"How to Write and Publish a Good Paperالمحاضرة 163 بعنوان

How to Write and Publish a Good Paper
Prof. Hany Al-Ansary
Mechanical Engineering Department
King Saud University

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 Why Publish in a Journal?
 General Tips
 Structure of a Paper
 Tips On Preparing Each Section
 The Review Process
 Final Thoughts
Outline

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 It is the traditional way of communicating research findings with the scientific
community
 Allows your research findings to be accessible to the largest possible “audience”
 Journal publications are refereed
 Gives the public more confidence in your research
 Permanent and accessible record of your research achievements
 Helps you build your CV
 Critical if you are seeking an academic position (faculty position, researcher)
 The more papers and the higher the quality, the better
Why Publish in a Journal?

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 General Tips
 Final Thoughts
Outline

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 Your papers will make people understand your philosophy and the issues that
you champion
 Accuracy vs. carelessness
 Depth vs. shallowness
 High impact vs. “I just want to be promoted”
 Make sure that your paper reflects your emphasis on high-quality work
 Example: If your paper does not discuss results thoroughly, or if the conclusions
are not supported by the findings, your image will be that of carelessness,
shallowness, and lack of integrity
General Tips
Tip #1: Be Careful! Your Publications Reflect Your Personality

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 Publishing non-impactful work just for the sake of publishing is neither useful
nor professional
 You have a moral and ethical duty to deliver useful information to the public
 Make sure that your paper contributes to the state-of-the-art even the
contribution is small
 Keep this goal in your mind with every sentence you write
 Clearly state the usefulness of your work in the paper
 Clearly highlight your contribution in the abstract and the conclusion
General Tips
Tip #2: Think of the Scientific and Societal Impact of Your Paper

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 Writing a paper is somewhat similar to writing a novel... You have a story to tell
 You need to capture the reader’s attention from the first sentence to the last
 You can do that by staying focused and to-the-point
 The shorter and more focused the paper, the better
 Each section needs to guide the reader smoothly to the next section
 Write a “transitional” sentence(s) at the end of each section
General Tips
Tip #3: Your Paper is Your Story… Make it Attractive!

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 Present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
 NEVER make up any results to make your paper look better
 Discussing actual findings (even if they are not “wonderful”) is a thousand
times better than making up attractive results
 It is a moral and ethical obligation
 Your professional career can also be in jeopardy
 Retracting a paper from a journal for fabrication is like a death sentence for
any researcher
General Tips
Tip #4: Be Honest!

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 Journals are primarily judged by their ISI listing and impact factor
 ISI listing means that the journal is indexed in the International Scientific
Indexing (ISI) server, which lists major international journals
 Non-ISI-listed journals are considered lower quality journals… Try to avoid them!
 Impact factor (IF) is a measure of the frequency with which the average article
in a journal has been cited in a particular year
 The higher, the more impactful the journal is
 Example: New England Journal of Medicine has an IF of 74.7, whereas
International Surgery has an IF of 0.056
 Your work is much more likely to be read in a high IF journal
General Tips
Tip #5: Not All Journals Are Created Equal

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 IF varies from one discipline to the other (generally high in medicine… not as
high in engineering)
 To make a fair comparison, the Web of Science ranks journals based on their IF in
specific disciplines
 In each discipline, journals are categorized as Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4
 Example: Q1 means that the journal’s IF is in the upper 25% in that discipline
 Example: Renewable Energy Journal is Q1 in “Renewable Energy, Sustainability,
and the Environment” discipline, even though its IF is 6.3
 Generally, you should aim for Q1 and Q2 journals
 The list of journal ranking is updated annually
General Tips
Tip #5: Not All Journals Are Created Equal

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 Impact factor is important, but you should also consider the audience that you
want your paper to be read by
 Example: If you developed a new type of solar panel, and the main focus of your
study is its efficiency, but you also studied heat loss from the panel, it is much
better for you to publish in the journal Solar Energy (Q2) than in the
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (IJHMT) (Q1)
 Your paper will most likely be rejected by IJHMT before even being reviewed!
 Your supervisor (if you are a graduate student) can help you identify the most
suitable journal for your topic to reach the most appropriate audience
General Tips
Tip #6: Choose Your Journal Wisely

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 One of the factors that affect your choice of a journal is the speed of publication
 Each journal will give you an estimate of how much time it takes from
submission to publication
 If you are a graduate student and need to publish quickly before graduation, this
becomes an important factor. You supervisor can help you decide based on their
experience
General Tips

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 Another important factor is the cost of publication
 Most prestigious journals do not charge fees for publication
 However, people can only read your paper if they have a subscription (whether
personal or institutional)
 This can affect the “visibility” of your paper
 There is a growing number of open access journals
 Open access journals charge publication fees, and they can be expensive
 The advantage is that anyone can see your full-length paper without the need for
access through subscription-based databases
 Funding is needed to pursue this path, so consult you supervisor or research team
General Tips

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 Graduate students usually make this mistake… They want to publish all their
thesis work in one paper
 But a thesis often involves the use of multiple research tools (e.g. analytical,
numerical, experimental)
 Try to separate your work into different papers based on the research tool
 Example: In my PhD, I studied a type of refrigeration system both numerically
and experimentally. I made the mistake of publishing all my work in one very
lengthy paper.
 I should have published two papers: one on the numerical work (in a CFD-
oriented journal) and another on experimental work (in an experimentally-
oriented refrigeration journal)
General Tips
Tip #7: Don’t Stuff Too Much Information in One Paper

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 When you write long sentences, the reader will likely lose track
 Converting a long sentence into multiple shorter sentences helps the reader stay on track
Example
General Tips
Tip #8: Make Your Sentences Short
Before After
The first component of the system is the particle
receiver, which receives concentrated sunlight from
the heliostat field once it passes through the open
aperture on the north side of the tower into the
cavity in which particles are falling freely in the
form of a curtain, causing the particles to be
heated directly and reaching a temperature of up
to 1000°C
The first component of the system is the particle receiver.
This component receives concentrated sunlight reflected
from the heliostat field. The sunlight first passes through
an open aperture on the north side of the tower. Sunlight
then passes the aperture and enters a cavity. Inside the
cavity, particle are falling freely in the form of a curtain.
By directly capturing sunlight, the particle temperature in
the curtain can reach up to 1000°C.

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 One of the easiest ways to have your paper rejected immediately is poor English
 If you have doubt about the quality of English in your paper, seek help
General Tips
Tip #9: Seek Professional Help With English (If Necessary)

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 If you have a patentable idea, the first step is to protect it, not publish it
 You need to submit an invention disclosure to your technology transfer office
(TTO)
 TTO will study your case, and if they find the idea patentable, they will prepare a
patent application on your behalf and file it with the Patent Office
 Once the Patent Office issues an application number, your idea is protected
 It will take the Patent Office months (or sometimes years) to grant you the
patent, but the date of initial application is sufficient to protect your idea
 You do NOT need to wait for the patent to be granted to publish your work
 But if you publish your work before you have the patent application number, you
lose your right to have a patent!!
General Tips
Tip #10: Never Publish a Patentable Idea Until It Is Protected

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 It is your ethical and moral responsibility to include anyone who contributed to
your work as an author
 Authors does not necessarily mean contributing to writing the paper itself
 If a colleague helps gathering or organizing data, he is considered an author
 The first author and the corresponding author are usually the most ‘visible’
 Typically, the first author is the one who contributes the most to the work
 The corresponding author is the one with whom all communication with the
journal’s editorial office will take place
 He/she can be the same as the first author or could be someone else
 Traditionally, the corresponding author is the head of the research team or your
supervisor, but it is not a must
General Tips
Tip #11: Include All Contributors In the List of Authors

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 General Tips
 Final Thoughts
Outline

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1. Abstract
2. Keywords
3. Nomenclature (if needed)
4. Introduction
5. Literature Review
6. Methodology
7. Results and Discussion
8. Conclusions
9. Acknowledgment
10. References
11. Appendices
Structure of a Paper

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 General Tips
 Final Thoughts
Outline

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 The abstract is a summary of your paper
 It is very short and focused (typically 300 words or less)
 It typically consists of the following:
 Brief description of the system you studied
 Objective of your work
 How you pursued your objective (methodology)
 Major findings
Abstract

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 Do NOT include references
 Do NOT use bullet points
 Keep the abstract in one paragraph
 Include numerical results in your major findings
 Spell out terms in full before abbreviating them
 Example: System Advisor Model (SAM) was used to model the solar field…
 Wait until the very end to write your abstract
 This way, you make sure that you covered all the important aspects
Abstract

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 Keywords are words that help people find your paper
 Think of words that will guide people to your paper quickly
 Keywords should include a mix of general indicators and specific indicators
 Example: For the following paper titled “Integration of multi effect
evaporation and membrane distillation desalination processes for enhanced
performance and recovery ratios”, the following keywords were chosen:
 Desalination (general)
 Multiple effect evaporation (more specific)
 Membrane distillation (more specific)
 Performance ratio (very specific)
 Recovery ratio (very specific)
Keywords

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 If your paper contains extensive use of equations and abbreviations, a
nomenclature section is very useful for the reader
 It starts with an alphabetical list of all the abbreviations used, their meaning,
and their units
 It then moves to a list of Greek letters, their meaning, and their units
 It concludes with a list of the subscripts used
Nomenclature (If Needed)

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Example
Nomenclature (If Needed)

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 The introduction sets the stage for your paper
 You need to orient the reader towards your topic
 Start by briefly giving an overview about the general area of your study
 Gradually get more specific until you reach the topic of your paper
 Illustrations (especially figures) would be helpful in this section
 Avoid starting with statements that are too general or too obvious for
the target audience
Introduction

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Example
You are submitting your paper about developing a
new type of solar panel to the journal Solar Energy
Introduction
 Start with an overview of the current state of deployment of solar
photovoltaics around the world
 Then briefly explain what type of photovoltaic panels have been used in
recent projects around the world and why this type is used more than others
 Then explain the problems that this type of panel faces
 Then say that your work is intended to overcome these problems

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Example
You are submitting your paper about developing a
new type of solar panel to the journal Solar Energy
Introduction
 Avoid starting with statements that are too general:
 Importance of renewable energy for the energy transition
 Need for renewable energy to tackle climate change
 Avoid starting with statements that are too obvious:
 How photovoltaic panels work or how these panels are connected to the grid
 These statements are too general and too obvious for readers of Solar Energy
 The readers will think that you are a person who takes people lightly or
thinks that the audience is naïve

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 At the end of the Introduction section, you told the reader what your work
will be about
 Now, you have to convince the reader that your work is new and that you are
making a contribution to the state-of-the-art
 You do that by gathering information about all relevant previous publications
that attempt to do something similar to yours
 Report all of these publications, briefly explain what they did (3-4 lines for
each one), and quickly highlight what is missing in their work (if needed)
 Avoid negative (or personal) criticism about the work of others. Be
professional and be courteous
Literature Review

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 You should always cite important and relevant work
 However, it is also important that the majority of your literature review be
recent (last five years or so)
 It shows that you are aware of recent progress in your field
Insider Tip
 Try to include a good amount of literature that was published recently in the
same journal to which you are submitting the paper
 Editors like to see that because it helps increase the citation of their journal,
which increases its impact factor
 However, you need to be honest and only include literature from this journal
if it is important and relevant
Literature Review

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 At the end of the Literature Review section, make a collective comment
about how the literature did not address the topic you are presenting well
(or at all)
 Emphasize that this is the reason for your paper
 Then state the objectives of your work clearly and concisely
 Conclude this section with a “transitional” sentence/paragraph, explaining
that you will now move to explain your idea and describe the methodology
that you will use to achieve your objectives
Literature Review

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General Comment
 There are two common ways of citing literature:
 Mentioning the name(s) and date of publication
 Giving a number for the reference in square brackets at the end of the sentence in
which it is mentioned
 Check the formatting requirements of the journal and adhere to them
Literature Review

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 It is common for authors to merge literature review into the introduction
 You can do that if you feel that it improves the readability of your paper
 If you do so, make sure that the literature review still starts after the
introduction part of this combined section
Merging Literature Review With the Introduction

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 The Methodology section is one of the most critical sections
 Most rejections and major revisions are due to issues with this section
 Be VERY careful with writing this section
 The best way to make the Methodology section clear is to keep in mind that
the reader MUST be able to completely reproduce your work if they read it
 This means that you need to give the entire recipe of your work in detail such
that any reader can follow it and produce the same results
Methodology

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 Make sure that you start by clearly stating the assumptions you used and
justify them
 The structure of the remainder of the section depends on the tools you use
Analytical Studies
 Start with fundamental physical principles
 Show all the equations until you reach your desired outcome
 Each step needs to be objectively justified
Methodology

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Numerical Studies
 Start with a figure(s) of your computational domain
 It is then recommended to tabulate all the dimensions, boundary conditions,
initial conditions, etc.
 If you are publishing in a journal specialized in numerical studies, there is no
need to explain the basic principles.
 Example: if you are publishing in Engineering Applications of Computational
Fluid Mechanics (Q1), there is no need to explain how the finite volume
method works. Your audience knows that very well
 If you are publishing in a journal with a somewhat wide scope, explaining the
principle may be necessary, but it should be brief
Methodology

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Numerical Studies
 Either way, you should then list (and explain if necessary) the physical and
computational models you chose and justify them
 Example: State that you are modeling the flow as turbulent and that you will
use the k-e turbulence model. You need to justify both
 Your paper MUST include a grid independence study
 This study will convince the reader that the discretization you used is sufficient
and adequate
 The paper MUST also include a validation study
 You need to test the numerical model you developed against well documented
experimental results and show that your model is in good agreement with it
Methodology

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Experimental Studies
 Start with a schematic and a figure(s) of your experimental setup
 Describe the experimental setup in detail
 List the models of the instruments used and their accuracy
 Explain the experimental procedure step-by-step and in detail
 Show how the collected data will be used and applied (include the equations
in which they will be used)
Methodology

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Experimental Studies
 Your paper MUST include uncertainty analysis
 Your paper will likely be rejected without it!
 You do not need to start with the principles of uncertainty analysis
 It is adequate to briefly show how you arrived at the uncertainty values for
each parameter using error propagation analysis
Methodology

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 If possible, try to divide the Results and Discussion section into subsections
 Each subsection presents and discusses results about a specific parameter
 To help the reader understand your results, use figures and tables as much as
possible, but figures are preferred
 Make sure that your figures are clear and legible
 Do not stuff too much information (multiple curves) in one figure. It will be
hard to follow
 Make sure that you label the axes and write the units in each label
 Make sure to include a legend, and that the labels in the legend are easy to
understand
Results and Discussion

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 If your work is experimental, your figures MUST include error bars derived
from the uncertainty analysis

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 After each figure (or table), describe the results in writing
 In addition to describing the results, it is VERY important to have a
meaningful and in-depth discussion which interprets the results
 You are a researcher, not a football match commentator!
 Without in-depth discussion and interpretation, the reader (and reviewers)
will find your paper shallow and not useful

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 The conclusion is different from the Abstract
 Many people confuse the two
Conclusion vs. Abstract
https://scientific-publishing.webshop.elsevier.com/manuscript-preparation/difference-between-abstract-conclusion

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 In this section, you recognize organizations, programs, or people (who are
not authors) who supported the paper
 Support for the paper can be through personal services or through funding
the work
 Some funding organizations require that you use very specific formats of
acknowledgment. Make sure you adhere to those formats.
 It helps them search for and track publications that they support
 If none of the above applies to your paper, you can skip this section
Acknowledgment

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 In this section, you compile all the references that you used in your paper
 This includes literature you reviewed or any other sources of information you
used in your work
 References can be textbooks, reference books, journal papers, conference
papers, handbooks, patents, user manuals, websites, and even word of
mouth (personal communication)
 Each journal has its own requirements for how to mention each of these
sources and how to format them
 Follow the guidelines of your journal
 It is VERY important to use EXACTLY the same format for all the references of
the same type
References

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 This section is optional
 You can include non-essential supplementary material
 You can include it if you think that there is information in the Methodology
or Results and Discussion section that is useful to the reader, but would be
too detailed and distracting if they stayed in those sections
 Examples of content that can appear in appendices:
 Lengthy derivation of an equation
 Sample calculations
 Detailed description of the instruments you used
 Full results of a parametric study
 Keep in mind that your paper should be complete and useful WITHOUT the
appendices
Appendices

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 General Tips
 Final Thoughts
Outline

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 Once you submit your manuscript to a journal, it will be checked by the
editorial office for adherence to their format and suitability to their scope
 If your manuscript passes this initial screening, it will be assigned a paper ID
 It will then be sent to multiple reviewers
 It typically takes between 4-8 weeks for reviewers to respond
 Based on reviews, the most common decisions are:
 Rejection
 Major revision
 Minor revision
 In rare circumstances, the paper will be accepted as is
The Review Process

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What If the Paper is Rejected?
 The editor will share with you the opinions of reviewers
 Most likely, their opinions will be harsh and very critical
 Do not feel bad. This is quite normal. It happens to all of us, even the best
and most famous researchers
 Do NOT attempt to email the editor and protest. It rarely helps
 Take the reviewers’ opinions with an open heart and try to incorporate as
many of them as you can, as long as you think they are reasonable and
constructive
The Review Process

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What If the Paper is Rejected?
 Once you have the paper revised, you can resubmit it to the same journal or
you can submit it to another journal
 If you really want to publish in the same journal, make sure that the revised
version incorporates the vast majority of the reviewers’ comments
 You can include a separate document explaining how you improved your
paper based on the reviewers’ comments to support the case for your
resubmission
The Review Process

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What If Major (or Minor) Revision is Required?
 Again, the editor will share with you the reviewers’ comments
 But this time, the editor will ask you to revise the manuscript within a
specific period of time
 Make sure that you address ALL the reviewers’ comments
 Use the “Track Changes” feature of Microsoft Word, and keep a copy with
this feature “on” as proof of where you made changes
The Review Process

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What If Major (or Minor) Revision is Required?
 Prepare a separate document in which you break down each reviewer’s
response into individual comments and then write your response to them
 Be VERY polite and thank the reviewer for his/her comment
 Explain how you addressed it and where in the paper you made the changes
 NEVER engage in a confrontation with a reviewer
 If you think it is impossible to address a certain comment, politely state the
reason it cannot be accommodated
 Reviewers are human beings… If they realize that you are making a sincere
effort to accommodate their comments, they will “let go” of one or two of
their comments if the majority of others are being addressed
The Review Process

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 General Tips
 Final Thoughts
Outline

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 Journal papers are stories that need to be told in an attractive way
 Always keep the readers in your mind, and make it easy for them to read
your paper
 Once you finish writing the paper, put on the reader’s “hat” and read the
paper again very carefully and see if it makes sense
 Do not work alone… Seek the help and opinions of others
 Keep the highest level of honesty and integrity throughout the process
 Enjoy your journey and be proud of your work!
Final Thoughts

Thank You
Hany Al-Ansary
hansary@ksu.edu.sa

"How to Write and Publish a Good Paperالمحاضرة 163 بعنوان

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"How to Write and Publish a Good Paperالمحاضرة 163 بعنوان