The Scientists Guide to Writing, 3rd Edition

Autorentext

Stephen B. Heard

Klappentext

A fully updated and expanded third edition of the acclaimed writing guide for scientists The Scientist’s Guide to Writing explains the essential techniques that students, postdocs, and early-career scientists need to write more clearly, efficiently, and easily. Now in its third edition, this incisive primer offers practical advice on a host of topics, from maintaining writing momentum to structuring a scientific paper, revising a first draft, reading effectively, handling citations, responding to peer reviews, and choosing the right journal for your research. The ability to write clearly is critical to any scientific career. This book shows scientists how to become better writers so that their ideas have the greatest possible impact. Features a new chapter on AI writing tools that discusses the benefits and pitfalls of using LLMs as well as the legal, ethical, and professional implications scientists need to consider before working with them Provides expanded coverage of preprinting and predatory journals, humor and cultural references in titles, graphical abstracts, and managing very large coauthorship teams Offers detailed guidance on submission, review, revision, and publication Shares invaluable advice on reporting statistical results, dealing with conflicting peer reviews, writing with English as an additional language, and more Encourages habits that improve motivation and productivity Includes a wealth of exercises along with numerous new literature citations to support the discussions in the book

Inhalt

What’s New in the Third Edition?PrefaceA Note on the ExercisesPart I. What Writing Is

• 1. On Bacon, Hobbes, and Newton, and the Selfishness of Writing Well
• 2. Genius, Craft, and What This Book Is AboutPart II. Writing Behavior
• 3. Writing and Reading
• 4. Managing Your Writing Behavior
• 5. Getting Started
• 6. MomentumPart III. Content and Structure
• 7. Finding and Telling Your Story
• 8. The Canonical Structure of the Scientific Paper
• 9. Front Matter and Abstract
• 10. The Introduction Section
• 11. The Methods Section
• 12. The Results Section
• 13. The Discussion Section
• 14. Back Matter
• 15. Citations
• 16. Beyond the IMRaD CanonPart IV. Style
• 17. Paragraphs
• 18. Sentences
• 19. Words
• 20. BrevityPart V. Revision
• 21. Self-Revision
• 22. “Friendly” Review
• 23. Formal Review
• 24. Revision and the “Response to Reviews”Part VI. Some Loose Threads
• 25. AI Writing Tools
• 26. Journals and Preprints
• 27. The Diversity of Writing Forms
• 28. Managing Coauthorships
• 29. Three Kinds of Reading: Reference, Survey, and Deep
• 30. Writing for Speakers of English as an Additional LanguagePart VII. Final Thoughts
• 31. On Whimsy, Jokes, and Beauty: Can Scientific Writing Be Enjoyed?AcknowledgmentsReferencesIndex