Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:19:57.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Writing a Scientific Paper I. The writing process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

C. Sterken
Get access

Abstract

Based on my direct personal experience as an author, referee, editor, and PhD thesis supervisor, I present in this paper some advice and guidelines on writing scientific papers. This article copes with the preparation of manuscripts, with the handling of copyrights and permissions to reproduce, with communicating with editors and referees, and with avoiding common errors. More than two dozen FAQs are dealt with, among others: who should be coauthor, what is honorary authorship, how to settle the order of author names, may the list of authors change during the review process, who submits the manuscript to the Editor, must one wait for coauthors’ consent to submit, when to submit a manuscript to astro-ph, how to communicate with the referee, with whom to share a referee report, can students be referee, how to cite and quote a straying paper, how to cope with writer’s block, should others be allowed to completely rewrite a manuscript, how to review a paper, how to revise a multi-author paper, when to ask for another referee, why do Editors edit, and why do referees review?

Type
Research Article
Information
European Astronomical Society Publications Series , Volume 50: Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers - Part 2 , 2011 , pp. 1 - 63
Copyright
© EAS, EDP Sciences 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Références

Allen, R.J., 1970, Stephan’s quartet?, A&A, 7, 330 Google Scholar
Belton, M.J.S., Thomas, P., Veverka, J., et al., 2007, The internal structure of Jupiter family cometary nuclei from Deep Impact observations: The “talps” or “layered pile” model, Icarus, 187, 332 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berthold, G., 1897, Ueber den angeblichen Ausspruch Galilei’s, Bibl. Math. p. 57
Bertout, C., & Schneider, P., 2004, Introducing structured abstracts for A&A articles, A&A, 420, E1 Google Scholar
Bertout, C., & Schneider, P., 2005, Editorship and peer-review at A&A, A&A, 441, E3 Google Scholar
Bottle, R.T., 1973, Information Obtainable from Analyses of Scientific Bibliographies, Library Trends, 22, 60 Google Scholar
Breger, M., Lenz, P., Antoci, V., et al., 2005, Detection of 75+ pulsation frequencies in the d Scuti star FG Virginis, A&A, 435, 955 Google Scholar
Dobell, C., 1939, Dr. O. Uplavici (1887–1938), Isis, 30, 268 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drenth, J.P.H., 1998, Multiple Authorship: The Contribution of Senior Authors, J. Amer. Med. Assoc., 280, 219 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dubois, P., 1995, personal communication, 16 November 1995
Duerbeck, H.W., 2005, Book Review: Astronomy in and around Prague, J. Astron. Data, 11, 5 Google Scholar
Feynman, R.P., 1985, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (New York: W.W. Norton & Co)
Hall, D.S., & Genet, R.M., 1982, Photoelectric Photometry of Variable Stars (Fairborn, Ohio), p. 9-4
Hames, I., 2011, EASE forum, http://www.ease.org.uk/forum/index.shtml
Klahr, D., 1985, Amer. Psychol., 40, 148 CrossRef
Kozak, M., 2009, Eur. Sci. Edit., 35, 102
Kuyper, B.J., 1991, BioScience, 41, 248 CrossRef
Lauer, T.R., Faber, S.M., Ajhar, E.A., et al., 1998, AJ, 116, 2263 CrossRef
Lemaître, G., 1927, Un Univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant, rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extra-galactiques, Annales de la Société scientifique de Bruxelles, XLVII, 49
Lepschy, L., 2006, personal communication
Li, C., Fu, J.-N., Zhang, Y.-P. & Jiang, S.-Y., 2007, A new study of the long-term variability of the SX Phoenicis star CY Aquarii, J. Beijing Normal Univ., 43, 621 Google Scholar
Malthus, T., 1798, An Essay on the Principle of Population, London
Matzinger, P., & Mirkwood, G., 1978, J. Exper. Med., 148, 84 CrossRef
Maunder, A.S.D., 1902, MNRAS, 62, 57 CrossRef
Maunder, W. Mrs., 1904, MNRAS, 64, 224 CrossRef
Maunder, A.S.D., & Maunder, E.W., 1908, The heavens and their story (Robert Culley, London)
Merton, R.K., 1995, Social Forces, 74, 379 CrossRef
Milone, E. F. & Sterken, C. (eds.), 2011, Astronomical Photometry: Past, Present, and Future (New York: Springer Verlag)
Oort, J.H., 1970, A&A, 7, 405 PubMed
Öpik, E.J., 1976, Solar Models, Science, 191, 1292 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Öpik, E.J., 1977, About Dogma in Science, and Other Recollections of an Astronomer, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., 15, 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkowitz, S., 1989, Commentary: can scientists learn to write?, J. Techn. Writing Comm., 19, 353 (quoted by Kuyper 1991) Google Scholar
Pinker, S., 1994, The Language Instinct (Penguin Books)
Piwowar, H.A., Day, R.S., & Fridsma, D.B., 2007, PLoS ONE www.plosone.org, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000308
Pottasch, S.R., & Steinberg, J.L., 1969, A&A, 3, 381
Qiu, J., 2008, Identity crisis, Nature, 451, 766 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salager-Meyer, F., 2009, Academic equality and cooperative justice, TESOL Quarterly, 43, 703–709 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandage, A., 1989, Edwin Hubble 1889–1953, JRASC, 83, 351 Google Scholar
Shermer, M., 2007, Scientific American, October 2007, 23–24
Sheskin, T.J., 2006, Sci. Eng. Ethics, 12, 555 CrossRef
Schielicke, R.E. (ed.), 1998, In Reviews in Modern Astronomy 11: Stars and Galaxies (Hamburg, Germany: Astronomische Gesellschaft), 1
Shore, S.N., 2009, A&A, 500, 31
Sokal, A., 1996, Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics ofQuantum Gravity, Social Text (Duke University Press), 46/47, 217
Solano, E., 2006, Virtual Observatory: What Is It and How Can It Help Me?, in Astrophysics of Variable Stars, ed. Sterken, C. and Aerts, C. (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), ASP Conf. Ser., 349, 29 Google Scholar
Stein, K., 2006, J. Amer. Diet. Assoc., 106, 1947 CrossRef
Sterken, C., 1977, A&A, 57, 361
Sterken, C., 1988, The Coordination of Astronomical Observations in Coordination of Observational Projects in Astronomy, ed. C. Jaschek & C. Sterken (Cambridge University Press), p. 3
Sterken, C., 2000, Mode Identification through Photometry: Full Colours?, in Delta Scuti and Related Stars, Reference Handbook and Proceedings of the 6th Vienna Workshop in Astrophysics, ed. M. Breger and M. Montgomery (San Francisco: ASP), ASP Conf. Ser., 210, 99 Google Scholar
Sterken, C., 2005, The Light-Time Effect in Astrophysics: Causes and Cures of the O − C Diagram, ed. Sterken, C. (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), ASP Conf. Ser., 335, 178 Google Scholar
Sterken, C., 2006, Advice on Writing a Scientific Paper, in Astrophysics of Variable Stars, ed. Sterken, C. and Aerts, C. (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), ASP Conf. Ser., 349, 445, http://www.aspbooks.org/publications/349-0445.pdf Google Scholar
Sterken, C., 2007, On the Provability of Heliocentrism. I. Ole Roemer and the Finite Speed of Light, Sartoniana, 20, 19 Google Scholar
Sterken, C., 2011, Just one new measurement of the B[e] supergiant Hen-S22, IBVS, 6000
Sterken, C., & Aerts, C. (eds.), 2006, Astrophysics of Variable Stars, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 349
Sterken, C., & Manfroid, J., 1992, Astronomical Photometry: a Guide (Kluwer Academic,Dordrecht)
Sterken, C., & Jaschek, C., 1996, Light Curves of Variable Stars, A Pictorial Atlas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Sterken, C., Samus, N., & Szabados, L. (eds.), 2010, Variable Stars, the Galactic Halo and Galaxy Formation (Moscow: Sternberg Astronomical Institute of Moscow University), p. 125
Sweetland, J.H., 1989, Errors in Bibliographic Citations: A Continuing Problem, The Library Quarterly, 59, 291 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, K., 1991, in A Cultural History of Gesture: from Antiquity to the Present Day, ed. J. Bremmer & H. Roodenburg (Polity Press, Cambridge), p. 1
Tukey, J.W., 1977, Exploratory Data Analysis (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company)
Tuvikene, T., 2008, personal communication
Ulrich, R.K., 1976, Science, 191, 1293 CrossRef
Watson, J.D., 2007, Avoid Boring People (Oxford University Press)
Wright, M., & Armstrong, J.S., 2007, Verification of Citations: Fawlty Towers of Knowledge?, Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 4149, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/
Wróblewski, A., 1985, de Mora Luminis: A spectacle in two acts with a prologue and an epilogue, Am. J. Phys., 53, 620 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, A.T., 1974, Observatyional technique and data reduction, in Methods of Experimental Physics, Vol. 12, Astrophysics, Part A: Optical and Infrared. ed. Carleton, N.P. (New York, Academic Press), p. 152
Young, A.T., 1993a, Scintillation noise in CCD photometry, Observatory, 113, 41 Google Scholar
Young, A.T., 1993b, Propagation of errors, Observatory, 113, 266 Google Scholar
Young, A.T., 1994, in The Impact of Long-term Monitoring on Variable Star Research: Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Data Handling, Archiving, ed. C. Sterken & M. de Groot, NATO Advanced Science Institutes (ASI) Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences (Dordrecht: Kluwer)
Young, A.T., & Irvine, W.M., 1967, Multicolor photoelectric photometry of the brighter planets. I. Program and Procedure, AJ, 72, 945 Some additional readings:CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, L.K., 2006, McGraw-Hill’s Proofreading Handbook (London: McGraw-Hill)
Butcher, J., 2004, Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders third edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
The Chicago Manual of Style 2003, The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 15th edition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press)
Sullivan, K.D., & Eggleston, M., 2006, The McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers, and Proofreaders (London: McGraw-Hill)