Tips for preparing a manuscript Tri Nugraha Susilawati, MD, MMed., PhD Dept. of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Sebelas Maret Surakarta, May 2017

Writing tips Writing should be happy and relax Find your golden hours Forget your students and patients Enjoy your “Me-Time” Do it regularly, self-reward Take opportunity to learn from others

The journey Drafting Editing Submission Revision

Preparing a paper for submission What kind of paper?  Review article  Original research article  Short communication Who is your target audience? International or national? Structuring the paper

Some common misconceptions You have to pay the journal to publish your paper The journal will pay you to write the paper You have to have a degree or PhD before you are allowed to publish You have to be attached to a university/research organisation before your work will get published You can only publish discoveries of truly earth-shattering greatness or scientific significance No paper will be accepted unless it has got statistics in it somewhere Only long and complex papers get published You need to publish all your results at once and in the same journal You need to put everything you did and everything you found in the paper

Golden rules Take a reader’s view write for your audience, not yourself Tell a story direct your article but keep a clear focus in the paper and present only results that relate to it Be yourself write like you speak and then revise and polish Make it simple use simple(st) examples to explain complex methodology

Golden rules Make it concrete use concrete words and strong verbs, avoid noun clusters (more than 3 words), abstract and ambiguous words Make it short avoid redundancy, repetition and over-explanation of familiar techniques and terminology – define and then use common acronyms Take responsibility make a clear distinction between your work and that of others

Golden rules Make strong statements: “We concluded…” instead of “It may be concluded…” Be self-critical Consider uncertainty of conclusion and their implications and acknowledge the work of others

Suggestions

Title and abstract Try to pick a catchy and informative title Abstract should be short but give the overall idea:  what was done?  what was found?  what were the main conclusions? Keywords  imagine you are searching your article in some database

Introduction Introduction and conclusions are the hardest parts – plan on spending a lot of time on them. Many writers prefer to write their introduction last (if you do write it first, be prepared to revisit it).  1 st : introduce the topic and emphasize why it is important. Give definitions.  2 nd : relate to current knowledge. What’s been done and what needs to be done? The gap?  3 rd : introduce your work. Give the purpose and main objective. Objectives?

Methodology Techniques Describe experimental set-up Object of the study Like a cook book – be specific and provide all necessary detail

Results Give summary results. Main discoveries Compare results Focus: put more focus on what should be emphasized Show, don’t tell!  Rather than telling the reader that a result is interesting or significant, show them how it is interesting or significant.  Rather than describing a result, show the reader what they need to know to come to their own conclusion about it.

Discussion and conclusions Answer research question Support and defend answers with results Explain:  conflicting results you got  unexpected findings  discrepancies with other published research State limitations of the study State importance findings Establish newness Announce further research

A strategy for discussion Begin your discussion with a short statement of the most important points from your results. Start with what you can clearly say based on what you did, not what you cannot say or what you did not do! Use this statement to set up ideas you want to focus on in interpreting your results and relating them to the literature. Use sub-headings that structure the discussion around the ideas.

References When citing a reference, focus on the ideas, not the authors; e.g. “… growth rates are generally small (Jones, 2003). Sometimes the identity of the author is important; e.g. “Jones (2003) rejected this hypothesis…”

Figures and tables Are very important to guide the reader Make them clear Cram into as small a space as possible without compromising clarity Think about the minimum number you need Remember error bars and legend Legend should clearly explain everything in the figure or table Captions should not merely name a table or figure, they should explain how to read it

Final polish Simplify your sentences Increase the quality of vocabulary Examples: -Although  in spite of -Before  prior to -Change  transform -Find  obtain/detect/identify -Help  assist/facilitate/aid

Final polish… cont’d Checking errors (ask colleagues) Examples -Articles of singular/plural words (a/an, -s/es) -Subject-verb agreement -Attention: each, all, every, most, etc. -Active/passive voice -Tenses

Thank you…