4/20/2024 0 Comments Printable manuscript writing paperThis can take a lot more work and coordination, but may make sense for highly collaborative and large manuscripts.ĭecide with your PI who will be corresponding author. An alternative is to generate the initial outline or first draft with the help of co-authors. “Equal contribution” authorship positions for the first and last authors is a newer option for a number of journals. (This is helpful to do in any case as many journals now require this information.) Assigning authorship is sometimes complicated, but keep in mind that the Acknowledgements can be used to recognize those who made minor contributions (including reading the manuscript to provide feedback). If the study involved many people, create a table of possible authors showing their specific contributions to the manuscript. Make sure the manuscript conforms to the target journal’s word and figure limits.ĭiscuss all possible authors with your PI. Write your abstract after the first draft is completed. Don’t focus on writing perfect prose for the first draft. Decide which article type you would like to submit and reformat your outline according to the journal’s standards (including citation style).Ĭonvert your outline (including the figure captions) to complete sentences. Once you’ve chosen your journal, look at the journal’s article types. I also like to vary which journals I publish in, both to broaden the potential readers of my papers and to avoid the appearance of having an unfair “inside connection” to a given journal. I like to consider my ideal target audience. You first need to decide where you want to submit your manuscript. If not, you should have a good idea of what it will take to finish the manuscript. Is it a complete story? If so, you’re ready to prepare for submission. Now read the entire outline (including the figures). It is important to include a bullet describing the limitations of the presented work. These bullets should refer to your figures.ĭiscussion: Summarize your findings in the context of prior work. Results: What were your findings? Each major finding should be its own bullet, with sub-bullets going into more detail for each major finding. Important methodologies and materials, i.e., blinding for subjective analyses, full names of cell lines/strains/reagents and your commercial/academic sources for them. If you used animal or human subjects, include a bullet on ethics approval. Methods: What techniques did you use? Each technique should be its own bullet, with sub-bullets for key details. Introduction: What did you study, and why is it important? What is your hypothesis/research question? Here’s what should go in each of these sections: Google Docs can be helpful for maintaining a single version of the manuscript, but citation software often doesn’t play well with Google Docs (whereas most software options can automatically update citation changes in Word). Decide from the beginning what word processing software you’ll use (Word, Google Docs, etc.). Use Endnote, Reference Manager, Mendeley, or other citation software to start inserting references to go with bullets. This depends on the journal, but typically, and with minor variations: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. Generate a bulleted outline of the major points for each section of the manuscript. Write bulleted captions for the figures/tables, including a title that explains the key finding for each figure/table, an explanation of experimental groups and associated symbols/labels, and details on biological and technical replicates and statements (such as “one of four representative experiments are shown.”) This will form the basis of your Results section. Gather your proposed figures and tables in a sequence that tells a story. Everything else will be spun around this. Write down your hypothesis/research question. Involve your principal investigator (PI) early and throughout the process. Here’s some thoughts on how to approach writing manuscripts based on original biomedical research. It’s hard work, but planning and organization helps. I’ve had the privilege of writing a few manuscripts in my research career to date, and helping trainees write them.
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