Ways to improve your scientific writing

Laboratory of Neuroinformatics

Biomedical writing is complicated!

Nature editorial on eLife doi: 10.7554/eLife.27725 (Plavén-Sigray et al., 2017)

You may have amazing results It is important they are expressed clearly and concisely

Typical reviewer evaluation form

Good English is essential when submitting a manuscript

Common problem: Text difficult to follow

1- Complicated sentences

There are which currently

2. Nominalisation – turning verbs into nouns

• We conducted an investigation on the effects of drug X on blood pressure and heart rate. • We investigated the effects of drug X on blood pressure and heart rate.

• The physician performed an examination of the patient to make a determination of whether or not surgery would be necessary.

• The physician examined the patient to determine whether surgery was necessary.

• This figure provides an illustration of the high-quality results we obtained using this assay.• This figure illustrates the high-quality results we obtained using this assay.

Nominalised verbs usually end with -ion

3 – Active or passive voice?

“Nature journals prefer authors to write in the active voice ("we performed the experiment...") as experience has shown that readers find concepts and results to be conveyed more clearly if written directly.”

https://www.nature.com/authors/author_resources/how_write.html

“Use the active voice, not the passive (e.g., “I ate the donut” not “the donut was eaten”)”

https://www.springer.com/authors/manuscript+guidelines?SGWID=0-40162-6-1261121-0

“Use active voice when suitable, particularly when necessary for correct syntax (e.g., "To address this possibility, we constructed a λZap library . . .," not "To address this possibility, a λZap library was constructed . . .").”

http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/res/style.xhtml

“Expunge virtually all use of the passive voice. Use of the passive voice confuses readers because it does not tell the reader “who” did the action”https://www.elsevier.com/__data/promis_misc/adveiwrsty051203.pdf

Most journals prefer the active voice

Most journals prefer the active voice

“I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.”

4- Commas

• Interrupter However, Furthermore, Moreover, Additionally,

• Commas separate extra information (embedded orsubordinate clause)

”Amantadine ER capsules, administered at bedtime, are specifically formulated so that the plasma concentration increases slowly during sleep”

• Links independent clauses in sentences – ‘…, and/but/…’ etc“The patient’s condition was unchanged after the first medication, but the second medication resulted in a marked improvement”

Commas

5. Apostrophes

Parkinson’s Alzheimer’s William Gosset(Student’s)

6. General comments – Don’t

7. General comments – Do

8. Spell check your text

Summary

Thank you

Laboratory of Neuroinformatics mhunt@ecorrector.com

How to respond to reviewers’ comments – 13:30 24th May