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Scientific Writing Workshop 1. Introduction

Doan Le Hoang Tan
Center for Innovative Materials and Architectures

Today’s programme Goals

 know how to write an outline and first draft of an original research paper, including
1. Introduction
 Title, abstract

2. The purpose of papers  Introduction

 Flow of the results (body)

3. Original research papers
 Conclusions and outlook
a) From data to paper – making a paper outline

b) Structure of a scientific paper  be aware of the basic rules of scientific conduct and plagiarism

c) Writing an introduction
 be aware that all your activities should eventually end up in a paper, a research proposal
d) Writing Results and Discussion or contribute to it somehow

e) Writing Conclusions

f) Writing an Abstract and Title Plagiarism

4. Plagiasrism
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2. The purpose
George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)
of papers
George M. Whitesides, Harvard University

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Objectives of (PhD or thesis) projects Papers

 Your objective is not to “collect data”, but to … What is a scientific paper?

 Formulate & test hypotheses, draw conclusions from these, and .. “An organized description of hypotheses, data, and conclusions,
intended to instruct the reader.”
 Publish your findings

Why do we write papers?

If your research does not generate papers, it might just as well not have been done.

“Communicate an idea to people who may carry the idea further,

“Interesting & unpublished” = “non-existent” or make other use of it.”
George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)
George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)

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Papers as a tool for planning research Readers’ knowledge level

What may the reader be expected to know at a particular point?
Some points to consider are:

 When presenting a new concept, realize that the reader cannot be assumed to grasp the entire
concept and its implications immediately. So guide the reader (step by step)

 Elaborate on conceptual steps rather than on technical analysis

 Do not hide fundamental difficulties without first discussing the issue

 what is the difficulty?
 why does bypassing not deem the entire investigation meaningless?

George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)

 Minimize the amount of new concepts and definitions

 Balancing between contradictory requirements 

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Three central issues

3. Original
Before starting to write a paper:
1. What idea do you intend to communicate?
2. What is a relevant community to communicate this to?

research papers
3. What is the best way to communicate your idea?

“The Idea” The Audience

The Paper

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Three ‘heaps’ (in bullet points)

3.1 Making a paper outline
A. Introduction
Written plan of organization of a paper, including the data  Why did I do this work?
on which it rests  What were the central motivations and hypotheses?
B. Results & discussion
 i.e., a carefully presented set of data, with objectives, hypotheses, and  What were the results?
conclusions (rather than an outline of text).  How were things made, characterized, measured?
C. Conclusions
 Most thought should go into data organization and analysis (i.e., creating  What does it all mean?
the outline)  What hypotheses were supported or disproved?
 What did we learn?
 Why is it important (enough to report)?
George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)

George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004) Essential to get main ideas in outline

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How to create an outline? Outline process flow

1. Before you begin
 Determine the purpose of your paper
 Determine the audience you are writing for
 Develop the central message of your paper  Select paper-worthy data; make sketches of figures
2. Write down all important ideas & obvious questions (in any order)
Why did I do this work? What does it mean?


 What hypotheses did I mean to test? What ones did I actually test?
 Add corresponding message / novelty of each (sub)figure in words
 What were the results? Did work yield a new method, compound, phenomenon …?
Who else worked on this (before)? What did they do different?

 Discuss set-up with supervisor; iterate until figures are set (without details)
 How can I compare my results to theirs? Do they support or contradict each other? Why?

3. Sketch possible figures, schemes, tables and equations

4. Organize everything into three “heaps”

George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)

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Outline of experimental results: figures 3.2 Structure of a scientific paper

TITLE
ABSTRACT Moving from the outline to a first full draft of your paper
FIGURE 2 FIGURE 4
-caption -caption
INTRO/MOTIVATION  Title
-observations -observations
-interpretation -interpretation  Authors
-conclusion Fig 2 -conclusion Fig 4
METHODS/FABRICATION  Abstract
Bridge to Fig 3 Bridge to discussion
 Introduction
FIGURE 1
 Results and discussion
FIGURE 3 DISCUSSION
-caption
-caption  Conclusions
-observations  Acknowledgments
-observations CONCLUSION
-interpretation Author contributions
-interpretation 
-conclusion Fig 1
-conclusion Fig 3
REFERENCES
 Methods
Bridge to Fig 2 Bridge to Fig 4  Supplementary Information
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3.3 Writing an introduction

Tricky part of paper! Don’t underestimate!

Typical elements of an introduction

“Do not, under any circumstances, wait until the
Objectives of the work
collection of data is “complete” before starting to


 Justification for the objectives

write an outline.”
 Background: who else has done what? How? What has been done
previously?
 Guidance to the reader. What should the reader watch for? What interesting
highlights in the paper? What strategy was used?
George M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 16, 1375 (2004)
 Summary/conclusion: What should the reader expect as conclusion?

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Writing an introduction
3.4 Results and Discussion
Results and Discussion sections are often combined;
The introduction consists of four parts, each with their own function:
Often more natural than splitting them up

1. Establishing the field

Often organized according to
2. Summarizing knowledge, previous research1,3,4-12  Synthesis of materials, films
3. Preparing the present research (defining the problem)  Characterization of products
4. Introducing present research  Physical properties

 …

Informative headings help readability

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Writing an introduction Results and discussion (detailing the outline)

TITLE
ABSTRACT
“The thermal properties of glassy materials at low temperatures are still not FIGURE 2 FIGURE 4
completely understood. The thermal conductivity has a plateau which is usually -caption -caption
in the range from 5 to 10 K, and below this temperature has it has a establishing the field INTRO/MOTIVATION
temperature dependence which varies approximately as T2. The specific heat -observations -observations
below 4 K is much larger than that which would be expected from the Debye -interpretation -interpretation
theory, and it often has an additional term proportional to T. Some progress has -conclusion Fig 2 -conclusion Fig 4
summarizing knowledge, METHODS/FABRICATION
been made towards understanding the thermal behaviour by assuming that previous research Bridge to discussion
Bridge to Fig 3
there is a cutoff in the photon spectrum at high temperatures1,2 and that there is
an additional system of low-lying two-level states.3,4 Nevertheless, more preparing the present research
experimental data are required, and in particular it would seem desirable to FIGURE 1 DISCUSSION
(defining the problem) FIGURE 3
make experiments on glassy samples whose properties can be varied slightly -caption
-caption
from one to the other. The present investigation reports attempts to do this by
using various samples of the same epoxy-resin which have been subjected to -observations
introducing present research -observations CONCLUSION
different curing cycles. Measurements of specific heat (or the diffusivity) and the -interpretation
-interpretation
thermal conductivity have been taken in the temperature range 0.1 to 8.0 K for a -conclusion Fig 1
-conclusion Fig 3
set of specimens which covered up to nine different curing cycles.”
REFERENCES
Bridge to Fig 2 Bridge to Fig 4
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3.5 Writing Conclusions Title

 “The shortest abstract of a paper”
 Should add a new, higher level of analysis, and explicitly indicate the importance  Should be as informative as possible, yet not too cumbersome or too long
of the work

 Do not repeat the Results section, unless special emphasis is needed

 Conclusions are not a summary of the work!

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Plagiarism
3.6 Abstract
 Do not write the abstract before rest of paper is complete Plagiarism occurs when someone
 Most important section, goes into all databases
 An abstract is NOT an introduction 1. Uses words, ideas, or work products
2. Attributable to another identifiable person or source
Ideally just 4 sentences: 3. Without attributing the work to the source from which it was obtained
4. In a situation in which there is a legitimate expectation of original authorship
1. What did you do?  Method 5. In order to obtain some benefit, credit, or gain which need not be monetary
2. Why did you do it?  Motivation, goals
3. What did you find?  Results
4. What do you conclude?  Conclusions
• No reference numbers Teddi Fishman Clemson University, USA,
4th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (4APCEI) 28–30 September 2009 University of Wollongong NSW Australia
• No abbreviations
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Courtesy of Dr. Andrea Kliewer
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Plagiarism vs. Self-plagiarism Types of plagiarism

WEBER-WULFF (2007) mentions two additional forms of plagiarism:

PLAGIARISM:
The unlawful appropriation of intellectual property or knowledge of others and 8. Plagiarism of the structure (same line of arguments, same structure of a text)
their use for one's own benefit
9. Plagiarism of ideas (if a referee of a research proposal uses the ideas of the author for its own research)

SELF-PLAGIARISM:
The reuse of significant, identical, or nearly identical portions of one's own work
without acknowledging -> additional knowledge is faked which was not provided

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Courtesy of Dr. Andrea Kliewer

Types of plagiarism
Acknowledgments
SCHWARZENEGGER (2006):
 Prof. André ten Elshof
1. Publishing a manuscript ordered from and written by someone else („ghostwriter“)
 Prof. Floris Zwanenburg
2. Publishing a manuscript written by someone else as „own publication“ (complete plagiarism)  Prof. Wilfred van der Wiel
3. Using own former publication (fragment)s without correct citation (auto-plagiarism)

4. Translating publication (fragment)s without correct citation (translation plagiarism)

5. Using text fragments without correct citation (verbatim plagiarism)

6. Using text fragments from different sources and combining them with own text without correct citation (mosaic
plagiarism)

7. Using text fragments, combining them with own text and citing the source incorrectly (e. g. hidden in a footnote)

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Courtesy of Dr. Andrea Kliewer
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Good luck!