2-22
Writing and Publishing Scientific Articles
For example:
March
April
S
M
T W T
F
S
S M T W T F S
2 9
3
4
5
6
7
8
1 8
2 9
3
4
5
10 17 24 31
11 18 25
12 19 26
13 20 27
14 21 28
15 22 29
6
7
10 17 24
11 18 25
12 19 26
16 23 30
13 20 27
14 21 28
15 22 29
16 23 30
April 30 — Submit paper to journal April 25–29 — Get final approval from co-authors April 23–24 — Make corrections suggested by editor April 15–22 — Have paper edited April 10–14 — Make changes suggested by co-authors April 3–9 — Have co-authors review paper
Continue working backward on the calendar until you reach your starting point, and then adjust your schedule so that you feel sure you can meet all your deadlines. Making an Outline Writing an outline will help you organize your thoughts and get something down on paper, as well as communicate better with your co- authors. An outline is simply the main points of your paper in a logical order, a road map of sorts. “I generally think a lot in outline form. I develop an outline as a skeleton, and then I put the meat on the bones as I go along.” —Jeffrey N. Myers, MD, PhD, Head & Neck Surgery The following are tips for writing an outline: First write down as many main ideas (hypothesis, materials, experiments, related studies, etc.) as you can think of to include in your paper. Then arrange the items in the order you think they will appear in the paper. Write down short phrases and put them in 1 of the 4 main sections of the paper (Introduction, Methods, Results, or Discussion). Include notes to yourself or additional thoughts as they come to you (for example, “Include explanation of article by Smith et al. here.”).
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