writing scientific research articles--strategy and steps

B O O K R E V I E W

M.Cargill and P.O’Connor:Writing scienti?c research articles:strategy and steps

Wiley-Blackwell,Chichester,2009,X +173pp,￡17.99(Paperback),ISBN:978-1-4051-8619-3

Malcolm Jobling

Received:27April 2009/Accepted:27April 2009

óSpringer Science+Business Media B.V.2009

There are several manuals and guides that give information about how to write scienti?c papers,theses and reports,and how to prepare research applications,posters and other types of presentation.Writing Scienti?c Research Articles:Strategy and Steps is distin-guished by being one of the few books on scienti?c writing that is intended for course use.The focus is on the writing of scienti?c articles for publication in international peer-reviewed journals.The authors adopt a practical approach;text is kept to a minimum,and readers are challenged to develop and improve their writing skills by completing a series of exercises and work-tasks.The book is primarily aimed at those with limited writing experience,such as research students and early-career scientists,but the audience could also include researchers who have published several scienti?c articles.In other words,there are many practising scientists who could bene?t from reading the book,completing the exercises and following the advice given.

The book is divided into ?ve parts,three of which are concerned directly with the writing and publication process,and two that provide supportive information and examples of published articles.The authors use extracts from the sample articles to illustrate salient points made in the main text,and these articles are also used as the basis for many of the exercises.A detailed list of contents can be found on the authors’information and support website (https://www.360docs.net/doc/543954228.html,.au ).

‘‘A framework for success’’deals with some preliminaries and serves to introduce readers to the basic concepts of scienti?c writing.The authors present a few thoughts about international publishing and the structure of research articles,introduce readers to intro-duction,methods,results and discussion (IMRAD)article structure and provide informa-tion about the criteria used by reviewers when evaluating manuscripts.

‘‘When and how to write each article section’’is concerned with the mechanics of preparing manuscripts.In other words,this section answers questions about what should go where,and why.It deals with many speci?c points,such as:Why are the title and abstract so important?How can I make the introduction compelling reading?How much

detail M.Jobling (&)

University of Troms?,9037Troms?,Norway

e-mail:Malcolm.jobling@uit.no

123

Aquacult Int

DOI 10.1007/s10499-009-9261-7

Aquacult Int should I include in the methods?When should I use?gures,tables and text for presenting my results?And so on.

‘‘Getting your manuscript published’’takes up the dilemmas faced by scientists when making choices about journals in which to publish.Guidance is also given about the procedures to be followed when submitting manuscripts.The authors also explain how to tackle the complex problems of dealing with reviewers’comments,manuscript revisions, re-submissions and communicating with journal editors.

‘‘Further developing your publication skills’’introduces readers to a few tricks of the writing and publication trade.If readers follow the tips given they should become more pro?cient at dealing with the problems experienced at each stage of the writing and publication process.There is some focus on discussion of writing style and acceptable forms of prose.The concepts of textual frameworks and templates are introduced,and the importance of paraphrasing is stressed.Some guidelines are given about how to avoid ?orid language,hyperbole and redundancy.The authors also point out some other common mistakes that appear in scienti?c manuscripts.I cringed more than once as I read this section,because I came across descriptions of errors and faux pas that I make all too often.

Each of the main sections includes practical exercises intended to enable readers to hone their writing skills and improve their chances of getting work published.The exercises are at the core of the book,and several of these are novel and innovative.Two sample papers, presented at the end of the book,are often referred to in the main text and they are much used in the exercises.Both papers are from biological science journals;one has a biochemical focus and the other is ecological.Readers are also instructed to select papers from their own research?eld for use in some of the exercises and work-tasks.

Writing Scienti?c Research Articles:Strategy and Steps is clearly written,has a logical step-by-step structure,is easy to read and contains a lot of sensible advice about how to get scienti?c work published in international journals.The book is a most useful addition to the literature covering scienti?c writing.It should be of particular interest and value to those who are on the verge of embarking upon a career in scienti?c research.

123