How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper
How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper
This compact and easy-to-read book contains essential advice on how to take a manuscript from planning right through to publication. It will help both first-time writers and more experienced authors to present their results more effectively. While retaining the easy-to-read and well-structured approach of previous editions, the third edition of this essential guide has been expanded to include comprehensive advice on drawing graphs, and information about Open Access publishing. Illustrations are discussed in detail, with examples of poor illustrations taken from real papers in top-ranked journals, redrawn for comparison. Such before-and-after examples are also provided to demonstrate good and bad writing styles. The reader is offered practical advice - from how to present a paper and where to submit the manuscript, through to responding to reviewers' comments and correcting the proofs - all developed through the author's extensive teaching experience and his many years spent working as a journal editor.
- Concise, easy-to-read and full of common-sense advice, delivered with humour through the use of anecdotes
- Uses illustrations of good and bad writing from a number of well-known journals such as The Lancet, JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine
- Shows illustrative graphs taken from scientific papers, redrawn to demonstrate how they can be improved
Reviews & endorsements
Review of previous edition:
"This book ranks with the best in the field. It is brief, to the point and easy to follow … useful to the author and editor … recommended."
Research Communications in Molecular Pathology and Pharmacology
Review of previous edition:
"… short and straightforward … complete and user-friendly … for those making their first public steps in science, Gustavii's book is certainly very useful."
Annals of Human Biology
Review of previous edition:
"… enjoyable and well written … an ideal reference book to have at hand when writing and organizing many types of scientific literature."
The British Society for Cell Biology
Review of previous edition:
"… a very welcome learning resource … clear and concise … well structured, easy to read and well-illustrated … a highly useful resource indeed … [I] would highly recommend it."
The Biologist
Review of previous edition:
"Every aspiring writer should read and follow the advice in How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper. Even accomplished scientific authors will add to their proficiency by going through this enjoyable volume."
Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica
Product details
April 2017Paperback
9781316607916
240 pages
228 × 153 × 10 mm
0.39kg
71 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface to the third edition
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Basic rules of writing
- 2. Comments on scientific writing
- 3. Drafting the manuscript
- 4. Choosing a journal
- 5. How to begin
- 6. Figure captions (legends)
- 7. Preparing a graph
- 8. Graph combination
- 9. Drawings
- 10. How to design a table
- 11. Title
- 12. Authors
- 13. Abstract
- 14. Introduction
- 15. Methods
- 16. Results
- 17. Discussion
- 18. Acknowledgements
- 19. References
- 20. PhD and other doctoral theses
- 21. Letters and case reports
- 22. Numbers
- 23. Abbreviations
- 24. How to present statistical results
- 25. Typing
- 26. Dealing with editors and referees
- 27. Correcting proofs
- 28. Authors' responsibility
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index.
