Questions tagged [writing]

For questions on the process of writing. For questions on the content of writing, use [writing-style].

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overlapped results in tables for research journal

In research papers (for examples, computer science journals), may I have overlaps between multiple tables containing experiment results? My situation is like this. I have two tables Table A and Table ...
le4m's user avatar
  • 325
20 votes
4 answers
5k views

As an undergraduate, is it alright to get help finishing my paper?

15 months ago, I improved the bounds for an open math problem which I think is worthy of publication. Later, 9 months ago, I came up with two further results that I also would like to publish. I have ...
Zach Hunter's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
221 views

Do academic journals ever recommend software writing tools for scientific writing that suggest better paragraph construction?

I'm working on some edits to a paper under review with coauthors. Comments include advice that a better writing style be used and awkward wording be fixed. Coauthors are comfortable and expressive in ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 2,892
4 votes
1 answer
393 views

Publishing a paper with questionable statistics

I've submitted a paper to a reasonably good journal in my field. One of the reviewers questioned the statistical methods and recommended major revisions. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the ...
watermineporcupine's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

How should I cite the ministry in my own country in APA?

In my research paper, I have cite from a curriculum published by the Ministry of Education in my country. Should I cite the name of the ministry in my own language (i.e. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı; MEB as ...
Süleyman Yaman's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
155 views

What facts constitutes as citation-worthy

If I were to state a fact that is simply a part of a field, do I need to cite a scientific article that supports this? Like, let's say I write something like this: "... tryptamine being a ...
A. Kvåle's user avatar
  • 163
1 vote
2 answers
388 views

Mentioning a personal tragedy in an academic style paper. Is it allowed?

I am working as an editor for an edited book volume on covid-19. I have come across a very peculiar chapter submitted by an author. In the chapter, the author discloses a personal incident where the ...
user3571389's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
598 views

Do you have to cite your own pre-print?

I am writing a paper that is based on previous work I have done that I have published as a pre-print. I am submitting it to a conference. However it is significantly improved and different. The ...
iordanis's user avatar
  • 249
3 votes
0 answers
129 views

Is it bad-practice to have a high citation to content ratio in academic writing? [duplicate]

I'm writing a high school history textbook. While writing my book, I'm finding its becoming very heavily laden with sources. If I used Turabian's footnote style, they tend to fill half the page. ...
Village's user avatar
  • 12.4k
3 votes
2 answers
449 views

How to refer to someone consistently who has multiple names/spellings?

I am writing a research paper in which I mention Moroccan explorer Estaban quite often. In the books I have, his name is spelled in different ways; the Wikipedia article linked above lists even more ...
Village's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
738 views

To what extent can advisors edit our writing?

When advisors edit our thesis work, what kind of changes can they make? Is there a limit to what they can do? There's proofreading and also editing for style and clarity. Is asking students to ...
solid-rock's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
125 views

Can you use herein to refer back?

As the title suggests, I would like to know if it is correct to use 'herein' to refer back. For instance, I have used the phrase 'in this paper' several times in a document and I wish to use another ...
Bob1986's user avatar
  • 107
27 votes
5 answers
8k views

Is using "iff" appropriate?

Is the word "iff", meaning "if and only if", recognized outside of logic? In particular, is it appropriate for a physics text? Or is this kind of abbreviation frowned upon?
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
122 views

Question for review [closed]

What are the type of question you can ask someone when you send you manuscript to for review. The person may not necessarily be in your field.
BND's user avatar
  • 173
1 vote
1 answer
156 views

Can conference papers use the original words in published papers?

Conference papers are often only about 10 pages. When I was writing conference papers, some words seemed unnatural. Can I directly use the original words in someone else's paper? Not a conclusion or ...
Gerrie's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Do I have to cite sources for my opinion when it was formed by reading other people's opinions? (undergraduate)

So I'm new to university and have written like 5 papers in my life, please help! So basically the scenario is, I have a paper about a certain topic which I know nothing about. So I do some research on ...
ba_tog's user avatar
  • 43
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

Statistical analysis plan giving away some of my results, Reviewer 2

Context: At the end of the methodology section, I explain that I will apply an ANOVA to check if at least one condition is different, then I will investigate using multiple comparisons. The reviewers ...
GuillaumeL's user avatar
38 votes
11 answers
6k views

How can I improve undergraduate students' writing skills?

The fact: my students write badly. The source of the problem is, most likely, low quality primary and secondary education, with little emphasis on essays. Long term solutions are beyond the scope of ...
luchonacho's user avatar
  • 2,270
2 votes
0 answers
127 views

Acceptance rates of submitted papers by country

Is there any data source or statistic showing acceptance rate of submitted papers for publication by country?
Quirik's user avatar
  • 353
0 votes
0 answers
397 views

struggling with the discussion chapter of PhD thesis (by publication)

Thank you very much for your insightful suggestions earlier and I am back with another question and would love to hear your thoughts about this. My PhD thesis consists of three stand-alone papers (aka ...
Josee Luis's user avatar
62 votes
11 answers
13k views

How can I avoid overuse of words like "however" and "therefore" in academic writing?

I am in the field of computer science (more specifically robotics), and as I am writing, I must actively avoid using the words "however", "therefore", etc... every few sentences. ...
Ralff's user avatar
  • 1,074
1 vote
2 answers
107 views

Rules or Laws to guide sectioning and sub-sectioning [closed]

Regardless of the field or subject, is there a website or organization that has rules on how to section and sub-section a document? I have a document on which I have randomly chosen a layout. project ...
user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
411 views

Where can I easily find best-paper-award-paper of a conference?

Recently I read an article on tips for PhD students to improve their scientific writing skills. There, one suggestion was to find and read the best-paper-award-papers in highly reputed conferences in ...
gayan_lanke's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
97 views

Tone to use in describing your "research project"

This is an extension question for this What exactly is "briefly explain your master research project" in a PhD application? (CS field) Suppose I am writing a brief description for my ...
GarlicSTAT's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
891 views

Writing sample requirement for PhD application - submit something you assisted in writing?

I'm applying to PhD programs and some require writing samples with a reminder of prioritizing works that are related to the phd program or to my research proposal. The only related writing I have is ...
MarkBlk's user avatar
  • 21
24 votes
4 answers
5k views

Is it appropriate for peer-reviewer to look for possible plagiarism?

I'm in the second year of a post-doc, and currently participating in my first experience as a peer-reviewer (my lab PI recommended me to the editor because he's too busy to do it right now). I noticed ...
MikeyC's user avatar
  • 531
2 votes
1 answer
134 views

What is the best way to add the results of the Master thesis in the Latex report

I am writing my Master thesis report. My thesis was research and development of a test data generator for a particular domain in an organization. The developed application will generate test data in ...
BATMAN_2008's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
5k views

Difference between Related work and Background section?

I am writing my first Computer Science conference paper. The thing I don't understand is the difference between "related work" vs "background", could someone explain this? I have ...
LGDGODV's user avatar
  • 940
2 votes
2 answers
298 views

Chicago or APA for draft manuscript?

I am relatively new to the writing process. I wrote my first manuscript in APA style and found it time consuming while changing it to the Chicago manual style. I am aware that most journals have their ...
PK1995's user avatar
  • 268
1 vote
2 answers
181 views

How to write an introduction for a conference or journal paper efficiently? [closed]

When writing research paper, I am often stuck and spend a lot of time working on the introduction. Most of my time spent is staring at a blank page... The introduction takes me significantly longer to ...
Ralff's user avatar
  • 1,074
0 votes
1 answer
470 views

How to justify research assistant's role in the grant application

How can we justify the role of Research Assistant in the grant application? Everyone knows that faculty members are busy with teaching, admin tasks, writing grants etc. so they actually seek PhD and ...
SJa's user avatar
  • 3,496
4 votes
4 answers
266 views

Active voice: Using "I" to show my contribution and "we" to include the audience?

I've read the other questions on active vs passive voice. But my question is slightly different. Let's say I'm writing in active voice and using "I" as I'm primarily writing a thesis-like ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
230 views

Writing an Original State of the Art Section When There Are Recent (Meta-)Surveys for the Topic

Problem In many fields, it is customary that every paper has a section describing the state of the art of the field, to give a background and show familiarity with related works. While sometimes, this ...
nonthevisor's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
122 views

How important is it to cite the earliest report of something?

As a general rule I try to put in some due diligence to cite the authors who first provided strong evidence of something that I'm referencing, even if I wasn't aware of their work before I started ...
MikeyC's user avatar
  • 531
2 votes
2 answers
257 views

Should I send an addendum/erratum due to single error in sign?

I was reading my own paper published in 2018 and I noticed that in one of the sections I wrote "<" instead ">" to indicate greater than or greater value, although the ...
xavier's user avatar
  • 2,247
1 vote
2 answers
112 views

In a paper with a co-author who contributed one part (say, computer implementation), where should the contributions of the authors be outlined?

If I write a paper, and another person provides a computer program that visualizes the idea, where should I mention the roles of the authors? Is the "acknowledgements" section appropriate ...
Anixx's user avatar
  • 131
2 votes
0 answers
46 views

In a paper whose I am the sole author, should I use "I" or "we"? [duplicate]

When writing a paper whose I am the sole author, should I use "I" or "we" when referring myself?
Anixx's user avatar
  • 131
2 votes
3 answers
369 views

Is a higher amount of literature cited in an essay generally seen as better?

I'm a postgraduate M.Sc. student at a university studying math. Currently I need to write some essay/assignment (about 10 pages) for a seminar where we revisit already published work and describe it ...
NoteMyQuestion's user avatar
4 votes
6 answers
1k views

I'm an independent researcher with a very long paper, how can I get help editing it and submitting it to a journal?

I am an independent researcher and have spent the past year writing a fairly extensive (60+ pages) research paper on a topic in probability/statistics. The paper is almost complete but there are a ...
Aaron Hendrickson's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
381 views

What to do when your idea turns out to be an old one

I learned yesterday that an idea (let's call it Idea A) I came up with on my own and that will appear in a paper I'm writing actually appeared in a paper 15 years ago. (My field is math, I'm a PhD ...
user avatar
40 votes
10 answers
12k views

Is "flowery language" frowned upon in engineering and STEM related research?

I work in an engineering field (related to AI, machine learning, etc.) and something I found interesting is whenever I use "big words" or even long words like "substantiate" or &...
Coco Jambo's user avatar
  • 1,013
5 votes
1 answer
439 views

Plagiarism and credible sources

Plagiarism is the reuse of other's materials without proper credit and acknowledgement [1] Credible sources are vaguely defined, but it can be attributed to verifiable facts in the literature [2] I ...
Brainchild Ho's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
91 views

Can I, when writing a book, make use of a physical model made up by someone else? [closed]

Currently, I'm writing a book about everything from A to Z [physics, the science of the brain, AI, many more scientific topics, the "philosophy" (the workings) of the sciences, economy, the ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
5k views

How to properly describe future works in Master's Thesis?

I have developed an application for the Master's Thesis. It provides enough functionality for demonstration purposes and to explain the workings of it. However, many other areas (some major, some ...
Jonny_G's user avatar
  • 225
22 votes
6 answers
7k views

How do I handle inaccessible DOIs when citing papers?

When writing a paper, it's not that seldom, that I want to cite papers where a DOI is given but cannot be accessed (anymore). Quite frequently, the corresponding DOI is also presented within the PDF ...
Anderson's user avatar
  • 341
1 vote
1 answer
298 views

How to evaluate an implementation Master's thesis in Evaluation chapter? [closed]

I am writing a Master's Thesis where I developed an application. The application was developed after the study of another similar application. My application does things differently but the principle ...
Jonny_G's user avatar
  • 225
0 votes
1 answer
121 views

Standard recommendations and steps for writing introductory books [closed]

Suppose I plan to write an introduction to, say, statistics that's intended both for self-learning and as a companion to a university course. Is there any standard advice about the following? ...
lfba's user avatar
  • 193
1 vote
2 answers
154 views

Can I reference a result on a dataset without any research paper by that author as state of the art?

The best result on a given dataset has no trace in the form of research paper or any sort of analysis. We have no idea whose results were those, or what method was created. Some competition was held,...
Stanger Danger's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
87 views

Can I suggest the authors to hire professional writer for scientific paper as a reviewer during second review? [duplicate]

I have reviewed a scientific paper and suggested a major revision. They corrected it but still, I think the language quality is not standard. In this case, can I ask the authors to hire a professional ...
Black Sheep's user avatar
  • 1,996
14 votes
6 answers
10k views

How can I communicate that the word limit prevents you from elaborating something in an essay?

Let's posit: You're a university student. I don't posit degree level; you can be undergraduate or postgraduate. You must not overstep the essay's word limit, whatever it is. You lose marks if you ...
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