How to Write and Publish an
Experimental Research Paper
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Where to Publish?
• Scientific journals
• Conferences and workshops
• Conference proceedings
• Posters
• Talks
• Books
• Book chapters
• Technical reports
• Seminar presentations
• Popular science magazines
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Scientific Journals
Publications in scientific journals
• are the most effective way to inform the scientific
community about your work,
• are scientists’ most important productivity
outcomes (measure for hiring, tenure, promotion),
• rely on anonymous review by peer scientists,
• involve a long delay from submission to
publication (often > 1 year, sometimes 2 years),
• May require several (serial) submissions to
different journals if rejected.
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Impact Factor
In a given year, the impact factor of a journal is the
average number of citations to those papers that
were published during the two preceding years.
For example, 2003 impact factor:
A = # of times articles published in 2001 and 2002
were cited by indexed journals during 2003.
B = total number of "citable items" (articles, reviews,
proceedings) published in 2001 and 2002.
2003 impact factor = A/B
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Impact Factor
Publications in journals with high impact factors are
thought to be more prestigious.
Examples:
Nature: 31.4
Vision Research: 2.1
Typically, impact factors > 1 indicate “good” journals
A better measure of the impact of an individual
publication may be the number of journal citations
that it receives.
However, note that a weak paper could be cited by
many other publications that point out its flaws.
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Conferences
Publications in conference proceedings
• are a faster way to disseminate research findings
(usually about 6 months from submission to
publication)
• use an accelerated peer-review system with no
substantial revisions before publication,
• are thought to be less prestigious than journal
publications,
• can still be important in disciplines such a
computer science, where fast publication is
crucial.
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How to Write a Research Paper
Most experimental research papers have a very
similar structure, the parts of which will be discussed
in the following slides.
They greatly differ in their length – conference
papers are often shorter (5-8 pages) than journal
papers (10-15 pages).
However, some journals also accept short papers of
4-8 pages with an accelerated review process so
that important findings can be published quickly.
Please look at the example paper on the course
homepage (6-page conference paper).
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(1) Abstract
• Every paper starts with an abstract of about 100 –
150 words.
• The abstract is important, because people read it to
decide whether they want to read the entire paper.
• The abstract also appears in electronic databases
such as [Link].
• Therefore, some effort needs to be put into writing
the abstract.
• Tip: Write the abstract after writing the actual paper
so that you know precisely what you want to
emphasize.
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(2) Introduction
• The introduction should start with a literature
review about related research, with many citations
of other researchers’ work (and possibly your own).
• Then you need to motivate why you did your study
and why it is significant, i.e., adds new, important
knowledge to the field.
• You should “tell a story” that readers can easily
follow and understand why the study was
conducted.
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(3) Method
Describe in detail what you did, e.g.:
• Subjects: Number, age, gender, patient groups, etc.
• Apparatus: Specifications of devices used in the
study
• Materials: Displays, sounds, movies, etc.
• Procedure: Instructions for the subjects, sequence
of stimulus presentation during a trial, sequence of
trials, etc.
Often, if a study includes multiple experiments, each
experiment gets its own Method section.
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(4) Results and Discussion
• Required for each reported experiment
• Can be separate sections, but a combined section is
easier to follow
• Present all measurements together with their
statistical analysis
• Interpret each result, i.e., describe what it means
with regard to the “story” that you are telling.
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(5) Conclusions
• If only one experiment is reported, this section
should be titled “General Discussion” instead.
• Complete the “story” that you have been telling:
What do the results tell us?
• Speculative interpretations of the results can also be
included, but must be indicated as such.
• Explain which important questions have not been
answered yet.
• You could include an outlook on further research
that you think should be conducted.
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