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Options:-

Publishing: Career Considerations Publishing Strategy Journals and Editors Titles Readability Structure of a Paper How to Write an Article Quickly Refereeing Writing Habits Reading List

Career Considerations

Why publish? Publications and Research Grants Publications and Promotion Co-Authors The REF Strategy

TOP Programme

Why Do We Publish?

And How should that Influence our Strategy?

  • Altruistic reasons
  • So humanity can benefit from your research.
  • If it's not published it might as well not have been done.
  • More practical reasons
  • To change what people believe
    • Which people?
  • To contribute to a conversation
    • What Conversation?
    • With whom?

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Publications and Jobs

and Promotion

  • What are appointment and promotion committees looking for?
  • Lecturer - Competence
    • have you got a research agenda?
    • If the appointments are strategic
      • do you look as if you will be a professor in 5-10 years?
  • Reader - Academic Impact, Early Leadership
    • is your research agenda excellent?
    • are you helping others set their research agenda?
  • Professor - Leadership
    • are you defining an agenda that others are following?
  • Discussion point:-
    • How would publications show these things?

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Publications and Research Grants

  • Why do research funders care about publications?
    • Competence - for any research project.
    • Leadership and Academic Impact - for Fellowships
    • Societal Impact - for applied projects
  • Factors that demonstrate competence
    • Journal choice
      • International
      • Subject defining (which conversations does it support)
      • Exclusivity is risky
    • Authorship order.
      • What does it indicate?
  • Factors that demonstrate Leadership & Academic Impact?
  • Societal Impact?
    • Different journal choice
    • Important to some funders

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Co-Authors

Value of Co-Authors

  1. They do some of the work
  2. They take some of the credit.
  • The extent to which they do these things varies with
    • Their seniority relative to you
    • Their position in the author list
      • Very senior authors can take all the credit and do no work.
  • Risky to publish consistently with senior co-authors unless
    • You have a different senior in each paper.
    • You get to be first author at least half the time.
    • Even then it's still risky.

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The REF

  • Distributes about £1.6 billion per year
    • Oxford REF 2015 £139M
  • 65% Outputs (Publications) (20% Impact; 15% Environment)
    • 4 Outputs per academic in 2014 with reduction at early career stages
  • Quality depends on
    • Originality
    • Significance
    • Rigour
  • Ratings
    • 4* "World Leading"
    • 3* "Internationally Excellent"
    • 2* "Internationally Recognised"
    • 1* "Nationally Recognised"
    • Unclassified (below standard of Nationally Recognised Work)
  • Can you define originality, significance and rigour.
  • How would you measure them?

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Open Access

  • Publication can be read and text-mined without cost
  • Increases visibility of papers
  • Required for REF eligibility if published after 2016
    • 2 Variants
  • GOLD
    • Publication is available on-line without cost
    • Requires payment to publish
    • Creates opportunity for predatory journals
  • GREEN
    • Journal costs money
      • On-line version is free after embargo period < 1 year -OR
      • Final refereed version of paper is placed in open-access repository within 3 months of publication.

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Strategy

Why a strategy helps What a strategy entails   Picking Research Questions   Framing The Answers   Picking Journals   Dealing with Editors Pre-submission   Developing a Pipeline

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Why a strategy helps

  • If your actions now can influence your future you can have a better future if you act strategically.

Strategy

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Research Questions

  • Topic
    • Pick one for which there is an active research community
      • Relevant Conversations (Journals)
      • Scientific enquiry
  • Style of Question
    • Frame the question so that the answer is interesting, however it turns out
    • A good paper connects the question you address to the questions being asked by others.
  • Style of Answer
    • Answers that attack other researchers or make them look foolish are bad strategy - Disciplines with internal disagreements look bad from outside - bad for funding
      • People that you belittle in your papers may referee your papers and grants
    • Make out that you stand on the shoulders of giants
    • Answers that open up new questions are especially important.
      • This is a good way to discuss previous papers.

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Journals and Editors

Journals? Editors Publications and Promotion The REF Strategy

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Picking a Journal

  • Very high status
    • High Impact Factor
    • Very broad coverage
    • Very high rejection rate
      • May be nothing to do with quality
      • It may be hard for the author to tell the difference
    • May have very low word limit.
  • Very low status
    • Narrow geographical footprint
      • "Foreign" vs "International"
    • Narrow subject area
      • Pinnacle vs backwater
    • Nobody you admire publishes there

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Editors

  • My recommendation
    • Consider their perspective
    • Don't expect too much
    • Remember that there are lots of journals.
      • And lots of writers...

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Impact Factor

  • Measure of the influence of a journal.
    • Average number of citations of papers in the last 2 years.
      • Numerator = total number of citations (in Thomson Scientific indexed jornals) in year x.
      • Denominator = total number of papers deemed to be citable in years (x-1) and (x-2).
      • Journals negotiate to reduce the denominator.
  • Value of impact factor (IF)
    • Designed for libraries trying to make rational choices about buying journals.
      • Journal with high IF likely to have a lot of highly cited papers.
    • Very poor predictor of the likely quality (number of citations) of a paper.
      • Most papers in high IF journals have tiny numbers of citations.

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Citations

    • Assign credit to other relevant works
    • Show that your paper fits into an ongoing debate
    • Tit for Tat?
  • Why you want to be cited
  • It shows that your papers are contributing to a debate that is continued by others.

Titles

  • It must tell someone enough that they know whether the paper has something to say to them.
    • Will an outsider know what your paper is about?
    • Does it contain important key-words?
    • Does it say what your paper does?
    • Does it tell them too much?
      • Some people believe that you shouldn't give away the main result. What do you think?
    • Is it an obscure joke or an ironic reference?
      • If so it will tell most people nothing.

Title Exercise

  • Write out the title of one of your papers (one you have written or one you propose to write).
    • Give it to your neighbour
    • Ask them to write down
      • The topic of the paper
      • The research approach
      • The main result

Readability

Principle:- Make the reading effortless.

  • Make your language as simple as it can be.
    • Complex language is OK if you have nothing to say.
  • And as precise as it can be
    • Use quantitative expressions (not just numbers)
  • Don't surprise the reader
    • Don't give them unexpected information
    • Don't deliver similar information in different ways
  • NO SYNONYMS
  • NNIUTDNE
  • No novel initialisations unless they don't need expansion.
    • Some journals ask for them BUT THEY ARE WRONG.
  • Avoid coded references (Experiment 1) if possible.
  • Tell the reader what is coming (No Surprises)
  • At Paper level
  • At paragraph level
    • Start each paragraph with the topic sentence.
      • Write the topic sentences as simple statements.

Back to Programme

Structure of a paper

Recipe for Writing a Paper Programme

The Recipe

  1. Work out the Story of the Results
  2. Write the Methods
  3. Write the Results
  4. Write the Discussion
  5. Write the Conclusion
  6. Write the Introduction
  7. Write the abstract
  8. Write the Title

Structure Programme

Abstract

  • Summarises the Paper
    • 2 structures
      • Sectioned: Maps to Paper
      • All in one section . . .
  • When to write it

How to write the Abstract

  • Cut and paste 'topic sentences' from rest of paper
  • They should tell the story of the paper in a simple logical way.
    • [If they don't, you need to do some paragraph re-planning](#
  • Throw away the ones you don't need

Recipe for Writing a Paper Programme

Introduction

  • Explains to the reader why they should read the paper
    • Say what the paper shows....
    • Review literature to explain why the work is needed
    • Prepare the reader For each main result
    • State the rationale of your approach

    • How to Write it
    • Back to Structure

How to write the Introduction

  • Write it last.
  • Start with a sentence that says what question the paper asks without giving the answer "This paper examines.."
  • Explain to your target reader how what has been done previously makes it important to do what you have done in this paper
  • Describe in very general terms how you ask the question.

Recipe for Writing a Paper Programme

Materials and Methods

Writing the Materials and Methods

  • Should contain all the information needed to replicate your study
  • Logical structure
  • Precision
  • Some people write it while doing the work
  • May need editing when you know what results are usable
  • Can recycle between papers (with citation)
    • "Methods are as described in (xxx). For convenience, we describe them here."

Recipe for Writing a Paper Programme

Results

  • Explains how your results show what you say they do.
    • Summary of the findings using the sentences that state each finding.
      • Paper will be easier to read if all these statements have the same structure.
    • Description of each finding and an explanation of how it is derived from your primary research results.

    • How to Write it
    • Back to Structure

The Story of the Results

How you work it out

  • Storyboarding
  • Express each main finding as a single sentence
    • Each figure or table.
    • The sentence should be intelligible without detailed knowledge of your study.
    • If sentences have the same structure that is better than gratuitously switching structures around.
  • Arrange as many of the sentences as you need to make the best story you can.
  • Don't try and make the story too long or complex
    • Aim to contribute to the conversation, not terminate it!
  • 2 short papers usually does better than 1 long one
    • Quicker refereeing
    • More people read them
    • More people cite them

Recipe for Writing a Paper

Programme

How to write the Results

  • You will already have drafted a statement of each result and arranged the statements in the right order to tell your story.
  • Use this set of statements to introduce the results.
  • Then
    • For each result
      • State the result in descriptive form
      • State which figure shows it
      • Describe the figure
      • Explain what features of the figure show the result and how they show it.
      • Link to next finding
  • Then link to the discussion
  • What to write next?

Recipe for Writing a Paper Programme

Discussion

How to write the Discussion

  • State which findings need comment.
    • Comment on each one in relation to the literature & the introduction.
  • Standardise the format of your comments.

Recipe for Writing a Paper Programme

Conclusion

How to write the Conclusion

  • If you already know the take-home message, tie it to your discussion.
  • If you don't, try the following moves to work it out:-
    • Go back to the reader's starting point
    • Summarise
    • Now what?
    • So what?
  • Advice from Pat Thomson's blog

Recipe for Writing a Paper

Programme

Generic Structure for a Section

  • Introductory Paragraph
    • Summarise the section in a single sentence.
    • Expand the summary with a sentence or bullet for each subsection
    • Link To first subsection
  • Middle Paragraphs
    • State the message of the paragraph in ONE SHORT SENTENCE
      • This is the 'topic sentence'.
    • Explain it or justify it..
      • These sentences must 'flow' so the paragraph is easy to read.
    • Link to the next para.
  • Closing Paragraph
    • Recap or wrap up.
    • Link to the next section
  • Topic sentences on their own should make a good summary.

Recipe for Writing a Paper

Programme

Referees

  • Emotion doesn't help you get published
    • Get rid of any anger before you start.
  • Assume the referee is trying to help improve the paper
  • Revisions (many journals require something like the following)
    • Make a full list of recommended changes
    • Integrate them across referees
    • Write a note about how you will deal with each recommended change.
      • If you think a change makes the paper worse, think about how you might deal with the problem in a way that makes the paper better, or not much worse.
    • Write a resubmission letter in which you express appreciation for the comments (the less you have changed the more you should grovel)

Strategy Programme

Pipeline

  • Know what you need to do to keep your personal paper pipeline flowing.
  • Make sure you allocate enough time to writing
  • Consider the advantages and disadvantages of parallel projects.
  • Respect the needs of your co-authors
    • Make it easy for them to deal with you
    • If it takes them a long time to do their bit find out if you could be part of the problem.
      • Do you leave the paper in a state where it's not much fun to work on?
  • Don't let co-authors slow you down.
  • Discussion questions
    • Which of these is problematic for you? What are your solutions to these problems?
    • What other problems do you see?

Strategy

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Reading

There is a huge amount of advice out there. Don't believe all of it. Most good advice is just applied common sense, so advice that seems like nonsense could well be nonsense. Advice that seems sensible could also be nonsense. Always look critically at the reasoning on which the advice is based.

The following books look useful, particularly for their particular target group.

Programme