How to Write a Killer Scientific Research Paper:
Starting a publication pipeline in graduate school
This post is dedicated to struggling grad students, like me, who couldn't figure out the magical formula to publishing a scientific paper.
The first step to a killer paper is a killer idea (4.6%) that leads to a solid scientific research question. This should take 5% of time to find an interesting up to date ideas and another 5% of time to solidify a research question that is feasible within your skills, knowledge, and time frame... if you are choosing a masters thesis question, figure out a timeline of how much time you have for each task on the pie chart below. Sit down and chunk out pics of time you will work on each slice of pie. Don't forget to keep those weekly meetings with your mentor to discuss what you are reading and thinking about during the thesis or dissertation.
The next big chunk of time you need to prepare for is writing the literature review (7.7%) <Comment below if you want a post on conducting a literature review> For the literature review you could read down a hole on any given topic. Tips: a)Limit your scope. b)Pick one question that hasn't been asked yet^^. c)Read current papers in your field. Current <=5 years. If your field is a big fan of theory, use the original citation ( Adams, 1802) once or twice. Use your own words to describe the theory. Then, relate it to the current papers you're reading <=5 years. If your field is not heavy on theory, mention one sentence referencing the thesis/ theory and the main authors on that thesis. Move on to citing 5 main results from recent studies (from what you've been reading). [Tip for publishing: Wit down the top 3-4 journals you cited in each empirical chapter. Use that list to pick your target journals to publish in. Read more of those journals and write in that style <There are usually 3 manuscript- style papers that are the 3 chapters and the body of your dissertation> Don't spend too much time on your literature review. Out of 15 pages of text, only 3-4 pages should be an introduction paragraph, literature review, and research question and hypotheses. Undergraduates and many graduate students spend so much time reading and collecting citations. Which is good at the beginning. Know when to quit. The best thesis is a done thesis. <cite this blog of it has helped you; Instagram @journey. to.tenure.track> Be concise and copy the style of the journal articles published in your target journal, or past dissertations.
Finding Data (4.6%) and Data Analysis (15.4%) might take a long time depending on your skill level in the methods you will use. For a basic scientific article in most publishable journal, there will be statistics involved and data involved. Learning how to use Stata, SAS, SPSS, Matlab, R, Python, or Excel, will be your greatest asset in your path to an academic career. Ask your advisor or mentor for places to look for data. Google datasets with your keywords from your literature review. I bet that you will find 3-5 datasets available to use that are cited/ used in your literature review. Go explore those, by that I mean look for a data dictionary. Search for the variable names that are imperishable to your study. DATA ANALYSIS: Varies from discipline to discipline. Your advising professor or senior author will take the lead on this. If the lead author is you, for instance your thesis or dissertation, then figure out an analytical plan to fit you data. Keep track of all of the decisions you make. <-- Very Important. In general, the lead author will take over writing the Methods and Results sections. If you are advanced, the senior author may give you a set of results Tables to write those sections yourself.
Writing the findings (15.4%) is a section is next after the data analysis and results are done. This is mainly the Results section. But the results are also restated in the discussion, conclusion and abstract, typically. Writing the findings is the first topic sentence for each paragraph in the Discussion for each finding is a general good guidelines I've found for my grad students. In the Discussion, your focus is two-fold (10.8%): 1) finish the story of what the literature review said and the results say on your research topic, 2) Compare your results to more of the literature. Yep, go back to your literature citations and tell your readers how your findings further the bigger discussion on topic X. Why is your scientific paper important. What do we want to ask about topic X now that we know Y about topic X from your paper? The limitations section tells readers about the problems you faced in doing the analysis, and preemptively answers the reviewers concerns about what your paper lacks. It could be the difference between publishing your thesis and not. Really.
FINAL STRETCH...Almost...): Conclusion, Introduction, Abstract (14%) Simple things can polish your scientific paper such as 1 Conclusion paragraph. Wrap it up! The Introduction has a quick 5-sentence persuasive paragraph to hook readers into finishing reading your science. The first sentence is a fact about your outcome variable. The second sentence highlights the public problem. What happens if the outcome variable isn't corrected or stopped or not punished, etc.? The third and fourth sentence state facts about the predicting variable(s). The fifth sentence is up to you. It's a transition sentence to your first literature review. Last is the Abstract, the quick shot of what your whole paper is about. Word Limits can range from 300-500 words based on the target journal you picked. Follow the headings sections that your journal uses. **Each journal has an Author Guidlines manual**
Copy Editing will take way more time than you expect. If you are terrible at writing, you can hire a professional editor as long as the paper your writing is not a class paper. Thesis ok, dissertation, ok. Personally, I paid money to cope Edit my dissertation professionally for 3 drafts. If you don't have the funding, I suggest Grammarly or Hemmingway App. They are free for the basics. Now that I publish allot more volume, I use the professional Grammarly subscription.
THAT'S IT. CONGRATS YOU FINISHED.
Citation for this Article (APA7)
Natale, G. (2022). How to Write a Killer Scientific Ressearch Paper -- Starting a publication pipeline in graduate school. Journey to Tenure Track. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://journeytotenuretrack.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-to-write-killer-scientific.html?m=1
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