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A Guide to Quantitative Scientific Writing

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A Guide to Quantitative Scientific Writing The Pathway to Publishing: A Guide to Quantitative Writing in the Health Sciences Steve Luby Dorothy Southern Revised August 2017 1 Preface Steve Luby is a medical epidemiologist who has worked for over 20 years conducting public health research in low income countries. This guide grew out of his review of dozens of draft manuscripts from novice scientists in Pakistan in the mid-1990s. To avoid writing the same critique into multiple manuscripts, he developed a short list of ‘most common errors’ with explanations of how they should be addressed. This allowed him to refer to manuscript errors more quickly by number, and allowed writers to see a more complete description of the problem than might be typed out when they came up again in a manuscript. Over the years these ‘most common errors’ multiplied. While working in Bangladesh Steve began collaborating with Dorothy Southern who edited and organized this rather unwieldy list, integrated explanations and examples from a number of different sources, and produced a more systematic guide. As new errors have arisen, they have also been incorporated. Dorothy also worked to broaden the document to describe the mentor-orientated approach to scientific writing that we promoted in the Centre for Communicable Diseases (CCD) at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Neither Steve nor Dorothy are now living in Bangladesh, but we both remain involved teaching scientific writing to early career scientists especially those working in low income countries. We have chosen to self-publish the guide so that it can be downloaded at no charge by scientists working in low income countries. The Pathway to Publishing: A Guide to Quantitative Writing in the Health Sciences focuses on the unique format and data presentation of quantitative studies in the health sciences. It aims to support and encourage scientists who are actively engaged in quantitative research to write effectively, so as to increase the sharing of important scientific results. Since this guide grew out of training public health scientists in Pakistan in Bangladesh, the majority of the examples are from this context, though the principles apply broadly to clear scientific writing. Bringing scientific work to publication is a group effort. Scientific writing, like the broader scientific enterprise, is a collaboration based on the exchange of ideas. While this guide is primarily focused on providing support to first authors, it also describes the roles and responsibilities of co-authors. Although the specification of these roles were originally articulated to support the management of scientific writing icddr,b in Bangladesh, they remain appropriate principles for the Center for Innovation for Global Health at Stanford University and for other collaborative scientific groups. Readers are free to make electronic or paper copies of this guide and distribute it. This work is protected by copyright only so that others cannot secure copyright and restrict availability. We hope you find this guide useful. Steve Luby, MD Director of Research Center for Innovation in Global Health Stanford University Dorothy Southern, MPH 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 7 1.1 The pathway to publishing ......................................................................................... 7 1.2 Think before you write approach ............................................................................... 9 1.2.1 Develop a framing document ................................................................................................. 9 1.2.2 Focus on the high level outline (HLO) ..................................................................................... 9 1.2.3 Use the ‘most common errors’ ............................................................................................. 10 1.2.4 Understand authorship and mentoring responsibilities ....................................................... 10 1.2.5 Structure the writing and feedback process ......................................................................... 13 1.3 The scientific writing style ....................................................................................... 14 2. Most common errors ................................................................................................ 15 A. General research and writing practices .................................................................. 15 A1. Insufficient knowledge of the literature ................................................................... 15 A2. Not referencing statements ....................................................................................... 16 A3. Weak citations ............................................................................................................ 17 A3a. Citing a secondary source ........................................................................................................ 17 A3b. Presenting conclusions rather than data from references ...................................................... 18 A3c. Arguing from authority ............................................................................................................ 18 A4. Endnotes not in standard style ................................................................................. 19 A4a. Varying endnote notation ........................................................................................................ 19 A5. Not using standard draft manuscript form .............................................................. 20 A6. Repeating information ............................................................................................... 21 A7. Labelling a scientific document as ‘final’ ................................................................ 22 A8. Characterizing an observation as ‘the first’ ............................................................ 22 A9. Errors in reasoning .................................................................................................... 23 A9a. Casual assertion of causality ................................................................................................. 23 A9b. Assuming association is causality.......................................................................................... 25 A9c. Assuming reported behavior reflects actual behavior .......................................................... 26 A9d. Confusing imperfect recall with recall bias ........................................................................... 26 A9e. Confusing absence of recognition with absence .................................................................. 27 A9f. Asserting seasonality with a single year of data ................................................................... 27 A9g. Drawing conclusions using confirmation bias ....................................................................... 28 A10. Constructing a multivariate model using only statistical criteria ......................... 29 B. Content of quantitative papers ................................................................................ 31 B1. Improper focus or format of title and abstract ........................................................ 31 B2. Confusing the role of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion ............... 31 B3. Not writing the Methods section in chronological order ........................................ 32 B4. Not emphasizing steps taken to protect human subjects ...................................... 33 B5. Listing interpretations, but not defending one in the Discussion ......................... 33 B6. Not fully explaining limitations ................................................................................. 34 B7. Writing generic recommendations ........................................................................... 34 B8. Presenting new data in the Discussion ................................................................... 35 B9. Reporting the number of enrolled subjects in the Methods .................................. 35 3 B10. Specifying the contents of a questionnaire ............................................................. 36 B11. Naïve theories of change ........................................................................................... 37 B11a. Recommending a massive increase in funding ...................................................................... 37 B11b. Ignoring incentives and barriers ............................................................................................ 38 B11c. Assuming weak states can implement ................................................................................... 39 B12. An insufficiently focused Introduction .................................................................... 40 B13. Failure to clarify key sample size assumptions ...................................................... 40 B14. A high level outline that is not high level ................................................................ 41 B15. Specifying software used for routine data analysis ............................................... 42 B16. Presenting rationale in the last sentence of the Introduction ............................... 43 C. Mechanics of writing ................................................................................................. 44 C1. Using non-standard abbreviations
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