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Scientific writing Publishing in Hydrobiologia

Scientific writing Publishing in Hydrobiologia. Koen Martens (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium). I will…. Make this powerpoint available to all interested I am willing to look at draft manuscripts during my stay at this conference (till Thursday morning).

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Scientific writing Publishing in Hydrobiologia

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  1. Scientific writing Publishing in Hydrobiologia Koen Martens (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium)

  2. I will… • Make this powerpoint available to all interested • I am willing to look at draft manuscripts during my stay at this conference (till Thursday morning)

  3. “Publish and be damned.” When the courtesan Harriette Wilson threatened to publish her memoirs and his letters... Arthur Wellesley,1st Duke of Wellington

  4. “In science, the creditgoes to the man who convinces the world,not the man to whomthe idea first occurs.” Sir Francis Darwin (1848 - 1925) The better you write, the more people will take notice

  5. Content • Types of journals • Impact factors • Publishing in Hydrobiologia • Some tips for scientific writing

  6. What level of publication to aim for with primary research papers? • All good research is worthwhile! • Difference between levels mostly related to • research question : of general or of local interest • descriptive or hypothesis testing • qualitative or quantitative • with or without replication, statistical analyses • ….

  7. Is my paper local, national or international ? • International journals: also several levels (examples from the field of aquatic sciences) • General top level (Science, Nature, PNAS) • Of very wide interest (world press) • Top research, but especially spectacular • New discovery, new method, • (within) new paradigm • Biology, London office: 1/60 weekly • IF= 25-30

  8. Is my paper local, national or international ? 2. General international, intermediate level (e.g. Oecologia, L&O, Freshwater Biology,…, Hydrobiologia) • Hypothesis-driven • Required: • Not purely descriptive • Including replication, appropriate statistical analyses • Of more than local/ national interest • Of interest for a wide scientific audience

  9. Is my paper local, national or international ? 3. More specialised international journals (Crustaceana, Aquatic Insects) • More rigorous in scope, less difficult regarding general interest • Depending on the field, pure descriptive work can be accepted • For example: • pure alpha-taxonomy, • 1-year limnological cycles, • 1-parameter models,…

  10. Is my paper local, national or international ? • National, Museum journals • Eg.: inventories of nature reserves, pure alpha taxonomy, new species for national fauna,… • Local • Short notes on faunistic or floristic observations, general natural history,… All of these are worthwhile!!!

  11. Same research, different way of presenting Exx: one year cycle of phytoplankton in a lake • Description, no replica’s, no statistical analyses, only raw data presented • National or local • Replicate sampling, results of statistical analyses • International specialised journal • Hypothesis-testing (eg.: Hutchinsons paradox of plankton), multiple lakes, controlled field experiment • International general journals (Hydrobiologia, L&O) • Use of space craft and nuclear reactor: • Nature or Science!

  12. Why aim for high level publication? • Higher dissemination, higher impact in scientific world • Better use of research funding • Senior researchers: • Higher chances for research funding • Students: • higher chances to find positions • Responsibility of supervisor!

  13. The hierarchy of journals and publications • Journal with peer reviewing, with IF • Both national and international • Some research institutions require • Higher than a particular IF (eg > 2) • Top 10 or 25% of your particular field • Peer review, no IF • National, museum journals,… • No peer review, no IF • Some local journals • Some books, chapters in books • Many webpages!!! • Grey literature • Abstracts for conferences (both oral and poster) • Theses, reports,…

  14. Other types of papers • Opinion • Reviews • Target papers • Short research notes • News and views • Book reviews, abstracts,…..

  15. Excursus: Open Access Publishing • Traditional way of publishing: • authors publish in scientific journals, • publishers sell these journals to libraries, • access is limited to subscribing individuals/ institutions • Libraries pay for access • sometimes subscription + page charge… • Traditional publishing at present • Paper journals • Paper plus electronic access • Electronic access only => All access restricted to subscribers

  16. Open Access Publishing • Open access • Authors publish in an electronic journal • Authors pay for publication costs (> 1500 USD per accepted manuscript, depending on journal) • OR: member institutes pay a fee • Electronic journal is open access => no subscription restrictions Costs shift from Library => Author

  17. Open Access Publishing • Sounded like a good idea initially • > 400 institutions became member of BMC = BioMed Central = major open access publisher with 100s of journals • PLOS = Public Library of Science • Large movement of cancellation of traditional journals Source: Matt Cockerill, BMC

  18. http://www.soros.org/openaccess/ Budapest Open Access Initiative 2001 Since then, little more than 5000 signatures have been added to the petition Yale University withdrew its membership from BMC, others will follow: Too expensive Example: 1 journal costs 8000 USD/ yr to the library 10 authors publish in open access journal: It will cost 15,000 USD In addition, cost is unpredictable per year… Open Access Publishing

  19. PRO Unlimited access of all papers to the scientific community Allows for full text mining CONTRA Will not reduce costs Scientific community continues to pay Apparently does not reach all that much larger an audience Open Access Publishing Subscription model or open access model ? The future will tell…. => Scientific publishing market is very volatile ….

  20. Content • Types of journals • Impact factors • Publishing in Hydrobiologia • Some tips for scientific writing

  21. Impact Factors

  22. Institute for Scientific Information Eugen Garfield

  23. The tyranny of the Impact Factors: Thomson Scientific(formerly ISI) • Database with references & citations from 1000’s of journals • Inclusion of journal = Subjective decision by ISI • Products • (Current Contents) • Web of Science, Web of Knowledge • Journal Citation • Impact Factors, Immediacy Index, …

  24. Impact Factor 2007 Hydrobiologia

  25. Evolution of Impact Factor Hydrobiologia

  26. Five year trend of change of IF

  27. Over 5 year trend of change of IF

  28. Impact Factors Asked on several occasions that Thomson scientific would provide the primary files used to calculate IFs => T.S. failed to provide the exact data

  29. High impact factors for … • Very bad papers! • Papers describing new methodology • Review papers • Opinion papers • Papers in journals • With fast publication • Which are widely available AND widely read • Electronic, web-based journals • Attracting high level authors • ….

  30. Impact factors are unscientific • TREE: IF cannot be used to compare • Disciplines, • Institutes, • Individual Researchers,…. • Garfield Eugene 2005 • 50% of papers in ISI database never gets cited • 0nly 0.1% of papers > 200 citations • IF = journal, not • Individual paper • Individual scientists => yet, IF are used to evaluate individual scientists, departments, etc….

  31. The h - factor • Definition: A scientist has index h if h of his or her Np papers have at least h citations each • The highest h-factor for physics was that of E. Witten (h= 110). This means Witten has 110 papers that are cited 110 times or more…

  32. An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output J. E. Hirsch, 2005: PNAS 102 (46): 16569–16572

  33. Fig. 2. Histogram giving the number of Nobel prize recipients in physics in the last 20 years versus their h index. The peak is at the h index between 35 and 39. (Hirsch, 2005)

  34. Content • Types of journals • Impact factors • Publishing in Hydrobiologia • Some tips for scientific writing

  35. Hydrobiologia • 21 volumes annually (c 11 specials) • > 5300 pages, c 500 papers / yr • The aquatic library • submission > 1200 mss / yr • acceptance regular papers = c 25% • 200 out of c 800 submissions • IF : 0.653 (2004) => 1.201 (2007) • I am EiC since Sept 2003 (with vol. 500) when I took • over from Henri Dumont (23 years!!!) • we just published volume 610

  36. Hydrobiologia is in a very competitive market!!!

  37. Editorial Policy • More focus on scope: Biology of aquatic habitats and biota • No pure ecotoxicology, biochemistry,… • Less strict for special issues, but show relevance of work for aquatic communities • Trying to reach a wider audience: Writing for a wide, international audience, high scientific standard • Not purely descriptive (taxonomy, ecology, limnology) • Dealing with general biological question • Quantitative/ statistical analyses • Be respected by that audience: High technical standards • Language • Figures and tables

  38. Hydrobiologia publishes taxonomy!!! • Descriptive part OK, no page limitation • But of course: as concise as possible • But USE your new data! • Quantitative phylogenetic analyses • Quantitative biogeographical analyses • Molecular vs morphological data • Quantitative morphological comparisons • … => Similar approach to ecological/ limnological papers

  39. Your proceedings in Hydrobiologia? • Why an A-level journal for proceedings? • Book has no IF => Student in early stage of career MUST publish with IF • Papers are rejected for journal, so no complete proceedings. => Books will also not give complete overview • Also outreach to scientific community OUTSIDE of Copepoda • Why Hydrobiologia? • Tradition for copepod volumes • Hydro (still) takes organism-based proceedings • IF on the rise • What are Developments in Hydrobiology? • Hard cover spin off series of Hydrobiologia • COULD include also papers rejected for Hydrobiologia…

  40. Content • Types of journals • Impact factors • Publishing in Hydrobiologia • Some tips for scientific writing

  41. Rule 1 ONE PAPER, ONE STORY!!!

  42. Rule 2 KEEP IT SIMPLE • “All big things have little names, such as life and death, peace and war, or dawn, day, night, love, home. Learn to use little words in a big way - It is hard to do. But they say what you mean. • When you don’t know what you mean, use big words: They often fool little people.”

  43. Rule 3 USE CORRECT LANGUAGE Ask a native English speaking colleague to help you..

  44. Organisation of a primary research paper introduced by American National Standards Institute in 1979

  45. Organisation of a primary research paper: IMRAD • INTRODUCTION • What did you do? Why did you do it? • MATERIAL AND METHODS • How did you do it? • RESULTS • What did you find? • DISCUSSION • What does it mean ? • (CONCLUSIONS) Never mix Results and Discussion in one section !!!

  46. Organisation of a primary research paper • Title (page) • Abstract • Introduction • Material and methods • Results • Discussion • (Conclusions) • Acknowledgements • References • Tables and Figures, including captions • (Appendices)

  47. Organisation of a primary research paper • Title • Abstract • Introduction • Material and methods • Results • Discussion • (Conclusions) • Acknowledgements • References • Tables and Figures, including captions • (Appendices) Title and abstract are often the only items that your peers will read: make them attractive…

  48. Correct and concise “Absence of allelic divergence shows that there is no Meselson effect in an ancient asexual ostracod” Catchy “No slave to sex” How to choose a title? First impressions are powerful: make them count! Two approaches to attract attention

  49. How to choose a title? • Catchy title, but not very informative as to content • If you like to reach a wide audience • Some of your colleagues will NOT like this sort of TV advertisement…

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