Guest Post: From Journal Instructions to Other Resources

[This post is by graduate student Alejandra (Alex) Arreola-Triana, who translates the AuthorAID blog posts into Spanish. Thanks, Alex! —Barbara]

A journal's instructions for authors can be an editor's or author’s best friend.

These instructions not only provide information on the journal's house style—for example, how to format the references. They also can provide guidance that is useful regardless of journal or topic. But sometimes, this treasure trove of information requires some “digging”.

For example, this summer I edited a paper being submitted to a journal from the Nature Publishing Group. The journal's website contained relatively little information about the journal's style. However, it provided a link to a web page called “Writing for a Nature Journal”.

This web page had some tips that can help anyone writing—or editing—a journal article. Among those tips are

• Read a few issues of the intended journal to get an idea of the level and length of the articles.
• Write clearly, keeping in mind that many readers might not be experts on the field or native English speakers.
• Use the active voice.
• Avoid jargon.
• Be concise.

This article also led me to other useful web pages:

• “Elements of Style”, an editorial from Nature Physics that emphasizes clear and concise writing
• An article from SciDev.net called “How Do I Write a Scientific Paper?” that provides “[t]ips on how to present the results of a study, and give it the best chance of publication”
• An annotated abstract from a Nature journal
• An article called “Three Sins of Authors in Computer Science and Math”, written in a humorous style, that can also help authors in fields other than computer science or math

A final note on conciseness, from the editorial “Elements of Style”:

Good writing not only serves your audience but improves the chances of the research being noticed and read, and of it stimulating further progress. And neither will it hurt your citations.

So, happy writing, and happy exploring!