics, research, experimentation; we were taught to use instruments and techniques we have seldom encountered again. There x Preface xi was never a word of guidance on writing a scientific paper, nor did we notice that this instruction was missing . . . at first. Once our working lives began we quickly learned that while a plumber can make a comfortable living without writing about his pipes, a scientist’s career is inextricably enmeshed with (some would say enslaved by) the need to write. So, like most scientists, we have stumbled along, learning writing skills by trial and error – now and then helped along by a benevolent senior faculty member or a friendly colleague. Now, as a new millennium begins, we find we have become that senior faculty member and, hopefully, those friendly colleagues as well. This guidebook is one outcome. Its goals are to help you to write effectively and efficiently, just as we would if we could meet with you in person. Because it forms such a major part of almost every scientist’s written communication, the research article in a biological, medical, or veterinary medical journal is the book’s main focus. However, the tips, techniques, and guidelines presented here apply to a variety of other writing contexts, from review articles to the popular press. The first edition of Successful Scientific Writing began as a brief manual requested by graduate students and new researchers affiliated with the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and their colleagues in human medicine and the biological sciences. This edition has been reorganized and expanded to offer increased guidance, additional examples, and more hands-on exercises. When you picked up this book, did you fear that it would center on split infinitives, case and tense, and other matters that sound only too much like English composition class? They will be covered – but we promise this won’t be grammar class revisited. We do not aspire to present you with a comprehensive reference work or stylebook, chock-full of detailed grammatical and stylistic rules and obscure exceptions to them. Where such specialized information might be desirable, we try instead to point you toward relevant resources. Efficiency and effectiveness include far more than wordsmithing. While good writing seems synonymous with a great deal of revising, rereading, and polishing, we believe that effective scientific writing is not as difficult to accomplish as many people try to make it. We hope to show you how to develop a strong organizational framework for both the task and the document, how to access the literature more effectively, and how to tailor your approach to your individual style. We have shared a potpourri of techniques which have been useful in our own writing – covering aspects as varied as overcoming writer’s block, using word processors, and constructing tables and graphs. To illustrate the guidelines and suggestions, we have provided abundant examples and exercises, many of which are based upon actual manuscripts slated for publication in scientific journals in the biological and medical sciences. Our scientific community is rapidly becoming an international one, and English is becoming a truly global language. New sections in this edition cover using the Internet and email, and special tips when writers and readers have different first languages. Because we are most accustomed to American spelling, grammar, abbreviations, and punctuation, we have usually followed American xii Preface conventions in these matters. However, we have tried to point out British equivalents or alternatives whenever possible. Any book can only do so much, especially in as personal an area as writing. Learning to write skillfully is, always has been, and must continue to be a handson experience. However, it needn’t be the random, slow, haphazard process that typically occurs in academic circles. Whether you use this book as an alternative to a formal course in science communication or to complement such a course, we hope that you will find that studying and applying this material increases your awareness of scientific writing style. Our goal is to help ease your approach to the writing that your chosen profession in the sciences will invariably call upon you to do. J. R. M. J. M. B. R. W. M. 1 Preparing to write Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. – Kurt Vonnegut Most of us were drawn to science because, like Vonnegut, we found a subject we feel deeply about, not just because we wanted to write about it. However, all scientists recognize that research must be made known if it is to have lasting value. This is how science moves forward, with the shared word illuminating each step of discovery for the sake of others that follow. “Scientific writing” can be defined narrowly as the reporting of original research in journals or more broadly to encompass other ways that scientists share research information with one another, such as review articles, posters, and slide-based presentations. (The term “science writing” is often used for writing about science topics for the general public.) Whatever form it takes, successful scientific writing must answer basic questions and address problems raised during the dialogs that identify and define a given subject. It must be clear, concise, and follow established formats. In many ways, its language forms a dialect all its own. What is the most efficient way to write a paper or presentation that successfully covers all this? This book exists to help you tackle the task, step by step. In this chapter, we suggest that you back up from actual writing, and start where your research does – with a question. Learn the most effective ways of compiling background information. For help defining, organizing, and planning the content, use techniques borrowed from problem-solving strategies. Choose a journal so that you have a goal and format. Finally, take charge of the whole project by using the Process Approach. SEARCH AND RESEARCH Any time we reach past our own knowledge and experience to seek out, investigate, and use materials beyond personal resources, research is involved. It may be the study of a subject through firsthand observation and investigation, such as carrying out a laboratory experiment, conducting a survey, or sifting through statistical data. Or it may be the examination of studies that other researchers 1 2 1 Preparing to write have made of a subject, as presented in books, articles, or scientific debates. Most often it is an amalgamation of the two, for literature research and laboratory research form a powerful combination. The first substantial writing that many beginning scientists produce is either a prospectus or progress report on their thesis, or dissertation research, or a short journal article written jointly with their supervisor or major professor. Increasingly, a detailed prospectus, including a literature review, is being requested before research projects can begin. Likewise, in business and industry, a wellwritten proposal often must precede approval for research projects, and its worth can influence promotion and pay. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find any scientific profession that would not require checking sources of information about a specific subject, integrating this information with one’s own ideas, and presenting thoughts, findings, and conclusions effectively. Conducting a comprehensive literature review Conducting a comprehensive literature review is undeniably a big job. Here are a few general points of advice to help you coordinate your work, followed by tips specific to conducting computer-based searches. Organization is a journey, not a destination A literature review means you’ll soon be handling an avalanche of papers – at the very least, personal notes, photocopies, journal reprints, and printed copies of electronic publications. It is essential to have some system in place to deal with all the information that will be converging upon you. What system is most effective? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. The popular press is brimming with suggestions, often coupled with explicit or implicit promises of spectacular life results if one can only become properly organized (for examples, see Aslett, 1996; Bolker, 1998). Seek out such materials if you feel you need motivation, inspiration, or novel approaches, but maintain your perspective. The secret to effective and efficient scientific writing isn’t simply in getting organized. It is in wanting to get the job done and committing oneself to do it. However, having a system from the beginning and consistently staying up with it can go a long way to keeping that commitment on track. Mind your Ps and Qs Whether you photocopy journal articles, request reprints, or print potentially helpful information from the Internet, you will soon amass a great many facts and ideas couched in the words of others. The old advice from typesetting days, “mind your Ps and Qs,” is worth remembering in this new context. First, watch the Ps – print materials. It will be tempting to use these copies as a substitute for taking notes. However, because of the way that writing and thinking are related to each other, it is actually more effective if you can begin to digest these written materials as you go along. Adopt a good note-taking procedure right from the start. Take many more notes than you think you need and prune them Search and research 3 later. Staple the notes to the print materials so they will remain together through the inevitable subsequent paper-shuffling. Second, watch the Qs – quoted material. To avoid unintentional plagiarism, always write notes in your own words. Indicate their source. If you must quote directly, use extreme care to identify quoted material either with quotation marks or with the letter Q. Use many different search strategies Trace information in all directions through time and space. Each search strategy has different strengths and weaknesses, and will uncover a somewhat different set of information. Later in this chapter, we will discuss computerized searches in some detail. However, the idea of networking pre-dates computer-based searches. For example, a time-honored search strategy called the Ancestry Approach starts by acquiring a research report and examining its references to find other relevant references. Through reiteration, researchers work their way back through the literature until either the important concepts disappear or the studies become so old they can be judged obsolete. A more recent set of searching tools employs the Descendency Approach. Citation indexes identify a publication’s offspring – those more recent books and journal articles that reference the earlier work. Make it easy to relocate relevant material Write the full journal source on each photocopy or computer printout, if the source is not printed somewhere on the page. For material obtained from online sources, list the author, if available; title, document, file, or website; date of the material; name of the database or other online source; date you accessed the source; and the full electronic address or Uniform Resource Locator (URL). It is particularly easy to forget how one actually located online material. To minimize this problem, it is a good idea to set up an electronic bookmark that identifies a location you may want to revisit. Over time these bookmarks will accumulate into a customized list that makes it easy to locate and return to particular sites. Use email as a timesaving resource Being transmitted in machine-readable form, email text can be printed, revised, and sent back, or even incorporated directly into another computer file without being retyped. These abilities can be used to your advantage in many ways. References, abstracts, and even entire articles located in a particular database can be directed to your personal email address. There you can download them, then print or add them directly to your computerized literature retrieval system. Conducting computer-based searches The way in which we obtain information is changing rapidly. A decade or two ago, most literature searching was done manually. Computerized literature