www.chessitn.eu

Writing a Paper

Prof Brian Caulfield

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 676201

KISS

target journal?

• Read the instructions for authors carefully….

• Look at style of other papers….

• Take note of turnaround time for Journal review

• Keep an eye on impact factor and ranking

Tangled web. The location of a journal's publisher, editor, and bank account are often continents apart.

John Bohannon Science 2013;342:60-65

Published by AAAS

intro

• Brevity is the key……• Biggest mistake is putting too much info in and

not actually achieving the main objective in an introduction……

• Set up the study……

Intro – key points…..

• Brief opening outlining the broad area that you are going to address

• Hone in on the specific issue that you are talking about• Tell us what is already known about this issue• Describe the main information gap (and its implications)• If appropriate, let us know about any new information

that suggests that this information gap might be addressable

• Tell us how you plan to address this in this study…..

Methods

• Content usually the same but order differs from journal to journal….

Methods – key points

• Experimental design• Participants• Equipment/apparatus• Procedures• Data processing/analysis• Statistical approach

Results

• Never discuss the relevance of your results in the results section

• Simply present your findings and move on….• Smart combination of tables and text….

– Tables for comprehensive results presentation– Text to highlight key findings of note…

discussion

• Principal findings….• Relevance….• How does it compare to other studies?

Explore differences & commonalities….• What contextual factors should be taken into

account?• Where do we go from here? Implications for

practice, further study etc…

discussion

• Do not over reach….

conclusion

• Take home message

www.chessitn.eu

Writing a Paper

Prof Brian Caulfield

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 676201