How to Write a Manuscript and Get It Published in European Urology
How to write a manuscript - · PDF fileHow to write a manuscript Get your paper accepted ......
Transcript of How to write a manuscript - · PDF fileHow to write a manuscript Get your paper accepted ......
How to write a manuscript
Get your paper accepted
AIP Afternoon
Daniel Broaddus, PhD
Editor and Trainer, Liwen Bianji (Edanz Group China)
September 17, 2010
Presentation
� Introduction
� Section One: Preparations before writing
� Section Two: Manuscript structure
� Section Three: Tips for getting accepted
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� To share your research findings and opinions
with the international research community
� Publication success is linked to funding success
and career advancement
� Many PhD programs require candidates to
achieve a set number of peer-reviewed
publications
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Why publish?
Increased competition
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0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Growth (%)
Year
Journal numbers
Journal submissions
�Relative growth from 1990
� How to identify hot topics
� What do journal editors want?
� How do reviewers assess a manuscript?
� Choosing an appropriate journal
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Section One Preparations before writing
Look for clues—
unexplained findings,
controversies
Read the literature,
including related
fields
Attend
international
meetings
�Greater interest = Greater competition
�Identify your advantages and use them
How to identify hot topics
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Good quality science
� Positive peer review outcome
� Well designed and executed original research
� Findings of interest to the journal’s readership
� Work in an active research area (=citations!)
� Work that advances the field in some way
� Compliance with ethical regulations
� Clear, concise writing
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What do journal editors want?
Reviewers About the manuscript
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�Are the rationale and objectives defined?
� Is enough background given to understand the rationale?
�Could a capable researcher reproduce the experiments?
�Are the results clearly explained and in the best format?
�Are the findings described in context?
�Are the limitations discussed?
�Are the conclusions supported?
�Is the literature cited appropriate?
� Can be the difference between success and rejection
� What is the main focus of your research and who will
be interested in it?
� What are its strengths and weaknesses?
� How significant are your findings?
� Are your findings preliminary or are they sufficient to
make a story?
� How widely will your research appeal? To researchers
in the same field or to the broader scientific
community?
Journal Selection
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Journal Selection what are the differences?
15.491
6.171
3.554 3.71
4.097
2.871
3.093
2.18
7.328
2000+
articles a
year
#1 in Atomic,
Molecular &
Chemical Physics
Also B, C &
Letters
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� The ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’
� Title
� Abstract
� Introduction
� Materials and Methods
� Results and
Discussion
� Display items
� References
Section Two Manuscript structure
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The Yin and Yang
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Introduction
Methods
Writing
Reading
Background
Title
Design
Abstract
Results and
Discussion
Journal
Selection
FeedbackPeer Review
Hook to catch
readers
Sells your
manuscript
to the editor
Relevant readers
increase citations
�Journal editors like citations
�Everybody likes citationsLiwen Bianji (Edanz Group China) | 14
The importance of your title
Poor
� Generation of few-cycle optical pulses at high-glass-
transmission wavelengths using a low-cost Er3+-
amplified carbon nanotube laser system via two-stage
broadening and compression for research and
applications in high-speed telecommunications, Part I:
System design
Good
� Generation of few-cycle optical pulses at telecom
wavelengths via a low-cost carbon nanotube laser
system
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A good title
Short and easy to understand contents
Many researchers will only read the abstract so
must be able to ‘stand alone’
Must give an accurate summary of your research,
and enough information so that readers can
understand:
�What you did
�Why you did it
�What your findings are
�Why your findings are useful and important
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Abstract
General rules for abstracts:
� Within the word limit
� Avoid technical jargon
� Avoid abbreviations unless necessary
� Avoid references
� Should the abstract be structured?
Always consult the target journal’s Guide for Authors to determine allowable length, style and abbreviations
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Abstract
� Briefly present research question and/or hypotheses
and how they were addressed
� Give the reader enough background information to
put your work into context
� Do not write a comprehensive literature review of the
field
� Do cite reviews that readers can refer to if they want
more information
� Citations must be balanced, current, and relevant
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Introduction
Recent implementations [of temporal-imaging systems] based on a four-
wave mixing (FWM) time-lens require synchronized pump and signal pulses.
The demand for ultrafast-pulse characterization and waveform-generation
techniques has driven research for high-bandwidth characterization systems.
This has led to the development of temporal-imaging and dispersion-based
techniques that exploit the space-time duality of electromagnetic fields.
This is achieved by extracting the pump and the signal from the same source
by spectral filtering. Conversely, using a separate mode-locked fiber laser
would provide the necessary bandwidth for ultrafast temporal imaging, but
would require repetition-rate locking using a feedback loop to achieve
synchronous operation. Ultimately, either of these schemes is restricted by
the types of signal that can be measured. Therefore, it is desirable to
develop a system in which high bandwidth pump pulses can be produced
on-demand via a simple external trigger.
In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a fully-triggerable temporal-
imaging system. We base our system on a time-lens-compressed
picosecond pulse source. The output of the pulsed time-lens source is then
spectrally broadened in non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber through self-phase
modulation (SPM), which provides the pulses with sufficient bandwidth for
ultrafast temporal imaging with high temporal resolution. We…
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Temporal-imaging system with simple external-clock triggering
D. H. Broaddus, M. A. Foster, O. Kuzucu, A. C. Turner-Foster, K. W. Koch, M Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta
© 2010 Optical Society of America
Statement of the problem
Background
Rationale
What was done
� Clear subheadings for methods/materials
� Describe methods in the past tense
� Novel methods must be described in sufficient detail
for a capable researcher to reproduce the experiment
� Give manufacturers/suppliers and their locations
� Describe any statistical tests used
� Established methods can be referenced
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Materials and methods What you did
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3. Experiment
In order to create a suitable, triggerable pump pulse, we used a time-lens-compressed picosecond-pulse
source [20,21,26]. Unlike conventional ultrafast laser sources, the time-lens source derives its repetition
rate from an input RF signal rather than an oscillator cavity. This makes the source ideal for
synchronization, since the laser can be synchronized to a clock signal from any source as its input. While
it is true that this system can not be driven at an arbitrarily low repetition rate, a harmonic between 5–10
GHz that will allow for optimal operation of the system while still providing a synchronized pump pulse for
every signal pulse can be selected. At repetition rates above 10 GHz, electronic filtering can be used to
generate a suitable drive signal from the input clock. We obtained the clock signal from a…
3.2. Operation
Achieving fine resolution and long record lengths in temporal imaging systems requires sufficiently high
pump bandwidth. At the output of the time-lens source, the pulses had a bandwidth of 1 nm centered at
1546 nm. To increase the bandwidth, we added a spectral broadening stage to the pump source after the
time-lens compression stage. After passing the pulses through another EDFA, we sent them through 250
m of Corning Vascade LS+ fiber (Corning Inc., NY). The pulses underwent SPM and saw an increase in
bandwidth from 1 nm to 100 nm. We filtered a spectrally flat off-center section of the output roughly 10
nm in bandwidth at 1559 nm to serve as the pump pulse. After the broadening stage, we noted a large
amplitude noise at the output for high input intensities [27]. In order to maintain a suitable pump
output, we limited the pulse energy at the input of the Corning Vascade LS+ fiber to 2 nJ.
Materials
described
Reference
to save
space
Clear
subheadings
Detailed
information
given
Suppliers
and
locations
© 2010 Optical Society of America
Materials and methods
� Often results and discussion are combined to help assemble your findings in a logical order to ‘tell a story’
� Present your findings in subsections (the same as those in your methods section)
� Present complementary evidence when possible
� Describe results in the past tense
� Refer to figures and tables in the present tense
� Discuss implications
� Do not duplicate data among figures, tables and text
� Show the results of statistical analyses in the text
� Put findings in perspective
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Results and Discussion What did you find?
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3. Results and discussion
We characterized our system’s single-shot performance by temporally resolving the output of a bandpass filtered mode-locked fiber laser, and by varying the delay on the signal showing 1.5-ps resolution over a record length of 220 ps. In addition, we calculate magnification factor to be 113×. Figure 7 shows a composite oscilloscope trace showing the timing of the signal pulse as it is varied over the entire record length. Figure 8 shows a blow-up of a single signal pulse demonstrating the temporal resolution of the system. Limited only by the signal repetition rate and magnification factor, the single-shot record length could easily be increased to the full 530 ps by frequency de-multiplexing the output into three channels [30]…
In addition, we characterized the small time-scale jitter over 2 µs. The experimental configuration allowed for high frame rates, which provided the ability to characterize consecutive pulses [30]. We used this ability to analyze the timing of 77 consecutive pulses from the fiber laser utilizing the sync out for the fiber laser as a timing reference. We found that the root-mean-square (RMS) value of the timing jitter was 0.27 ps over a 2-µs measurement period. The histogram in Fig. 8(b) showed the variation in pulse-to-pulse timing. The low RMS value of the jitter suggested that resolution could be further improved. We suspect that reducing phase aberrations from higher-order dispersion and the SPM broadening stage would likely yield the desired result.
Graphics used to
show data with
only brief
descriptions in
text
Present tense to
refer to table© 2010 Optical Society of America
Combined
Results and
Discussion
section
Past tense to
describe results
Results and Discussion
� Figures and tables are the best way to present your results
� Data shown in figures and tables must be easy to interpret — use separate
panels if necessary
� Avoid redundancies or duplication
� Clearly label all components
� Show trendlines, scale bars and statistical significance
� Captions must be able to ‘stand alone’: write them in the present tense
(except when describing methods)
� Comply with journal guidelines on display items
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Display items Tables and figures
� Some readers will only look at the figures and their legends
Which of these is stand alone?
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Display items Tables and figures
Fig. 1. Effective indices of As2Se3 microspheres, silicon nanowires, and silica nanowires. (a) Effective index vs. sphere diameter for fundamental TE (red) and TM (blue) modes in an As2Se3 microsphere. (b) Effective index vs. material index multiplied by cross sectional area of silicon (red) and silica (blue) waveguides.
Fig. 1. Calculated effective index.
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Display items
Multi-panel: sets of
related data shown
in a single figure
Complicated data
separated into
simpler components
Axes clearly labeled
Fig. 9. The fringe period decreases with increasing separation. (a) 0.5 nm separation with movie showing phase procession between the lasers (Media 1). We believe the non-sinusoidal shape of these peaks arises from solitoneffect compression in the amplifier before the temporal imaging stage [31]. (b) 1.5 nm separation, and (c) 2.5 nm separation. (d) The phase slip between the two lasers, which are not phase-locked, washes out the fringes when averaged over multiple shots.
Clear, ‘stand
alone’ caption
� Restate key findings and their significance
� Propose future studies that might follow
on from your current study
� Give the reader a ‘take-home’ message
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Conclusions
Conclusion
We demonstrated a completely triggerable temporal-imaging system. We characterized the system’s performance in both multi-shot and single-shot time-lens-based schemes.
We showed 1.4 ps resolution with 530 ps record length using time-to-frequency conversion. We demonstrated 1.5-ps resolution and 220-ps record length in a single-shot temporal magnification system. We characterized the short-term timing jitter present between our pump and signal pulses and showed it to be 0.27 ps, which corresponds to 18% of the temporal resolution.
This suggests that sub-picosecond resolution can be achieved in our system.
Finally, we illustrated the ability to perform complex waveform measurements by resolving the interference fringes between two frequency-separated laser pulses.
In addition to improving the resolution of the system, this system could be adapted to preform a combined phase and amplitude measurement. This would make the system more comparable with popular full-field characterization techniques such as FROG and SPIDER.
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Restate the
question/problem
Restate main findings
Put in context of
previous work
Future research plans
Use ‘suggests’ and ‘may’
© 2010 Optical Society of America
Conclusions
Your chance to acknowledge anyone who has helped with the
study:
� Individuals who’s contributions did not warrant authorship
�Any researchers that supplied materials or reagents
�Anyone who provided technical assistance
�Anyone who helped with the preparation of the manuscript
or provided a critical assessment of it
�Funding bodies
State why each individual is being acknowledged
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Acknowledgments
� References make or break a paper!
� Serve as your network to past and future science
� Convey your knowledge of the field
� Give credibility to your work
� Acknowledge contributions to the field by others
� Help other researchers find your work = more
citations
� Use a reference manager like Endnote or Zotero. Makes it
easy to edit, reformat, add or remove references
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References
� Seminal work in your field (Papers that started the field)
� All methods used
� Physical phenomena discussed
� Non-commercial materials used
� Conflicting works
� Outside areas � Applications!
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References
�Your cover letter
�Recommending reviewers
�Language
�Good writing
�Common language problems
�Post-referee revisions
�Summary
Section Three Tips for getting accepted
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General rules for cover letters:
�Address to the editor personally
�Begin by giving your manuscript title and publication type
�Give a brief background, rationale and description of results
�Explain why your findings are important and why they would be
of interest to the journal’s target audience
�Consult the journal’s Guide for Authors for cover letter
requirements (e.g., disclosures, statements, potential reviewers)
�Give corresponding author details
Your cover letter
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Recommend
� Your work supports their hypotheses and ideas
� Your research builds on their work
� International collaborators in the same field
Exclude
� Researchers working on the same research question
� Your study refutes their work
� The findings in your manuscript are are opposite to their
findings or ideas
Reviewers Recommendations and exclusions
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Introduction of language
screening protocols to
check submissions
� Editors don’t want to send poorly written manuscripts for
peer review
� Editors receive enough well written submissions to reject
poorly written manuscripts
Language screening
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Language
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Some journals are very clear regarding their English requirements,
and about what happens to manuscripts that do not meet their
standards…
Journal of Applied Physics
Language: Papers must be written in standard American English.
This is the responsibility of the author, not the editors. Papers
below the standard for the Journal will be returned to the
authors for rewriting and can be rejected for this reason alone.
Such problems may be avoided and publication expedited if the
manuscript is edited by an English-speaking colleague or a
professional editing service before the initial submission.
�Clarity
�Conciseness
�Correctness (accuracy)
Good scientific writing possesses the following three “C”s:
Key points:
�Be as brief as possible without omitting essential details
�Be as specific as possible
Scientific writing
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�Tense
�Articles
�Plural or singular
�Proper nouns
�Hyphen or dash
�That/which
�Making comparisons
�Respectively
�Between or among
�Nomenclature
�Numbers
�Punctuation
�Such as/namely
�Etc.
�Asian fonts
�UK or US spelling
Language Common English problems
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Use simple language: it is often clearer, more precise and
more concise than using more complex language
�Simple Sentence Structure!
�Say what you mean in as few words as possible
�Delete unnecessary words
�Avoid circular sentences, redundancies and repetition
�One sentence: one idea
Simple is best
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�Only 1.5% of papers are immediately accepted without
need for any revisions
Journal editor
decision
Complete rejection
Acceptance
Rejection with major revisions
Rejection with minor revisions
Revisions Post-referee revisions
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Reasons for rejection:
� Inappropriate target journal
� Poor study design
� Poor written language
� Inappropriate or incompletely explained methodology
� Inappropriate statistical tests
� Incorrect description or overstatement of results
� Lack of balance or detail in introduction and/or discussion
� Lack of novelty
Revisions Post-referee revisions
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�Rejection from journals is an important part of the
publication process
�It is not a negative experience
It exists to ensure that your paper is as scientifically
robust and complete as possible before joining the
‘collective knowledge’ as part of the literature
Revisions Post-referee revisions
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� Compliance with ethics guidelines
� Novel and interesting results
� Clear, concise, accurate writing
� Compliance with the Guide for Authors
� Significance of findings explained
� Appropriate choice of journal
Summary Checklist for acceptance
Special thanks to our organizer, Professor Ai;
and sponsors: