Supporting you to write, publish, and
present your work

From spam emails to Twitter (now X) bots impersonating politicians and celebrities, the Internet is rife with bad actors, and it is important to exercise a certain level of caution in our online interactions. The same is true in the academic publishing world as well. In some cases, journals may not always be what they appear. In this article, we offer some practical tips on how you can avoid publishing in “highjacked” journals (also known as "cloned" journals), where...

As authors, we are operating in a highly competitive environment where we want our research findings to have the most impact they can. By impact, we mean getting people’s attention on our research so that we can communicate our findings to them. Traditionally, this has meant attracting readers’ attention by writing clear and effective abstracts for research papers published in scholarly journals or conference proceedings or posted on preprint servers...

As researchers, it is critical for us to master how to summarize our work in a clear, concise, and accurate manner. This applies not only to how we describe our research when speaking with others, but also to how we summarize it for readers in research papers and other documents...

When you think of scientific and medical writing, what words come to mind? Perhaps, “objective,” “informative,” “dispassionate,” “clinical,” or “neutral”? But what words did you use when writing your latest grant application or paper? Did you describe your research as “novel,” “important,” or even “groundbreaking”?

Virtual conferences and meetings are not a new phenomenon, and some of us were already familiar with sharing and discussing our research this way before the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellations or postponements of in-person events or shifts to virtual events. Still, a great many of us have recently had to take crash courses in learning how to use various video conferencing platforms and tools in order to prepare and give presentations at virtual events.

As researchers, we work toward various goals, such as improving patient care, curing diseases, advancing technology, exploring nature, and developing theories and ideas to make sense of our world. In these efforts, it is important that researchers receive recognition for their work and control their professional information. However, controlling your identity and information is not always easy. Perhaps you have a common name, your name has changed after marriage, or your name is displayed differently across various publications, websites, and other systems.

We first wrote about predatory journals as a serious threat to the scholarly community in July 2015 and about the emerging problem of predatory conferences in July 2017. Although there is now greater awareness that such journals and conferences exist and there are more resources available to help identify them, it can still be difficult for authors to distinguish predatory journals and events from reputable ones.

A preprint is an academic manuscript that has been shared publicly via an open-access platform but has not been formally peer reviewed. Preprints have long been used in the physical sciences to propose ideas, announce results quickly, and gain feedback from fellow researchers to develop the work further. In recent years, preprints have started appearing in other disciplines, including the life sciences, social sciences, medicine and healthcare, education, and law.

Presenting at a prestigious conference is a good way to share your research and raise your profile in the academic community. But there is a growing problem to look out for—predatory conferences. Much like predatory journals, predatory conferences seek to obtain research funds while providing little of value in return. These conferences lack rigorous academic standards and are typically poorly organized. Attending a predatory conferencef is a waste of research funds, and organizing one can harm your reputation.
In this article, we give an overview of legitimate and predatory conferences, followed by warning signs that a conference or conference organizer might be predatory.

Nowadays, English is the primary language of academic publishing for many topics of international interest. Nevertheless, English is not the preferred language for some topics (e.g., French is still an important language for mathematical analysis, and Russian-language articles on cybersecurity are sometimes at the forefront of research), and many national and regional journals and conferences publish articles in languages other than English. Because of this, all researchers may want to publish outside of their native language at some time in their careers.

During Q&A, do you worry about being able to answer all of the audience's questions about your research with confidence and professionalism? If so, you're definitely not alone. Even experienced presenters can feel nervous about handling the Q&A session well—it's not always possible to anticipate the questions that will be asked or the direction that Q&A will take.

When we want to submit a research paper for publication, the top-tier journals in our specialist field are usually the first that come to mind. However, these journals don't always fit our publication goals or the content of the paper. We all know that submitting a manuscript to an unsuitable journal can mean our manuscript is rejected before peer review. So, how can we make a final suitable choice for our particular paper as quickly and easily as possible?

In school, native and non-native speakers of English are encouraged to use more "sophisticated" written English to reflect their growing proficiency in the language. However, using simpler English can help us to clearly express complex ideas and arguments in our research, which helps our specialist readers at various levels of English proficiency to understand. Learn some tips for making your writing simpler without sacrificing understanding of your ideas.

High-impact, important research findings often deserve to be shared rapidly, and we can opt to write a brief, short, or rapid communications article to do this. What are the advantages of sharing our results quickly with the community via this type of article instead of sharing them via a conference presentation, uploading a paper to a pre-print server, or writing a longer original article?

A big challenge for authors writing in a second language is that the writing can still lack the feel of a native speaker's even when the grammar is correct and the meaning is understandable. In this month's article, we describe some specific strategies to help make your English writing sound more natural.

Among the documents needed when applying for international positions, the curriculum vitae (CV) or resume/résumé is usually the first document read during the screening process. This article offers some tips and a template for preparing effective CVs for mid-to-advanced career specialists.

To help you write effective cover letters—and to write them quickly and easily—in this article we offer some tips on layout and appropriate wording. Also, you can download our template cover letter (Word file) to help you save time writing and help you remember to include standard author statements and other information commonly required by journals.

The impact of individual researchers can be assessed by various methods. Among these, numerical methods are popular because they are straightforward to calculate and provide a convenient metric for assessment. However, these metrics are vulnerable to manipulation and provide little insight into the actual influence of researchers. In this featured article, we discuss a non-numerical method for visualizing researcher influence: networks of relations among researchers.

The system of peer-reviewed journals requires that academics review papers written by other academics, that is, papers written by their peers. We have previously discussed peer review generally (Why do the rules and conventions of academic publishing keep changing and how can researchers stay current?) and how authors can effectively respond to peer review (Writing effective response letters to reviewers: Tips and a template). This article will cover the other side: being a reviewer.

I've already written about the nuts and bolts of putting together the material for an effective presentation; you can find my guide here. But what about dealing with the practicalities of actually standing up and presenting the material that you've created?

After submitting a manuscript to a scholarly journal and receiving comments from the reviewers and/or journal editor, authors are often asked to revise their manuscripts to address the comments provided. While authors typically have no problem responding to the comments from a scientific or academic perspective, they can sometimes find it difficult to decide upon the most effective way to respond.

Responding to the suggestions made by reviewers is an important part of the peer review process. However, sometimes we might disagree with some of the suggestions made. In this month's feature article, we provide some phrases and strategies to use if you decide not to make a suggested change to your research paper.

Young researchers often ask us two important questions: Why do the rules, conventions, and methods/models of academic publishing keep changing? And how can we stay current? In this article, we'll look briefly at why changes to rules and conventions keep happening (and who motivates the changes), how you can keep up to date on the latest changes, and introduce some of the latest initiatives we're watching.

Specialists recognize authoritative writing in their field of study and respond well to it, continuing to read on. In this article, we'll give some quick tips on how to write with authority in your particular field, whatever stage you may be at in your research career. How many of the tips do you know and already follow when you're writing?

Presenting our research is a vital part of professional life. Presentations are a great way for us to speak directly to our peers, gather ideas to push projects forward, and make valuable personal connections. This month's article gives 5 key tips to help you prepare effective spoken presentations and capitalize on the opportunities that giving talks provides. Also, try our free learning module and quiz on English phrases we naturally say aloud in presentations.

Most authors write their research papers in Microsoft Word, but some write in LaTeX, a template system for typesetting documents. LaTeX produces beautifully formatted documents and has a number of advantages over Word. However, because authors receive little formal training in LaTeX, they often learn bad habits. In this article, we describe these bad habits and show you what to do instead. Try our free e-learning mini course that gives a brief overview of the system and some commonly used codes.

Everyone aspires to write well and to help others write well, but unfortunately some people persist in applying certain stylistic "rules" to English writing even when the best writers ignore them and style guides advise against using them. These stylistic "rules" are not actually rules but "myths". In this article, we introduce 4 common English writing myths that you don't have to follow in your writing!

In our writing workshops, participants often say that they find writing the introduction to their papers difficult. This is not surprising because the introduction serves multiple purposes and is an extremely important part of the paper. In this article, we present 10 tips for writing an effective introduction that will capture the attention of readers and reviewers.

One of the main reasons that papers are rejected by journals is poor writing. Poor writing is more than just incorrect grammar, however. Poor structure and logical flow are also major concerns. Grammatical mistakes can prevent you from conveying your meaning clearly and inspiring confidence in your readers, but poor structure and logical flow can bury great results and hide the significance of your findings. So, what makes good writing?

A large number of papers were recently retracted because of fraudulent peer reviews. Unfortunately, some companies in the same industry as ThinkSCIENCE had provided these reviews, probably to unknowing authors. Publishers are now working with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on addressing this issue over the long term and specifically on retracting affected papers in line with COPE guidelines. You can avoid less-than-honest agencies by watching out for 2 clear warning signs.