I am not a professional researcher and am not here to talk about how to do scientific research. However, I have conducted research, published peer-reviewed papers, and written a thesis and defended it to complete my PhD while keeping my full-time job. It required me to be efficient in many things, including writing papers. I will share what I learned in this article.
Publishing journal articles is an essential part of a researcher’s job. If you like running experiments or doing calculations but don’t enjoy sitting and writing, this might not be your favorite part. However, as my mentor used to say, if you don’t publish your findings and help people understand them, it is as if you have done nothing. There is only so much one research team can do. We all share our results and build on each other’s findings to progress science. Communication through peer-reviewed papers plays a crucial role in this process.
Let’s see how we can do this efficiently and make the process less painful. Here are some tips:
Avoid writing a paper inefficiently
Tip 1: Articulate the originality of your research first
Tip 2: Read the journal’s guide for authors carefully
Tip 3: Organize the building blocks of your paper
Tip 5: Deal with the review process wisely
Tip 6: Publication is not the goal - Make sure your paper will be found
Avoid writing a paper inefficiently
You might have been writing a thesis, grant proposals, and manuscripts for years. You know how to write. Yet, wouldn’t it be nice if you could do that more efficiently? Let’s see if there is room for improvement. Is this how you write an article?
- I open a Word, Google Doc, etc. file and start writing.
- My editing process mostly consists of rereading the manuscript and correcting errors.
- When I get tired of reviewing my manuscript, I start missing errors.
- I dread the review process and get stressed when receiving long comments from reviewers.
- I don’t pay much attention to how my paper is found after being published.
If you said yes to any of these, the following tips might help you become more efficient in your writing process.
Tip 1: Articulate the originality of your research first
Scitable by Nature Education says, “Scientific papers are for sharing your own original research work with other scientists or for reviewing the research conducted by others.”
Your work needs to be original to be published. That is obvious to most people, but it may not be easy to communicate the originality. You might know what is original or significant about your research. Still, it is often not apparent to your readers or, more importantly, to your reviewers, because scientific research has become so diverse, with each category getting deeper and more siloed.
To communicate the originality of your work, you need to articulate it, have a clear story around it, and communicate it in all sections of the manuscript, from the title through the conclusion. Starting to write the manuscript without this step could make it difficult for your readers to see the originality. The reviewers might not see it and reject your manuscript or ask you to revise it extensively. Either way, skipping this step causes inefficiency.
Spending some time to articulate the originality of your work will save you a lot of time later. If you find it difficult, you can work on the next step first.
Tip 2: Read the journal’s guide for authors carefully
This might be the most boring part; nevertheless, it is essential to do this early to avoid wasting time.
Check the aims and scope of the journal and ensure your paper is a good fit. If you get this part wrong, your manuscript could get rejected and you’ll have to start over, find another journal, reformat your manuscript, etc. This part should be straightforward after having articulated the originality of your research.
Check the section structure, word count limit, the allowed number of figures and tables, style guidelines, etc. Having to change these things later costs more time.
Some authors’ guides are long and detailed. I recommend you print the guidelines out and have this document nearby while you prepare your manuscript.
Tip 3: Organize the building blocks of your paper
The building blocks of a good paper are the introduction, body, and conclusion. The manuscript consists of the introduction (abstract, introduction), body (methods, results, discussion), and conclusion. Each section has an introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. Each paragraph has an introduction, body, and conclusion sentences.
These pieces need to be well connected and flow smoothly. It makes it easier for people to read your paper, follow the logic, and understand the crucial points you are trying to present.
Opening a Word file and starting to write the first sentence is not the best approach to having well-connected blocks. It is more efficient to start with the big picture.
It helps to see the whole picture in one view in this process. You can use a mindmap tool to do this.
- Put the working title in the center.
- Add branches for all sections: Abstract, Introduction, Experimental Procedure/Method, Experimental Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. (These branches vary depending on which journal you are writing for.)
- Add branches for the introduction, body, and conclusion to each section branch.
- Start adding notes to each branch about what to write in each spot.
- Make sure all elements are there and they flow well.
- Make sure the problem statement in the introduction is addressed in the conclusion.
(This is a mind map I made for this paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2021.102257)
The abstract should state the problem, the aim of the study, and the results. The introduction should review what is known, what is not known (the gap your research addresses), why we should fill the gap, and how we should fill the gap. Putting these elements together before you start writing goes a long way toward making the entire process more efficient.
While adding more elements to other sections, make sure you aim to fill the gap stated in the introduction in the way you said it should be filled.
Connect the conclusion back to the problem and gap you stated in the abstract and introduction to close the loop. Now you have the big picture. All you have to do now to have a complete manuscript is elaborate on each point.
Tip 4: Use efficiency tools
There are many writing assistant tools available today. I am not talking about using ChatGPT to write your manuscript. I am talking about tools that can correct spelling, grammar, and style and offer suggestions to make your writing more readable. Grammarly and Hemingway are two of the most widely used tools. They both have free and paid versions.
Grammarly focuses on grammar while Hemingway focuses more on readability. You can choose either one, depending on your needs, but I recommend Grammarly for non-native English speakers because we tend to make grammatical mistakes. I use the paid version and it has been a life- and time-saver.
Once you write your first draft, start editing and proofreading. A writing assistant tool like Grammarly should catch most misspellings and incorrect grammar, but that’s not enough. You still have to proofread it and edit it for readability.
It is always hard to spot errors in your own writing, but there are many good ways to do this effectively, like these:
- Take a break.
- Print it out and read it line by line using a ruler.
- Read it out loud.
- Read it backward.
These are all great methods, but they are a lot of work and require you to exert energy for hours. When you get tired, don’t switch to skimming it on a computer screen because that usually doesn’t work well. Instead, try a text-to-speech tool.
You can listen to your writing by using a text-to-speech tool. First, listening to your writing read in someone else’s voice helps you distance yourself from it and gives it a fresh look. Secondly, because it is harder to understand complicated sentences or paragraphs by listening to them than reading them, it helps you spot hard-to-understand sentences or a jump in logic.
Tip 5: Deal with the review process wisely
The review process is arguably the most painful part of getting your paper published. What helped me get through it was having the right mindset.
After pouring months and years into your work, listening to some strangers point out all its flaws stings. You might even get angry and write an offensive response, saying the reviewers don’t know what they are talking about.
I know it can be tempting, but don’t do that.
Dr. Anthony Artino, Deputy Editor of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, mentioned the five stages of grief of the review process in this Google Hangout recording. He said we need to take the time to grieve before responding to the reviewers (at about the 31-minute mark).
The five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance— apply perfectly to what we go through when we receive harsh reviews. You need to take the time to grieve and reach the acceptance stage before you start writing a response.
Tip 6: Publication is not the goal - Make sure your paper will be found
Lastly, publishing your paper is not the ultimate goal. You want your paper to be found, read, and referenced. In addition to conducting great original research and writing an excellent paper, you also want to pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO).
You might think SEO is only for marketers or blog writers, but think about how you look for papers. You probably use a search engine like Google Scholar. If you want your paper to rank high and show up at the top of the search results, you want to consider SEO for your paper.
It is not as complicated as you might think it is. It is mostly about choosing the right search keywords and putting them in the right places in your paper. This Elsevier Connect article by Franklin Foroni, “Top tips: making your article visible with SEO - Make sure your article gets the attention it deserves,” is a good place to start learning how to optimize your paper for search engines.
Further reading
If you want to learn more about how to write better, you might find these books helpful. They have helped me a lot, and I still go back to them from time to time.
- Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition) by John R. Trimble
- Make It Clear: Speak and Write to Persuade and Inform Paperback by Patrick Henry Winston
- A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Ninth Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) Ninth Edition by Kate L. Turabian, Wayne C. Booth Gregory G. Colomb Joseph M. Williams Joseph Bizup William T. FitzGerald The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Paperback by Stephen King
- The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
Takeaway
I hope you learned a thing or two that will help you write articles and get them published with more ease next time.
If you have any questions or need advice on preparing your CT analysis results for publication, our team of CT experts can help you. You can talk to one of our CT experts by clicking the “Talk to an expert” button at the top right of the page or send us a message at imaging@rigaku.com.