Ian F. C. Smith

Writing a Journal Paper

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Disclaimer / Preamble

This is mostly opinion.

Suggestions are incomplete.

There are other strategies.

A good strategy allows authors to concentrate more effectively on the important things: creative ideas, solid theory, careful experimentation and relevant validation.

Why write a journal paper?

Reasons for writing a journal paper are to• Improve thesis quality– Obtain feedback from reviewers - questions and

comments– Learn to reply appropriately to reviewers– Get your supervisor to work for you (!!)– Ensure that all team members agree with project

progress– Contribute early to writing your thesis to avoid

the stress of doing everything at the end• Ensure better performance during the thesis exam• Help get a good job, at least an interview for a good

job, after your thesis• Contribute to your success throughout your career

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Usual conditions-1

The journal-paper-writing process has particular characteristics. Some of them are

• The time from submission to publication is usually 1-3 years. It is worth spending a few weeks (part-time, especially at first) making your best effort to create a good paper .

• Some journals have strict page/word limits. Most do not.

• There is much more scientific content in a journal paper than there is in a conference paper.

• Typical journal papers have 10-20 figures and tables (total)

• Typical journal papers have 20-50 references

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Usual conditions-2

• Originality must be justified by a detailed literature review.

• The literature survey has to explicitly identifiy research gaps

• The first journal paper consumes much time. (Fortunately, subsequent paper production is usually much faster!)

• Although reviews are often good, they are sometimes unfair.

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Choose topic and target

Choosing the topic and target of the paper involves• Isolating results that are truly original from all

your current results• Identifying the audience that would most

appreciate finding out about your results• Ensuring that you are aware of current main

contributions that are recognized by that audience. Focus your literature review on key people.

• Making a short list of potential journals that are read by that audience. Check author and reference lists for names of key people. These people could be your reviewers.

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Start at the end

Start backwards by following these steps• Create first versions of figures and tables that

best portray the results. First versions can be sketches only.

• Write 3-6 conclusions that are supported by these results. There should not be more than 10 sentences. Ensure that you write conclusions and not observations (and certainly not method summaries). This is not easy. Most authors are not able to do this for their first submission.

• Send the Conclusions to coauthors and do not think about it for at least 24 hours.

• Iterate until everyone agrees what the paper will conclude. 7

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Do the Introduction-1

Create a first draft of the Introduction by following these steps

• Use conclusions to write objectives (3-6).

• Check for consistency. Papers are rejected when conclusions do not address objectives.

• Write the Introduction (2-3 pages max). This consists of

– A paragraph of the general motivation for the work

– A description and identification of strengths and shortcomings of other work (research gaps) including your previous work (1-4 paragraphs depending on how much other work is relevant)

Do the Introduction-2

– A declaration of objectives in a separate paragraph that starts with “This paper …” The objectives should be written in a way that they are specifically intended to fill the research gaps mentioned in the previous paragraphs.

– A summary of the contents of the paper (Section themes). This part is optional

• Send to coauthors and do not think about it for at least 24 hours (if possible, 7 days).

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Do the outline

Create a detailed outline by following these steps• Revise the Introduction according to co-authors’

comments• Do 2nd versions of figures and tables• Write titles of sub-sections and include figures

within them• Write first versions of figure and table captions• Add point-form observations and conclusions

below each figure.• Include conclusions. In most situations, there is at

least one Figure/Table that supports each conclusion

• Send to coauthors and do not think about it for at least 24 hours (if possible, 7 days)

• Iterate until each coauthor agrees with the outline

Content-1

Once everyone agrees on the outline, including content and captions of figures, writing can begin. Some tips are

• Write around the figures (introduce, describe, observe and then - and only then - conclude)

• Do a first draft of the abstract

• Include measures to validate results

• Discuss limitations and future work. This is a good strategy to document explicitly what the paper does not do

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Content-2

• Remember to acknowledge funding and other facilitating people

• Include list of references (your previous work < ¼ of the items)

• Send to others (one week)

• Iterate and consult journal format requirements, particularly for references

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Duplicate publication

Software exists to detect text that is taken from other papers.

If current work builds on previous work by you, this needs to discussed explicitly in the introduction, citing the work and stating what has not been done previously. The objectives of the current paper needs to be clearly different from previous papers.

If the journal paper uses text and figures from a conference paper, permission must be obtained. All authors of the conference paper must be authors of the longer journal paper. The conference paper needs to be cited in the Introduction, where the text and figures are reused and mentioned in the Acknowledgements (at least three places).

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Check list

Before submitting, do a final check• Does the title reflect the original aspects of the work?• Are there conclusions in the Abstract?• Are there coherent links between research gaps,

objectives, results and conclusions?• Are all figures and tables cited in the text? Do they

contain informative captions? Do they convey the important conclusions?

• Are all citations in the reference list? Are all references used?

• Do the Conclusions contain conclusions (not observations)?

• Have all funding sources and people who contributed to the results been named in the Acknowledgements?

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Conclusions

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Writing a journal paper is, for a PhD student, the most important and meaningful exercise in communication.

It is best to start early and break up the work into bits. Your supervisor is more likely to be able to give you good comments this way.

Use co-authors and give them deadlines. Be fair. Do not expect feedback in 24 hours. Plan for this.

Write the journal paper first, then use bits for conferences. The other way around is dangerous (no time for journal papers) and the quality of your thesis will suffer.