On writing a scientific paper (Part 2 of 4)

Types of scientific papers

There are various ways of sharing scientific results. One is by publishing in scientific journals. Another is by presenting the results at meetings. Yet another is by announcing it in more public media, like newspapers, TV, etc., and now Internet blogs and mass e-mailings. But proper scientists make sure that what they put out is significant and correct, and not just unsubstantiated opinion. They usually do this by first showing their papers to those who are familiar with the topic, like colleagues or friends who are working in the same field. Or they could simply submit their papers to a journal and rely on the opinion of editors and (often, unknown) reviewers as to the quality of their results. The type of paper usually determines which route to take.

A paper could be a report on the results of a completed research project; a review of the field, or topic; a short communication announcing preliminary results, or completed work on some part of a bigger project; a hypothesis; a letter to the editor; a book chapter (usually invited); a printed version of a talk as part of the proceedings of a meeting; or an extended abstract of a presentation.

Where to publish

Some journals would accept a variety of types (e.g., regular articles, reviews, short communications, letters to the editor, etc.); some publish only reviews; some accept only papers in a particular field. 

Some journals are trendy and favor “hot” topics (those journals have diverse readers); some serve as a depository of the results of complete and thorough research on a particular topic (those journals mostly attract readers working in the same field). 

Some journals are international (they have a wider readership); some are local. 

Most journals subject submitted articles to review by supposed “experts” or “peers” (more on this later); a small few do not. 

(There’s a new dilemma in choosing where to publish if one’s study is interdisciplinary. A few years ago, in UP, there was a well-publicized case of a biophysics (bioimaging and nanotechnology) paper published in a Physics journal. The paper got accepted, but later errors were found in the biology component, probably because the physicists who reviewed it were not competent to review biology. The paper had to be withdrawn.)

Publishing in journals usually costs money (for page charges, charges for color figures, and charges for reprints); publishing in some journals is totally free.

Some journals publish only print versions; these days, more science journals are being published online. Some online journals make their articles freely accessible to anyone who has access to the Internet; many online journals charge a fee for accessing their articles.

Some journals set a limit on the length of the paper and the number of tables and figures; some journals impose no limits.

Some journals are more “popular” in that their articles are cited more often than those published in other journals. A measure of the “popularity” of a journal is its “impact factor.” 

(The “impact factor” is an invention of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), now part of the Thomson Reuter Corp. – a multibillion-dollar business enterprise. ISI maintains a list of ISI-indexed journals. The “impact factor” of a journal is a measure of the number of times the articles in a journal are cited in papers published in ISI-indexed journals. Note that the “impact factor” is a measure of the popularity or “impact” of the journal and not the popularity or “impact” of a particular article in that journal.)

Journals in trailblazing or unpopular fields will naturally have lower “impact factors,” yet the few articles in those journals may actually be of high value in terms of scientific discovery and innovation.

Understandably, many authors try to publish their research in journals with high “impact factors.” We, however, advocate publishing in “appropriate” journals, regardless of what their “impact factors” are. We feel that, if the results would benefit the global audience, then the paper should probably be published in a popular, international journal. If the results would mostly benefit the local population, then we advocate publishing in a local journal and making sure that the paper is accessible to the locals. 

(The time will come when all printed information will be available on the Internet. Even now, many printed articles are being digitized and converted into Internet-accessible files. Moreover, many articles that normally need to be purchased from the publishers are being made available for free by the authors or by government agencies if the work had been supported by taxpayer funds. Eventually, the distinction between “international” and “local” will be lost, and all publications will be “global” as far as accessibility is concerned. To a large extent, this is happening already; these days you can easily check if your article has been picked up by Google Scholar.)

The various types of scientific papers are necessarily structured differently. Different journals have different requirements for the structure and fine details of submitted manuscripts. 

In our course, we give examples of the various types, although we limit detailed discussion to regular research papers.

(To be continued)

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Gisela P. Padilla-Concepcion is a professor at the Marine Science Institute, UP Diliman, and is currently the UP vice president for academic affairs. She is a member of the NAST. She can be reached at [email protected].

Eduardo A. Padlan is a retired research scientist, formerly with the US National Institutes of Health, and is currently serving as an adjunct professor at the Marine Science Institute. He is a corresponding member of the NAST. He can be reached at [email protected].