how to write good publication and how to prepare sound figures

How to write a good publication andprepare sound figures

Kevin PetrieWroclaw

17th September 2015

2Writing a paperBe clear and concise

There is no great mystery here

But there are a few things to consider…

#1 consideration – YOU ARE WRITING FOR THE REVIEWERS

If you annoy them the game could

quickly be up for you

• Don’t waffle – this isn’t a thesis

A benchmark for how you split up your sections would be:

25% intro, 50% results, 25% discussion

• Figure legends!

Badly written legends are a problem – this really annoys reviewers

3Writing a paperFormatting

• Make sure to carefully read the journal submission guidelines

• Read several recent manuscripts from your journal of choice

Keep an eye out for how flexible they are with the formatting – high

impact journals tend to be very strict

• You spent years on this thing – take your time to make it look professional

• This goes for cover letters as well

• Do not rely on the spellchecker!!!

• Find a friendly native English speaker to proof it

4Writing a paperStrategy

• We may not like the IF system but we have to deal with the world as it is not as

we would wish

• Aim high! Don’t regard rejection as a personal insult.

• Top journals always want to see a strong narrative and a lean product

#1 Tip – do not be afraid to submit your precious work that you

slaved over for the last 3-4 years as a 4-figure short report if it means getting

into a better journal. It’s not unusual to see 10+ supplemental figures.

5Writing a paperGet in the saddle

• Read, read, read…

• Start writing drafts as early as possible

• Don’t worry too much about the flow of the text in the first draft

• You can begin with bullet points and then put in linkers

• Beware of long sentences and big paragraphs

• Every statement should be backed up by data or a reference

• I personally hate the phrase “data not shown” – if you have the results then put

them in. If you don’t have them or they are not good enough then keep quiet!

6Writing a paperPapers versus grants

• Much of the same applies, but…

• This is not a peer-reviewed publication – you are trying to sell an idea

• The language used should reflect your enthusiasm for your proposed research

• Be realistic in your aims – a common mistake is to promise too much

• For a good grant it is imperative to present solid preliminary data

• Reviewers may have to look through many applications, often there is a triage process

• There is often either a word or page limit, sometimes also figure and CV space limits –

you can push limits by altering margins, line spacing, font increments etc

• If no limit on figures is stated, you can safely abuse this

• Flow charts and tables are a good idea to give an overview of proposal/work plan

• Don’t be afraid to call the point of caontact at the funding body – they will often give you

the green light to bend the parameters

7Writing a paperFigures

• Aplogies to PC users but this section will be on a Mac

• #1: Adobe Illustrator is better than Powerpoint – this is fact, not opinion

• Many people have some fear of Illustrator – not user friendly

• I primarily use Graphpad Prism, and Adobe Suite

8Writing a paperFigures: Graphpad

• It may just be my opinion but I hate thick lines – I use 0.5 pt as standard• Fonts: Arial or Myriad (Myriad Pro in Illustrator)• Most journals do not permit bold type text in Figures – no point in using it in

Prism• I set my default height of graphs to 4cm• Tick length “very short”• No borders

• To import into Illustrator on a Mac simply cut and paste

• Important first step!

• Top menu > Object > Clipping mask > Relase• Top menu > Object > Compound Path> Relase

9Writing a paperFigures: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat

• Specific tips I will go through:

• What menus are most useful

• Selecting, aligning and distributing items

• How to generate borders for pictures

• Lines – making them straight and joining them

• Exporting to Photoshop – making high resolution/small size Tiffs

• Acrobat – making high resolution/small size pdfs

• There are many online resources for Adobe products – use them!!!


• What menus are most useful

AlignTransformAppearanceStrokeCharacterParagraph

Good Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHrtKN9gdjA&list=PL9k8t41FVBP5WyLq3kR4U5t4CDCgPjD49

There’s a lot more out there…








Drawing straight lines!Press shift before drawing the line

Joining lines:


Aligning objects

Learn to make use of the align and distribute to key object functions:

1. Select objects, using either trackpad/mouse or shift+right click2. Release and click to select key object. This can be use to align or distribute.

I like the distribute spacing function – this will distribute objects at the increment selected


Adding a border to an object

Add new strokeI use 0.25-0.5 pt

Select object

Extra width and height needs to set to 0 mm


• Exporting to Photoshop – making high resolution/small size Tiffs• First simply copy your figure from Illustrator, select “New” in Photoshop and

paste

1

2

3

Use these settings



Sorry – Mac tips only!

To make a pdf of an Illustrator file just open it with Acrobat Pro save as a pdfTo add a pdf use “insert page from another file”

• Save file and re-open in “Preview”• Select “export as pdf” – give it a new name• Make sure your default paper size is set to

the one you want (e.g. US letter) in System preferences “printers and scanners”

• Re-open new file in Acrobat Pro• Select “save as other…”• “Optimized pdf…”• See next slide

how to write good publication and how to prepare sound figures

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