50 tips to write your first research paper**

Tuesday 19 May 2015



  1. Write when you have something to say
  2. Focusing on your central message
  3. Write down the three central points of your paper
  4. Summarize your paper in one sentence
  5. Describe your work to a colleague in one minute
  6. Use a “sexy” title: Deoxyribonucleic acids are the carriers of the genetic information of cells in stead of A study of the biological role of the deoxyribonucleic acid components of cells
  7. Remember: Easy writing is hard reading, and hard writing is easy reading
  8. Never write in a hurry!
  9. Avoid verbosity: an excessive number or words
  10. Plan the structure of the manuscript
  11. Structure: abstract, keyword, introduction, material & methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references
  12. Write in order: first material and methods
  13. Second: tables and figures
  14. Third: Results
  15. Fourth: Discussion
  16. Finally: Introduction and acknowledgements
  17. Have the references needed at hand
  18. Material & methods: provide information that would make the work repeatable
  19. Just refer if the method is very well know
  20. Give a few hints on the critical steps if the method is well know
  21. Describe modification if the method is modified
  22. Describe in full if the method is new
  23. Results is the most important part of a paper
  24. Repeatability is essential in experimental research
  25. Prepare tables and figures of results first
  26. Then write a text that draws attention the relevant aspect of tables and figures
  27. Do not repeat exhaustively what table shows
  28. Discussion: make general statement summarizing your findings
  29. Discuss your findings including previous work
  30. Discuss uncertainties and discrepancies and explain why (if possible)
  31. Show the relevance for your hypothesis (established in the introduction)
  32. End discussion up pointing out future directions and conclusions
  33. Do not repeat the results in the discussion
  34. Introduction: the reader has to understand the importance of your work
  35. Provided with the main ideas to understand what follows
  36. Scope of the work: hypothesis, general and specific objectives
  37. No too narrow neither too broad
  38. Introduction should be short, clear and complete
  39. Acknowledgements: only contributions to the objective of the work should be acknowledged
  40. Acknowledge first people (with specific mention of the particular help the author is grateful for) and then the institutions supporting the work
  41. Abstract: start with a draft of the complete manuscript and follow these steps:
  42. Identify the major objectives and conclusions,
  43. Identify the phrases with keywords in the methods section
  44. Identify the major results from the discussion section
  45. Assemble the above information into a single paragraph
  46. State your hypothesis or method used in the first sentence
  47. Omit background information, literature and detailed description of methods
  48. Remove extra words and phrases
  49. Revise to see if it meets the guidelines of the targeted journal.
  50. Have your manuscript or draft reviewed by a labmate or colleague in the area, and your Major Professor of any person of similar experience
(*) Base on the conference How to write a research paper by Prof. Ignacio Moriyón (imoriyon@unav.es), Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Navarra (Spain).

2 comments:

  1. I am student pf PHD and i research on Information technology topic , i like your nine tips for writing a research paper . I also use this nine tips in piratically and got good response.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I follow your 50 step is letter of recommendation for graduate school and in the end i can make a good and high quality content with my letter.

    ReplyDelete