Transcript Ch13ResMethSprott - University of Denver

Chapter 13
Scientific Communication
in Geography
Shannon Sprott
Geog 4020 - Research Methods in Geography
University of Denver
Scientific Communication
• Scientific Communication is critically
important to the entire process of
research, not just to its results, and it
involves as assortment of communications
that vary from the relatively formal to the
relatively informal. Much scientific
communication occurs in verbal form, both
oral and written, but also in numerical and
graphical forms.
Written Communication
• Scientific Literature – the archive of written research communication
that includes journal articles, books, and so on.
• Books - contain some combination of concepts, theories, empirical
results, literature reviews, and methodological discussions.
• Grant Application – a request for research funding for a proposed
program of research, made to sources such as public agencies and
private foundations.
Oral Communication
• Most notable oral communication are talks given at
conferences.
• These talks are called papers even though they are given
orally.
The most Important Scientific
Literature are Scientific Journals
• Empirical Studies
• Literature Review - Summarizes all relevant
articles presenting research on a particular
issue.
• Theoretical Paper - Presents new concepts,
theories, or models but not new empirical
results.
Ways of Giving Effective Oral
Presentations
• Content
- Have a single theme or main point
- Think about your audience
- Explain acronyms & other abbreviations upon first usage.
• Presentation Style
- Your goal is to inform & entertain; don’t read your paper
- Establish eye contact with the audience
- Speak loud enough, vary your tone, and be enthusiastic.
• Appearance & Presentation
- Use words & graphics (photos, graphs, maps, & videos)
- Avoid overly complex or busy slides that include to much information.
- Use large font size & carefully proofread for typos & inconsistencies.
Peer Review System for Academic
Publishing
• The peer review system consists of authors, editors, and
reviewers, and the process they use to determine
whether a manuscript should be published in a particular
outlet, and it so, what should change about the
manuscript to improve it for publication.
• The criteria used to decide if a manuscript should be
accepted for publication include a great variety of issued
concerning the way research studies were conducted,
the way they were interpreted, the way the research was
connected to other research that exist in the scientific
literature, and the way the manuscript is written and
otherwise communicated in tables and graphs.
Considerations when Reviewing
Manuscript for Publication
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Is the manuscript appropriate for the journal under consideration?
Does the manuscript make an original contribution?
Is the appropriate literature cited and accurately described?
Are the proper methods used? Are concerns about the validity of the
methods addressed?
Are the proper statistical or mathematical tests applied, and are they
applied correctly? Are the results interpreted correctly?
Is the title appropriate and informative?
Is the writing clear, unambiguous, and effective? Are punctuation &
grammar correct?
Can the manuscript be shortened without loss of important content,
or does it need to be expanded in some places?
Are the tables and figures necessary & well designs? Should there
be additional ones? How could they be improved?
Basic Structure of a Journal
Manuscript
• Title Page - First page of a submitted manuscript.
- Includes the authors names (order matters and must be discussed
ahead of time), and departmental or institutional affiliation.
• Abstract - Very short summary of what you did and why, what you found,
and what it means.
- as few as 100 words and rarely more than 300.
• Introduction - First major section of a research manuscript.
- includes topic, citations to relevant literature, put your problem in context, &
end with a specific research question or hypothesis.
• Method – Second major section of a research manuscript.
- Includes cases (who or what, how sampled), materials (including equipment,
survey questions, computer displays), & procedures (narrative of what you
did to get the data & make the model)
Basic Structure of a Journal
Manuscript Continued……
• Results - Third major section of a research manuscript.
- Includes descriptive (especially) and inferential statistics, concise
interpretation (avoid broad conclusions here), & data treatments,
transformations, data problems, and how you dealt with them.
• Discussion - Fourth and final major section of a research
manuscript.
- Narrowly restates major results, interprets them both specifically and
broadly, considers problems and limitations, and suggest future
research.
• References or Bibliography - List of literature sources for
manuscript placed at the end.
- Usually in alphabetical order by first authors last name, & li8st in
chronological order is there are multiple references by same
authors.
• Tables and/or Figures & Appendices
Two Aspects of Style in Scientific
Writing
• Scientific research should be expressed in precise and
straightforward language. “Say what you mean clearly
and simple”. Avoid silted, pedantic writing, including the
dreaded “scientese” that employs passive and jargony
sentences in order to sound scientific.
• Scientific communication should avoid sexist language.
Writers should not consistently use masculine singular
pronouns in a generic or default manner, that is , when
the sex of the person referred to could be male or female
is otherwise irrelevant.
Using your library for Scientific
Research
• Your local library consists of an incredible storehouse, containing a
variety of scholarly and research resources.
• These resources include; scientific research, reference books,
publically available data sets (secondary data), maps and imagery,
dissertations, newspapers, special collections, and more.
• Most importantly, libraries provide the basis for scholarship!
• Scholarship is knowing what has and hasn’t been said or done, &
what is and is not believed to be true.
• Library resources provide ideas that help you design and carry out
your research, such as techniques you could use to collect or
analyze data.
• Library resources allow you to give recognition to people who have
some up with new ideas or results, thus giving credit where it has
been earned.