The Paper Protocol E-Book

Stefan Lang

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 158

Beschreibung

Experimental and study protocols allow scientists to conduct their research efficiently. The Paper Protocol helps them afterwards to put their results on paper. It structures the writing process into defined phases, describing each task required to write a biomedical research paper that convinces both the journal's reviewers and readers. This book is written in global English, making it easier to read and understand for non-native English speaking students and scientists. Scientists who want their work read and cited need to publish in global English, which has become the language of the scientific community.

Leseprobe

The Paper Protocol

Systematic Instructions for Writing a Biomedical Research Paper

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stefan Lang is a biology graduate. In 2007, after more than ten years of research experience, he went into business for himself as a scientific and medical writer, as well as a trainer for scientific writing and publishing. Since then, he has been writing numerous research articles on behalf of pharmaceutical and academic research institutions, and conducting scientific writing training workshops and seminars (for more information, visit www.scientific-medical-writing.com). Based on his experiences, Stefan developed the structured writing process, the idea behind this book.

ABOUT THE BOOK: When conducting experiments and clinical studies, scientists follow experimental and study protocols exactly. Is there a writing protocol that helps them afterwards to put their research results on paper? THE PAPER PROTOCOL – SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING A BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH PAPER strives to offer this guidance. It structures the whole writing process into four defined phases and precisely describes all individual tasks required to write a biomedical research paper that not only convinces the journal's reviewers but also the readers. This book was written in global English, making it easier for non-native English speaking students and scientists to read and understand.

Stefan Lang

The Paper Protocol

Systematic Instructions for Writing a Biomedical Research Paper

Bibliographic information of the German National Library: The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet (http://dnb.d-nb.de).

The author carefully worked on the content of this book. However, the possibility of errors cannot be ruled out completely. The author’s liability, on whatever legal ground, shall be excluded.

© 2022 Dr. Stefan Lang

DESIGN BOOK COVER: Sabine Remolt (www.schech-design.de)

PICTURE CREDITS BOOK COVER: DNA molecule ©Sergey Nivens (fotolia.com [#89217661])

ILLUSTRATIONS INSIDE THE BOOK: ©Dr. Stefan Lang

TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN ORIGINAL: Maria Mattern & Dr. Stefan Lang

EDITING: Sarah Stinnissen

PICTURE CREDITS ICONS: Education icons ©Nikolai Titov (fotolia.com [#75626372])

PUBLISHER (printing and distribution on behalf of the author): tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, D-22359 Hamburg, Germany

ISBN Paperback: 978-3-347-53987-7

ISBN Hardcover: 978-3-347-53989-1

ISBN e-Book: 978-3-347-53995-2

This book is protected by copyright and/or related rights. The author is responsible for the content. Any utilization without approval of the author is prohibited. This applies particularly for electronic reproduction, translation, and public communication of content. It also applies for illustrations and text excerpts. Publication and distribution are carried out on behalf of the author, to be reached at: tredition GmbH, department "Imprint service", Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany.

Contents

Prologue: My First Research Paper

Do not get stuck in revision loops

Writing according to protocol

On the Structured Way of Writing

Linear and structured writing

The four phases of structured writing

Structured writing: efficient writing, precise texts

Overview: the phases of writing

Phase 1: Concept & Abstract

The beginning of the writing process

First decisions: three paper categories

The basic structure of the abstract

The hypothesis-testing paper

The descriptive paper

The methods paper

Key points of the abstract: hypothesis-testing paper

Key points of the abstract: descriptive papers

Key points of the abstract: methods papers

Practice tip – a conclusive concept in seven steps

Protocol of phase 1

Phase 2: Outline

Outline techniques

The threefold purpose of an outline

Representative sentences in the sentence outline

Introduction, methods, results, and discussion

Outline of the introduction

The key points of the introduction

Provoke your readers' interest in the general topic

Providing the basis for understanding in the known

From the unknown to the question

Outline of the introduction of a hypothesis-testing paper

Working with the outline, collecting information, providing references

Turning the outline into text

Outline of the introduction of descriptive and methods papers

Outline of the material & methods section

The aim of the material & methods section

Outline of the material & methods section

Outline techniques required for material & methods

Working with the outline – material

Working with the outline – methods

Turning the outline into text

Outline of the results section

The didactical structure of the results section

Representative sentences in the outline of the results section

Question–answer

Objective and overview

Results

Working on the outline: figures and tables

Results are more than just data

Outline of the discussion

The three parts of the discussion

The beginning of the discussion – key message and key results

The middle of the discussion – reasoning, literature, limitations

The end of the discussion – take-home message and implication

Working with the outline and planning the discussion

Exception – results & discussion with conclusion

Practice tip – five simple questions to control your outline

Protocol of phase 2

Phase 3: First Draft

Writing in paragraphs

Beginning a paragraph with a topic sentence

The topic of a paragraph

The topic sentence in the writing process

The structure of paragraphs

Simple paragraph structures

Complex paragraph structures – results

Complex paragraph structures – introduction and discussion

Paragraph flow – the beginnings of sentences

Four ways to start a sentence

Signaling words and phrases

Transition words

Known information at the beginning

The topic of information at the beginning of a sentence

The beginning of a sentence in the writing process

Writing the first draft

Simple and concise

Word choice

Sentence structure

Tenses

Overview on fundamental writing requirements

Writing of numbers

Abbreviations

References

Titles, figure legends, tables

Title

Figure legends

Practice tip – how to write a paragraph

Protocol of phase 3

Phase 4: Editing

Steps of editing

Linguistic standards of scientific writing

Accuracy

Brevity

Clarity

Stylistic issues

The reading flow of a research paper

Nominalization – the bureaucratic language

Passive voice – a bad writing style?

Superfluous words

Help! My abstract is far too long

Final editing – spelling and formal requirements

Final editing

Substantial editing

Technical editing

Proofreading

Practice tip for structured editing and proofreading

Protocol of phase 4

Final Tips

Opportunities provided by the structured way of writing

Practice tips

Your own aspiration

The writing situation

The writing protocol

Glossary

Appendix

Frequently used verbs in scientific writing

Verbose or concise

Punctuation

Prologue: My First Research Paper

Do not get stuck in revision loops

The publishing of a RESEARCH PAPER should be a positive experience. This applies to every publication, and does not matter if it is an original article, a case report, or a review. That is because any paper represents the culmination of a research project, which took a lot of time, work, and energy. Publications are the fruits of hard work and, for scientists, the scale of success.

Writing my first research paper was not a positive experience. The results I wanted to publish as an original article were just fine, but the manuscript development process was a nightmare. The process of writing was slow and time consuming, characterized by numerous frustrating revision loops and rounds of editing. My first publication was meant to be the culmination of my research project but came close to shattering my nerves.

I can still remember when my boss came into the laboratory saying, “Now you have enough data. You can start writing your paper.” With painstaking attention to detail, I began writing the manuscript. I used the time between my experiments, I wrote during centrifugation and incubation times, and I worked more and more during nighttime. I struggled towards the end, sentence by sentence, polishing the phrases, and carefully considering every word. Mostly, I immediately revised what I had just written, by changing technical terms, moving sentences, and rewriting entire paragraphs. When I finally finished my work after weeks, I thought I made it. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Several rounds of revision followed. In the first round, my boss marked misspelled words and wrong punctuation. In the second round, we changed the structure of the results section by removing and adding experimental results. Accordingly, with the results section being changed, I had to adjust both the outline of the material & methods section and the research question at the end of the introduction (third round of revision), which required a complete revision of the reasoning within the introduction (fourth round of revision) and the discussion (fifth round of revision). Again, I polished the phrasing, carefully selected single words, and deleted and rewrote sentences and paragraphs.

As my co-authors wanted to contribute to the manuscript, further rounds of revision were required. Again, language, style, and structure of the manuscript were to be checked upon. Finally, after the submission of our manuscript, the journal´s peer reviewers wanted us to provide some MINOR REVISIONS and another round of revision began.

A long time went by, maybe 30 weeks, before our paper was finally ACCEPTED for publication. When this moment finally arrived, I could not be as happy as I should have been. I therefore asked myself the following questions: “Why was the entire writing process that time consuming? Why has the scientific writing process to be that slow and inefficient?” Today, I know the answers. It was the unorganized and unstructured way of writing. I made the mistake to try to create a good research paper in a single working step. Since a single working step could never do justice to all the substantial, structural, formal, and stylistic requirements in scientific writing, countless rounds of revision were required afterwards to turn the first draft into a publishable manuscript.

We as scientists are supposed to adhere exactly to experimental and study protocols, which define the precise sequence of all procedures and tasks required. Even for simple methods such as DNA isolation, we stick to our protocol and would not perform ethanol precipitation before cell lysis. Why do precise protocols only exist for doing research in the laboratory but not for writing biomedical research papers? Why is the writing process of many scientists disorganized and inefficient?

Although my first paper was not a positive experience, something good came of it. My dissatisfaction with the existing writing and publishing process strengthened my interest in scientific writing. I began to study the literature on scientific writing and constantly improved myself through several training courses. First and foremost, I gained further experience by writing my thesis, research grants, reviews, and original articles.

Over time and inspired by the standard operating procedures of the pharmaceutical industry, I developed a writing protocol. This protocol structures the writing process into a defined sequence of four phases comprising several individual tasks. The resulting way of writing structurally assists me with developing a scientific argument and helps me to concentrate on the most important passages of a research paper. Furthermore, it supports collaboration with my co-authors. After the development and implementation of my writing protocol, I now enjoy working on a manuscript. In fact, I had so much fun that I decided to turn writing into my career – today, I am working as a freelance scientific and medical writer.

Writing according to protocol

Today, it no longer takes me several weeks to write the manuscript of a research paper. Depending on the subject and the amount of data, it takes me 30 to 100 hours. I no longer compile my manuscripts in an unstructured battle with single sentences and words, but in a defined sequence of planning and writing. I can correct and optimize the result of every writing phase separately and discuss it with my co-authors. Early in the writing process, I set the course and define the story of the paper, which is much more effective than revising and editing the entire manuscript afterwards. The structured writing process consists of different planning steps, writing phases, and checkpoints for optimization. The corresponding instructions are the content of this book.

In the main chapters of this book, I describe the different phases of planning and writing and provide numerous text examples for illustration. At the end of each chapter, I provide a short summary – a protocol – of all tasks required. My instructions can be used for any research paper in basic and clinical research. They might also apply to your master and doctoral thesis.

The key focus of this book is writing. Primarily, everything revolves around the question of how scientific reasoning might be developed and presented in a comprehensible and convincing research paper. This book therefore only marginally covers additional tasks that may arise. It is neither a textbook on statistics nor instructions for the graphic design of figures. Even though it covers several aspects of SCIENTIFIC ENGLISH, it does not replace language training. Additionally, as this book is not a medicine or biology textbook, the text examples provided within are meant to clarify exclusively linguistic issues. The text examples assert no claims for scientific accuracy and medical correctness – they are just examples.

This book is a writing protocol, a practical instruction for the writing of an original article in the fields of medicine, biology, and life science. It might be especially helpful for young scientists, postgraduates, and PhD students, but even “old hands” will get useful tips that might accelerate their writing.

On the Structured Way of Writing

Linear and structured writing

Basically, there are two writing strategies and both can be applied in general writing. The first strategy is linear writing, which might be used for very short texts. For example, no one would write a holiday postcard in a structured way that includes the planning and outlining of the content at first (arrival, hotel, beach) and the writing afterwards. In contrast, we would simply start with the first word and then write linearly towards the end. “We had a nice arrival. The hotel is great, as is the beach. See you in two weeks – bye.”

Obviously, this linear way of writing is no longer efficient for longer and more sophisticated texts such as scientific manuscripts. There are too many things to consider in scientific writing, including textual and argumentative aspects, language, style, and formal requirements. For a research paper, you definitely need an organized approach – the structured way of writing.

The four phases of structured writing

The process of structured writing is divided into four defined phases (figure 1, page 7). In the first phase, a CONCEPT not longer than one page is compiled. The concept is basically equivalent to the abstract of your research paper, as it covers the KEY POINTS of the planned publication. These are the background and the research question of your project, the experimental approach, the most important results, and the answer to your question, the conclusion. These key points determine the basic concept of the manuscript, or the underlying story of your paper. The concept leads the way on your journey to a successful publication.

In the second phase, the outlining of the paper, the concept’s key points are connected by appropriate and logical steps of argumentation. With an OUTLINE, you can plan your manuscript in detail. Each bullet point of the outline represents a paragraph. This way, the story of your research paper develops along a straight path.

In the third phase, you write the FIRST DRAFT of your paper, paragraph by paragraph, with each paragraph originating from one bullet point of the outline. Even when writing your first draft, you should not write single paragraphs arbitrarily, without a clear objective. On the contrary, plan the inner structure of a paragraph first. Then, organize all the details and think about how they connect. Finally, start writing.

It is not until the fourth phase that you start with EDITING, proofreading, and polishing the style. Thanks to this structured approach, you have your head clear to concentrate on science during the first three phases of writing.

It is important to clearly distinguish between those four phases, as each phase has its own focus. The concept looks at the overall picture of the manuscript. The outline focuses on the argumentation within each section of the paper. In the first draft of the paper, the logic and comprehensibility of paragraphs are of utmost importance. Editing and proofreading then concentrates on the style of sentences and the choice of words. The structured writing process begins with a look at the big picture and then addresses smaller text units such as sections, paragraphs, sentences, and words.

Figure 1. The four phases of structured writing. The first phase (concept) defines the key points of the planned publication (A, B, C, …). These key points are then connected in the second phase (outline) by appropriate steps of argumentation (1, 2, 3, …). In the third phase (draft), the first draft of the manuscript is written paragraph by paragraph. In the fourth phase, the manuscript is edited and finalized.

Without this clear distinction into four phases, your writing would become very inefficient. If you tried to compile a stylistically elaborated text during an early phase of writing and to deal with all formalities simultaneously, you would easily lose focus. You would constantly be interrupted in your thinking and, consequently, you might have to rewrite your sentences many times to create a coherent manuscript.

Structured writing: efficient writing, precise texts

Dividing the work on a research paper into phases of writing is quite efficient, because the results of each phase can be separately controlled by yourself and your co-authors. As a result, you receive important feedback early in the writing process, which allows you to write in the right direction from the beginning.

Moreover, the structured way of writing results in structured, organized, and clearly written manuscripts. Such manuscripts have a clear structure and follow didactical and communicative principles, which profoundly increase comprehensibility. Only a precise, clearly structured, and comprehensible text can convince your co-authors, the journal’s peer reviewers, and your readers.

Overview: the phases of writing

Before starting with the practical work on your paper, I would like to briefly introduce the individual working steps for each phase of writing.

Phase 1: Concept & Abstract

KEY POINTS: You define the important points (e.g., background, research question, experimental approach, results, answer, implication).

PAPER CATEGORY: You choose a category most appropriate for your research paper (hypothesis-testing paper, descriptive paper, methods paper).

TARGET JOURNAL & ABSTRACT: You choose your target journal and write your concept (the concept is more or less equivalent to the abstract).

Phase 2: Outline

SCIENTIFIC REASONING: You develop the storyline within the sections of your paper (introduction, methods, results, and discussion).

REPRESENTATIVE SENTENCES: You plan your text in detail by writing complete sentences representing single paragraphs.

INFORMATION & FIGURES: For each representative sentence, you make notes on details such as data and references you might need later in the writing process. In addition, you might conceptualize figures and tables.

Phase 3: Draft

TOPIC SENTENCE: Write a short introductory sentence for each paragraph (usually, a topic sentence corresponds to the representative sentence of phase 2).

PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE & CONTEXT: You plan the structure of a paragraph by choosing transition words and phrases that appropriately connect the different pieces of information (sentences).

DRAFT: Then, you write your manuscript paragraph by paragraph. You write the text body and all other texts required, such as figure legends. In addition, you generate the reference list.

Phase 4: Editing & Proofreading

LINGUISTIC STANDARDS: