how do you write an article for a Scentific Journal

godtabh

I've been asked to write an article for a Scientific Journal based on my thesis. It would be engineering based.

Any one have any ideas?

EileenG

Start by talking to the editor or whoever commissioned the article. Find out your deadline, and what length they expect, and see if they have any expectations of what you will cover or how you will do it. Ask about the readership. You would write differently for scientists or interested lay people.

After that, it's a matter of summing up your thesis in an interesting way. In an article, it's more important to get your information across in a cogent way than to cite every reference as you go. That's what footnotes are for.

If it helps, imagine you were telling the readers on this board about your thesis, what inspired you to write it, what you found out, and how this has added to general knowledge.

blubloblu

As for language, format, style, browse through http://scholar.google.com

mcyclist

EileenG wrote: »

In an article, it's more important to get your information across in a cogent way than to cite every reference as you go. That's what footnotes are for.

Not sure this advice is correct for a scientific journal.
Instructions for authors are usually available either in the journal itself on by asking the editor. They should be adhered to exactly. References should be cited and tabled as to the instructions. There are a number of schemes for this ( such as Harvard ) but each journal will have it's own style and it must be adhered to.

I disagree with EileenG that your purpose is to make the thesis interesting. It should be that anyway. Your purpose is to set out your findings in relation to questions you set out to answer.

Most scientific papers have a similar format (although my experience would be life sciences rather than engineering) i.e. abstract, introduction, material & methods, results, discussion, conclusions, references. I assume the journal you are writing for follows this format.

Write the materials & methods and results sections first. These are fairly factual and straight forward. You need to tackle the introduction next which should set the questions you were asking. Finally discussion and conclusions.
You can create the list of references as you go.

The abstract should be concise and summarise the other sections.

It would be a great help to be familiar with the journal in question and see how the papers are set out. And read, or download the instructions for authors.

EileenG

I haven't written much scientific stuff, but I used to work with a scientific writer. He always get me to read over his stuff before he sent it, to see if it made sense to an educated lay person. If I couldn't follow it, or lost interest too quickly, he would rewrite.

But definitely read a few back issues of the journal you're writing for.