At a Naturejobs career fair held in London, Peter Gorsuch, editor of Macmillan Publishers Limited (the parent company of nature) and Sadaf Shadan, editor of Nature, shared some suggestions during the publication of scientific research results. Nicky Dean, senior editor and team manager of Nature Newsletter, also analyzed the factors that these cattle magazines value. Here are some of their views.
Data is the core of all research work. Peter pointed out that, in fact, it is almost impossible to publish papers in top journals without excellent data support. Moreover, even if the data is excellent, if the quality of the article is poor, it will not work.
Suppose your research is telling a story. An article should start with asking questions and then form a logical argument. Sadaf pointed out: "A high-quality paper usually needs strong evidence and convincing conclusions." So, make sure there are no loopholes in your "story". An excellent research should build the outline of a system or idea, and a paper should also tell a clear and fascinating "story", and at the same time pay attention to the style of the target journal when writing. For example, is it appropriate to publish this paper in the Journal of Virology? Or is it appropriate to publish it in infectious diseases?
Know your readers. No one is obliged to finish reading your article. If the audience of the paper is not carefully considered, the potential influence of the paper will be reduced invisibly. The audience of scientific research papers is very special, but don't expect too much from their knowledge level, especially in some influential journals. One of the acceptance criteria of these journals is the extensive relevance of papers. Therefore, although your readers may be scientists, they are not necessarily experts in your research field.
Concise, clean and clear. Nicky said, never underestimate the importance of headlines and abstracts. Although scholars will only consider these two details at the end of paper writing, they are the most concerned points for editors and reviewers. Make sure that the title and abstract play the role of bait and drive the reader to continue reading. This means trying not to use unnecessary technical terms in headlines and abstracts. For example, Sylvilagus nuttall II: A Semi-Arboreal Rabbit Form is far less than the behavior of climbing trees in the cotton tail: Sylvilagus nuttall II.
This part should introduce the research topic, the questions to be answered in the paper, summarize the main research results, and state its possible value and the prospect of applying these research results. You can start your paper by thinking about the following questions: What is the main conclusion that the paper wants to show? What areas will the research results affect? How relevant is it to other fields outside this field?
? The title and abstract of a wonderful paper will attract readers' attention.
In addition, pay attention to the structure and language of the papers you usually read. Not only your own field, but also other fields will provide you with a lot of inspiration.
Make full use of charts. Charts can visually show your findings. There must be a logical order between charts and charts, and they should correspond to the "story" told in your paper. In the era of big data, the application of charts in scientific research results is almost rampant, so you should know how to choose. Peter suggested that among all the data, choose the data that best shows the main points of your research, instead of piling all the data on paper. In addition, one of the most basic abilities of scientific research is to be inspired by other people's research. Therefore, publishing papers in top journals can make more scholars who need to see your research see your papers.
Nicky said: "Some scholars know how to conceive a paper, and the language level of the paper is also very good. These papers have been carefully thought and polished, with mature viewpoints and clear structure, which makes people know where the key points are at first glance, invisibly increasing the interest of readers and the influence of the papers, so it is not enough to have ideas, and the writing level of the papers is also very important. "
After years of scientific research and training, most people have formed the writing thinking of "let's see what I have done" in their papers, but if they really want to improve their research value and influence, they should establish the writing thinking of "let's see why this problem is important" in their papers.