How to write a High Impact Research paper

1. How to write a High Impact Research paper

2. Learning objectives • What does it take to get a paper published? • What is High Impact vs. Low Impact writing? • How to structure and write a paper?

3. Lesson plan • General writing advice • High Impact papers and how to get ‘em • Purpose of a paper • Writing the paper • Writing process • Language and style • Common mistakes

4. What I won’t teach you… I won’t teach you to be a better writer! Reading Scientific literature Newspapers Blogs Classic literature Popular Science books Modern literature Writing Coursework/thesis Blogs Facebook rants e-mails texts Twitter Diary/Journal

5. What I won’t teach you… How to pass your ‘Lab’ report

6. General writing advice • clear - it avoids unnecessary detail; • simple - it uses direct language, avoiding vague or complicated sentences. Technical terms and jargon are used only when they are necessary for accuracy; • impartial - it avoids making assumptions (Everyone knows that ...) It presents how and where data were collected and supports its conclusions with evidence; • structured logically - ideas and processes are expressed in a logical order. The text is divided into sections with clear headings; • accurate - it avoids vague and ambiguous language such as about, approximately, almost; • objective - statements and ideas are supported by appropriate evidence that demonstrates how conclusions have been drawn as well as acknowledging the work of others.

7. General writing advice • Don’t leave writing to the last minute • Re-read what you’ve written – at least once • Re-read ‘out loud’ if possible – trust me! • When a word has a red or green line under – check it for spelling or grammar • Make a clear story board • Clump similar information together and deal with it at the same time

8. What is High Impact Research?

9. High Impact Research • Which research question should you work on if you want to make a big difference? • It is important: If you make progress, then the world will become a better place • It needs talent: If more people work on it, then more progress will be made • It needs your talent: If you work on it, then more progress will be made

10. High Impact Research • Work on a problem in a domain that is unexplored • Work on a big problem that is in the process of getting solved • Work on a problem that is interdisciplinary • Work on a problem that will attract funding • Work on a problem that is tractable

11. High Impact Research • Work on a problem where you are better than the competition • Intelligence • Skills • Resources • Hunger It is not these well-fed, long haired men I fear, but the pale and the hungry looking. Julius Ceasar

12. Increasing the impact of paper Marginal gains Disruptive gains

13. Increasing the impact of paper DATA FROM LAB DATA FROM LAB DATA FROM LAB HYPOTHESIS PAPER

14. The purpose of your paper

15. Fallacies about writing papers Papers are to used to baffle readers into believing weak data … Good papers > good research … Good research > good papers Good papers reflect good research and demonstrate that your work has made either marginal or disruptive gains in knowledge

16. Papers communicate ideas • Your goal: to infect the mind of your reader with your idea (data), like a virus

17. The Idea • Figure out what your idea is • Make certain that the reader is in no doubt what the idea is. Be 100% explicit • Many papers contain good ideas, but do not distil what they are. Idea A re-usable insight, useful to the reader

19. Writing your paper

20. Writing papers is a skill • Many papers are badly written • Good writing is a skill you can learn • It’s a skill that is worth learning: • You will get more brownie points (more papers accepted etc) • Your ideas will have more impact • You will have better ideas Increasing importance

21. Writing papers: models Idea Do research Write paper Write paper Do research Idea Writing (or conceptualising) the paper is a way to develop the idea in the first place

22. Writing papers: the reality • Forces us to focus • Reveals what we don’t understand • Opens the way to dialogue with others: reality check, critique, and collaboration Do research Idea Write paper

23. Narrative flow of the paper

24. Structure • Title • Abstract • Introduction (includes the problem and the idea) • The details (Materials, Methods, Results) • Related work (Discussion) • Conclusions and further work • Your introduction makes claims • The body of the paper provides evidence to support each claim

26. Your narrative flow • Here is a problem • It’s an interesting problem • It’s an unsolved problem • Here is my idea • My idea works (details, data) • Here’s how my idea compares to other people’s approaches

27. The Title and the Abstract are Important • 100 people will read your title for every one that reads the abstract • 100 people will read the abstract for every one that reads the paper. *(ALL editors will read the abstract!) • Abstract - Four sentences [Kent Beck] • State the problem • Say why it’s an interesting problem • Say what your solution achieves • Say what follows from your solution

28. The Introduction • The first paragraph is crucial for catching the attention of the audience and for conveying to them the importance of the questions that you have addressed in the paper. • If you don’t’ catch the attention of the audience in the first few sentences the chances are high that they won’t continue reading.

29. The Introduction • The Introduction should set the scene for your unique contribution and place it in context. • It is not meant to be an exhaustive review. Formulate the problem and the hypotheses to be tested. • Do not recapitulate your personal journey of discovery. This route may be soaked with your blood, but this is of no interest to the reader. • The last paragraph of the Introduction should be a short summary of what you set out to do and what you have achieved.

30. The Method “Spell out” details, but try to keep Methods section short; refer to earlier papers.

31. The Results • State the results carefully and accurately (don’t overstate/understate your results). • Keep the text as brief as possible. DO NOT include interpretation of the data (this is Discussion) in the Results section unless it is needed for a clean transition or to maintain the flow. • The data displays are the heart of this section. A picture/graph is worth 1000 words • Make sure that the data Figures are referred to in the correct order!

32. The Results State the results carefully and accurately (don’t overstate/understate your results). Keep the text as brief as possible. DO NOT include interpretation of the data (this is Discussion) in the Results section unless it is needed for a clean transition or to maintain the flow. The data displays are the heart of this section A picture/graph is worth 1000 words Make sure that the data Figures are referred to in the correct order!

33. The Discussion First paragraph of the Discussion should give a brief overview of the main findings of the paper: the final conclusions and an outline of the supporting data.

34. The Discussion • Do not rehash the Introduction or the Results. • Present the overall significance of your work and show how it agrees or disagrees with previous models/data or allows disparate observations to be drawn together. Fallacy - To make my work look good, I have to make other people’s work look bad

35. Credit is not like money Failing to give credit to others can kill your paper If you imply that an idea is yours, and the referee knows it is not, then either • You don’t know that it’s an old idea (bad) • You do know, but are pretending it’s yours (very bad)

36. Credit is not like money Giving credit to others does not diminish the credit you get from your paper • Warmly acknowledge people who have helped you • Be generous to the competition. “In his inspiring paper Foogle shows.... We develop this solid foundation in the following ways...” • Acknowledge and discuss weaknesses in your approach

38. The Discussion • Final paragraph can make predictions for the future, discuss possible new experiments, and can be made in broad brush strokes. But don’t speculate too wildly. • It is often very helpful to have a Figure of new model that is based on your findings.

39. Group information together

40. The process of writing

41. The process • Start early. Very early. • Hastily-written papers get rejected. • Papers are like wine: they need time to mature • Collaborate

42. Getting help • Experts are good • Non-experts are also very good • Each reader can only read your paper for the first time once! So use them carefully. Get your paper read by as many friendly guinea pigs as possible

43. Listening to your reviewers Treat every review like gold dust Be (truly) grateful for criticism as well as praise This is really, really, really hard But it’s really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, reallyimportant

44. Listening to your reviewers • Read every criticism as a positive suggestion for something you could explain more clearly • DO NOT respond: “you stupid @#!∞ person, I meant X” • Fix the paper so that X is apparent even to the stupidest reader. • Thank them warmly. They have given up their time for you.

45. Language and style

46. Use simple, direct language

47. Use third person English

48. Common mistakes

49. Get it right first time!! • STATISTICS - correctly used and highly visible • ETHICS – approvals in place and clearly cited • JOURNAL STYLE - conform • WRITTEN ENGLISH – get someone to help if English is not your Mother tongue • FIGURES- clear and well drawn • REFERENCES – appropriate and accurate

50. Summary