Laugh in the Face of Deadlines! Write That Research Paper with a Smile on Your Face!

Your latest western blot may be worth a thousand words but you will need to write1,000 words to go along with it. So how to choose which 1,000? To help with the essential task of writing up your latest research, we found some free advice (which will offset the cost of “free” open access publishing).

PLOS Computation Biology has a Ten Simple Rules collection that includes “Ten Simple Rules for Writing Research Papers” and “ Ten Simple Rules for Better Figures.” Spoiler alert: “Knowing your audience” made the list for both. (We know our audience.) For 10 more tips, check out “ Writing for an academic journal: 10 tips” from The Guardian.

Patrick Dunleavy, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the London School of Economics, posts great research writing advice on Medium. Read Dunleavy on how to lay out your research project, write an effective abstract and paragraphs, report data, or choose a useful title. A title like “403 nm Pacific Orange is the new Black” might be cute but Dunleavy points out that cute titles are hard to search and can decrease visibility of your work. If only Tolstoy had read Dunleavy, War & Peace could have had a much higher impact factor.
After you’ve absorbed all that advice and are ready to start writing, check out Write LaTeX. It’s a free online text editor that allows you to create documents with multiple collaborators in real time. It was created by John Hammersley and John Lees-Miller, two mathematicians who wanted a better way to collaborate when writing papers. You will never need to email “orangeisblack_v48_2” to your collaborator again.

About the Author:


Christina Szalinski is a science writer with a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Pittsburgh.