WRITING FOR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS I - THE MANUSCRIPT

Publication is essential to science. Scientists have an obligation to publish their results-to commit them to public scrutiny by distributin g them widely in a permanent medium. In this article, we emphasize tha t scientific writing does not have to be bad writing. It does not even have to be dull. stodgy, and obtuse. Science is exciting; that is why we do it. Your scientific papers should convey that excitement, commu nicating your findings so that any trained scientist can understand th em and, just as importantly, remember them. However, scientific style is not easy to master, because it is rigidly constrained and highly di sciplined, for good reason. Scientific si.le must be concise, absolute ly accurate, and unambiguous. Yet, few graduate students are given for mal instruction in scientific writing. Somehow they are supposed to ha ck out their first manuscripts on their own, learning only as their dr afts are returned covered with red ink. In this article, we present gr aduate students with a guide to getting through the publication proces s, from crafting their first manuscripts, to mastering scientific stc. le, to enduring the review process, and finally to joining tile ranks of their published colleagues.