writing manuscripts for peer reviewed engineering journals

Good morning!And thanks for inviting us to MASDAR.

Getting published in a peer-reviewed journalChristopher Leonard Editorial Director - QScience.com

What was a journal?Journal des sçavans & Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society both started in 1665

Late 1800’s see the emergence of ‘theory-experiment-discussion’ structure of articles

1980’s see IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) adopted widely as a reflection of the process of scientific discovery

Print only, limited readership, limited number of titles

What is a journal?Electronic-only, or e-leading, peer-reviewed selection of articles judged to be of a certain quality within a certain, narrow, field.

Many papers publicly available via open access or PubMed/arXiv

>20,000 active journal titles

>5,500 papers per day published (2m/year)

Article types

Review articles

Editorials

Commentaries

Research papers

Editorials

Written by Editor or invited guest

Short, select and narrowly focused

Commentaries

Commentaries may be narrative reviews, but somewhat more opinionated.

Little research methodology, biased synthesis of a collection of articles.

Usually there to provoke controversy or academic debate.

Review articlesA comprehensive narrative synthesis of previously published information, often summarising each key article.

Bibliographic research methodology frequently a part of narrative reviews (although is not strictly required). Reputable sources only.

Will provide in-depth snapshot of a field, convey a clear message and draw conclusions supported by data analysis.

Preparing to write a research manuscript

Target journalThink about this before you start to write.

Best journal for your article may not necessarily be best in the field.

Has similar work been published in that journal?

Check the I4As

Tyranny of the Impact Factor.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE VOL.48 NO.2 2008 PP.3-4

AuthorshipSort this out before writing the manuscript*.

Consult with coauthors, gather their ORCIDs. Otherwise, preferred name listing and affiliation.

Usually listed in decreasing order of their contribution (although this can vary)

Determine who is the corresponding author

* READ THIS: Liz Wager’s excellent guide “Recognition, reward and repsonsibility: why the authorship of scientific papers matters” Maturitas 2009; 62:109-12

Ethical issuesFabrication of data

Duplicate publication

Plagiarism

Misuse of statistics

Manipulation of images

Inadequate or false citations

READ THIS: HTTP://PUBLICATIONETHICS.ORG/ MAINLY FOR EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS, BUT GIVES A GREAT INSIGHT INTO PROBLEMS SOME PAPERS FACE

Writing the manuscript

Title

Title is THE most important part of the paper. Decide on best title after writing the manuscript.

Should be descriptive, not cute, and match the abstract. Not too general, not too much jargon.

ExamplesGOOD TITLE

A study of thrombocytopenia in hospitalized vivax malaria patients

BAD TITLES

Physics of waves

Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum GravityRead more about this at http://physics.nyu.edu/sokal/

AbstractIn Web of Science/Scopus/Google Scholar.

Think of it as a ‘teaser’ or ‘trailer’ for your paper.

DON’T make it too long. Shorter is ALWAYS better

DON’T introduce and define lots of acronyms

DON’T include references to citations

DO pitch it to non-specialists in your broader field

DO write (or rewrite) it at THE END.

Background information

Bibliographic research to set research question in context.

Make sure it is up-to-date (consider revising if first draft is more than 3 months old) - reviewers get very suspicious about missing citations.

Papers over 10 years old, use with caution.

AbstractContext

Question or purpose

Methodology/Results

Interpretation

Conclusions

ALL IN 250 WORDS OR LESS

Passage from the Wikipedia article on "The English Language" The following paragraph has a Gunning Fog Index of 24.4. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the United Kingdom from the 18th century, and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world, and the most prominent language in international business and science. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as many international organisations. Analysis ■There are 79 words in two sentences. ■The 17 italic words are considered complex. ■0.4 ((79/2) + 100(17/79)) ■0.4 x ( 39.5 + 12.79) ■Fog index = 24.4

The same passage simplified The following paragraph has a Gunning Fog Index of 7.07. English has become the standard language around the world. This was the result of many factors. In the 1700s, the British affected English with the army, economy, science, politics and culture. In the mid-1900s, the United States caused change. It is the most used language in world business and science. It is a famous second language and an official language in most of Europe and in Commonwealth countries. It is also the case in groups around the world. Analysis ■There are 79 words in seven sentences. ■The 5 italic words are considered complex. ■0.4 ((79/7) + 100(5/79)) ■0.4 x ( 11.28 + 2.5) ■Fog index = 7.07

IntroductionIntroduce topic to readers in an accessible way

Should be short and focused

Aim for 3 paragraphs only.PARA1: Question or issue, context, relevance [What is known]

PARA2: Importance of problem/unclear issues [What is unknown]

PARA3: Rationale, hypothesis, main objective [Why study was done]

Can be written at any point, but good to revisit at the end.

Materials and methods

Details required to replicate the study

Should include; study design, data collection details, analysis principles and rationale.

Describe sample selection and exclusion criteria

Ethical considerations and a description of the randomization or group assignment.

ResultsOrganised presentation of the collected data.

Should be a distant semantic description with no interpretation or opinions.

Include negative results and reasons for non-collection of information on important non-measured variablesOConnor, T. R., & Holmquist, G. P. (2009). Algorithm for writing a scientific manuscript. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 37(6), 344-348. doi:10.1002/bmb.20329

DiscussionExplain the meaning of the results, structured as a natural flow of ideas.

Key findings should be linked to study objectives, along with an acknowledgement of the strengths and weaknesses of the study

Describe logically, links between results and mechanistic interpretations of cause and effect.

Are results consistent with other studies? If not, why not?

DiscussionDon’t repeat yourself.

Don’t present results not documented in Results

Don’t overstate importance of results

Do feel free to criticise study limitations

Don’t repeat yourself.

ConclusionIt’s not another Abstract or Introduction.

Keep it short

‘Take home’ message

Do not write: ‘further study is needed’ or any variation thereof.

Acknowledgements etc.

Contributors who do not qualify for author status

Conflicts of interest

Financial support for the research

Group name if appropriate

Author contributions

ReferencesKeep a good reference library (Mendeley/Zotero)

Make sure references adhere to journal style

Avoid abstracts and ‘personal communications’

Exclude articles ‘in submission’

Authors responsibility to make sure they do not refer to retracted articles.

A word on figuresPlease, please use your own figures

They are easy to generate with sufficient data points and standard desktop software. Develop your own style/colour scheme.

Difficult and expensive to get rights to figures published by other publishers (>$150/figure)

Scans and photos should be highest possible resolution. Don’t just embed in Word - we need source files.

After submission

Reviews & revisionsView peer reviewers as collaborators rather than enemies

They often make constructive remarks which should improve the quality of the paper

Good editors will shield you from performing more experiments (unless it’s Nature or Science)

For each point the reviewer makes, provide a brief note explaining how you have incorporated their remark, or a rebuttal.

After publication

PromotionYou are the marketer of your own work (usually)

Link to your article from your facebook/twitter/linkedin/orcid page

Departmental website, institution PR department?

Mendeley, scribd, list-servs, other discussion boards and lists

A brief note on open access

WHAT ABOUT IMPACT FACTORS/PROMOTION/TENURE/ WHAT MY FACULTY/COAUTHORS EXPECT?

READ: HTTP://WWW.MICHAELEISEN.ORG/BLOG/?P=911

Thanks. And good luck.

More reading: https://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/ssocolofsky/downloads/paper_how-to.pdf

cjamesleonard@qf.org.qa www.qscience.com

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