How to start to write a scientific paper Ashgan Mohamed, Ph.D Assistant Professor Cairo University

The strength of your idea (content) for a manuscript. Once you’ve selected a good idea, then communicating it is important. Communicating your good idea is what we’re talking about today.

The construction of the science is based on the communication of the research results Research Production Literature your research career. Previous works are the basis for yours, when you enter in the loop (intake, production, output and feedback) you become a consumer and a producer and so on till the end of Why is important your scientific contribution?

Question How does the process begin? Preliminary research answer yes no New research Project design Lab work results conclusions manuscript Dissemination & retrieval

Be aware of the contribution of your research to the Scientific Community and try to share it with your colleagues How? Communicating your results (written, oral, others)

When you consider you have finished an homogeneous part, be sure before closing the assays. Arrange and organize your notes, references or any other material, display and classify it.

How to start to write a manuscript?

Organize your information

Structure your information in separate blocks Notes, references, objetives Samples, individuals, sampling, analytical and statistical methods,... Answers to the objetives supported by graphical or any other forms Analysis of the results, comparison with other authors

Try to integrate your puzzle of information And structure it

Structure of a scientific paper Title Authors’ names and affiliation Abstract, keywords Introduction Material and methods Results Discussion Conclusions Acknowledgements References Annexes

TITLE The title should inform accurately about the content of the manuscript. It must be informative, brief, specific, and accurate. Why is important the title? Data bases use titles to for indexes

Authors’ names and affiliations Use always the same name (signature) to avoid any confussion within the scientific community. Identify the author for correspondence (with *). Give the complete name and address of the institutions or centers the authors belong to. Currently s are also given.

Abstract The abstract, summary or synopsis is, like the title, one element within the manuscript of relevant importance. The retrieval of the paper and its reading depend greatly on it. Therefore it should provide the concise information to indicate whether the paper fulfils our expectations.The main feature of an abstract is its size. In very few words ( ) the abstract should inform about the main aspects of the manuscripts and respond to why, what, how and the results and their interpretation.

Characteristics of an abstract Short sentences, but not telegraphed No references, tables or figures No abbreviations.. No excessive details

Keywords Their source could come from: Free text

Introduction Brief Focused With the most relevant references Without repetitions of known stablished assumptions Aims and objetives

Material and methods Samples, sampling Individuals Material (origin if neccesary) Methods (references and brief description) Statistical methods (packages, software..)

Results Answers to the objectives Expose the experiences logically sequenced Do not repeat any information in tables or figures, and in the text

Discussion What do the results mean? Are my results compared with other previous works? Do not repeat results Conclusions

Acknowledgements Names, institutions, projects, grants, etc...

Citation S. HarvardS. Vancouver (Name and year) (numerical sequence) These results agreed with previous works (Smith, 1996; Brown et al., 1998) These results agreed with previous works 1,

Have you chosen the journal? Have you the instructions to authors? Let’s write the first draft

Why? How? What did you find? What does it mean? Does your paper answer these questions? introduction material + methods results discussion

Check the accuracy of the data in tables and figures Are all tables and figures neccesary? Could you join figures or tables? Do you repeat any information?

Re-read first draft Revise the style Review the content, data, references 2nd draft Final manuscript