Glossary

How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022


Glossary

Abstract. A brief synopsis of a paper, usually summarizing each major section. Different from a summary, which is usually a summary of conclusions. Also, a brief synopsis of a grant proposal.

Acknowledgments. The section of a paper (following the discussion but preceding the references) designed to thank individuals and organizations for the help, advice, materials, or financial assistance they provided during the research and writing of the paper.

Acquisitions editor. An editor responsible for obtaining book manuscripts.

Address. Identifies the author and supplies the author’s mailing address and email address.

Ad hoc reviewer. See Referee.

Alphabet-number system. A system of literature citation in which references are arranged alphabetically in the references or literature cited, numbered, and then cited by number in the text. A variation of the name and year system.

Archival journal. This term is equivalent to primary journal and refers to a journal that publishes original research results.

Article-level metrics. Statistics regarding the use of individual articles. Examples: numbers of downloads, mentions in social media, and citations.

Author. A person who actively contributed to the design and execution of the research and who takes intellectual responsibility for the research results being reported.

Author’s editor. An editor who helps authors to improve manuscripts, proposals, or other documents before submission. May work for a research institution, for an editing company, or on a freelance basis.

Blog. Short for weblog, an ongoing series of postings on a website. Commonly written in the first person.

Book review. An article describing and evaluating a book.

Caption. See Legend.

Citation-order system. A system of referencing in which references are cited in numerical order as they appear in the text. Thus, the references section is in citation order, not in alphabetical order.

Compositor. One who sets type. Equivalent terms are typesetter and keyboarder.

Conference report. A paper written for presentation at a conference. Most conference reports do not meet the definition of primary publication. A well-written conference report can and should be short; experimental details and literature citations should be kept to a minimum.

Conflict of interest. In science, a situation in which financial or other personal considerations may interfere with a researcher’s objectivity in conducting, reporting, or reviewing research.

Contributor. Someone who participated in the research reported in a scientific paper, or in the writing of the paper. May or may not qualify for listing as an author.

Copy editor. See Manuscript editor.

Copyright. The exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell written intellectual property.

Corresponding author. In a multiauthor paper, the author designated to receive and respond to inquiries from the journal editorial office and from readers.

Council of Science Editors (CSE). An organization whose members are involved mainly with the editing and publishing of journals in the sciences. Formerly the Council of Biology Editors. www.CouncilScienceEditors.org.

Creative Commons. An organization providing free licenses that state conditions under which specified works such as journal articles can be reproduced or otherwise used. creativecommons.org.

Cropping. The marking of a photograph so as to indicate parts that need not appear in the published photograph, or the electronic removal of material at the edges of a photograph. As a result, the essential material is “enlarged” and highlighted.

CSE. See Council of Science Editors (CSE).

Curriculum vitae (CV). A document listing information about one’s education and career.

CV. See Curriculum vitae (CV).

Deputy editor. The editor who is second in command at a publication with multiple editors.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI). An identification code, assigned to an online item, that provides a persistent link to its location on the internet.

Digital poster. See Electronic poster (e-poster).

Discussion. The final section of an IMRAD paper. Its purpose is to fit the results from the current study into the preexisting fabric of knowledge. The important points are expressed as conclusions.

Dissertation. See Thesis.

Dual publication. Publication of the same data two (or more) times in primary journals. A violation of scientific ethics unless permission is obtained from the initial publication site and the republished material is clearly identified as such.

Editor. The title usually given to the person who decides what will (and will not) be published in a journal or in a multiauthor book.

Editorial. A brief article presenting opinion.

Editorial consultant. See Referee.

Editor-in-chief. The top editor of a publication with multiple editors; in charge of overall content.

Electronic poster (e-poster). A poster that is provided digitally and displayed electronically. Also known as a digital poster.

Embargo. A policy of a journal stating that research reported in articles accepted by the journal cannot be reported elsewhere, such as in the popular media, before it appears in the journal.

Fabrication. Inventing findings rather than obtaining them through scientific research. Clearly a major ethical violation.

Ghost author. A person who is not listed as an author but who should be, given the person’s contributions to the work.

Gift author. A person associated with a study only marginally, but listed as an author.

Graph. Lines, bars, or other pictorial representations of data. Graphs are useful for showing the trends and directions of data. If exact values must be listed, a table is usually superior.

Graphical abstract. See Visual abstract.

Guest author. A person not contributing to a study, but listed as an author in hopes of conferring prestige.

Hackneyed expression. An overused, stale, or trite expression.

Hard copy. When an old-fashioned manuscript on paper is provided via a word processor or computer, it is called hard copy.

Harvard system. See Name and year system.

Honorary author. See Gift author.

Impact factor. A measure of the average number of citations per article published in a given journal, as determined by Journal Citation Reports. Sometimes used to indicate the relative prominence of a journal within a given discipline.

IMRAD. An acronym derived from introduction, methods, results, and discussion, the organizational scheme of most modern scientific papers.

Introduction. The first section of an IMRAD paper. Its purpose is to state clearly the problem investigated and to provide the reader with background information.

Jargon. (1) Specialized technical terminology. (2) Needlessly complex. obscure, pretentious language.

Keyboarder. See Compositor.

Keywords. Terms identifying the main topics of an article.

Legend. The title or name given to an illustration, along with explanatory information about the illustration. Also called a caption.

Letter of inquiry. See Preliminary proposal.

Letter of intent. A letter indicating to a funding source that one plans to submit a grant proposal.

Letter to the editor. A letter intended for publication in a journal or on its website, commonly commenting on a paper in the journal.

Literature cited. The heading used by many journals to list references cited in an article. The headings “References” and (rarely) “Bibliography” are also used.

Managing editor. A title often given to the person who manages the business affairs of a journal. Typically, the managing editor is not involved with editing (acceptance of manuscripts). However, this person may be responsible for copyediting (part of the production process).

Manuscript editor. A person (either an employee of the publisher or a freelance contractor) whose role is to prepare manuscripts for publication by improving mechanics such as spelling and grammar, ensuring consistency with the required style, and providing markup for the typesetter or printer. Also known as a copy editor.

Markup for the typesetter. Marks and symbols used by manuscript editors and sometimes authors to transmit type specifications to the typesetter or printer.

Masthead statement. A statement by the publisher, usually on the title page of the journal, identifying ownership of the journal and succinctly stating the purpose and scope of the journal.

Materials and methods. See Methods.

Methods. The second section of an IMRAD paper. Its purpose is to describe the experiment in such detail that a competent colleague could repeat the experiment and obtain the same or equivalent results.

Monograph. A specialized, detailed book written by specialists for other specialists.

Name and year system. A system of referencing in which a reference is cited in the text by the last name of the author and the year of publication; for example, Smith (2021). Also known as the Harvard system.

News release. A written announcement for journalists (for example, regarding the publication of a journal article). Structured much like a newspaper story. Also known as a press release.

Offprint. See Reprint.

Open access. Refers to scientific papers (or other writings) that are available free of charge on the internet to all who are interested.

Oral report. Similar in organization to a published paper, except that it lacks experimental detail and extensive literature citation. And, of course, it is spoken, not printed.

ORCID. Short for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. An initiative that provides researchers with persistent, unique identification numbers, known as ORCID identifiers, which are used mainly to definitively identify journal authors.

Overlay journal. A compilation of preprints (and sometimes other openly accessible items) that, after peer review, have been chosen to include.

Peer review. Evaluation of a manuscript by peers of the author (scientists working in the same area of specialization).

Pitch. See Query letter.

Plagiarism. The presentation of someone else’s words or ideas as one’s own rather than crediting the source.

Poster. In science, a display board presenting research. Also refers to the digital equivalent. See also Electronic poster (e-poster).

Predatory conference. An entity that the organizer promotes as being a valid conference but that instead is a ruse for taking money from prospective attendees.

Predatory journal. An entity that claims to be a legitimate journal but instead exploits authors by taking their money without providing valid publication.

Preliminary proposal. A brief initial proposal submitted to a funding source, which then determines whether it wishes to receive a full proposal. Also known by other terms, such as letter of inquiry and preproposal.

Preprint. A written item, such as an article, that is posted or distributed before publication (and commonly before peer review).

Preprint server. An online repository to which authors post manuscripts that are not yet submitted to journals.

Preproposal. See Preliminary proposal.

Press release. See News release.

Primary journal. A journal that publishes original research results.

Primary publication. The first publication of original research results, in a form wherein peers of the authors can repeat the experiments and test the conclusions, in a journal or other source document readily available within the scientific community.

Printer. Historically, a device that prints or a person who prints. Often, however, the term printer means a printing company and is used as shorthand for all of the occupations involved in the printing process.

Production editor. An editor who coordinates the editing of a book manuscript and other aspects of book production.

Program officer. A person managing part or all of the grant program for a funding source. This role can include advising grant applicants.

Proof. A copy of typeset material sent to authors, editors, or managing editors for correction of typographical errors.

Proofreaders’ marks. A set of marks and symbols used to instruct the compositor regarding errors on proofs.

Publisher. A person or organization handling the business activities concerned with publishing a book or journal.

Query. A question that a manuscript editor (copy editor) asks an author, such as about something in a manuscript that is unclear or inconsistent.

Query letter. A letter proposing a magazine article. Also called a pitch.

Referee. A person, usually a peer of the author, who is asked to examine a manuscript and advise the editor regarding publication. The term reviewer is used more frequently, but perhaps with less exactness. Also sometimes called an editorial consultant.

Reprint. A separately printed journal article supplied to authors, usually for a fee. Sometimes called an offprint. Can be in electronic form.

Results. The third section of an IMRAD paper. Its purpose is to present the new information gained in the study being reported.

Reviewer. See Referee.

Review paper. A paper written to summarize and integrate previously published knowledge about a topic. Can be either an overview of a field or a critical, interpretive study of literature in the field. Also known as a review article.

Running head. A headline repeated on consecutive pages of a book or journal. The titles of articles in journals are often shortened and used as running heads. Also called running headlines.

Science writing. A type of writing whose purpose is to communicate scientific knowledge to a wide audience, including (usually) both scientists and nonscientists.

Scientific editor. An editor, trained as a scientist, whose role is primarily to oversee the evaluation of submitted papers and participate in deciding which ones to publish.

Scientific paper. A written and published report describing original research results.

Scientific writing. A type of writing whose purpose is to communicate new scientific findings to other scientists. Also sometimes includes other scientist-to-scientist communications, such as review articles and grant proposals.

Sherpa Romeo A database of journal publishers’ policies on open access and related matters. v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.

Society for Scholarly Publishing. An organization of scholars, editors, publishers, librarians, printers, booksellers, and others engaged in scholarly publishing. www.sspnet.org.

Summary. Usually a summary of conclusions, placed at the end of a paper. Different from an abstract, which usually summarizes all major parts of a paper and appears at the beginning of the paper (heading abstract).

Syntax. The order of words within phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Systematic review article. A review article (review paper) based on the use of systematic, explicit methods to gather and analyze literature on a well-defined question.

Table. Presentation of (usually) numbers in columnar form. Tables are used when many determinations need be presented and the exact numbers have importance. If only “the shape of the data” is important, a graph is usually preferable.

Text recycling. The use of the same text in more than one document by the same author.

Thesis. A manuscript demanded of an advanced-degree candidate; its purpose is to prove that the candidate is capable of doing original research and writing about it. The term dissertation is essentially equivalent, but it tends to be reserved for a manuscript submitted for a doctorate.

Title. The fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents of a paper, book, poster, or so forth.

Typesetter. See Compositor.

Visual abstract. A visual summary of a paper, commonly focusing largely on key findings.