The Power of Good Scientific Writing–and How to Promote

Yours

UMCG Central Medical Library Symposium "How to Write a World-class

Paper“November 14th, 2014

James C. Coyne, Ph.D.Department of Health Psychology

University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, the

Netherlandsjcoynester@gmail.com

I’m not sure what makes a world class paper, but I do have some highly cited ones and I have some ideas why they are highly cited.

Each of these papers was written with passion and enthusiasm and there were considerable rewrites until they said just what I wanted to say. I still take pleasure in reading many of them.

Each of these papers would probably be received differently now…

What can be said about them?

The hassles paper

The paper with Geraldine Downey Charles Bukowski- The Shoelace

My 1976 dissertation papers

In the good ol’ days, back when I wrote the two articles from my dissertation….

Getting your manuscript published and recognized by citation in another article could take years.

My first article was cited 5 times in 3 years, went on to be cited ~1300 times.

The published citation of your work would have to await

•an author submitting a manuscript.

•getting it reviewed.

•and the appearance of the article in print.

Developing social capital in implementing a complex intervention: a process evaluation of the early implementation of a suicide prevention intervention in four European countries

BMC Public Health article

Revised version accepted Feb 15, 2013.

Open access PDF available at journal website Feb 21, 2013.

Effective scientific communication.

Pitching your work.

Marketing your work.

New challengesNew challenges

Increasing likelihood that manuscripts will be returned without review and without meaningful feedback.

Editorial decision made on basis of title, cover letter, and abstract without anyone reading the actual manuscript.

Getting your manuscript out for review is not guaranteed.

The likelihood is increased by capturing the editor’s interest and attention with a well-crafted title, cover letter, and abstract.

The real work begins after publication. Use social media, listserves, and email to those who might act on your research.

--Richard Smith [Former editor of BMJ and author of the excellent book, What's Wrong With Medical Journals]

Why should journals publish your manuscript?

The game of seeking early citations.

Why journals are getting into social media (and you should too).

The prestige and high journal impact (JIF) game requires getting early citations and often.

Social media essential.

My Adaptation to a Changing My Adaptation to a Changing ContextContext

Stay current on changing publication practices.

Harness collective intelligence: Understand and use internet to be more efficient.

Routinize writing.

Engage social media and journalists to promote work.

Continual publishing across journals, blogs and social media maximizing impact by increasing the size of the ‘academic footprint’.

Nick Brown

Resist the temptation to hype and spin.

Pressures from institutions and journals to exaggerate importance of your findings.

Journalists are important allies, but are much more interested in getting attention for themselves than in accurately portraying your work.

In promoting your work, beware of hype, hokum and misrepresentation.

You might get caught and may face having to retract.

Shoot high?

Should You Go For Should You Go For the Highest Impact the Highest Impact Journal in Your Journal in Your Field?Field?

CA-A CANCER CA-A CANCER JOURNAL FOR JOURNAL FOR CLINICIANSCLINICIANS

Impact Factor 101.780 (2011)

Journal Impact Factor (JIFs)

Lowest association ever between JIF and number of times your paper will be cited.

High impact journals have high retraction rates.

Declining proportion of highly cited papers in journals with high impact.

Don’t get ahead of the revolution, citations and journal impact factors (JIF) still matter.

Thank you

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@CoyneoftheRealm

Blogging at Mind the Brain