You're planning to pursue graduate education or perhaps are in an early stage of graduate study in science or engineering, or perhaps the humanities. You might therefore be thinking that the future course of your graduate studies and career thereafter are well set in place: you can now proceed with your course work and research largely on automatic pilot. The experience of most graduate students, however, is unfortunately to the contrary. While you know not to expect smooth sailing in your studies and research, you might be unaware that many roadblocks, sources of frustration and angst, and much wasted time during and after graduate study can be avoided or at least substantially minimized, perhaps making the entire experience largely satisfying, indeed joyful – one in which you thrive.

This book is a practical guide with two primary goals. The first is to help make the experience of graduate study for students early in their graduate program in science, and for senior-level undergraduates intent on entering such a program, be an efficient, effective, and generally positive one. The second goal, consistent with the first, is to help those students and other junior researchers develop effective research habits.

While some will choose to read this book from cover to cover, many will find benefit from reading selected chapters in depth at different stages of their university or professional careers, perhaps returning to specific chapters as needed.

Whether you are early in a Ph.D. program or further along in your graduate studies, an undergraduate contemplating graduate school and a career in science, a recently anointed Ph.D. embarking on a scientific career, or are somewhere beyond in mid-career, our hope is that various of the suggestions offered in this book can be of help toward your goal of a successful and satisfying professional career.

Much of the advice on doing research contained in this book involves practical skills. Regardless of the practicality of this advice, neither this nor any other book can provide a recipe that guarantees success. As argued in Chapter 2, despite its foundation in logic, science is driven by inspiration, insight, intuition, and creativity, all combined with technical expertise. No cookbook-style set of instructions based on a combination of just these skills, however, can offer a young scientist the guarantee that these ingredients, when mixed, will yield a fruitful and satisfying professional career. Our careers depend on not only our scientific talents, but also our personal ones and our attitude in life. In closing, we offer advice on the development of a mentality that helps foster success in the professional and personal aspects of a career in science, engineering, or humanities.

Traditionally the academic library has been the repository for the archiving of books and journals for scientific research, also offering a place for reading and study. It is much more than that today. By making available large and readily searchable databases of books and publications, these libraries have come to offer researchers the capability to search the scientific literature with remarkable efficiency, retrieving relevant publications electronically when possible.

Indeed, retrieval of scientific information is increasingly being driven by electronic tools and information technology. While this development opens up new possibilities for the efficient search and retrieval of information, it does so in the face of a new problem: the amount of information available is vastly larger than what the individual human mind can process. It therefore is essential to access this superabundance of information in ways that actively supports the research. The options available nowadays could be bewildering, making it important to be aware of, and use, the right tools for gaining access to the appropriate information. Most academic libraries offer valuable assistance and suggestions through their websites. Moreover, typically the staff of these libraries have the expertise as well as the desire to offer advice and share their expertise with those seeking help.

Any student contemplating graduate study, or embarking on graduate study or a career in science, is confronted by a myriad of choices. During your undergraduate career, you have the choices of major and minor subject, but you're likely past having made decisions on those. Once you have decided to pursue graduate study, near the end of your undergraduate study comes your choice of graduate university and program, founded on the choice of field – and, perhaps, subfield – of study you wish to pursue or type of career you wish to follow. Once beyond these choices, or perhaps concurrent with them, comes an all-important one, your choice of adviser – the individual who likely will have the largest influence on your approach to and outlook on science as well as on your success throughout the time of graduate study. An abundance of choices, many of which are puzzling and difficult to make, but what a wonderful position to be in to have created for yourself the opportunity to face such difficulties.

In planning research it is usually not hard to decide broadly what we want to achieve. The goal of the research might be to pursue an interest or a desire “to know”; it might be to find the path in which to establish a career; it might be to obtain a higher degree; it could be driven by the wish to contribute to making our world a better place in which to live; and it could be a mix of such considerations.

Certainly a book for prospective scientists ought to explain what science is. Still, despite numerous books that treat the philosophy, character, and practice of science, there is no agreed-upon nor clear-cut and unambiguous definition of science. This holds not only for the many fields of study that have adopted methods patterned on those of the natural science, e.g., social science, psychology, economics, managerial science, and military science, but also for the natural sciences themselves. In a broad sense one might define science as the activities aimed at understanding the world around us, but it could be well argued that the arts, humanities, and many other endeavors in modern society likewise aim at understanding of the world, albeit understanding of a different sort than that sought in the natural sciences. So let's focus on the practice of natural science, which might be defined as the activities aimed at understanding of the natural world.

Since 1946, an American newscaster named Paul Harvey has been broadcasting a radio segment called The Rest of the Story. It always begins as a quaint, apparently historical tale about someone that seems very average until the very end, when Harvey dramatically exposes a missing element that reveals the deeper significance hidden within. Then he concludes: “And now you know … the rrrrest of the story!”

You are now at that dramatic moment, ready to share your scientific tale with the world. Only relative details stand between you and scientific publication. We have no way of knowing what will come next in your life, but we are confident that you are on the brink of something great. Go forward with confidence. Soon you will be celebrating, and soon afterward, planning your next project.

PREPARING TO PUBLISH

You've just finished going through your document for what seems like the hundredth time. Take a break, and get some sleep, then come back to the document one last time. Nine basic questions provide a good framework for a final review of nearly any scientific paper. If any of them cause you problems, refer back to the material in earlier chapters.

Visual communication has both a verbal component – usually visual presentation of the written word – and an illustrative component such as drawings, diagrams, photos, and charts. Although both elements have long received attention in the context of the primary research article, scientific writing instruction has tended to treat other avenues of visual communication as a relatively minor afterthought. The implicit assumption has been that oral presentations and posters, for example, involve only minor repackaging of a written document and its supporting graphics. In recent years, however, this assumption has been challenged by new developments that have increased the status of visual communication and given it a surprisingly powerful role to play in modern scientific exchanges.

First, there is an increased understanding that when people look at a visual pattern, they process it differently than text (Gurak, 2000). Humans read each word of text and decipher it, but they quickly and efficiently perceive visual information as a unit. (How many times have you tried to assemble something and after puzzling over the written instructions, found yourself turning to the diagram?)

Second, communication has become increasingly international, with the outcome that science and technology must be accessible to people across a variety of languages. The use of symbols rather than written words can make concepts understandable around the world. At the same time, web publishing has given visual communication much greater force and international presence.

Like Charles Darwin, most of us need to go over our writing to disentangle confusion, particularly in word choice, syntax, and style. Syntax refers to the relationships between the words and other elements in a sentence. Style means the way something is done, or its basic “personality.” Thus we speak of a scientific writing style characterized by clarity and organization, an editorial style that presents written material in a certain way, or a typographic style with various artistic elements.

The importance of these three aspects of scientific writing springs from the precision which science requires. More than one interpretation of a sentence or phrase is unacceptable, so careful attention must be paid to both word choice and word arrangement.

This step may have been what you have been expecting – and dreading – from the start. Admittedly, it can be hard work, but stick with us.

CHAPTER 1

Exercise 1.1. Search strategy and Boolean logic (page 10)

1. A, H, J

2. B, E, G

3. D, F

4. A, B, D, E, F, G, H, J

5. F

6. C, I

Exercise 1.2. Message, format, and audience (page 19)

1. Probably not. Simple novelty or extension of a previous record usually is not enough to warrant publication. A case study must change, improve, or enlarge how people think.

2. The paper your colleague has proposed would have a purpose – to report the case findings – but as a research paper it would not have a message. However, a critical review of case records, coupled with a careful and critical assessment of the literature, might result in a valuable document. A case-series analysis or review article would help busy clinicians get information without laboriously sifting through the primary literature. It would tell investigators where things stand on particular aspects of the disease. And, if well written, it could suggest directions new research should take.

3. Yes, with proper choice of format. Written as a “me-too” series of case histories, the paper will probably be rejected. However, a case-series analysis that would include these data could be a useful contribution.

4. Only one primary research publication is justifiable, because all of the results bear upon your single message. However, this could be supplemented with general articles written for the popular press to reach other target audiences.

5. Psychological researchers, clinicians, psychologists, teachers, school administrators, parents.

Whether or not one is prepared to call them art, visual aids can be vitally important in presenting a scientist's message. They summarize and emphasize key points and reduce narrative length. They simplify information, and in this way enhance understanding. They improve the conciseness and clarity of the narrative. And finally, when carefully crafted, they add visual appeal.

Visual material supports the printed message. Picking up a classic research paper, scientists often scan graphics such as tables and figures to see whether the rest of a paper is worth reading. While they may not go on to study every sentence, they almost always look at every illustration. For this reason, each visual aid must contribute an essential part to the written or spoken story, and each must be capable of standing on its own without reference to the text.

For two major reasons, it pays to start preparing visual aids as early as possible in the writing process. First, because tables and figures present data in condensed form and help clarify and support ideas, they make writing easier. Second, sooner than you think, you'll be asked to give an oral presentation on your research. While the visual aids for a written document seldom are suitable for direct transfer into a slide presentation, they undeniably will form the basis for that presentation.

In this chapter, we'll present guidelines for various types of graphic aids for the traditional research paper.

Proper grammar, formatting, and citations are essential to effective written and oral communication. These fundamentals help avoid misunderstandings and reduce the chances of error in fact or interpretation.

Attention to detail is a little like housekeeping. When it is done well, no one is aware of it. When it is not, everyone can tell. If you skip this step, readers will notice. They may be willing to overlook small inconsistencies, but major blunders will distract their attention away from the primary purpose of the writing. No longer concentrating on the technical content, they start searching for more errors instead.

TWEAK THE TEXT

If effective scientific communication is like a well designed and smoothly operating machine, then grammar – the accepted system of rules by which words are formed and put together to make sentences – forms the nuts and bolts that hold it all together. The individual fasteners of punctuation, capitalization, and such may seem simple and unexciting to look at, but they are undeniably important if the machine is to hold together and function properly.

In this section, we suggest ways of avoiding and correcting some common mechanical mistakes that scientific writers tend to make.