50 tips to write your first research paper**

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).

(**) Acknowldgements: MicroBio (Ignacio López-Goñi)