Università degli Studi di Macerata Scientific Writing Alessandra Fermani Università degli Studi di Macerata afermani@unimc.it

A.P.A (in Dep.) scopus (in Dep) (IF, citated-mencioned, referee blind, find researchers, dissemination) psychinfo (no) sage (in Dep.) http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php TKS Prof. Pietrobon Duke University

Structure vs. content Structure = rhetoric (you want to exercise influence in your researchers target) Content = the specific topic we are talking about

Global Italian Global Italian What it is not the opposite direction dialect series of iterations a ton of work less work for copyeditor What it is not automated translation only

Active voice in simple structure Subject - verb - object Avoid passive, even in scientific writing ... but there are exceptions No twisted sentences with subject-verb separation Principle readers have a limited amount of cognitive capacity to spend if the underlying structure is what they already expected, then their attention and memory can focus on content http://goo.gl/8bAQg http://goo.gl/olsLS

Short sentences Rule of thumb: If you're beyond 1.5 lines in a google doc you are probably going too far Easier to handle and harder to get out of control

Flow among sentences Connect sentences to create a flow Sense of narrative "Evidence strongly suggests that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form. We are inveterate storytellers." Owen Flanagan (Duke) Your article is a «novel»

Stress position Leave the most important thing at the end of the sentences -- that's what readers tend to remember

What to do when there is no agreed upon standard? Determine your target journal Look for a similar article Determine its structure Prospect Theory

But standards are not necessary Arguments if it makes sense it is good I want to be free It restricts my creativity ... people are different, this is not the best solution or system, but it is good

Recapping Introduction Discussion Structure saving memory and attention social agreement

START Workflow Intro, Methods, mock tables and figures Data and analysis Complete article START

Introducing a topic A recipe - formula significance fill a gap find literature review in support of the gap objective

Methods and Results aim method: sample,procedure, questionnaire (scale; alpha) software and analysis (create, make PCA/EFA, correlation, regression, ANOVA , cluster, equation etc…) describe objective results

Discussion Presenting evidence Discussing explanations Managing your project followup.cc gcalendar

Discussion structure Novelty claim and summary – pretesa novità e sintesi Explanation about each result Limitations Future - research and implementation Educational and pratice implications Exercises