Writing a scientific paper invariably requires a lot of work.  Great science does not necessarily make for a great paper.  Having published and reviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of papers over the course of my academic medical career it strikes me that getting a few things right makes for a much more impactful publication.  Avoid the following mistakes and your paper will not be ignored.

1)    As a first principle, real science demands the scientific method.  Consequently, don’t forget to structure your manuscript around the scientific method.  Almost any topic in medical science can be explored through this process.  Nothing drives me crazier as a reviewer, than working through a paper with no hypothesis.  Ask an interesting question, answer it with your data and before you know it your paper will start to write itself.

2)    In junior high school you were taught to value your writing by the number of pages generated.  Now that you are a professional, break the habit!  Rambling introductions, endless discussions and ever more detailed descriptions of results lose readers and your message, as well as consuming your precious time.  Tell your story with the fewest possible words.  Wherever possible condense prose into appropriate tables or figures.  If you want your scientific writing to be impactful, less really is more.  From the famous book on concise writing: Strunk & White “Make every word tell.”

3)    By all means write about clinical topics that interest you, but tell the “science” from the reader’s vantage point.  Strip out extraneous stuff that your reader doesn’t really care about.  Meanwhile, statistics can strengthen your argument but a blizzard of statistical measures can actually obscure the central idea of a paper.  Sometimes it can be hard to see past a thicket of statistics and figure out the primary point of a paper.  What a waste!

4)    To the eyes of a reviewer and reader, nothing detracts from the quality of a paper, more than careless errors.  In this day of automated word processing checking tools, there is no excuse for spelling and grammatical errors.  If an author fails to invest literally a few minutes to clean up a manuscript, how can a reader/reviewer have confidence in the much bigger challenge of the actual writing?  Don’t be lazy!!

5)    Just because your immediate scholarly interest is not Nobel Prize material, this is no reason to not publish.  Most potential authors are much too shy about reporting findings that interest them, especially in the clinical domain.  Some physicians literally sit on their hands and data for a lifetime.  If a topic interests you, chances are it interests someone else somewhere in the world, and with online search, they can now find your report.  Therefore, write early, write often!!

When all is said and done, the processes of Cureus.com makes peer reviewed scientific publishing easier than ever.  Therefore, get to work, publish your ideas and experiences, and change the world!

Writing a scientific paper is hard work and takes considerable time. We at Cureus are here to make your publication process as quick and painless as possible. After publication your contribution will be rated by the community (SIQ). You should keep in mind these important steps when you prepare your manuscript.

Do you have something worth publishing? If so, here are the main criteria to consider:

• Significance: Why was this work done? Did you solve an important problem of current interest or is it an obscure or obsolete problem?
• Originality/Novelty: Is your approach novel or is it tried-and-true? Did you need to develop new tools, either analytical or physical?
• Completeness: Have you tested a wide range of scenarios, or is this just a simple proof-of-concept?
• Correct: Is your solution technically sound or are there errors?

It is important to consider your audience. It should be written to an audience that knows generally about your field but does know what you have done. In addition, before you begin your process you should research and read similar scientific papers that have been written in the format you plan to use.

Write clear and concise content

The main assumptions and results should be explained clearly. If there are multiple assumptions, present them together. Do not bury them in long paragraphs.

Define every symbol when it is first introduced. Otherwise, your peer reviewers will be frustrated. That can negatively affect your SIQ score. Clearly state the contributions of the paper in the concluding remarks.

Focus on the Material and Methods section first

When writing a report, it is often a good idea to begin by writing the Materials and Methods section. This section is usually straightforward. Writing it first helps to establish the proper thought process and understanding of the work. This will allow the rest of the report to flow more smoothly.

Next, it is generally recommended to write the Results section, followed by the Discussion, and finally the Introduction. Although this recommendation may seem illogical at first, many have found this approach to be very effective.

Limit your references

An inexperienced writer rarely resists the temptation to cite all papers that have been written on the subject. This may be appropriate for a doctoral dissertation, but not for a journal paper. An ideal number of references is a dozen. A practical upper limit is twenty.

Design your tables and figures clearly and intuitively

A (good) figure is worth a thousand words. Do not use too many curves, lines, or labels. Ten years after publication, readers may not remember equations or derivations, or anything else about a paper. But they may remember a figure.

As a general rule, a paper should not contain more than two figures – rarely more than three. Too many figures suggest that the paper represents a low-tech research effort. Tables and figures should be put into a contextual framework in the corresponding text. They should typically summarize results, not present large amounts of raw data. When possible, the results should provide some way of evaluating the reproducibility or statistical significance of any numbers presented.

Following these tips will make your paper highly valuable and guarantee high SIQ scores. This ensures wide distribution of your work and will serve in  adding significant value to your professional reputation.