HOW TO WRITE &

PUBLISH A SCIENTIFIC
PAPER
What Is Scientific Writing?
SW commonly denotes the reporting of
original research in journals, through
scientific papers in standard format.
 Used in:
• types of journal articles, such as review papers
summarizing and integrating previously published
research.
• other types professional communication, e.g., grant
proposals, oral presentations, and poster
presentations.
What Is a Scientific Paper?
 Definition of A Scientific Paper
a written and published report describing original
research results.

 Organization of A Scientific Paper

The most common labeling of the component parts,
in the basic science, is Introduction, Materials &
Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRAD).
How to Prepare the Title

• 12 words that describe the content of the paper.

• Must be in a word order (no faulty syntax), for example:
1. Mechanism of Suppression of Nontransmissible
Pneumonia in Mice Induced by Newcastle Disease Virus (a
bad title).
2. Mechanism of Suppression of Nontransmissible
Pneumonia Induced in Mice by Newcastle Disease Virus (a
good title).
• Is a label, and normally is not a sentence (shorter).
How to Prepare the Abstract
 Definition of A Scientific Paper
a summary of the information in a document.
 The length of abstract commonly 250 words, and it should be designed to define clearly what is
dealt with in the paper.
 Should be typed as a single paragraph, but some medical journals consisting of a few brief
paragraph, each preceded by a standardized subheading.

An effective abstract has three main

objectives:
1. Provide brief but self-contained information about your paper;
2. Entire potential readers into reading your whole paper;
3. Increase the reference rate of your paper via online searchable databases.

The abstract should:

• state the principal objectives and scope of the investigation;
• describe the methods employed;
• summarize the result;
• state the principal conclusions.
How to Prepare the Abstract
A Sample of An Abstract
 Use Signal
a). Signal the parts of your abstract with conventional phrases such as these:
• Your question: We asked whether X inhibits Y…
We hypothesized that X inhibits Y…
• Your method: To answer this question, we used ...
To test the hypothesis that…, we conducted two trials …
• Your results: We found that…

• Your analysis: Descriptive statistics

were used to analyze…
• Your answer: We conclude that X

inhibits Y…Therefore,…
• Your implications: We suggest that X may
play a role…
• Your recommendations: We recommend
hat X be administered …
 Use Signal
b) Choose verbs that signal the parts of the abstract:
• use present tense for the topic/problem/question
• use past tense to describe your method, results and
analysis
• use a cautious present tense for implications (may mediate,
can improve) and recommendations (should be
administered)
• use simple future tense in a proposal (I will measure…; This
exploratory study will investigate…)

c) Use transitional words and phrases that signal logical

relationships:
• Addition: In addition, also, moreover, as well as
• Contrast: However, nonetheless, although, but, unlike
• Comparison: Similarly, compared with, equally
• Causality: Therefore, thus, consequently, as a
result, in conclusion
 Writing Strategies for Abstract
• 15 strategies to help non-native English speakers
write an abstract effectively:
1). Motivation
Research motivation describes the importance of your
paper to its areas of study.
• What kind of impact will your paper have on your
field?
• Why should readers care about your proposed
research problems an solution to those problems?
• The more potential impacts your study can have, the
more attention readers will pay to your study
• A non-native writer’s research motivation has no
focus and is not clear to readers.
The mistakes by comparing two abstracts with
respect to research motivation.
Strategy 1. State research purposes clearly in
only one or two sentences
 Strategy 2. Avoid using too much
jargon
• The following paragraph is filled with jargon
(underlined words) that should be avoided in an
abstract.
The previous sentence can be reconstructed as follows
to avoid using too much jargon:
Strategy 3 Avoid using citation in abstract

The abstract exists to summarize main points of your study rather than introduce
other people’s ideas or concepts. Therefore, an author should rarely cite references in
the abstract. In this situation that your study replicates another study, you may find it
necessary to cite the original paper. Make sure you use the citation only to define
terms or concepts that are central to your paper. Don’t try delving readers into an
argument or a discussion with numerous references. You will have your chance to do
so when reviewing literature.
Problem Statement
A clear problem statement can draw reader’s attention, and have readers appreciate
the importance of your study. The following statement shows that the main problem
associated with consumer reviews are that they are susceptible to price changes, an
indicator for product quality. Price changes may not have so much influence on high
quality products as on low quality products.
In markets where product prices changes frequently, thee price-influenced
reviews may be biased as a signal of product quality when used by consumers
possessing no knowledge of historical prices.

The simple sentence contains three essential elements of an effective problem

statement: (1). The current state; (2). The desired state; and (3). The combination of
current and desired states into a single statement. The current state is that price
changes may not have influence on a costumer’s perceived product quality. However,
the future state is that product prices may change more frequently in the future. As a
result, the rapid price changes may have a stronger influence on costumers’ perceived
product quality. After combining the current and desired states, you need to check the
quality of your problem statement against three criteria:
 Focus on only one problem
 Write no more than two sentences
 Do not suggest any solutions
Figure 4.3 lists of four sequential steps of the thought process. Each step represents a
strategy t guide you in writing a concise, powerful problem statement.

What What Combining Three criteria:

is the is the the current 1. One problem Final
current desired and the 2. No more than Problem
state? state? desired 2 sentences Statement
states? 3. No suggested
solutions

Figure 4.4 The Process of Developing Problem Statement

Let’s try applying these four strategies into a real problem statement. Unlike
the previous problem statement, the following problem statement from an
unpublished abstract is lengthy and uses five sentences.
“Through the literature we can find that previous researchers take few factors
including the cost of products, prices and the relationship between members of
supply chain into account. But the option contract involves the cost of fund, the
opportunity cost of scheduled capacity and the uncertainty risk of the price
fluctuations. If these factors not considered, this supply chain option contract is
clearly not sound. In this paper we introduce market interest rates, the price
volatility and option deadline into supply chain option contract model to
construct a more suitable model for modern industrial economy. This model
combines the Black Scholes rule and traditional option contract of optimizing in a
supplier-led supply chain.”

This statement violates the rule of thumb that a problem statement should not
be longer than 2 sentences. Although this problem has information on both current
and desired states, it does not combine them into a single or two sentences.
Furthermore, the authors suggest possible solutions. Violations of the three criteria of
an effective problem statement explain why the problem ends up being prolonged and
vague.
 Strategy 4 Explain the current state of problems
Through the literature, we can find that previous researchers only take a few
factors including the cost of products, prices and the relationship between members of
supply chain into account.

 Strategy 5 Explain the desired state of the problems

But the option contract involves the cost of funds, the opportunity cost of
scheduled capacity and the uncertainty risk of the price fluctuations. If these factors
are not considered this supply chain option rates, the price volatility and option
deadline into a supply chain option contract model to construct a more suitable model
for modern industrial economy. This model the Black-Scholes rule and traditional
option contract of optimizing in a supplier-led supply chain.
 Strategy 6 Combine current and desired state into a statement that does not
exceed two sentences

The current literature often examines selective factors (e.g., product cost and
prices) when designing supply chain option contracts. An effective supply chain
option contract should be more thorough and take into consideration additional
factors, including the opportunity cost of scheduled capacity and the uncertainty of
price fluctuations. In this paper we introduce market interest rates, the price volatility
and option deadline into a supply chain option contract model to construct a more
suitable model for modern industrial economy. This model combines the Balk-
Scholes rule and option contract of optimizing in a supplier-low supply chain.

 Strategy 7 Refine your problem statement against three criteria

An effective problem statement should meet three important criteria: (1) focus
on a single problem that has a maximal impact; (2) contain no more than two
sentences; and (3) suggest no solutions. The final problem statement is produced after
removing the last two paragraphs related to suggested solutions.
“The current literature often examines selective factors (e.g., product cost and
prices) when designing supply chain option contracts. An effective supply
chain option contract should be more thorough and take into consideration
additional factors, including the opportunity cost of scheduled capacity and
the uncertainty of price fluctuations.”
1.1.1 Research Approaches
Research approaches consists of three essential elements: (1) research
methods; (2) data sources; and (3) variables. The objective of this section is for
readers to understand not only the research methods, but also the data collection
methods and variable relationships assessed in your study. However, many studies
discuss one element over the others, rather than provide a thorough discussion of all
three these elements.
When discussing research methods, your readers are interested in
understanding the rigor of research methods and your rationale for adopting them.
Unjustified use of research methods can make readers suspicious of your study’s
potential contribution to its field. In order to justify the rigor of your research
method, you need to clearly understand if your study uses qualitative or quantitative
methods. Depending on the method adopted, your discussion should use
corresponding methodological terms and present different foci. You also need to
discuss data sources and their validity, followed by their usefulness in answering your
problem statement. Let’s look at the example:
“In this paper, we develop an analytical model that examines the impact of
price-influenced reviews on firm optimal pricing and consumer welfare. We
quantify the price effects in consumer reviews for different formats of review
systems using actual market prices and online consumer ratings data
collected for the digital camera market.”

The example shows that the authors develop a research model to examine the
direct influence of price-influenced reviews on firm optimal pricing and consumer
welfare in order to validate the research model, the authors collect actual marker
prices of digital cameras and consumer review data from a digital camera market. The
readers can now clearly understand that the authors adopt a quantitative method to
solve the stated problems by testing the relationship between the proposed variable.
Three strategies can be learned from this example.
 Strategy 8 Ask yourself if your research method can solve or make progress
on the problem

You need to discuss how you go about solving or making progress on the
raised problems. Next, you should decide if you would like to adopt qualitative or
quantitative research methods. The authors in the above example clearly use
qualitative methods to assess hypothesized relationships based on their proposed
research model. After discussing their adopted quantitative methods, the authors
further discuses data sources with respect to their usefulness in validating the
hypothesized relationships. Let’s examine the following example and see how we can
improve it based on this principle.
“Our work focuses on the combination of B_S option pricing model and the
operating mechanism of supply chain based on the study of Guo and Young
(2006). Wang and Liu (2007). We construct decision-making model of
consumer-led supply chain mechanism by introducing market rates, price
volatility and option deadline. The introduction of market interest rates, price
volatility and option deadline affects the traditional supply chain model with
option contract. It is a further restriction on option pricing.

We provide a method of option pricing which can be proved equilibrium and

optimized to supply chain members, and in line with the B_S option pricing.
This method can better adapt to the actual operation of the supply chain’s
need. According to the procedure of this model, the combination of option
pricing can also be calculated in other market circumstance. We also make
programs for our model using Matlab software. The programs can help
suppliers calculate their optimal production volume, and help retailers
calculate the combination of option pricing and optimal ordering volumes.”

Let’s first remove information not pertinent to a research method and any
sentences with citations. As discussed before, the minimization of citations is
imperative. We therefore removed the first and third sentences in the first paragraph,
and the first three sentences in the second paragraph as well as information related to
market interest rates, price volatility, and option deadline because this information
has already been discussed in the problem statement. After compre ssing the remained
 Strategy 9 Think about data source and emphasize your data collection
Efforts

Detailed information about your research methods is important to help readers

understand your paper. You need to clarify your use of simulation, analytic models,
prototype construction or survey methods. In order to get readers excited about your
study, you may also want to emphasize the extent of your research efforts when
executing the adopted research methods (e.g, sample size, sophistication of
application programs, interviews, and other data collection challenges)

 Strategy 10 Inform readers of variables your study controls, ignores or

measures

Research methods and data collection are vehicles to help assess the causality
among variables. Authors need to list all important variable and their relationships
that the study controls, ignores, or measures. Without information on the variables
and their relationships you are interested in study, readers will have the impression
that you are on bold adventures without destinations.
1.1.1 Research Results
What happens to the test results? Is there something exciting in your results to
keep readers motivated to read your whole paper? For exact scientific papers, be
specific about contributions your study can make. It is important to ensure research
results are congruent with problem and approaches. For example, readers would like
to know that your new computer programs can accelerate the computing speed by 2%
rather than make marginal improvement. In contrast, for social papers you may be
able to state that the new program has the potential to transform today’s ways of
living. Here is a statement from a social science paper about its research findings:
“Our empirical results suggest that undimensional ratings, commonly used in
most review systems, can be substantially biased by price effects. In fact,
unidimensional ratings are more closely correlated with ratings of product
value than ratings of product quality.”

The example demonstrate two important attributes of good statements about

research results: aligning with the research approach and addressing the research
problems. Result of this study affirm that the hypothesized relationships are or aren’t
confirmed. The authors then articulate the confirmed relationship. The following two
strategies can be used to help clearly explain research approaches.
 Strategy 11 Adopt a research approach that can naturally deliver research
results

 Strategy 12 Have answers to research questions

The following example uses more than 400 words., but fails to effectively
communicate with readers about the test results. The author discuss not only the
analysis result, but also implications.
“From the analysis we can find that the option price and exercise price
computing from our model is convergent. This option pricing is in line with
regulations on the Exchange, meanwhile has the function of optimizing the
supply chain profit. The combination of option pricing is the point of
intersection of two curves. One is curve of optimizing with suppliers, and the
other is curve of regulation in the Exchange. From the viewpoint of supplier
optimization, its option pricing may be two situations besides…. (148 word).

Options have been gradually applied to the supply chain coordination

mechanism in the supply chain to improve the performance of the downstream
coordination with the development of financial engineering ideas……(176
words). In numerical analysis there is the profit of supplier and retailer in
decentralized and in coordinated. From the figures we can find the supplier
tends to increase in option price and decrease exercise price. But the retailer
tends to buy the option with low option price and high exercise price. The
equilibrium is the combination of option pricing under supplier coordination.
Meanwhile the total profit of supply chain achieves maximizing.

Implication should be discussed in the discussion part of abstract. We

therefore removed all information related to implications from this section. The
highlighted information is the only information that is directly related to analysis
results. A second round of revision is attempted to further simplify the sentence and
capture the true essence of this paper’s analysis results.
After the second revision, the following paragraph is developed. This
paragraph meets the requirements of aligning with research approaches and
addressing research problems. The original study exists to develop simulation model
and use it to calculate the optimal option and exercise price for both suppliers and
retailers. Research problems that use this kind of optimization simulation model are
missing from the present studies. The newly revise paragraph meets these two
requirements for an effective communication of research results.
After applying these two strategies, the original paragraphs from the
unpublished paper are reconstructed to ensure that research results are congruent with
1.1.1 Conclusions
Analysis results exist to report facts that can be lead to academic and practical
implications. Howa are you research findings going to change the world? Can other
researchers apply your findings to other contexts? Can you research results
potentially be generalized, or are they specific to a particular situation? The following
example recommends that a company’s overall marketing strategy take into
consideration of price effects on a customer’s perceived value and perceived quality.
New review systems that separate these two dimensions can better serve customers’
needs. The first sentence of this paragraph defines the paper’s academic contribution,
whereas the second sentence defines the paper’s professional contribution.
”our findings suggest the importance for firs to account for these price effects
in their overall marketing strategy and suggest that review systems could
better serve consumers by explicitly expanding review dimensions to separate
perceived value and perceived quality.”

Therefore, it is important to employ Strategy 12 when composing the

conclusion element of abstract.
 Strategy 13 Discuss academic and practical implications in the conclusion

The following conclusion has much information than academic and practical
implications. Slight alterations are necessary to transform this paragraph so that its
new look will contain only academic and practical implications as the previous
example does. After deleting redundant information (underlined sentences), we
examined underlined sentences with respect to a academic and practical
contributions. The first underlined sentences contains information abput practical
implications. The other underlined sentences contain information about academic
implications.
“This study design a method to combine the Black-Scholes rule and
traditional option contract of optimizing in a retailer-led supply chain. From
the model verification, we find that there is the combination of option pricing
which can optimize the supply chain and follow Black-Scholes rule. This
method is applicable to the market in which there are a lot of option contracts
in the supply chain dna the Exchange Trade option (practical implication).
The option priceis the decision-makaing variables of the retailer. This model
has the only form of coordination optimization solution. The retailer’s
decision can regulate the suppliers to maximize its production quantity to the
optimal level for the whole supply chain. And we calculate the key points and
rules of the impact of market rates and volatility to supply chain performance
by numerical example. This study provides the valuable conclusion for making
supply chain option contract to enterprises.”

We rewrote these sentences and made them much shorter than their original
forms. More importantly, the revised conclusion contains both academic and practical
implications.
” Our findings suggest suppliers and retailers regulate each other toward making
optimal decision on option and exercise prices {academic implication}. Our
customer-driven supply chain model is applicable to markets in which option
contracts are accepta
 Strategy 14 Think of a half-dozen search phrases and keywords that people
looking for your work might use.

All journals require a few keywords be provided in the end of an abstract.

Keywords can serve two primary purposes: (1) potential readers can efficiently locate
your paper from online searchable database, and (2) have editors assign your paper to
reviewers familiar with the subject(s) of your paper. Here is a list of keywords used
by the sample abstract.
Keywords: Online product reviews, review bias, price effects, empirical
analysis, optimal pricing.

As you may discover, all these keywords have been used in the abstract, key
terms used in the abstract are good candidates for keywords. Another way to increase
the chance of having your paper searched by potential readers is to go through your
preferences and search a preset of keywords and see which keywords are located
more often.
Let’s look at a list of keywords used in the second example and try to modify
them. We first scan the revised abstract and try coming up with a list of keywords,
including supply chains, optimization model, option contract, option price, exercise
prices, suppliers, and retailers. Depending on the limitation on the number of
keywords in your target journal , you can further downsize the newly developed list
of keywords. Here is the comparison of original and revised keywords.
 Original keywords: supply chain, option pricing, optimization, performance

 Revised keywords: supply chains, optimization model, option contract, option

price, exercise price, suppliers
 Strategy 15 Avoid writing a lengthy abstract
The following includes of list of submission guidelines for top journals in the
field of information systems, and production and operations management.
1. Journal of Management Information Systems
Every manuscript should contain an abstract up to 150 words), and a set of key
words and phrases to serve as indicators of the paper’s content, no citation should
be included in the abstract.
2. Information System Research
Papers should include an easy to read and understandable abstract of not more
than 300 words that communicates contribution of the paper to general readers as
clearly as possible.
3. Management Science
Write a text-only abstract of no more than 200 words. Do not include references in
your abstract.
4. European Journal of Operational Research
An abstract should have between 50 and 250 words. Abstract should not contain
formulae.
The following figure (Fig. 4.5) the a short abstract from 1693 words to be a
revised abstract with only 261 words containing all five essential elements:
motivation, problem statement, approach, results and conclusions after applying the
proposed 15 strategies in rewriting the sample abstract above.
Motivation
Companies are increasingly constructing customer-centric supply chains in order
to cope with the unrelenting pressure of cost reduction. The consumer-centric
supply chain strategy emphasizes improvement of key factors such as market rates,
volatility and option pricing terms via the coordination of supply chain partners
Problem Statement
The current literature often examines selective factors (e.g., product cost and
prices) when designing supply chain option contracts. An effective supply chain
option contract should be more thorough and take into consideration additional
factors, including the opportunity cost of scheduled capacity and the uncertainty of
price fluctuations.
Approach
In this paper, we develop an option pricing model that examines the dynamics of
customer-driven supply chains. We program the proposed option pricing model
using Matlab software to help suppliers calculate optimal volumes, and retailers
calculate optimal ordering volumes and option pricing.
Results
Our model simulation results shows that suppliers and retailers can optimize their
option pricing decision because the option price and exercise price curves
intersect with each other in the price optimization graph. The total price of the
entire supply chain can achieve maximization because suppliers have preference
for increasing option price but decreasing exercise price, and retailers have the
opposite preference. Our numerical analysis affirms the existence of the
phenomenon that suppliers and retailers are always forced to make an optimal
decision between option price and exercise price.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest suppliers and retailers regulate each other toward making
optimal decision on option and exercise prices. Our customer-driven supply chain
model is applicable to markets in which option contracts are acceptable forms of
supply chain operations.
Keywords
Supply chains, optimization model, option contract, option price, exercise price,
suppliers, retailers