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My friend wrote a fantastic paper in their scientific field. I believe it is truly ground-breaking but it calls a lot of existing theory into question. If he's correct it will force many accepted articles to have to be rewritten.

Perhaps because this paper is controversial, then, my friend has faced a very uphill battle to get it published. It deals with quite some difficult-to-grasp mathematical models and concepts. It's in a field of science and an area of that field where experiments to prove things are simply not feasible, and instead, hypotheses rely on models to explain observations of large-scale real-world processes.

I'm deliberately avoiding mentioning what area of science this paper is in because I do not want them to know it's about them, in case they see this. Because while I feel that while their paper is great, on the other hand the writing needs some love. If the writing is improved, this paper could make this person's career. I'm a published writer and I have been paid to edit many things, but not scientific writing. I want to help them.

I would like to know what the best approach is for preparing myself to be able to edit papers for submission to any given scientific journal in any given field. I would think one great approach would be to read lots of articles in such journals. Do you know of any good guides? Are there any online sites where people can publish papers prior to submitting them to journals in order to get public comments and feedback to hone their work? What are some novel steps that could be taken? I just want to help.

CommaToast
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  • That's what friends and colleagues are for. – bdeonovic Jun 25 '14 at 16:50
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    In general, I don't suggest posting a paper in public prior to publication as it increases risk of getting scooped. – bdeonovic Jun 25 '14 at 16:51
  • Is your friend a student? If so, then his supervisor should be able to help him improve the writing. – mhwombat Jun 25 '14 at 16:54
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    You may also find the answers to this question helpful. You'll probably want to address these concerns early in the paper. http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18491/i-believe-i-have-solved-a-famous-open-problem-how-do-i-convince-people-in-the-f/18496#18496 – mhwombat Jun 25 '14 at 16:57
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    If you are looking for advice on how to properly edit papers for publication, you probably don't have the experience and expertise to consider your friend's paper "fantastic" and "truly ground-breaking." It might be good to temper the excitement and get some initial feedback from an academic adviser. – Brian P Jun 25 '14 at 17:06
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    @Benjamin: You are aware of www.arxiv.org, I hope? Thousands of academics are going against your suggestion every day. It is perfectly fine to give advice which goes against standard academic practice...but if you don't explain yourself, it is not very helpful to do so. (Many veteran academics believe that making your work publicly available is the best way to ensure that it is not scooped or stolen. This has been discussed frequently on this site.) – Pete L. Clark Jun 25 '14 at 17:15
  • @BrianP I only say that it's ground-breaking because other people I know who have read the paper, including a professor who has won major awards in the field, say it's ground-breaking. I am knowledgeable enough in the field to understand the ideas presented in the paper and the arguments as to why it's ground-breaking. – CommaToast Jun 25 '14 at 18:14
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    How about asking said professor for help with writing up the paper? – Tobias Kildetoft Jun 25 '14 at 18:25
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    It's impossible to give guidance on writing without knowing the field. A good paper in my area (theoretical computer science) looks very different from a good paper in other areas of computer science (say, operating systems or graphics) which, in turn, looks completely different from a good paper in, say, chemistry, which looks completely different from a good paper in, say, medicine, which... – David Richerby Jun 26 '14 at 00:17
  • @TobiasKildetoft He has been helping. But he too is a scientist, not a writer. – CommaToast Jun 26 '14 at 05:03
  • @CommaToast: Scientists are writers: they write up their work and submit it for publication. No one else does this for them, except for one scientist mentoring another. And a senior scientist who thinks a junior scientist's work is ground-breaking will give them substantial help and/or put them contact with others. Something is not adding up here... – Pete L. Clark Jun 26 '14 at 06:12
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    @Benjamin In general, I do suggest posting a paper in public prior to publication as it decreases the risk of getting scooped. – JeffE Jun 26 '14 at 06:14
  • But he too is a scientist, not a writer. — You say he's won major awards in the field? He's a writer. – JeffE Jun 26 '14 at 06:16
  • @PeteL.Clark - I understand what you are saying. However being a great scientist does not make you a great writer, just like being a great writer does not make you a great scientist. – CommaToast Jun 28 '14 at 01:07
  • @JeffE While I can't disagree with you that technically he is a writer, since he can write, what I really meant was that his skill as a writer does not approach his skill as a scientist. That's not to say he's a bad writer. I think some kinds of scientific publishing don't necessarily require amazing prose. However when a paper might be controversial and you have to walk a tight-rope between polemic and politely disagreeing with widely accepted ideas, I think that ones skill as a writer becomes more important, I suspect. – CommaToast Jun 28 '14 at 01:14
  • I strongly disagree; as a general rule, great scientists are also great writers. (As another general rule, True Scotsmen love haggis.) – JeffE Jun 28 '14 at 01:35

2 Answers2

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You've already talked about reading up journal articles in the field, so I'll skip that. On top of that, there are a few ways.

Follow the journal's format guide

Ask your friend which journal is the next target. Go to visit the journal website and look for the "instruction to authors." You can find format-related instruction there. A format compliant article is less likely to trigger an instant rejection/return.

Read about scientific writing

There are a few guides that I consider pretty useful:

  1. The Craft of Scientific Writing by Alley is perhaps a classic for engineer-type of writing. It also provide a good collection of tips and gems for different sections.

  2. Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Paper by Zeiger is a wonderful desktop reference for biochemical type of writing. It also provides a lot of good vs. bad examples.

  3. Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded by Schimel is a bit of a black sheep. It does not teach you how to write, but it gives an excellent account on how to chain up or arrange ideas for maximal impact, done in the levels of the whole paper, to section, paragraph, sentence, and syntax. It also draws heavily from techniques used in fiction writing, which is quite intuitive.

  4. The Craft of Research by Booth et. al. does not purely focus on writing, but also discusses how to set up arguments, present concepts. It may be a bit more hands on for you, probably more suitable for your friend who is doing the writing.

  5. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) by Turabian is an overall very useful desktop reference. It complements the Craft of Research.

Talk to the specialists

If the paper is really that controversial, I think you should talk to some people who have a good command in that particular field and get a gist of how to present or package the ideas with maximal chance of being considered.

Hire a professional editor

It's also prudent to know your limit. If you feel this is too much, then you should ask your friend to get help from the institute's English language support or hire a professional scientific editor. Editors can come with different specialties, some are experienced in medical writing, some are in science. Check their portfolio and try to match the article type as best as you can.

I said this because there is a problem in your question, if you feel that you're not capable of editing a scientific paper, how come you feel confident to evaluate his work with certainly such as: "My friend wrote a fantastic paper in their scientific field. I believe it is truly ground-breaking but it calls a lot of existing theory into question. If he's correct it will force many accepted articles to have to be rewritten?"

I don't mean to be insulting, just wish to point out that professional works sometimes are best left to professionals, especially when we don't have time to become one.

Best of luck, and I wish your friend a successful publishing process.

Disclaimer for everyone:

When reading/evaluating my answer, please be mindful that in no way I am agreeing that the paper is ground-breaking or fantastic. I merely provide resources to the questioner to improve his/her ability to comprehend and edit a scientific paper.

Whether someone with limited experience or capability can do ground-breaking work is not in the scope of this answer, and I have no comment either way. I just want to point out that I have not read the paper so I can't comment.

Penguin_Knight
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    The latter part of your answer elicited a blip from my crankometer (not that you are a crank, but that you may be encouraging a crankish mentality): namely, the idea that it is possible to do fantastic, truly ground-breaking work in a field in which one has so little experience as not to know how to write it up properly or too little investment to take the time to learn how to do so. I admit that it is possible, in theory, but in practice: if you're that much of an outsider to the field, tell me again how you know your (or your friend's!) work is fantastic and truly ground-breaking? – Pete L. Clark Jun 25 '14 at 17:27
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    Rereading your answer, I found some further nuances. I read it as hinting that a professional may be able to evaluate the friend's papers scientific merit more accurately than the OP, which is probably true. But let me say that I would not myself know how to hire a "professional editor" qualified to do this job for papers in my own field...unless such an editor is actually an academic in the subject area. Is there really a separate pool of "professional editors" with this much subject-level competence in, say, most STEM areas? – Pete L. Clark Jun 25 '14 at 17:33
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    @Pete, the questioner did not write the paper, his/her friend did. So, the questioner's inability to evaluate does not provide information on the author's ability and experience. As for how the questioner thinks the work is fantastic or ground breaking, I share your thoughts but it's not the question for me to address. – Penguin_Knight Jun 25 '14 at 17:40
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    @Pete, I have added "Editors can come with different specialties, some are experienced in medical writing, some are in science. Check their portfolio and try to match the article type as best as you can" to clarify the answer. Thanks. – Penguin_Knight Jun 25 '14 at 17:42
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    Penguin: Your comments are all helpful. Regarding your last: I'm not trying to be critical. I'm saying that -- well into my adult academic career -- I simply don't know any "professional editor" to whom I could usefully give a paper in my field, especially one which is ground-breaking and difficult to read. Are there actually such people? This is not a rhetorical question: I would be most interested to know! (Ironically, I am about to go off and lead a workshop on mathematical writing. Oh, well: in the land of the blind, the half-sighted man is king.) – Pete L. Clark Jun 25 '14 at 18:05
  • I love your list of guides, Penguin_Knight! – Sverre Jun 25 '14 at 18:10
  • @Pete, well, I'll need to produce some ground-breaking work first before I can search for such a person. I do hope the editor would be better equipped to criticize the work compared to novices. Good luck with the writing workshop! :) – Penguin_Knight Jun 25 '14 at 18:11
  • @Sverre, thanks! If you have others too add please feel free to do so. – Penguin_Knight Jun 25 '14 at 18:13
  • @PeteL.Clark The author holds a bachelor's and PhD in the field from two of the top institutions in it. While I do not hold a degree in the field, I have studied in it a bit and I grew up around it. That being said I won't disagree that someone who specializes as a professional editor in this field would be preferable, however I do not believe that the author can afford to hire anyone. – CommaToast Jun 26 '14 at 05:11
  • @CommaToast: The fact that your friend has a PhD and that you do not have a degree in this field is significant information; you might consider editing that into the question. But if your friend has a PhD, then he has been trained how to write papers in his field: in particular, he had to write a thesis. He also has a former thesis advisor and thus a lifelong mentor. His advisor would be a great person for him to seek out for advice on this. By the way, does your friend agree that the paper is poorly written, so much so that that's making it harder to publish? – Pete L. Clark Jun 26 '14 at 06:04
  • In fact, one thing you haven't mentioned is what kind of feedback your friend has gotten on his paper when he has tried to publish it. Do the referees claim that it is wrong, impossible to understand, too speculative...? – Pete L. Clark Jun 26 '14 at 06:08
  • @Penguin_Knight I agree with Pete Clark. Two decades into my academic career, I don't think I have met a single "professional editor" for computer science or math papers, nor anyone in either field who has tried to hire one. (I'm not counting copy editors for journals, who normally only correct low-level spelling and grammar errors and often introduce as many errors as they find.) Writing well is simply part of being a working researcher. – JeffE Jun 26 '14 at 06:22
  • @PeteL.Clark I didn't say the paper is poorly written. Also, my friend has already been in touch with their thesis advisor on the topic. I get the impression that it's less a matter of it being poorly written and more a matter of it needing to be extra-polished due to the way in which it links several highly abstract theoretical models together while at the same time disagreeing with some accepted (although not entirely set in stone) existing theory. Being able to make coherent arguments that flow well across multiple sections that might otherwise seem disjointed can be very difficult. – CommaToast Jun 28 '14 at 01:24
  • @CommaToast: You wrote: "Because while I feel that while their paper is great, on the other hand the writing needs some love. If the writing is improved, this paper could make this person's career." So far as I can see, this is the functional definition of a poorly written technical paper: the content is great, and the writing holds it back from being published. – Pete L. Clark Jun 28 '14 at 12:28
  • "Also, my friend has already been in touch with their thesis advisor on the topic." And? The advisor agrees that the work is fantastic but is also "a good scientist, not a good writer"? In terms of the writing "needing to be extra-polished": again, is that the feedback that the author got from the referee reports? Look, bottom line: I find it very unlikely that we can tell you how to successfully rewrite your friend's paper. I know that's not what you want to hear, and I'm sorry about that. – Pete L. Clark Jun 28 '14 at 12:31
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I would like to offer a little bit of writing advice that should be pertinent to the situation, even though it does not answer the post directly.

I think it is important to keep the attitude of "how great this is! the world really needs this!" in writing: it helps you maintain the energy to carry out the effort. However, the attitude itself should be muted or very carefully treated in scientific writing. If anyone is going to read it, they are going to be excited by a careful summary that reveals the basic ideas and then more so by something that explains the ideas in an accessible fashion. (I have made it a policy to ignore any Internet links advising to help me by using a "weird tip"; I discourage using similar promotional language which might appeal to people who, erm, "think less", or maybe "think differently", than science, engineering, and other professionals.) Here is an example from Jorge Cham on Cosmic Inflation http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1691 that manages to convey the excitement and ideas without sounding cheesy. You may find it useful as well as inspiring.

I don't have any guides, but a suggestion for meta-guides: find examples of awards for good science and engineering writing and look at those. In combination with the guides mentioned in another answer, you as writer should be able to deconstruct the examples to find which characteristics you want to use in helping your friend.

Good luck.

Not Quite An Outsider
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