Best Practices in Communication of Science

P. R. Naren

School of Chemical & Biotechnology (SCBT)

SASTRA University

Thanjavur, Tamilnadu 613 401 INDIA

[email protected]

Best Practices in Communication of Science

2Apr 9, 2023 Best Practices in Communication of Science

What we will learn today

• Communication

• Science

• Practices

• Best


Objective of Communication

• Purpose or message• Clarity• Sequential arrangement or information flow• Reader should be able to decipher the information

Communicating Science• Translating principles, theories and mathematical

connotations into prose • Documentation

– The story of


Focus

Consistency is the key

One can offer to be wrong but not inconsistent

Standards and Conventions


Manifestations

• Written– Reports– Thesis– Dissertation– Abstracts– Journal article– Journal paper– Manuscripts– Progress reports– Proposals– Posters– Presentations

Anything we write and wish someone to read

• Oral– Lectures– Talks – Speech– Oration

and so forth

Anything we write with an objective and wish

someone to read and understand

Comprehend

So doAnswer Scripts


Attributes of Written Communication

• Reader should be able to comprehend the purpose

• Reproducibility

– Give all necessary and sufficient details to the minute

detail to be able to reproduce results !

– All information required for reproduction of data should be

available with the author !!!!


Typical Format

• Title • Table of contents• List of Figures• List of Tables• Abstract• Introduction• Motivation !!!• Objective !!!• Methodology• Literature survey / Previous

study

• Experimental setup• Materials and Methods• Mathematical Model• Operating procedure• Results and discussion• Conclusion• Nomenclature• References• Annexure / Supplementary

material• Acknowledgements


Writing Style

• Different sections are written in different styles– Literature survey / Previous studies Past tense– Global facts Present tense– Experimental, materials, methods, Results and discussion

Past tense Note we are writing after we have done the work !!

– Proposals Present tense / future tense

– Active voice and Passive voice conflicts

Past tense is easy to handle

If in doubt, maintain same tense in all sections (consistency !!)


Formulae and Equations

• Use standard notations and symbols • Don’t develop YOUR own SI system !!!

• “Kg”, “KJ” A blunder !!!! Its “kg”, “kJ”• sec • Co and CO are different

• H2O does not exists !!!! All that exists is H2O

• Refer http://www.bipm.org/en/si/


More on Formulae and Equations

• H2 + 1/2O2 does not give H2O

• H2 + ½ O2 H2O

• Expressions, Formulae, Equations are not sentences !!! So write equations with their mathematical integrity and readability

• dC/dt = k C^2• dC/dt = k * C

2dCk C

dtdC

k Cdt


Least Count

• Decimal places

• Least count• Accuracy• Truncation error

– When to truncate

• Round off the answer and not each and every step of your calculation !!

• Use parametric sensitivity analysis in regression


Experimental data

• Indicate least count of the measuring instrument• Error bars

An experiment data without error bars is unfit and totally absurd

• Convention– Experimental data Symbols or points– Simulated or model data, regression Lines

Why so?


Graphs

• Graphical representation of data– Effective means of science communication– Helps to comprehend the theory better– Figure caption should be comprehensive and be a

standalone title

Data represented poorly

Information lost !!


Graphical Representation

Experimental data are discrete information


Error Bars Illustration


More on Regression

• Which is a good fit ? And why??

y = 0.4822x3 - 4.2524x2 + 11.065x - 6.452R² = 0.9453

y = 0.2107x + 1.036R² = 0.1076


Citations

• Cite whatever is not YOUR own !!!– Practitioners of science should also practice honesty !– We are not honouring the author – It is our DUTY to cite the author !!!!

• Standards– Author followed by year of publication– Serial number of the quoted publication in the reference list

• Author – Date format– For single author publication

Last name (family name) followed by year

– For two authors Last name (family name) of both the authors followed by year

– More than two authors Last name (family name) of the first author, followed by “et al.” and then year

– Never include initials, first name (given name)


Examples for Citations

• Sharma (1978) investigated the effect of surfactants on gas holdup.

• The increase in interfacial area was found to be 10% (Carberry and Varma, 1982).

• Kinetics of agglomeration in sugar solution was reported by Shah et al. (1990).

• Effect of surfactant on viscosity is widely reported (Sharma, 1978; Carberry and Varma, 1982; Shah et al. 1990)

• Effect of surfactant on viscosity is widely reported (Shah et al. 1990; Carberry and Varma, 1982; Sharma, 1978)

– Follow the timeline while quoting multiple references !!


Reference List

• All works/publications cited in the text/report should be included in the reference list

• The purpose of reference list is to make the reader LOCATE the cited work

• All required and sufficient information to locate the cited work should be provided– Author name, title of work/paper, source of publication or journal, volume no,

issue no, page no

• Follow the standard– Author – date, arranged in alphabetical order

– Serial no

• Journal abbreviations– Refer http://www.cas.org/expertise/cascontent/caplus/corejournals.html


Examples for Reference List

• Chilton, T. H. and Colburn, A. P. (1931). Pressure drop in packed tubes.

Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 23, 913 – 919.

• Treybal, R. E. (1957). Liquid extraction. Industrial and Engineering

Chemistry, 49, 514 – 526.

• Liu, Z., Shi,S. and Li, Y. (2010). Coal liquefaction technologies –

Development in China and challenges in chemical reaction engineering.

Chemical Engineering Science, 65, 12 – 17.

• Froment G. F. and Bischoff, K. B. (1979). Chemical reactor analysis and

design. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Something is wrong here !!!

Alphabetical arrangement

Indent from second line


Revised Reference List

• Chilton, T. H. and Colburn, A. P. (1931). Pressure drop in packed tubes.

Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 23, 913 – 919.

• Froment G. F. and Bischoff, K. B. (1979). Chemical reactor analysis and

design. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

• Liu, Z., Shi,S. and Li, Y. (2010). Coal liquefaction technologies –

Development in China and challenges in chemical reaction

engineering. Chemical Engineering Science, 65, 12 – 17.

• Treybal, R. E. (1957). Liquid extraction. Industrial and Engineering

Chemistry, 49, 514 – 526.

What the purpose ???


Journal Papers

http://journalseek.net/


For Web References

• Provide complete URL and specify the date

– Web content is dynamic !!!

• URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_flow_reactor_model, 26 August

2011

• Web references are not primary references

– They can supportive but cannot stand alone !!!!


The Golden Principle

• Cite only those references which you can trace yourself

first !!!

• You should have access to every cited text/work/journal

publication– Hard copy

Library

In your personal repository

– Soft copy

– Bare minimum, should know in which library it is available and you

should have atleast “seen” it before you “cite it”

If NOT then please DON’T CITE


Documentation

• Store all documents in a proper organized fashion• Retrievable at any point in time !!!

– 1 year, 10 years or 100 years !!!– By the creator and by the user as well !!

• Develop your own format for data storage and stick to it !!!– Follow – Segregate files into different groups

• Naming of documents– Should reflect version change– Don’t replace

best-practice-v1-25Aug11.ppt, best-practice-v2-25Aug11.ppt best-practice-01-25Aug.doc, best-practice-02-25Aug.doc


Naming Convention..

• Untitled1.doc, new-microsoft-word.doc, new-microsoft-word-

copy.doc, Untitled(1).doc, 2.pdf are totally ABSURD

• Avoid underscore, document name starting with numbers,

blank space in names

– Use hypen “-” as separators

• Avoid long file names

Idea is to enable easy and efficient tracking !!

You can be creative but not irrational


In Conclusion

A poorly written document

– Does not signify poor command on English

– It reflects ambiguity in our understanding of the content


What we did today

The Experience - blunders, mistake and learning !!

Smart !!! Advantage !!!


THANK YOU

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

- Albert Einstein - 1879 -1955


Acknowledgements

• Dr. Vivek V. Ranade, NCL, Pune

• iFMg Members (My friends and colleagues)

• ICT (formerly UDCT) Mumbai, fraternity

THANKS and GRATITUDE

And many others who enriched my science communication skills

Best Practices in Communication of Science

Education

standards author

model data

purpose of reference

communication of science

science communication

single author publication

experiment data

reproduction of data