HOW TO WRITE PUBLISHABLE

RESEARCH ARTICLES

By: Samson Mekbib (PhD)

Daily Life of an Academician
Well Rounded Academician

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The order of the day……

Publish!!!!!
Or
Perish?????

To Survive in the competitive Academic

Life

"Publish or perish"refers to the pressure to publish

constantly in order to further or sustain one's career in
academia.
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Some reasons for not writing
papers …
Too much teaching, meetings etc

Takes too long to publish

Not sure in dealing with reviewers’ comments

Lack of confidence in the quality of research

Lack of guidance or motivation

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Some reasons for not writing
papers …
Career progression is not clear

No burning desire to publish

No Scholarly approach to research

Genuine difficulty with writing papers (We try to

address this in this workshop)
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Why write and publish research
papers?
Practically :–

 to get a job

 to get funding

 to get promoted

 to retain your job!!!!

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Why Write and Publish Research
Papers?
Ideally :-

 real proof of your research activity

 to share research findings and discoveries with
the hope of improving knowledge/areas of
research.

 recognition for ideas/ for yourself

 others seeking the author out for collaboration

 status in the academic/research community

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“Scientists/ Researchers are rated by
what they finish, not by what they
attempt”

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Check the originality of your idea
 Have you done something new and interesting?

 Is there anything challenging in your work?

 Is the work related to current topic?

 Have you provided any new solutions to any

difficult problem?

 If your answer is “ yes” any of these questions

then start preparing your manuscript.
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Rules of the Game
To be counted as a scientific publication, your
contribution has to undergo peer review.
To get you much formal reputation it has to
appear in a high-impact journal.

To get you much actual reputation is:

 has to be good,

 has to be read, and

 has to be cited by others

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Paper Writing: The Philosophy
A paper contains a report on (new) findings and/or
solutions.

The purpose of the write-up is to convince the reader

that your findings/solutions are important and better
(than the existing solutions).

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Paper Writing: The Philosophy
 The write-up should describe:

 What problems you want to solve/reduce,

 Why is it important,

 What have you achieved,

 How you achieved it, and

 How much better is it?

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In Short
 State your claims clearly,

 Support and prove your claims beyond doubts

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What Makes a Good Research
Article
A paper should be clear, concise, logical,
accurate and readable

Throw away superfluous material and areas of

ambiguity.

Should be ruthless in choosing only relevant material

from a vast body of data.

Paper is not a piece of literature but a readable poem

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Your Research Article should
Demonstrate
Needs to demonstrate
 substantial independent research or creative
ability
 an original and distinct contribution to
knowledge

Needs to be well
 planned

 organized

 well written
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Choose the Right Journal
 Investigate all candidate journals to find out
 Aims and scope
 Type of articles

 Readership

 Current hot topics

 Get advise from your Supervisors (Chase them if

necessary
 The references in your paper might indicate where to
send your paper
 Submit to a single journal at a time (International
publishing ethics prohibit multiple submissions and
editors DO find out!) 17
Decide the Type of Your Article…

Full articles/Original articles;

Letter/Rapid Communications/Short Communications
Review Papers/perspectives

 Self-evaluate your work: Is it sufficient for a full

article? Or are your results so thrilling that they
need to be shown as soon as possible

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Content vs Presentation
Content is essential
 Contains a clear, useful, and exciting scientific message

Presentation is critical
 Conveys the authors thoughts in a logical manner such

that the reader arrives at the same conclusions as the

author
 Constructed in the format that best showcases the

author’s material
 Written in a style that transmits the message clearly

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Writing Tips
Reader-oriented writing (good organization,
logical flow, etc.)

Standard and consistent formatting (professional

and neat looking).

Learning from other peoples writing

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Organize your Paper
Top-down writing method
Planning sections and subsections
Sketching: use a sentence to represent the points
(paragraphs) in each subsections
Writing details: expend a sentence in the sketch into a
paragraph
Adjustment: break / merge paragraphs, add / merge
sections
N.B. keep a logical flow from sentence to sentence,
paragraph to paragraph and section to section.

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How do I Build-up my Article
Properly
Title
Abstract
Keywords
Main text (IMRAD)
 Introduction “what is it about?”
 Literature review “what’s the point of doing
it?”
 Methods
 Results And Discussions
Conclusion
Acknowledgement
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Writing Sequence

Methods

Results

Discussion

Introduction

Conclusion

Abstract

Title
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A Good TITLE Tells What the
Paper is About…

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The ABSTRACT – An
Advertisement of your article…

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Write a Concise ABSTRACT
The use of an abstract:
 A specific and concise form to represent our paper.

 The abstract should be a stand-alone summary of the

entire paper before getting into details.

An abstract should tell:

 the problem that the paper discusses.

 the work that has been done, or method being used.

 original findings / achievements.

An abstract usually does NOT have:

 reference numbers

 multiple paragraphs
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Common Mistakes in ABSTRACTS
Different font sizes

Duplicate words

References

Punctuation errors

Poor grammar/word choice

Undefined abbreviations
Contradictory information
Poor structure
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INTRODUCTION – Show how
important your paper is …

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INTRODUCTION
construct as an inverted pyramid

 move from broad statement to rationale for the

study: why this study

catchy opening sentence

keep it short

Brief and well integrated review of pertinent work

Justify your study in light of above

end up with sharp focus: hypothesis, question

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Literature Review ….
Demonstrate your understanding what is known in the particular
field of your research topic

Explain how different pieces of research in that field fit together

Explain how knowledge has been developed and accumulated

over time

Explain how your own research is connected to what is already

known

Explain how your research is justified as needing to be done

Acknowledge the work and achievements of others

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A Good LR
Includes current literature as well as material of key
historical interest
Draws from a wide range of resources
demonstrates a breadth of knowledge of the area
Develops a strong argument justifying the current
research
Should be the one well organized and interesting to
read

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Results …

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Discussion
Explain the results of the work in view of the

objectives stated in the introduction.

Do not repeat data.

Relate your outcome to existing knowledge

Discuss weaknesses and discrepancies

Explain the facts without exaggerating

Support your arguments/observations with

published literature.
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Discussion …

Compare/ contradict your observations with published literature.

Describe limitations of your work.

Describe implications or applications of your work.

Any not-so-obvious statement should be supported by

references or simulation results

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Conclusions
First paragraph of the Discussion should give a brief overview of
the main findings of the paper: the final conclusions and an outline
of the supporting data.

Final paragraph can make predictions for the future and can be
made in broad brush strokes. But don’t speculate too wildly.

e.g. “In the present research we developed a new mechanism by

which different forms of the same protein act in an antagonistic
manner to regulate gene transcription. This mechanism appears to
be evolutionarily conserved. Further studies will be necessary to
confirm our hypothesis concerning the unexpected role of protein
phosphorylation”.

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Conclusions …
Conclusion is not a summary of the work, but a listing of
major outcomes derived from the study.

Therefore do not state as what has been done in your

work, instead bring out the outcome of the results and
discussions in terms of statements.

Many a time, the abstract and conclusions are referred

for a quick assessment of the usefulness of the paper by
the reviewers/ readers. Hence these sections must be
written with most importance.
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Writing the Manuscript

The hardest part is

Getting Started!!!

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Overview of Peer Review Process

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Responding to Reviewers
Carefully prepare your responses

Each comment should be addressed

Each change should be stated

Be enthusiastic

 Reviewer may be wrong

 Be tactful –thank the reviewers

 Do not respond to reviewers while upset

 Never call the editor

 Get help from other authors 40

Immediate Rejection Criteria
The subject matter is of insufficient interest to the
readership to a specific journal

Lack of new information

The results are trivial, predictable, or duplicative of others

Insufficient international importance or intérêts

Scientific quality is substandard due to poor experimental

design and methodology

Improper conclusion

Suspected misconduct -fabrication and plagiarism

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Reasons for major revision or
rejection of articles

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Scientific Language Tenses
Present tense for known facts and hypotheses:
 “The average life of a honey bee is6 weeks”

Past tense for experiments you have conducted:

 “All the honey bees were maintained in an
environment with a consistent temperature of 23
degrees centigrade…”

Past tense when you describe the results of an experiment:

 “The average life span of bees in our contained
environment was 8 weeks…”

Use present tense for general conclusions.

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If your Paper gets Rejected …
Do not despair, Don’t give up …

it happens!!! it’s very common….

Read what the reviewers wrote
Fix the problems (unless they are really fatal
problems that doom the paper)
Research other “lower impact” journals that
would be appropriate
Reformat according to the journal’s
instructions
Resubmit 44
Ethics in Publishing
Gift of Authorship

Fabrication /manipulate data.

Never falsify data.

Don’t duplicate manuscripts

Do not plagiarize.

 Reword (and even then attribute the source).

 Direct quotes are rarely used, but make sure you use
quotation marks and properly cite the source.

Conflict of Interest
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THANK YOU