Writing and Publishing a Research Paper 

Dr. K. Padmanabhan FIIPE, FIE, CE(I), FISME

Professor and Asst DirectorCentre for Excellence in Nano CompositesVIT-UniversityVellore 632014Padmanabhan.k@vit.ac.in

Academic Staff College- VIT-University, Vellore- 632014. 26/11/2014

Why write and publish research papers?

Ideally – to share research findings and discoveries

with the hope of improving knowledge basePractically –

to get fundingto get promotedto get recognition

for knowledge sharing and achievement

“ You are rated by what you produce, not by what you attempt”

Getting a paper published

Competition for space in journals is intense

Cost of publication is high.

Rejection rates vary Journal X = 50% Journal Y= 65% Science, Nature = 90%

Tips

1. Know the journal, its editors, and submit the paper

2. Pay close attention to spelling, grammar, and punctuation

3. Make sure references are comprehensive and accurate

4. Avoid careless mistakes

5. Read and conform to “Instructions for Authors”

Publish or perish

What constitutes good science?

Novel – new and not resembling something formerly known or used (can be novel but not important)

Mechanistic – testing a hypothesis - determining the fundamental processes involved in or responsible for an action, reaction, or other natural phenomenon

Descriptive – describes how things are but does not test how things work – hypotheses are not tested.

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Publishing

Elsevier’s Advise !

What constitutes a good journal?Impact factor –

average number of times published papers are cited up to two years after publication.

Immediacy Index – average number of times published papers are cited during year of publication.

Lead time or incubation time- average time taken for paper from receipt to publication

ISSN- ISBN possessing international standard serial (or book) number, meaning recognized.

Journal citation report

Journal Impact Factor Immediacy Index

Nature 30.979 06.679 Science 29.162 05.589

Hypertens 05.630 00.838 AJ P Heart 03.658 00.675 Physiol Rev 36.831 03.727

Am J Math 00.962 00.122 Ann Math 01.505 00.564

AM J MATH 0002-9327 002353 00.962 00.122 AM J MATH 0002-9327 002353 00.962 00.122

Things to consider before writing

1. Time to write the paper? - has a significant advancement been made?- is the hypothesis straightforward?- did the experiments test the hypothesis?- are the controls appropriate and sufficient?- can you describe the study in 1 or 2 minutes?- can the key message be written in 1 or 2 sentences?

“Those who have the most to say usually say it with the fewest words”

Things to consider before writing

1. Time to write the paper? - has a significant advancement been made?- is the hypothesis straightforward?- did the experiments test the hypothesis?- are the controls appropriate and sufficient?- can you describe the study in 1 or 2 minutes?- can the key message be written in 1 or 2 sentences?

2. Tables and figures - must be clear and concise- should be self-explanatory

3. Read references - will help in choosing journal- better insight into possible reviewers

Things to consider before writing

4. Choose journal - study “instructions to authors”- think about possible reviewers- quality of journal “impact factor”

5. Tentative title and summary

6. Has considerable work been done to warrant a publication ?

7. Aim and scope of the journal. Does it go with your definition?

Writing the manuscript

The hardest part is getting started !

Kick Start !

Types of journal papers• Letters to the editor/Commentary• Science and technology articles• Short communication• Technical note/case study• Original paper/research paper !• Review Opinion, Brief notes. • paper , Book Reviews.• Monographs and Books.• STP papers, Theme papers in special issues !• Online journal paper articles.

Parts of an original research paper

TitleAbstract and keywordsIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionAcknowledgementsReferences

Write in what order?

TitleAbstract and Keywords IntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionAcknowledgementsReferences

Theoretical Considerations

• Sometimes you need this section !• Build a theory or buy a theory [Refer] !• Give relevant formulae • Give relevant equations with symbols defined • Number them all in sequence • Discuss parameters to be evaluated • Justify your choices • This should precede your experimental details

or methods section !

Materials and methods

Best to begin writing when experiments lead somewhere. Should be detailed enough so results can be reproduced by others. Reference published methods where appropriate. Include regulated use approval information ( like toxic substances). Use descriptive subheadings

Starting materials Synthesis Materials characterization

Results

Images and equations with continuity can be effective ( representative descriptions) Tables and figures must be straight forward and concise

Present main findings referring to tables/figures.

Do not repeat results in the paper but they must be repeatable (by you) and reproducible ( by others).Error bars, statistical details

Introduction

Build case for why study is important/necessary

Provide brief background

State hypothesis / central question or theme

Give a paragraph about what the investigation proposes to do

Discussion

First answer questions posed in introduction

Discuss the possible mechanisms

Discuss weaknesses and discrepancies

Explain what is new without exaggerating

Do not repeat discussion or speculate too much

Conclusions/Summary

Conclusions Summary Perspectives Implications Suggestions for future work

References

Relevant references

Be selective based on credibility

Read the references before referring

Do not misquote

Use correct style and format for journal Cite patents carefully, don’t misquote (IP rights)

Abstract

Critical part of the paper

State main objective

Summarize most important results

State major conclusions and significance

Avoid acronyms

Write and rewrite until flawless Provide the right keywords for indexing

Title

Will determine whether paper gets read Avoid long titles (see journal rules) Avoid abbreviations Title format:

“The effects of heat on ice”“Heat melts ice”“The role of heat in melting ice”

Acknowledgements

Grant funding.People who read the paper or contributed to discussion and/or ideas. People who gave tools e.g. probesTechnical and secretarial assistance

Revise, Revise and Revise All authors should participate, only one is the corresponding author.

Review order of data presentation

Polish the writing style

Double check references

Look for typos

Double check spelling ( UK ?, American ? ) Other foreign language journals, Translation

WHATEVER TENSE IS USED, BE CONSISTENT ANDDON’T SWITCH BACK AND FORTH IN THE SAMEPARAGRAPH !!!

What you did can be in past tense but what you found out ( eternal truths ) must be in present tense !

Avoid long passive voices in technical writing!

Develop a good writing style

•Read well written articles•Try to get good writers to review•Learn from editing changes•Learn editing and correcting symbols•Learn proof reading and correcting•Good copy-editing and formatting according to journal requirement !•Avoid plagiarism ( copying other papers)

Self-Plagiarism from Copyrights !

Journal Paper Formats• American Chemical Society, Siva (1994),

Alphabetical order…..• Psychological Society Format, ( Closer to Am.

Ch.Soc format)• Modern Language Association, Purdue University’s

OWL ( On-line Writing Lab) format.• American Ceramic Society [ Ref. Nos. in square

brackets ]. Very popular !• Vancouver Format, ( Issue, Vol:, pp, Year )• Nature journals , Ref .Nos. in superscripts .

Submission

1. Read instructions carefully2. Fill out all necessary forms ( Some times before

acceptance )Copyright transferConflict of interest

3. Write covering letter (suggest reviewers if possible)

4. Confirm receipt , follow up communication, acknowledge

Process of a Research Paper !Completion of research

Preparation of manuscript

Submission of manuscript

Assignment and review

Decision

Revision

Resubmission

Acceptance

Publication

Rejection

Responding to Reviewers

1. Carefully prepare your responsesEach comment should be addressedEach change should be stated/highlightedBe enthusiastic

2. Reviewer may be wrong3. Be tactful – thank the reviewers4. Do not respond to reviewers while upset5. Get help from other authors6. Address the corrections to the chief editor

Single blind & double blind review process !

Conference Papers

• International conference papers appearing in a special issue of a journal (reviewed)

• International conference papers in conference proceedings ( reviewed), CD or hardcopy

• National conference papers (reviewed)• International/national seminar papers• International/national workshop papers• Symposium papers• Review meeting/Society AGM presentations …..

Technical reports

• Thesis, dissertation• Funded project reports and documents• Consultancy project reports • Interim reports ( Annual, bi-annual….)• PG/UG project reports• Mini project reports • Case studies• Feasibility reports

The Science Citation Index• The Science Citation Index (SCI) is a citation index originally

produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield in 1960, which is now owned by Thomson Reuters. The larger version (Science Citation Index Expanded) covers more than 6,500 notable and significant journals, across 150 disciplines, from 1900 to the present. These are alternately described as the world's leading journals of science and technology, because of a rigorous selection process. The index is made available online through the Web of Science database, a part of the Web of Knowledge collection of databases. (There are also CD and printed editions, covering a smaller number of journals). This database allows a researcher to identify which later articles have cited any particular earlier article, or cited the articles of any particular author, or determine which articles have been cited most frequently. Thomson Reuters also markets several subsets of this database, termed "Specialty Citation Indexes", such as the Neuroscience Citation Index and the Chemistry Citation Index

Journals Search• RSC journals search engines• Scopus , Thomson- Reuter search engines• Springer link• Science direct• Publishing houses search like Elsevier, Taylor

and Francis, Inderscience, IGI Global, Nova, ASM, ASTM, ASME, Tata McGraw-Hill, Wiley Eastern, Pearson Education….

• Other society or organization journal sites, publishing house catalogues

• Google and other search engines !

h- Index• The h-index is an index that attempts to measure

both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications. The index can also be applied to the productivity and impact of a group of scientists, such as a department or university or country. The index was suggested by Jorge E. Hirsch, a physicist at UCSD, as a tool for determining theoretical physicists' relative quality and is sometimes called the Hirsch index or Hirsch number.

h- Index• The index is based on the distribution of citations

received by a given researcher's publications. Hirsch writes:– A scientist has index h if h of [his/her] Np papers have

at least h citations each, and the other (Np − h) papers have at most h citations each.

• In other words, a scholar with an index of h has published h papers each of which has been cited by others at least h times. Thus, the h-index reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication.

The other indices !• g-index: Egghe proposed the g-index as a modification of the h-index to

give more weight to highly cited papers. It is defined "the highest number g of papers that together received g2 or more citations (Egge L (2006) Theory and practise of the g-index. Scientometrics 69(1):131-152)

• m quotient: In his orginal paper, Hirsch considered the rate of increase of h with career length.  Hirsch proposed dividing the h-index by number of years since a scientist's first publication and called this quotient m.(Hirsch JE (2005) An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. PNAS 102:16569-16572)

• i10 index:  is the number of publications with at least 10 citations. It was introduced in July 2011 by Google as part of their work on Google Scholar, a search engine dedicated to academic and related papers ("Google Scholar Citations Open To All", Google, 16 November 2011) .

• The statistical R and AR indices are also being used recently !

As a general principle, a single metric such as the

h-index should not be used to rank job

candidates, promotions or research grant

applications, because research performance is

multi-faceted ! An example of a successful paper, now !

The Most cited Papers are Natural !

“The lowry paper,” as it is known, stands head-and-shoulders above all others. This 1951 article by Oliver H. Lowry Nira J. Rosenbrough, A. Lewis Farr, and R.J. Randall, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, 193,265-75, reported an improved procedure for measuring proteins. It still ranks as the King of the Classics, with over 180,000 citations by the end of 1987. It continues to receive 10,000 citations per year. Why is this the most cited paper? Lowry observed: “It filled a need in the beginning—and a lot of people measure proteins. Once it became established... other people may have thought it was the method to use, or at least checked the procedure they were using against it.” At about the same time—in 1976— Marion M. Bradford published “A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein dye-binding” in Analytical Biochemistry, 72, 248-54. Many now cite the Bradford paper instead of the lowry paper—more and more all the time. With about 20,000 citations by the end of last year, the Bradford paper is now the fourth most cited paper in the SCI. The runner-up to Lowry, written by Ulrich Karl Laemmli, was published in Nature, 227, 680-5. “Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4” accumulated nearly 50,000 citations between its publication in 1970 and the end of 1987. This procedure has not been superseded, which explains its steady rise in the chart. The third most cited article, with just over 20,000 citations is “Reliability of molecular weight determinations by dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis,” by K. Weber and M. Osborn, published in 1969 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, 244, 4406-12. The record of citations to this article shows a more typical pattern for well-known and highly cited

Most of the top ten highly cited papers are about nature and biology !

Rig Veda on Infinity

pûrnamadah pûrnamidam pûrnât pûrnamudacyate pûrnâsya

pûrnamadaya pûrnamevâvasishyate

From infinity is born infinity.When infinity is taken out of infinity,

only infinity is left over.

Thank You and Questions ?

Thank You and Questions ?