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Knowing When You’re Ready to Publish

Knowing When You’re Ready to Publish. Benhur Lee UCLA ASV 2009. Common Themes (anecdotal survey of NAS members, HHMI investigators, Dept Chairs, & other enfant terrible of science ). Do the data tell a (complete) story? Define “complete” Is the story interesting? Define “interesting”

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Knowing When You’re Ready to Publish

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  1. Knowing When You’re Ready to Publish Benhur Lee UCLA ASV 2009

  2. Common Themes(anecdotal survey of NAS members, HHMI investigators, Dept Chairs, & other enfant terrible of science ) • Do the data tell a (complete) story? • Define “complete” • Is the story interesting? • Define “interesting” • Are the results convincing? • Define “convincing” • “Novelty”, “Significance” and other criteria mentioned above are all matters of scientific judgment

  3. Scientific Judgment • Scientific judgment, like clinical judgment in medicine and judicial judgment in law, comes from experience--that’s why we have mentors • a sensibility to underlying structures in your field (to be aware of, but not be confined by, prevailing theories) • a certain grasp of nuance -“a feel for the organism” • an ability to see the whole through a maze of complexities (biological insight) • an openness of mind to new or alternative possibilities/explanations

  4. So, when do you know you’re ready to publish? • Every project is different and unique • Difficult to come up with a consistent set of rules or recommendations that can be generalized “After thinking about this a bit, I would say that the best advice for graduate student and postdocs is that they are ready to publish when their far-more-experienced mentor decides it is time to publish. . . Experience means everything”anonymous HHMI investigator

  5. What kind of STORY do you want to tell? • A self-contained chapter that is part of a bigger story • This may go to a less “ambitious” journal, but may be important to get the chapter out • An entire story with all the essential chapters • a “blockbuster” paper that takes several years to complete • A short story that is entirely novel • Only happens when all the stars align, or when serendipity meets the truly prepared mind

  6. What kind of STORY do you want to tell? • What standards do you use? • Depends on the type of story • Standards for scientific soundness should not changed, but • the degree of detail, • the comprehensive of your characterization, • depends on whether you are telling on a story that is novel and “hot”, or filling in details of a mechanism

  7. Novel & “Hot” Establishes a new paradigm Resolves conflicting models in a way that propels a field forward Revolutionary technology that opens up new modes of investigation Detailed mechanisms or characterization What kind of STORY do you want to tell? Whether this chapter is complete is more subject to interpretation Pathway to completion is sometimes more clear; formal experiments to justify your claim are more obvious

  8. What kind of STORY do you want to tell? • How to balance your needs and your PIs? • Productivity is important--are you part of other stories coming out from your PI’s lab? • Maintaining a steady stream of publications is important, so that you (and your PI’s lab) are associated with a body of work and a certain set of expertise

  9. Useful Strategies • Outline manuscript • Figures and Legends (Plan your flow) • In Hollywood parlance, this is your “storyboard” that you’ll pitch to the studio head (journal editor) • What is the logic of each transition? • Is your plot coherent? • Do you have a focal point? (making too many points often dilute the focus of your paper) • Every story must have a main protagonist • When in doubt, start sooner rather than later • You’ll never know if you have a story until you outline it first • “Storyboarding” your paper gets you started quickly, and uses something (your data) that you are familiar with

  10. Useful Strategies • Start sooner rather than later because the process of writing is illuminative • Actual synthesis of ideas and data may help one see the bigger picture and reveal potential holes • Do you have enough data to support the central focus of your paper? (you should) • Do you have to speculate a lot in your discussion to underscore the significance of your results? (you shouldn’t . . . too much speculation is a sign of incompleteness)

  11. Useful Strategies • There are many ways to tell a story, but probably an optimal way to SELL one • who is your target audience/journal? • what is the “hook”? • You can always do one more experiment, but is it critical to the central focus of your paper? • Will it markedly change the conclusion of your paper? • Will it help resolve the most speculative parts in your discussion, and help underscore the significance of your results? • Will it be the singular cause for rejection? (this depends on the type of story you are trying to tell and how high “impact” a journal you are striving for)

  12. Acknowledgements • Many faculty at UCLA and elsewhere who answered my survey • My post-doc mentor (Bob Doms) who set the first example • The many superlative scientists whose experience I have tried to distill

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