Scientific writing 3.0: A reader and writer's guide - Jean-Luc Lebrun, Justin Lebrun 2021
The reading toolkit
Writer vs. reader, a matter of attitude
The Do-unto-others-as-others-do-unto-you Inversion
Strategic writing
The scientific paper: an intellectual product
Journal choice: subscription or open?
Predatory open access journals
The halo effect and confirmation bias
The assumption of expertise trap
Learn from principles, not examples
The scientific writing style
Characteristics of the scientific writing style
Curing the scientific style virus
Require less from memory
The forgotten or undefined acronym
Sustain attention to ensure continuous reading
Pause to illustrate and clarify
Bridge the knowledge gap
Just-in-Time bridge by way of local background
Set the reader’s expectations
Set progression tracks for fluid reading
Three topic-based progression schemes to make reading fluid
Topic to sub-topic progression
Non topic-based progression schemes
Troubleshooting progression problems
Detect sentence fluidity problems
Reasons for betrayed expectations
Control reading energy consumption
Punctuation: an energy refueling station
Paper structure and purpose
Title: the face of your paper
Six titles to learn about titles
Six techniques for improving titles
Purpose and qualities of titles
Abstract: the heart of your paper
Coherence between abstract and title
Purpose and qualities of abstracts
Headings-subheadings: the skeleton of your paper
Structures for readers and structures for writers
Four principles for a good structure
Purpose and qualities of structures
Introduction: the hands of your paper
The introduction starts fast and finishes strong
The introduction answers key reader questions
The introduction frames through scope and definitions
The introduction is a personal active story
Introduction Part II: Popular traps
Trap 1 — The trap of the story plot
Trap 2 — The trap of plagiarism
Trap 3 — The trap of references
Trap 4 — The trap of imprecision
Trap 5 — The trap of judgmental words
The deadly outcome of the sum of all traps: disbelief
Purpose and qualities of introductions
Visuals: the voice of your paper
Seven principles for good visuals
Purpose and qualities of visuals
Visuals metrics (calculate your score for each visual)
Conclusions: the smile of your paper
Purpose and qualities of conclusions
Conclusion metrics (if you have a conclusion)