Writing Scientific Research Articles : Strategy and Steps

Section 1 A framework for success
1 How the book is organized, and why
1.1 Getting started with writing for international publication
1.2 Publishing in the international literature
1.3 Aims of this book
1.4 How the book is structured
2 Research article structures
2.1 Conventional article structure: AIMRaD (Abstract, Introduction,
Materials and methods. Results, and Discussion) and its variations
3 Referees’ criteria for evaluating manuscripts
3.1 Titles as content sign posts
Section 2 When and how to write each article section
4 Results as a "story": the key driver of an article
5 Results: turning data into knowledge
5.1 Figure, table, or text?
5.2 Designing figures
5.3 Designing tables
5.4 Figur legends and table titles
6 Writing about results
6.1 Functions of results sentences
6.2 Verb tense in Results sections
7 The methods section
7.1 purpose of the Methods section
7.2 Organizing Methods sections
7.3 Use of passive and active verbs
8 The Introduction
8.1 Five stages to a compelling Introduction
8.2 Stage 1: Locating your project within an existing field
of scientific research
8.3 Using references in Stages 2 and 3
8.4 Avoiding plagiarism when using others’ work
8.5 Indicating the gap or research niche
8.6 Stage 4: The statement of purpose or main activity
8.7 Suggested process for drafting an Introduction
8.8 Editing for logical flow
9 The Discussion section
9.1 Important structural issues
9.2 information elements to highlight the key messages
9.3 Negotiating the strength of claims
10 The title
10.1 Strategy 1: Provide as much relevant information
as possible, but be concise
10.2 Strategy 2; Use keywords prominently
10.3 Strategy 3: Choose strategically: noun phrase, statement,
or question?
10.4 Strategy 4: Avoid ambiguity in noun phrases
11 The Abstract
11.1 Why Abstracts are so important
11.2 Selecting additional keywords
11.3 Abstracts: typical information elements
Section 3 Getting your manuscript published
12 Considerations when selecting a target journal
12.1 The scope and aims of the journal
12.2 The audience for the journal 12.3 Journal impact
12.4 Using indices of journal quality
12.5 Time to publication
12.6 Page charges or Open Access costs
13 Submitting a manuscript
13.1 Five practices of successful authors
13.2 Understanding the pee ocess
13.3 Understanding the ed’
13.4 The contributor’s cov
13.5 Understanding the n e
13.6 Understanding the ( continued)
14 How to respond to editor and referees
14.1 Rules of thumb
14.2 How to deal with manuscript rejection
14.3 How to deal with "conditional acceptance" or "revise and resubmit"
15 A process for preparing a manuscript
15.1 Initial preparation steps
15.2 Editing procedures
15.3 A pre-review checklist
Section 4 Developing your publication skills further
16 Skill-development strategies for groups and individuals
16.1 Journal clubs
16.2 Writing groups
16.3 Selecting feedback strategies for different purposes
16.4 Training for responding to reviewers
17 Developing discipline-specific English skills
17.1 Introduction
17.2 What kinds of English errors matter most?
17.3 Strategic (and acceptable!) language re-use; sentence templates
17.4 More about noun phrases
17.5 Concordancing: a tool for developing your discipline-specific English
17.6 Using the English articles (a/an, the) appropriately
in science writing
17.7 Using which and that
Section 5 Provided example articles
18 Provided example article 1: Kaiser et al. (2003)
19 Provided example article 2: Britton-Simmons and Abbott (2008)