1 / 19

Scientific Writing

Scientific Writing. Prof .C . V. Raghuveer . PhD Class 10 th June 2013. Scientific Writing. Most common way of communicating results of research. Authors to keep in mind : Objectivity, Clarity & Honesty Instructions to authors available in journal

mccroskey
Download Presentation

Scientific Writing

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Scientific Writing Prof .C. V. Raghuveer. PhD Class 10th June 2013

  2. Scientific Writing • Most common way of communicating results of research. • Authors to keep in mind : • Objectivity, Clarity & Honesty • Instructions to authors available in journal • International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for Uniform Requirements, available on www. icmje.org

  3. Selecting a title • Title should describe contents of paper in fewest words. • Generally 10-12 words. • Avoid phrases like : “Observations on “ “A study of” etc • No abbreviations • Running title- (30-50 characters), printed on top/bottom of each page.

  4. Writing the Abstract & Key words • Abstract at the beginning of paper. • Structured or Unstructured. • Abstract includes: • Purpose of study. • Basic procedures/methods. • Selection of study participants/animals. • Observational/Analytical methods used. • Main findings with specific data & statistical significance. • Principal conclusions.

  5. Structured Abstract • Less than 250 words. • Includes sub-titles: • * Objectives. • * Type of study design. • * Materials & Methods. • * Results. • * Conclusions.

  6. Unstructured Abstract • * Less than 150 words. • Written in a paragraph format without sub-headings. • All Abstracts are written in past tense. • All Abstracts are self contained & stand alone. • No references to literature in any abstract. • No abbreviations / acronyms unless universally accepted.

  7. Keywords • Generally 3-10 keywords/short phrases. • Assist indexers in cross indexing. • Usually beneath the abstract. • MeSH words or PubMed words used as keywords.

  8. Structure of a Paper • I= Introduction: why did you start the study? • M=Methods: what did you do ? • R= Results: what did you find ? A= And • D=Discussion: what do the results mean ?

  9. Writing the Introduction • Tell the reader why the study was undertaken. • Make clear what question the research was designed to answer. • Raise readers’ interest. • Do not simply explain what can be found in a text book. • Make only pertinent references. • Include data/ conclusions from the work being reported

  10. Writing the Methods • Provide details of study design. • Organize under meaningful sub-headings. • No reference needed for established methods. • New/modified methods to be described with reasons for using them. • “Materials” used only inanimate objects.

  11. Writing the Methods (contd.) • Ethics: • Indicate that procedures followed as per ethical standards. • Patient’s name, hospital number not to be written. • Statistics: • Describe methods used. • Details about randomization. • Details about allocation to groups, blinding, loss for follow up etc

  12. Writing the Results. • Principles: • Objectives of study to be kept in mind. • Results only with relation to objectives. • Results to be presented in logical sequence in tables, illustrations, graphs etc. • Do not repeat numerical data in the text

  13. Writing the Results(contd.) • Tables: • To be included only if data can not be summarized in text or for inter-relationship. • To be readily understood without referring to text. • To be cited in text, numbered, titled. • Should have a logical structure. • Short/abbreviated headings for rows & columns. • Foot-note for non-standard abbreviations. • Columns from left to right &rows from top to bottom

  14. Writing the Results(contd.) • Illustrations: • Use for specific purpose e.g, as evidence in support of findings or argument. • Graphs for illustrating relationships. • Figures to be professionally drawn & photographed. • Photomicrographs to be glossy 5X7 or 8X10 in.

  15. Writing the Results (contd.) • Figures to be numbered consecutively. • On the back of figure name, fig no., top of fig. • Legends to be double spaced typed.

  16. Writing the Discussion • Six components of Discussion: • State principal findings. • Strengths & weaknesses of study. • Strengths & weaknesses in relation to other studies. • Implications of study. • Unanswered questions. • Limitations of your study & scope for more work

  17. Conclusions • Strong and clear conclusions. • Conclusions to be linked with goals of study & • Limited to boundaries of study. • Avoid wrong conclusions.

  18. Acknowledgements • Department Chair for General support. • Technicians for Technical support. • Written permission from those who are acknowledged.

  19. References • Citing in text. • Listing in the end. • Vancouver style. • Harvard style.

More Related