An easy recipe for writing a scientific paper

How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper

By Björn Gustavii

Cambridge University Press

First edition in 2002

Second edition in 2008

Honestly this is the only writing guide book until now that can make me miss the bus stop I should jump off at. Poor Matt recommended and lent it to me, but because I read it a lot on the way home, it is already not that new as he gave it to me. I still hold the book and hope somebody else can ask for this book from Matt after reading this post. Then I can deny it is my fault.

A housewife must love the recipe that can tell her all the possible faults when she firstly makes it, which saves her time and materials. This book makes this point successfully. Besides practical, vivid and detailed cases make it outstandingly funny to read.

This is cited from “2 Comments on scientific language: He/She”

“In a serious road accident a father was killed and his son seriously injured. When the boy was later brought into the hospital operating theatre, the surgeon blanched and exclaimed, ‘I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son!’

If you were unable to realize immediately that the surgeon was the boy’s mother, you may have something to think about. When I tested this anecdote on my graduate students, one male student could find only one answer: the man who had died was the stepfather!”

This is the index of second edition:

Preface v

Acknowledgements vii

1 Basic rules of writing 1

2 Comments on scientific language 3

3 Drafting the manuscript 15

4 Choosing a journal 18

5 Preparing a graph 20

6 Drawings 38

7 Figure legends 40

8 How to design tables 42

9 Title 48

10 Authors 54

11 Abstract 58

12 Introduction 61

13 Methods 63

14 Results 68

15 Discussion 74

16 Acknowledgments 79

17 References 81

18 Ph.D. and other doctoral theses 91

19 Letters and case reports 101

20 Numbers 105

21 Abbreviations 111

22 How to present statistical results 114

23 Typing 120

24 Dealing with editors and referees 132

25 Correcting proofs 137

26 Authors  responsibilities 142

Literature needed on your desk 150

Further reading 152

Literature cited 156

Index 165

6, 7, 18, 19, 22 are what author added in the second edition. The first edition can be borrowed from Helka. But the most convenient way is to borrow from Matt. I have the second edition now in the office. Welcome to borrow it.