Peer Review - a gift that is reciprocatedPurposeResponsibilitiesConfidentialityAnonymity

Who has reviewed papers?

Peer Review - a gift that is reciprocatedPurpose -allow editor to determine acceptability of manuscript and send opinion plus reviewer reports to authors with decision-allow authors to improve manuscript... style, data presentation, more experiments, etc.

Responsibilities ConfidentialityAnonymity

Peer Review ...

Responsibilities - decide whether you are qualified to review the ms - evaluate deadline, can you meet it? - check for complete ms, conflict of interest - tell the editor ASAP if you cannot review the ms - no personal comments or criticism of authors - provide written report on clarity, conciseness, and relevance of ms, rating its accuracy, originality and interest to readers - ensure article cites relevant work by others - recommend acceptance or rejection

Nicholas, K.A. & W. Gordon, Eos, Vol. 92, No. 28, 12 July 2011

PurposeResponsibilities Confidentiality -ms is confidential, not for using or sharing -no direct contact with authors

Peer Review ...

Peer Review ... a subjective process?Anonymity Reviewers may - take advantage of confidential information - show bias - be under-qualified - abuse position because of lack of accountabilityor not? Reviewers may fear animosity or vengeance making them less critical or impartial What about complete transparency? - publish the peer review file? - open peer review (anyone can comment)? Double blind peer review? - difficult to conceal author identity

Nov 10,2016 - Nature Communications, Editorial

Paving the way towards better peer review https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13625

“Nature Communications has made a number of changes to the instructions for reviewers that we hope will assist in the evaluation of the paper and eventually improve the quality of the science that is published.”

Nature Communications EditorialNovember 10, 2016

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13626

Participation Rate by Nat Comm Authors

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v14/n2/full/nmat4212.html

Science Writing:

- includes reporting science (papers), grant proposals, oral presentations, posters, review papers, and reviews

- 10-20k peer reviewed science journals currently published (more than 8400 currently listed by Thompson- Reuters)

- need for clarity and conciseness so that message is received and understood

- organization is required

When reviewing papers think about the quality of the science writing.

IMRAD

Introduction - What question was studied?

Method - How was the study conducted?

Results - What were the findings?

and

Discussion - What do the findings mean?

How to write and Publish a Scientific PaperR.A. Day and B. Gastel, 2006, 6th Edition, Greenwood Press.

Importance of the title - may be read by thousands of people (unlike most papers)

- need the fewest possible words adequately describing content of paper

- use as a label not an abstract

- be specific enough

- get the syntax right

Abstract

Miniature version of the paper - a summary of the information in each section - objectives and scope

- describe methods - summarize results

- state principal conclusions

Writing Issues

Establishing the mindset

Think about effective tables and figures

Writing clearly requires you to think about things from the readers perspective

Your first draft can be for you to get ideas down, then you have to worry about communicating them to the reader

Gopen & Swan (1990), The Science of Scientific Writing, American Scientist, 78, 550-558

Nature’s criteria for publication:

• Provides strong evidence for its conclusions.• Novel (we do not consider meeting report abstracts and preprints on

community servers to compromise novelty).• Of extreme importance to scientists in the specific field.• Ideally, interesting to researchers in other related disciplines.

Science:

• Research papers sent to Science should be novel findings at the forefront of their fields, with broad scientific implications, written concisely and engagingly.

The vanity press

Abuses in writing papers

LPUs - Least publishable unitDouble dippingMultiple simultaneous submissionsInappropriate authorshipsWhat does “in press” mean?

Adapted from the UCLA Graduate Division and https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/perfecting-the-elevator-pitch/

Creating Your Research Talking Points (sometimes called an “Elevator Pitch”)

Your Talking Points Convey:

- what you do today

- your research focus

- your unique characteristics

- what you have

accomplished

- what you want to do next

Example Talking Points

x I am ____ (Who you are, institution, doctoral student/postdoc,

etc.)

x <Insert a fact/problem/concern> or Did you know that ____? (Statistic or fact that talks about the WHY/relevance of your study)

x What I am currently doing is _____. (Your research or study)

x As a result, I have been able to _____. (Pick results achieved when using your strengths, if any)

x What I’m now interested in doing is _____ . o I’m hoping to learn more about ________.

x Do you know any people that ____?

o Can you recommend others for me to connect with ____?

Talking About Your Research � Introduction – Explain who you are. This is sometimes unnecessary if you have already struck up a

conversation.

� Hook – What is the major question/problem you study? You can also start with an observation (e.g. I noticed

this pattern in…).

� Solution – How are you answering this question? For example, you could describe your experiments or

modelling. You might also talk about why you use a particular method.

� Summary and benefits of this knowledge – What have you found? Why is this work useful? What are you

looking into next?

� The stage of your career (optional). For example: “I’ll be finishing my PhD this spring and will be looking for a

postdoc.” This can be useful if you are about to transition to a new stage in your career; the listener may be a

potential advisor or collaborator.

See Creating an Elevator Pitchhttps://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7435-137a

and

It’s time to start thinking about your elevator pitch