Historical perspectives and approaching a writing project
Here, as promised, are some points from another two chapters of How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 9th edition. This week I’m sharing points from Chapter 2, which is titled “Historical Perspectives" and Chapter 3, "Approaching a Writing Project".
Three Points from Chapter 2: "Historical Prespectives"
(1) The first scientific journals—the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (in England; pictured on the right) and the Journal des Sçavans (in France)—began publication in 1665.
(2) The inclusion of a methods section in scientific papers dates largely to Louis Pasteur, who described his experiments in detail in order to counter critics of his work.
(3) The electronic era has greatly changed the mechanics of writing and publishing scientific papers. When many older scientists began their careers, they typed their papers on typewriters, had scientific illustrators draw graphs by hand, submitted papers to journals by postal service and sent peer reviews by post. Quite different from today.
Three Points from Chapter 3: “Approaching a Writing Project”
(1) Write to communicate, not to impress. In scientific writing, you should strive for clarity, not literary grandeur. Readers should notice mainly the content, not the style.
(2) You can draft the parts of a scientific paper in whatever order you find easiest. Many researchers like to start with the methods section. Many like to start with the figures and tables. Some start by preparing a preliminary reference list—or even the acknowledgements.
(3) Good writing tends to be largely a matter of good revising. No one cares how rough your early drafts are. The important thing is to keep revising your writing until it works well.
Looking forward to providing some points from other chapters next time!
Barbara Gastel, MD, is professor of integrative biosciences and medical humanities at Texas A&M University, College Station, USA, where she coordinates the graduate program in science communication.
This series of posts originally appeared on Professor Barbara Gastel's LinkedIn page.
How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, by Barbara Gastel and Robert A Day, is available in paperback, hardback and Kindle format.