Transcript My Experience in Scientific Writing

My Experience in
Scientific Writing
Shiqiang Wan
Before Manuscript Writing
• Read Paper from the Flagship Journals
• Keep reading (at least one paper per week)
• Write paper review (2-3 pages), one per week
Recommended Flagship Journals
of Ecology and Botany
• Science, Nature, PNAS, Trends in Ecology and Evolution,
Annual Review of Ecology and Sysmatics,
• Ecology, Ecological Monographs, Ecological Applications,
Frontiers in Ecology and Environment,
• Journal of Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology, Functional
Ecology,
• American Naturalist, Oecologia, Oikos,
• Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
• Ecology Letters, Ecosystems,
• Global Change Biology, Global Biogeochemical Cycles,
Global Ecology & Biogeography
• Journal of Experimental Botany, Plant, Cell, & Environment
• New Phytologist, American Journal of Botany,
• Soil Biology & Biochemistry, Plant and Soil
文章评阅报告要求
• 1．英文写作；12号字，左侧对称，用自己的语言组织，
不得抄袭文章中的句子和段落。
• 2．给文章打分，可分为A+、A-、B+、B-、C+、C-、D+、
D-几个档次。
• 3．注明文章的题目、作者、出版刊物名称、卷、期、页
码；评阅人员姓名和日期。
• 4．介绍文章的背景、出发点和假设、研究方法、主要结
果、结论和意义。
• 5．指出该文章的优缺点。
• 6．该文章对你的研究有何启发；查找其中引用的重要文
献。
• 7．根据所有已经阅读的文献，归纳提出新的观点和假设，
并设计可行的实验来验证。
• 8．在读书报告写出之后，要仔细检查几遍，上、下标，
大、小写等格式问题一定要认真修改后方可上交。
Scope
Introduction
Background
Methods
Results
Discussion
Implications
Make idea go smoothly and consistently
Introduction
Warming
Precipitation
N addition
Results
b
Warming
Precipitation
N addition
Discussion
a
Warming
Precipitation
N addition
c
Tips
• Introduction: present tense
• Methods and Result: past tense
• Discussion: present tense
Begin from Which Section?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Materials and Methods
Results
Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
Abstract
Results
• The most important issue: Data Mining;
Play with your data!
• Define all the possible relationships
among parameters
• Prepare the figures and tables in the way
that be used in the manuscript
• Select most relevant and significant results
that can make the study a good story
The right way to present
interactions
• The main effects of both warming (P<0.05) and increasing
precipitation (P<0.05) were statistically significant. Warming
stimulated Y by ??% whereas precipitation reduced it by ??%
• Warming and increased precipitation interacted to affect Y (P<0.01).
Warming reduced Y by ??% under ambient precipitation, but
increased it by ??% under increased precipitation. Increased
precipitation enhanced Y by??% without warming and suppressed
it by ?? % warming, respectively.
3.0
Root turnover (yr -1)
C
W
P
2.0
1.0
0.0
2006
2007
WP
Discussion
• Comparison of your results with others
• Seek for the underlying mechanisms of the
changes in the measured parameters.
• Implications or extrapolations of your
findings.
• Define unresolved questions for future
research
Discussion
• Complex interactions among multiple
ecological components and processes
require to explain changes in one variable
with all other variables with available data.
• When explaining your result, do not to
speculate unless you can support your
argument with data in your or previous
studies.
Discussion
• Do not repeat results:
• Wrong: There were significant effects of
warming × increased precipitation
interactions on cumulative root production,
mortality.
• Right: Significant effects of warming ×
increased precipitation interactions on
cumulative root production, mortality
observed in this study suggest
Introduction
• Literature review
• Correct judgment on progress of the
research related to your study.
• Define critical scientific questions that
have not been answered yet and can, at
least partly, be answered in your study.
• Propose hypotheses based on solid
findings and reasonable speculation
Conclusion
• Concise and informative.
Abstract
• Importance, methods, major findings,
conclusion
• Numerical presentation
• “Talk-home” message that you can
describe your study with one sentence and
the reader can remember your study easily.
• Do not use LONG sentence, separate it
into several short sentences each with its
own major point.
For Chinese Authors
• Put Given (first) Name (名) first, then
Family name (姓).
• “Shiqiang Wan or S. Wan ” in US, “Wan,
Shiqiang or Wan S” in UK
Other
• Capital case at the beginning of the
sentence
• Use one tense in a sentence
• Check 主语与谓语的单复数是否一致
• Do not always use “And”, “So”, “But”,
“While” at the beginning of the sentence.
• Use “in” rather than “of” after “change”,
“difference”, “Reduction” “Increase”,
“Decrease”