Academic Research: Writing Guidelines

• Handbook for academic writers 

Irreproducible Research

• The annals of improbable research
• Journal of irreproducible results

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends determination of the authorship using criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception and design, acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data.
• Drafting and revising it critically for significant intellectual content.
• Approving the final version to be published.
• Accepting accountability addressing and resolving any issues about integrity of the research study.

 

Guidelines

• What is Plagiarism? 
• ORI Policy on Plagiarism
• Plagiarism Research
• Copyright Law of the United States
  

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Plagiarism Tools

• Ithenticate - licensed plagiarism detection software for researchers, publishers, and scholars
• Turnitin - licensed plagiarism detection software for students 
• Plagiarism Checker - free software for writing and plagiarism detection 
• Plagly - free plagiarism checker for students 
• Scribbl - plagiarism checker for students 

Additional information on free plagiarism plagiarism software comparison at Scibbl. 

 

Authors guidelines 

• Information for authors - information provided by journals (e.g., JAMA Instructions for Authors) 
• Article Impact
• Journal Impact 
• Policies and publication ethics 
• Open Access policies and publication ethics 
  • Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of health Research
  • Center for Open Science 
  • Transparency guidelines (COS)
  • Open Research Funders Group Policy Implementation 
  • COPE retraction guideline
  • COPE Consent for case report publication 
  • COPE Authorship dispute guideline 
• SPARC Author's Rights - scholarly publishing and academic resources coalition on scholarly publication, access, and open sharing of scholarly publication and educational resources 
• Author's Alliance - FAQ on Copyright and Ownership for Authors
• Author's Rights Tout de Suite 
• Creative Commons license
• SHERPA/RoMEO 
• Belmont Report

Additional information on article publication at the Article Publication library guide.

 

 

Writing style template

• LaTeX
• MS Word
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors 

Graphics creation, formatting, editing 

• MS World
• SPSS, SAS, STATA
• Excel
• R

Citation creation, style, formatting

• Citation management - information on citation management tools, and styles 
• Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives: By Organization
• APA style and grammar guidelines
• APA journal article reference

Plagiarism check and duplication

• Crossmark - information on access and status (corrections, updates, retractions) of published literature 
• Cross-Ref - detect identity of publications published by publisher 
• DOI - digital object identifier provides information on articles published by journals 
• Plagiarism detection tools (e.g. Itheticate, Plagiarism Checker, Turnitin, and other)
• Copyright 
• Creative Common Licenses 
• Copyright transfer agreement 
• Requesting permission

Editing 

• ProWritingAid - writing and editing software (require subscription) 
• Grammarly - free and licensed writing and editing software 
• MS Word - readability scores and statistics 
• Manuscript preparation and submission 
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors 

Cover letter

• Communicating with editor 

Abstract writing 

• Descriptive - abstract consisted of information without description of major facts or results 
• Informative - structured abstract consisted of introduction, methods, results, and conclusions
• Unstructured - paragraph style abstract 

Grammar, spelling, punctuation

• Basic punctuation guide
• The punctuation guide 
• General rules for the punctuation and use of capital letters
• Cambridge dictionary grammar 
• Editorial style guide, University of Cambridge 
• Writing assistant - language tool on writing 
• Guide to grammar
• Principle of composition 
• APA style and grammar guidelines

 

Terminology  

• Stedman, T. L. (Ed.). (2017). Stedman's medical dictionary for the health professions and nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Venes, D. (2013). Taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary. FA Davis.
• Stedman, T. L. (2005). Stedman's Medical Eponyms. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Dorland's dictionary of medical acronyms & abbreviations. (2016). Philadelphia, PA. Elsevier 
• Jablonski, S. (2008). Jablonski's Dictionary of Medical Acronyms & Abbreviations. Elsevier Health Sciences.
• Moon, S., Pakhomov, S., Liu, N., Ryan, J. O., & Melton, G. B. (2014). A sense inventory for clinical abbreviations and acronyms created using clinical notes and medical dictionary resources. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 21(2), 299-307.
• Hunter, T. B., & Taljanovic, M. S. (2003). Glossary of medical devices and procedures: abbreviations, acronyms, and definitions. RadioGraphics, 23(1), 195-213.

Statistical 

• Data Analysis information and tools (library guide)

Data Policies 

• Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines 
• Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles. Martone M. (ed.) San Diego CA: FORCE11; 2014
• Resource Identification Initiative 
• Data sharing and availability statement 

Guidelines

• CARE Guidelines -  multi-medical journal and publishers guidelines used for writing of caser reports 
• Guide to privacy and security of electronic health information. 2015. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
• CONSORT - standards for consolidated standards of reporting trials (documentation) 
• Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs - reporting standards of nonrandomized evaluations of  behavioral and public health information (statement and 22-item checklist) 

 

 

Writing & Editing Software 

• Overleaf LaTeX - free software for the technical and scientific writing 
• ProWritingAid - writing and editing software (require subscription) 
• Grammarly - free and licensed writing and editing software 
• Writers Diet - free online tool on writing readability
• The Hemingway Editor -  free online application used to assess the readability and writing style.
  
  Note that the use of digital tools as help in writing and editing might result in over-simplification, choppy sentences and require an understanding of the research and study principles, which might disagree with the digital tools' results.

Applications

• CARE Writer - online application useful for organization and formatting of case report 

Memorandum for Public Access to the Results of Department of Defense-Funded Research states on an increased access to unclassified and peer-reviewed scholarly publications of federally-funded research to enhance science and economy. "DoD Public Access Policy applies to any published, peer-reviewed scholarly publication and digital scientific data us publicly releasable and arises from any direct funding from DoD funding that is consistent with applicable law, policy, agency mission, and resource constrains." Peer-reviewed journal manuscripts are submitted to Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) upon acceptance for publication. More information about the submission at the Defense Technical Information Center.

Public Access to the Results of Department of Defense-Funded Research. 
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum, "Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research," February 22, 2013. 

 

• Benson, Philippa J, and Susan C. Silver. What Editors Want: An Author's Guide to Scientific Journal Publishing. 2013. 
• Cargill, Margaret, and Patrick O'Connor. Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps. 2013.
• Day, Robert A, and Barbara Gastel. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2006.
• Gustavii, Björn. How to Write & Illustrate a Scientific Paper. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Hames, Irene. Peer Review and Manuscript Management in Scientific Journals: Guidelines for Good Practice. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2007
• Katz, Michael J. From Research to Manuscript: A Guide to Scientific Writing. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2006.
• MacDonald, N. E., Ford-Jones, L., Friedman, J. N., & Hall, J. (2006). Preparing a manuscript for publication: A user-friendly guide. Paediatrics & Child Health, 11(6), 339–342.
• Matthews, Janice R, John M. Bowen, and Robert W. Matthews. Successful Scientific Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide for the Biological and Medical Sciences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Rabinowitz, Harold, and Suzanne Vogel. The Manual of Scientific Style: A Guide for Authors, Editors, and Researchers. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press, 2009.
• Vallejo, M. Y., Acosta, A., & Palacio Correa, G. (2012). Authorship of scientific articles within an ethical-legal framework: quantitative model. Universitas Scientiarum, 17(3), 315-329.
• Ahmed, S. M., Maurana, C. A., Engle, J. A., Uddin, D. E., & Glaus, K. D. (1997). A method for assigning authorship in multiauthored publications. Family Medicine-Kansas City, 29, 42-44.
• The Online Writing Lab (OWL), Purdue University
• Knight, K. L., & Ingersoll, C. D. (1996). Structure of a scholarly manuscript: 66 tips for what goes where. Journal of athletic training, 31(3), 201–206.
• Paiva CE, Lima JP, Paiva BS. Articles with short titles describing the results are cited more often. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2012;67(5):509-13.