1. What is a Scientific Paper ?
A paper is an organized description of hypotheses, date and conclusions, intended to instruct the reader. Papers are a central part of research . If you research does not generate papers, it might just as well not have been done. "Interesting and unpublished" is equivalent to "non-existent".
Realize that your objective in research is to formulate and test hypotheses, to draw conclusions from these tests, and to teach these conclusions to others. Your objective is not to "collect data".
A paper is not just an archival device for storing a completed program; it is also a structure for planning your research in progress. If you clearly unstand the purpose and form of a paper, it can be immensely useful to you in organizing and conducting ypur research. A good outline for the paper is also a good plan for the research program. You should write and rewrite these plans/outlines throughout the course of the research. At the beginning, you will have mostly plan; at the end, mostly outline. The continuous effort to understand, analyze, summarize, and reformulate hypotheses on paper will be immensely more efficient for you than a process in which you collect data and only start organize them when their collection is "complete".
2. Outlines
2.1. The Reason for Outlines
I emphasize the central place of an outline in writing papers, preparing seminars, and planning research. I especially believe that for you, and for me, it is most efficient to write papers from outlines. An outline is a written plan of the organization of a paper, including the data which it rests. You should, in fact, think of an outline as a carefully organized and presented set of data, with attendent objectives, hypotheses, and conclusions, rather than an outline of text.
An outline itself contains little text. If you and I can agree on the details of the outline (that is on the data and organization), the supporting text canbe assembled fairly easily. If we do not agree on the outline, any text is useless. Much of the time in writing a paper goes into the text; most of the thought goes into the organization of the data and into the analysis. It can be relatively efficient in time to go through several (even many) cycles of an outline before beginning to write text; writing many versions of the full text of a paper is slow.
All writing that I do - papers, reports, proposals (and, of course, slides for seminars) - I do from outline. I urge you to learn how to use them as well.
2.2. How Should You Construt an Outline ?
The classical approach is to start with a blank piece of paper, and write down, in any order, all important ideas that occur to you concerning the paper. Ask yourself the obvious questions: "Why did I do this work ?"; "What does it mean ?"; "What hypotheses did I mean to test ?"; "What ones did i actually test ?"; "What were the result? Did the work yield a new method of compound? What?"; "What measurements did I make?"; "What compounds? How were they characterized?". Sketch possible equations, figures, and schemes.It is essential to try to get the major ideas. If you strat research to test hypothesis, and decide, when you see what you have, that the data really seem to test some other hypothesis better, don't worry. Write them done, and pick the best combinations of hypotheses, objectives, and data. Often the objectives of a paper when it is finished are different from those used to justify starting the work. Much of good science is opportunistic and revisionist.
1. Introduction
Why did I do this work? What were the central motivations and hypotheses?
2. Results and Discussion
What were the results? How were compounds made and characterized? What was measured?
3. Conclusions
What does it all mean? What hypotheses were proved or disproved? What did I learn? Why did it make a difference?
Next, take each of these sections, and organize it on yet finer scale. Concentrate on organizing the date. Construct figures, tables, and schemes to present the data as clearly and compactly as possible. This process can be slow - I may sketch a figure five to ten times in different ways trying to decide how it is most clear (and looks best aesthetically).
Finally, put everything - outline of sections, tables, sketches of figures, equationa - in good order.
When you are satisfied that you have included all the data (or that you know what additional data you intend to collect), and have a plausible organization, give the outline to me. Simply indicate where missing data will go, how you think (hypothesis) they will look, and how you will interpret them if you hypothesis is correct.
I will take this outline, add my opinions, suggest changes, and return it to you. It usually takes four to five iterations (often with additional experiments) to agree on an outline. When we have agreed, the data are usually in (or close to) final form (that is, the tables, figure, etc., in the outline will be best the tables, figures,... in the paper).
You can then start writing, with some assurance that much of your prose will be used.
The key to efficient use of your and my time is that we start exchanging outlines and proposals as early in a project as possible. Do not, at any cirumatances, wait until the collection of data is "complete" before starting to write an outline. No project is ever complete, and it saves enormous effort and much time to propose a plausible paper and outline as soon as you see the basic strucure of a project. Even if we decide to do significant additional work before seriously organizing to paper, the effort of writing an outline will have helped to guide the research.
2.3. The Outline
What an outline should contain:
1. Title
2. Authors
3. Abstract
Do not write an abstract. That can be done when paper is complete.
4. Introduction
The first paragraph or two should be written out completely. Pay particular attention to the opening sentence. Ideally, it should state concisely the objective of the work, and indicate why this objective is important.
In general, the Introduction should have these elements:
- The objectives of the work
- The justification for these objectives: Why is the work important?
- Background: Who else has done what? How? What have we done previously?
- Guidance to the reader: What should the reader watch for in the paper? What are the interesting high points? What strategy did we use?
- Summary/conclusion: What should the reader expect as conclusion? In advanced versions of the outline, you should also include all the sections that will go in the Experimental section (at the level of paragraph subheadings) and indicate what information will go in the Micro-film section.
5. Results and Discussion
The results and discussion are usually combined. This section should be organized according to major topics. The separate parts should have subheadings in boldface to make this organization clear, and to help the reader scan through the final text to find the parts od interest. The following list includes examples of phrases that might plausibly serve as section headings:
- Synthesis of Alkane Thiols
- Characterization of Monolayers
- Absolute Configuration of the Vicinal Diol Unit
- Hysteresis Correlates with Roughness of the Surface
- Dependence of the Rate Constant on Temperature
- The Rate of Self-Exchange Decreases with the Polarity of the Solvent
Try to make these section headings as specific and information-rich as possible. For example, the phrase "The Rate of Self-Exchange Decreases with the Polarity of the Solvent" is obviously longer than "Measurement of Rates", but much more usefulto the reader. In general, try to cover the major common points:
- Synthrsis of starting materials
- Characterization of products
- Methods of characterization
- Methods of measurement
- Results (rate constants, contact angles,whatever)
In the outline, do not write any significant amount of text, but get all the data in their proper place: Any text should simply indicate what will go in that section.
- Section Headings
- Figures (with captions)
- Schemes (with captions and footnotes)
- Equations
- Tables (correctly formatted)
Remember to think of a paper as a collection of experimental results, summarized as clearly and economically as possible in figures, tables, equations, and scheme. The text in the paper serves just to explain the data, and is secondary. The more information can be compressed into tables, equations, etc., the shorter and more readable the paper will be.
6. Conclusions
In the outline, summarize the conclusions of the paper as a list of short phrases or sentences. Do not repeat what is in the Results section, unless special emphasis is needed. The Conclusions section should be just that, and not a summary. It should add a new, higher level of analysis, and should indicate explicitly the significance of the work.
7. Experimental
Include, in the correct order to correspond to the order in the Results section, all of the paragraph subheadings of the Experimental section.
2.4. In Summary
- Start writing possible outlines for papers early in a project. Do not wait until the "end". The end may never come.
- Organize the outline and the paper around easily assimilated data - tables, equations, figures, schemes - rather than around text.
- Organize in order of importance, not in chronological order. An important detail in writing papers concerns the weight to be given to topics. Neophytes often organize a paper in terms of chronology: that is, they give a recitation of their experimental, starting with their cherished initial failures and leading up to a climactic syccessful finale. This approach is completely wrong. Start with the most important results, and put the secondary results later, if at all. The reader usually does not care how you arrived at your big results, only what they are. Shorter papers are easier to read than longer ones.
3. Some Points of Style
- Do not use nouns as adjective:
Not: ATP formation; reaction product
But: formation of ATP; product of the reaction - The word "this" must always be followed by a noun, so that its reference is explicit.
Not: This is a fast reaction; This lead us to conclude
But: This reaction is fast; This observation leads us to conclude - Describe experimental results uniformly in the past tense.
Not: Addition of water gives product.
But: Addition of water gave product. - Use the active voice whenever possible.
Not:It was observed that the solution turned red.
But: The solution turned red. or We observed that the solution turned red. - Complete all comparisons.
Not: The yield was higher using bromine.
But: The yield was higher using bromine than chlorine. - Type all papers double-spaced (not single- or one-and-a-half-spaced), and leave two spaces after colons, and after periods at the end of sentences. leave generous margins.
Assume that we will write all papers using the style of the American Chemical Society. You can get a good idea of this style from three sources:
- The journals. Simply look at articles in the journals and copy the organization you see there.
- Previous papers from the group. By looking at previous papers, you can see exactly how a paper should "look". If what you wrote looks different, it probably is not what we want.
- The ACS Handbook for Authors. Useful, detailed, especially the section on references, pp. 173 - 229.
I also suggest you read Strunk and White, The Elements of Style (Macmillan: New York, 1979, 3rd ed.) to get a sense for usage. A number of other books on scientific writing are in the group library; these book all contain useful advice, but are not lively reading. There are also several excellent books on the design and figures.
1、何謂學(xué)術(shù)論文？
一篇論文是集假設(shè)、數(shù)據(jù)及結(jié)論為一體的系統(tǒng)性闡述，并以此引導(dǎo)讀者。論文是研究的核心部分。如果你的一項研究沒有產(chǎn)生任何論文，那便等于沒有做過一樣。“有意義但未發(fā)表”就如同“從未存在”一樣。
研究的目的在于確切表述并驗證假設(shè)，從不斷的論證中得出結(jié)論，并將結(jié)論向讀者展示。切記，你的研究目的不是簡單地“收集數(shù)據(jù)”。
論文并非只是研究結(jié)果的資料儲存器，而且也是進(jìn)一步開展研究的有效框架。如果明確了論文的目的和寫作形式，那將對你組織和開展進(jìn)一步研究大有裨益。一份好的論文提綱對于研究項目具有良好的規(guī)劃指引作用。在研究的整個過程中，你需要寫下提綱并對其進(jìn)行適應(yīng)性修改。研究初始，應(yīng)有主要計劃；工作結(jié)束，應(yīng)有充分總結(jié)。比起簡單收集數(shù)據(jù)并在完成后才對其進(jìn)行整理寫作的方式，在進(jìn)程中及時理解、分析、總結(jié)并修正顯得更為高效。
2、論文提綱
2.1 為什么要寫提綱？
在此，我必須強調(diào)提綱在論文寫作、學(xué)術(shù)研討及研究規(guī)劃中的核心地位。我尤其相信，對于大家而言，以提綱為基礎(chǔ)進(jìn)行論文寫作是最有效的方法。提綱是一份書面的行文計劃，其中包括論文所依賴的數(shù)據(jù)。事實上，提綱不僅僅是列出各段的文字內(nèi)容， 而是按照目的、 假說、 結(jié)論來精心組織和呈現(xiàn)數(shù)據(jù)。
提綱的文字以簡練為宜。如果我們對提綱中的數(shù)據(jù)及結(jié)構(gòu)這些細(xì)節(jié)達(dá)成一致意見，那么正文組織起來便相當(dāng)容易。在提綱細(xì)節(jié)尚未敲定之時，進(jìn)行正文寫作是毫無意義的。論文寫作時，大部分時間花費在正文寫作上；而大部分思考是用在整理和分析數(shù)據(jù)上。動筆之前反復(fù)推敲并修改提綱，比起寫完全文再反復(fù)全面修改，效率自然較高。
我所有的寫作，包括論文、報告、項目申請書以及研討會的幻燈片，都從提綱開始。我建議你們也學(xué)會如何使用提綱。
2.2 如何寫好提綱？
最經(jīng)典的方法就是拿出一張白紙，隨意寫下當(dāng)時腦子里蹦出的與論文有關(guān)的任何點子。自問一些顯而易見的問題：“我為什么要做這項工作？” “它的意義何在?” “我想要驗證哪些假說?” “我實際驗證了哪些假說？” “結(jié)果如何，是否產(chǎn)生了新的化合方法？” “我進(jìn)行了哪些測試？” “有哪些化合物，它們是怎么表征的？” 并且勾勒出可能的反應(yīng)式及圖示。抓住這些主要想法非常重要。如果你的研究起初是為了證實一個假說，可是當(dāng)你仔細(xì)審視手頭的資料時卻發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些數(shù)據(jù)似乎能更好地證實另外一個假說，也不要擔(dān)心。將這些都寫下來，從中選擇一個假說、目標(biāo)、數(shù)據(jù)相互匹配的最佳組合。時常，論文完成之時，其目的與最初的目的已經(jīng)不一樣了。要知道，很多優(yōu)秀的科學(xué)往往是機會主義與修正主義的碰撞產(chǎn)物。
當(dāng)你把這些都寫在紙上后，拿出另一張紙，將這些思緒按照以下三個方面組織起來：
1 引言
為什么我要做這項工作？主要目的和假說是什么？
2 結(jié)果和討論
結(jié)果是什么？化合物是怎樣合成與表征的？測試了什么？
3 結(jié)論
所有這一切意味著什么？證實或否定了什么假說？我學(xué)到了什么？其意義何在？
接下來， 將以上各部分更好地組織起來。尤其著力于整理數(shù)據(jù)，盡可能用清晰簡潔的圖表來展示數(shù)據(jù)。這個過程可能比較慢，因為我可能5次甚至10次嘗試以不同的方式去描繪一張圖，以求達(dá)到最清晰最美觀的程度。
最后，把所有這一切 - 內(nèi)容提綱、表格、草圖、方程式，安排好順序。
當(dāng)你已經(jīng)掌握了所有需要的數(shù)據(jù)，或者明確知道自己還要收集哪些額外的數(shù)據(jù)，并且有了一個合理的構(gòu)架，你對這些都感到滿意時，請將提綱交給我。簡要標(biāo)注哪些地方還缺數(shù)據(jù)，你認(rèn)為（或假設(shè)）這些數(shù)據(jù)大概是什么。如果你的假設(shè)是正確的，你將如何解釋。我會仔細(xì)閱讀你的提綱，提出我的觀點和修改建議。通常情況下，我們需要四五個來回才能達(dá)成一致意見，期間經(jīng)常還需要補做一些實驗。我們的一致意見將確定所有的數(shù)據(jù)的最終形式或者接近最終形式，也就是說，提綱中的表格、圖表等最終將成為論文中的表格、圖表。
然后，你就可以開始動筆寫，此時的你有信心在寫作中用到大部分之前整理的數(shù)據(jù)。
高效利用你我時間的關(guān)鍵在于，項目開始時盡早彼此交換提綱和意見。千萬不要等到數(shù)據(jù)都收集“完成”了才開始寫提綱。研究永無“完成”之日，當(dāng)研究項目初具雛形時，就應(yīng)立即開始準(zhǔn)備構(gòu)思論文和提綱，這將節(jié)省很多的精力和時間。即使在正式組織成文前，我們突然決定補做重要的其他實驗，提綱的寫作對于研究仍有指導(dǎo)意義。
2.3 提綱的內(nèi)容
提綱應(yīng)當(dāng)包括以下幾個部分：
1 標(biāo)題
2 作者
3 摘要
這部分先空出來，等到論文完成之后再撰寫。
4 引言
第一段或者前兩段應(yīng)該詳細(xì)寫出來。開頭尤其需要注意，最理想的狀態(tài)是能夠簡潔明了地陳述研究工作的目的及意義。
總體上，引言由以下幾個方面構(gòu)成：
- 研究目的
- 研究的意義：為什么重要？
- 研究背景：有誰做過同樣的研究？是以什么樣的方式？我們之前做過哪些研究？
- 指引讀者：讀者能從中得到什么？哪些想法很獨特且有意義？我們采取了哪些策略？
- 總結(jié)：讀者應(yīng)期待怎樣的結(jié)論？完善的提綱版本應(yīng)該包括實驗部分的所有環(huán)節(jié)（具體到段落小標(biāo)題）。
5 結(jié)果與討論
結(jié)果和討論緊密聯(lián)系。這一部分應(yīng)該根據(jù)主題進(jìn)行行文組織。不同章節(jié)應(yīng)設(shè)有加粗小標(biāo)題，使得結(jié)構(gòu)清晰，同時便于讀者迅速瀏覽全文，找到自己感興趣的部分。以下列舉一些可用作章節(jié)小標(biāo)題的短語：
- 烷基硫醇的合成
- 單層膜的表征
- 鄰二醇結(jié)構(gòu)的絕對構(gòu)型
- 滯后現(xiàn)象與表面粗糙度的關(guān)系
- 溫度對速率常數(shù)的影響
- 自交換速率隨溶劑極化度而降低
盡量使章節(jié)小標(biāo)題具體化并且信息豐富。例如，“自交換速率隨溶劑極化度而降低”雖然比“速率測試”字?jǐn)?shù)多，但是對于讀者來說更有價值。總的來說，盡量概括出段落主旨：
- 初始材料的合成
- 產(chǎn)物的表征
- 表征方法
- 測試方法
- 結(jié)果（速率常數(shù)，接觸角等）
提綱中，不要書寫大量的文字，而是將數(shù)據(jù)安排在合適的位置：文字只是簡明地提示每章的主要內(nèi)容。
- 章節(jié)標(biāo)題
- 圖表（附說明）
- 示意圖（附說明和腳注）
- 方程
- 表格（格式正確）
記住，論文是實驗結(jié)果的集成，運用圖表、方程式和圖示清晰簡潔地呈現(xiàn)。論文中的文字是為解釋數(shù)據(jù)服務(wù)的，因而它是次要的。其余的更多信息則可以通過表格、方程式等去展現(xiàn)，這樣的文章短小精悍，通俗易讀。
6 結(jié)論
應(yīng)將論文的總結(jié)論概括成一系列短語或簡短的句子。不要重復(fù)結(jié)果部分已陳述過的結(jié)論，除非有必要作特殊強調(diào)。結(jié)論不是簡單的總結(jié)，而是更新更高層次的分析闡述，應(yīng)該清晰地表現(xiàn)出研究工作的意義。
7 實驗部分
包括所有實驗部分的章節(jié)標(biāo)題，順序與結(jié)果部分一一對應(yīng)。
2.4 要點總結(jié)
盡早寫作論文提綱。切勿等到研究“結(jié)束”；研究永無“結(jié)束”之時。
提綱應(yīng)通過表格、方程式、圖表、圖示等易于理解的方式組織數(shù)據(jù)，而不是純文字內(nèi)容。
按照數(shù)據(jù)重要程度進(jìn)行排序，而不按時間順序。論文寫作一個重要細(xì)節(jié)在于各部分權(quán)重之分配。初學(xué)者往往采取時間順序來組織行文：他們對實驗項目進(jìn)行詳盡的敘述，從寶貴的初始失敗經(jīng)歷寫起，直至達(dá)到成功的巔峰。這是極其錯誤的方式。應(yīng)該從最重要的結(jié)果開始敘述，如果還有次要的結(jié)果，再依次敘述。讀者通常不會關(guān)心你是如何得出一個問答的結(jié)論，而是關(guān)注結(jié)果本身。短篇幅顯然更加易讀。
3、文體格式
- 勿將名詞用作形容詞：
錯誤用法：
ATP formation；reaction product
正確用法：
formation of ATP （ATP的形成）；product of the reaction（反應(yīng)產(chǎn)物） - “this”后面必須接名詞，以便明確指代對象。
錯誤用法：
This is a fast reaction；This leads us to conclude
（這是一個快速反應(yīng)；這使我們得出結(jié)論）
正確用法：
This reaction is fast；This observation leads us to conclude
（這個反應(yīng)是快速反應(yīng)；這個觀察結(jié)果使我們得出結(jié)論） - 描述實驗結(jié)果一律要用過去時態(tài)。
錯誤用法：
Addition of water gives product.
正確用法：
Addition of water gave product. （加水后生成了產(chǎn)物） - 盡可能使用主動語態(tài)。
錯誤用法：
It was observed that the solution turned red.
正確用法：
The solution turned red. or
We observed that the solution turned red. (溶液變成了紅色) - 完整描述對比雙方。
錯誤用法：
The yield was higher using bromine.
正確用法：
The yield was higher using bromine than chlorine. （用溴比用氯時產(chǎn)出率高。） - 使用兩倍行距，冒號、逗號和句末的句號后空兩個英文字符，留出足夠的頁邊距。
假設(shè)我們在寫作中統(tǒng)一使用美國化學(xué)學(xué)會的文體模式。你可以在以下三類文獻(xiàn)資源中獲得啟發(fā)。
1）期刊。閱讀期刊中的文章，模仿其行文結(jié)構(gòu)。
2）本組論文。閱讀本組論文，你會清楚了解到論文的結(jié)構(gòu)形式。如果你的論文看起來不太一樣，或許就不符合我們的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。
3）ACS寫作指南。該書非常有用、詳細(xì)，尤其是173-229頁有關(guān)參考文獻(xiàn)的部分。
同時我推薦Strunk和White所著The Elements of Style（《文體要素》），閱讀此書找找文體格式用法的感覺。也可以在化學(xué)學(xué)會的圖書館借閱很多其他有關(guān)學(xué)術(shù)寫作的書籍，這些書中有很多有益的建議，只是不夠生動有趣。那里也有一些非常不錯的有關(guān)圖表設(shè)計的書值得一讀。
