How to write a high impact paper A few pragmatic tips that might help in getting a high impact paper to your name © Crown copyright Met Office.

How to write a high impact paper

A few pragmatic tips that might help in getting a high impact paper to your name

© Crown copyright Met Office

How to write a high impact paper ?


How to write a high impact paper ?


The three point plan to writing a high impact paper



• Develop a nose



• Develop a nose

• Go for it



• Develop a nose

• Go for it

• Sell it


Being able to answer theSo What ? question


Being able to answer theSo What ? question• “ Is there anything I can do before being interviewed? ”

Tom Feilden, Radio 4’s Today programme:

• Do a bit of homework, sit down and think ‘What do I want to say here? What are the things that are fun, or interesting, or original, or novel, or useful about whatever it is that I’ve done?’ Think of the masters. When Steve Jones answers a question, he won’t say ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or go into an elaborate description of the genetics of what he’s done, he’ll tell you a little story. Ask yourself how would you tell your grandparents about what you’ve done at work today?

• Sense about Science Standing up for Science, A guide to the media for early career scientists


So what ?

• What was the question we were trying to answer ?

• What did I do ?

• What did I find ?

• Why does it matter ?


So what ?

• What was the question we were trying to answer ?

• What did I do ?

• What did I find ?

• Why does it matter ?




August2003

Develop a nose

• This idea was already in the air in 2003 when Stott traveled though the worst heat wave in recorded European history on a wedding anniversary trip to Italy and Switzerland. One of the striking consequences he noticed was that the Swiss mountains were missing their usual melodious tinkling of cowbells. "There was no water in the mountains, and the farmers had to take all their cows down in the valley,” he says.


Go for it

• He decided to see if he could pin part of the blame on climate change after he returned to his office in Exeter, England. "I didn't expect to get a positive result," he says



1900 1950 2000

4

3

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Tem

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Human influence has very likely at least doubled the probability of European summer temperatures as hot as 2003 (Stott et al, 2004)

Stott, Stone, Allen, Nature 2004

Sell it

• In a landmark paper in Nature Stott and colleagues concluded that the chances of a heat wave like the 2003 event have more than doubled because of climate change.



The European summers of 2003 and 2006 could be normal by 2040 and cool by 2060

Source Gareth Jones, Hadley Centre

Black line – Observed temperaturesRed lines – Model forecast including human influenceBlue line – Model forecast without human influence

HadGEM1

Criteria for Naturewww.nature.com/nature

• Criteria for publication

• The criteria for publication of scientific papers (Articles and Letters) in Nature are that they

• :report original scientific research (the main results and conclusions must not have been published or submitted elsewhere)

• are of outstanding scientific importance

• reach a conclusion of interest to an interdisciplinary readership.


www.nature.com/nature

• Submissions should be accompanied by a cover letter stating briefly why the conclusion is an important scientific advance and the author’s case for the work being published in Nature rather than in a specialist journal.

• Authors are strongly encouraged to attempt two 100-word summaries,

• one to encapsulate the significance of the work for readers of Nature (mainly scientists or those in scientifically related professions);

• and the other to explain the conclusions at an understandable level for the general public.








So What ?








Being able to Answer theSo What ? question• “ Is there anything I can do before being interviewed? ”

Tom Feilden, Radio 4’s Today programme:

• Do a bit of homework, sit down and think ‘What do I want to say here? What are the things that are fun, or interesting, or original, or novel, or useful about whatever it is that I’ve done?’ Think of the masters. When Steve Jones answers a question, he won’t say ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or go into an elaborate description of the genetics of what he’s done, he’ll tell you a little story. Ask yourself how would you tell your grandparents about what you’ve done at work today?

• Sense about Science Standing up for Science, A guide to the media for early career scientists


Respect the reader

• There aren’t enough hours in the day for your readers either

• Think of all those papers out there

• Why should your prospective reader want to spend time with your paper ?

• “Arouse and fulfill” (“Don’t be such a scientist: Talking substance in an age of style” by Randy Olsen)

• The importance of the abstract


Pity the poor IPCC Lead Author

• We have 600 references in Chapter 10 of AR5

• 10 minutes on each is 100 hours, An hour on each is 75 eight hour working days, 15 working weeks

• We need to assess confidence in the validity of each finding

• So we need to understand

• What the finding is

• Its robustness and limitations

• The papers need to be as clear as possible

• The abstract is crucial

• There is nothing to stop you sending the relevant Lead author your 2 or 3 sentence assessment of it when you alert them to your paper



• Think very hard if you could be onto something that could have wider significance than your immediate science clique




• Go for it – drop everything else if you can





• When you’ve written it up (First draft : the question, what did we do, what did we find) take a big step back (go for a long walk) and ask yourself again

• Why does this matter to a lot of people ?

• How can I encapsulate what I’ve shown and why it matters in 2 or 3 sentences ?





• When you’ve written it up (the question, what did we do, what did we find: First draft) take a big step back (go for a long walk) and ask yourself again


• How can I encapsulate that in 2 or 3 sentences ?

• Then write the paper all over again (Second draft)





• When you’ve written it up (the question, what did we do, what did we find: First draft) take a big step back (go for a long walk) and ask yourself again


• How can I encapsulate that in 2 or 3 sentences ?

• Then write the paper all over again (Second draft)



The So what ? question

• Take a lot of trouble over the two 100 word paragraphs

• Be as clear as possible in the abstract about what this new work has shown


Is writing a high impact paper the same as doing good science?

Posted by Tom Webb on Jul 28, 2011Mola Mola

A Nature network blog by Tom Webb


How to write a high impact paper A few pragmatic tips that might help in getting a high impact paper to your name © Crown copyright Met Office.

Documents

human influence hadgem1

nature stott

readers of nature

landmark paper

authors case

point plan

important scientific

original scientific