Plagiarism in Scientific Writing
Categories Scientific Communication

Plagiarism in Scientific Writing: Consequences, Identification and Prevention

Introduction

Plagiarism is a serious concern in the writing world. The cases of plagiarism are increasing. Plagiarism has various consequences including the destruction of career, monetary penalties, and legal repercussions. There are various ways to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an act of copying someone’s work without giving any credit to the original creator. Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional. In both ways, plagiarism brings bad name to the person who had plagiarized both on professional as well as the academic front.

Consequences of Plagiarism in Scientific Writing

Plagiarism is becoming a more common phenomenon in recent times. This increasing trend may be due to various reasons. Whatever the reason may be, plagiarism is a serious ethical and moral misconduct. In the arena of scientific writing, the readers require a continuous infusion of new, informative, and updated knowledge. Providing readers, a plagiarized material not only brings the writer in poor light but is also hamper the credibility of the editor and journal as a whole. Following are some of the consequences of plagiarism in scientific writing:

Serious dent on reputation: Writing a plagiarized content is considered as a serious offence among the intellectual fraternity. The academic reputation, professional reputation, and reputation as a student can be ruined because of writing plagiarized material. As a student, you might be suspended for the first offence and may be expelled for a subsequent offence.

Monetary consequences: There are monetary repercussions associated with plagiarism. The person who has written the plagiarized material may be directed to pay money to the original creator of the work.

Legal repercussions: There are strong laws in place to protect the rights of an original writer such as copyright law. Copyright law is strict in some countries and may attract prison sentences apart from monetary damages. So, as a writer, you should be aware of plagiarism and how to avoid them. You should not use the other writer’s work without citation and reference and within the ambit of fair use.

Failure in the examination: Some universities and colleges take the act of plagiarism too seriously and may expel the student or fail them in the class.

Thus, because of the serious consequences associated with plagiarism, the writer should identify and avoid plagiarism.

Identification of Plagiarism

As a writer, you should well-aware of various methods to identify plagiarism so that the corrective measures can be taken instantly. Following are some of the methods to identify plagiarism:

How much is too much: The writer should write the article completely in his own words. However, the writer must know how much copying of the content amounts to plagiarism and copyright infringement. Verbatim copying of a significant amount of content from an article amounts to plagiarism and copyright infringement.

Due credit not given: The writer should give due credit to the original creator of the content. If the work is copied and credit and references are not supplied, it may lead to plagiarism.

Paraphrasing: Avoiding plagiarism through paraphrasing is a grey area. Plagiarism is indicated when the writer not only uses some other’s words but also the idea, without giving credit to the original creator of the idea.

Google check: If you have to check the plagiarism for a small paragraph or few lines, this can be done with the help of Google. Just copy the paragraph or lines and paste them on the Google search. Do not forget to put a quotation mark in the starting and end of the lines to get the exact word match.

Plagiarism tools: Various free and paid plagiarism tools are available to check the plagiarism. These tools are quite powerful and also provide you with the services of rewriting the plagiarized content. Some tools also fix grammatical errors.

Avoiding Plagiarism in Scientific Writing

Avoiding plagiarism is one of the prerequisites of writing. Following tips may help you in avoiding plagiarism:

Understand Plagiarism: Before writing the article and checking for plagiarism, get a basic understanding of the acts that constitute plagiarism. This will help you to build a strategy for avoiding plagiarism.

Citation: Do not forget to cite the source from where the content is extracted. The citation should be proper and complete. The citation style should adhere to the recommendation of a particular journal.

Quotation: If you want to take the word as it is from a source, the quotation would be your best option. You can use the quotation marks at the start and end of the sentence to give a clear indication that these are not your own words. You can place a direct citation next to the quotation.

Always write in your own words: You should prefer to be a creator of original content. Use your own words in explaining a concept, idea, or disseminating any information. If you write in your language, there are very dim chances of getting into the trouble of plagiarism.

Accurate paraphrasing: Paraphrasing when done accurately may also help you in avoiding plagiarism. While doing paraphrasing, you should change the language, style, and tone of the original content.

Do not rely very much on plagiarism software: Although plagiarism software is of great help in preventing plagiarism they may also skip some content. So, try to be the original creator of the article.

Start early: Always schedule your writing in such a way to have sufficient time to research and write it in your own words. If the time is less, you may be inclined more towards copying and pasting someone’s work.

How Scientific Writing Service Providers Help you in Avoiding Plagiarism?

Scientific writing services company help you in different ways to produce a plagiarism-free content. They may advise you regarding the research and assist you in an effective and accurate paraphrasing. The service providers will also help you in correct citations and make good use of quotations. They may also run your paper on their paid plagiarism software to identify any plagiarism.

How to Avoid Procrastination in Scientific Writing Process
Categories Scientific Communication

How to Avoid Procrastination in Scientific Writing Process?

Introduction

Procrastination is the act of waiting to complete the work until the deadline arrives. Procrastination reduces the quality of the research paper. This is because the writer does not have sufficient time to research and write the article. Further, the time of review is also small and the risk of mistakes is high. Thus, while writing a research paper, procrastination should e avoided.

Procrastination

To procrastinate is natural. Every human, at least once in his life, had procrastinated. The reasons for procrastination are many, some are genuine while others may be an indication of extended laziness. Prolong procrastination have short as well as long-term implications. Whatever the reason may be, it significantly affects the quality of scientific writing. Writing a scientific article or research paper requires strong determination, proper planning, and sufficient time to review what has been written.

Tips to Avoid Procrastination in Scientific Writing

Various ways may help to avoid procrastination and will help you in writing a scientific paper more effectively. Following are some of the tips to avoid procrastination:

Planning for the future: Research paper writing is both art and science. Aim of writing a quality research paper is accomplished through proper planning. While planning for writing, do a comprehensive analysis of your strength and weakness. You should also plan about various tools required during the writing and what are your b=objectives for writing. This will help you in providing a clear vision for writing.

The right beginning is half work done: The work will never end if it is not started at all. You may be procrastinating because you have made various assumptions in your mind regarding your research paper, such as what if I may not be able to find good references or if the quality of my paper is not good, even before starting. Start writing your paper and you will know that most of the assumptions you have made were only assumptions.

Manage environmental factors: Writing a research paper requires deep concentration. For maintaining concentration for a long period, you should maintain the environment as per your requirement. For instance, you should choose a quiet place with cleanliness around. However, do not spend most of the time creating a productive environment.

Make a routine: It is very difficult to come up with a good quality paper without a strict routine. Make a schedule about when and how much you should write each day. You should know the time during the day when you are most productive. Strictly follow and stick to your plan.

Remind yourself of short and long-term consequences: Create positive pressure into your mind. Envision the immediate and long-term consequences if you are not able to complete the paper on time. It may be a public embarrassment, poor grades in the exam, or maybe a delayed appraisal or promotion.

Write in a question-answer form: Writing in a question-answer form may help in creating motivation for writing. Asking questions to the brain and answering them induces a positive energy flow. Write some questions and began to write their answers. Later, you may edit the answers as per your requirements.

Set your target for uninterrupted writing: Uninterrupted writing may help you to maintain your concentration. Maintaining concentration for longer improves productivity. You should set a time for uninterrupted writing. During this time, you should not answer any phone call or do not indulge in other kinds of stuff. You just write during this time.

Always challenge yourself: Always challenge yourself through various hurdles. If you have decided to write several pages or some words, try to go beyond them. Further, do not look or wait for a perfect time to start writing. You just start writing and you will experience that this was the perfect time you were waiting for.

Get the help of others: Do not hesitate to get help from others. These may be your friends, teachers, coaches, or research paper writing service providers. The help may either be related to your research topic, writing skills, or tips to prevent procrastination. You may also form a writing group.

Clear the blocks: Put some fun and techniques while writing the research paper. You may write the easy part first and once completed move on to the difficult part. Do not read what you have written, unless it is the time for editing and proofreading if you are highly insecure about what you have written.

Place the work in front of you: Come out of your imagination and place your work in front of you. If you are writing on the paper, take a pen and paper and start writing. If you are on a laptop or desktop, open the document and start working. Productivity results when imagination is materialized.

Held yourself accountable: Always remember that its only you and not the circumstances that are preventing you from writing your paper. As already said, there is no perfect time but you must make the time perfect with initiating your paper writing.

Think of the future rewards: Imagine the feeling you have once you have completed your research paper. The feeling may be of getting a good grade or an immense feeling of satisfaction. This imagination will boost motivation in you to complete your paper.

How Scientific Writing Services Helps in Preventing Procrastination

Scientific writing services help to manage procrastination. They help the scientific writer in solving the queries and infuses clarity on the topic of the research paper.  Further, they also help the writer in editing and proofreading of research paper which reduces or prevents the occurrence of mistakes.

Writing and Publishing Scientific Research Article
Categories Scientific Communication

Step-by-Step Approach for Writing and Publishing Scientific Research Article

Introduction

Completion of research article writing gives immense satisfaction. However, to achieve this satisfaction, considerable time, energy, and mental presence is required. However, a step-by-step approach towards the conclusion reduces the burden and gives satisfactory results.

Inclusions of the Research Articles

To assist the reader for easy comprehension, the format of the research article is almost similar for all the journals. Headings of the article are designed in a way to ensure a smooth flow of the text. The 4 headings i.e. Introduction, methods, results and discussion, and conclusion comprise the body of the article while title and abstract are additional components. The information required under each heading is discussed below:

Title: Title is one of the important parts of the research article. It allows the reader to have an idea about the scope of the article and helps in attracting the target audience. The title allows database search engines to search for articles based on relevance. It has been found that articles with shorter titles are more preferred in citations.

Abstract: The abstract should be clear, concise and provide the reader with an idea about the research article. The abstract is important because based on the abstract, the reader will decide whether to proceed for further reading the article.

Introduction: In this section of the article, the writer should introduce the article and state its importance in improving current knowledge. Usefulness and novelty should be mentioned to increase the reader’s attention and interest.

Methods: This section may be subdivided into various subheadings for better dissemination of information. Various subheadings are subjects, procedures, definitions and criteria, data collection and statistical tools applied to interpret the data. The process is more important than the person who did it thus it is advisable to use the passive language in this section.

Results: Results should be organized in correspondence to the subheadings of the methods section. The author should progress from the simple outcomes to the more complex outcomes. If there is an unexpected result obtained during the study, the author should initiate the result section with that particular result.

Discussion and conclusion: In the discussion section, the author should discuss in detail the outcomes of the study and its relevance in context to the prior literature. The author may also discuss how this study will help in identifying and filling the scientific gap. The study limitations should be clearly defined and further course of actions are advised. In the conclusion section, the author presents the principal findings.

Preliminary Work

Writing a scientific research paper is not an easy task. The process of writing does not only include writing the research rather there are certain other preliminary tasks to be conducted. Here are some of the preliminary tasks along with or before writing:

The decision to writing the paper: There is a saying “Right beginning is half work done”. The same applies to write the research article. Writing a research article is a tedious task and strong commitment and persistence will help to achieve the outcome.

Create a reference list: Be clear about the message you want to convey to the reader. Based on the basics of your research, start searching for the relevant literature to be incorporated into your article. Arrange the literature based on relevance.

Outlining the article: Before start writing the article, prepare an outline ad various sections to be written. This will help you in focusing on one section and time. The outline will also reduce the repeatability of the text.  Write the headings of the section. Outlining the article will help in managing the word count in context with the journal’s guidelines.

Discuss with mentor or professional reviewer: The article will reach the reviewer after you submit it to the journal. Thus, it would be wise to discuss the content of the article with a reviewer known to you. You may also seek advice from your mentor as he may have a lot of experience in publishing research articles.

Writing the draft: In most cases, you may not be able to achieve the desired outcome. Revising the draft is key to the high-quality article. You should start by writing the first draft and revise the text at least twice. In the third draft, when your text gets accurate, you may incorporate the tables and figures. Once all this gets completed, incorporate the abstract.

Revising the Article

Revision of article, both initially and according to the reviewer’s comments are important in getting it published. After writing the final draft, left the article for at least 10 days. After 10 days, start reading, comprehending, and revising the article.  The number of revisions will surprise you which are required to make it perfect. After receiving the comments of reviewer/s, try to revise the article strictly as per the comments.

Submitting the Article

The submission of the article in an appropriate journal is the key to success. You should maintain a balance between undervaluing and overvaluing your paper. The article should be written strictly as per the guidelines of the target journal to reduce the chances of rejection. You should select the target journal based on the scope and area of your research.

Things to Take Care

Here are the things you should take care while writing the research article:

  • Clearly understand the scope of your research.
  • Do not hesitate to take advice from a mentor and reviewer.
  • Provide considerable time for writing.
  • Revise the article according to the reviewer’s comments.
  • Do not forget to include relevant references.
  • Utilize your resources optimally.
Scientific Writing
Categories Scientific Communication

Make your Scientific Writing Productive with 6 Awesome Strategies

As a scientist, you must excel at different skills, all at the same time. The lab work, data analysis, sitting in committees, faculty meetings, attending conferences and what not! Plus, publish papers and apply for grants. So, you are always under tremendous pressure.

It’s natural to get overwhelmed because scientific writing requires time, focus, and creativity. Writing at the last minute won’t give you a quality paper.

Well, there are six strategies you can implement right now to stay productive in your scientific writing. By implementing these strategies, you can get your paper done in less time and feel good about it.

So, here are those 6 strategies:

1) Get plenty of sleep

Haha! Only if you could get it!

Though it’s hard to find more time to sleep, being rested increases your productivity. If you write with a tired mind, it will take longer and affect the quality of your document. On the other hand, adequate sleep keeps you focused on your writing.

2) Set your goals

Why do you want to write a scientific paper? To get your doctorate degree or a promotion in your lab?

Be clear about your immediate and ultimate goals; see whether your writing project gets you closer to these goals. Once you commit to a writing task, it means you say no to the other tasks. So, be mindful on how you spend your time.

3) Plan your writing

Scientific manuscript writing differs from normal writing. In Science, you can’t foresee your findings; your article may take a different direction than you had planned. But still, you can have a plan and change it with time. A plan is always useful as it keeps you on track.

To create a writing plan:

  • Include all the members of the writing project in the plan and agree on the deadlines.
  • Make sure the people whom you need feedback form will be available at the desired time.
  • Know how long it will take to complete the various tasks in scientific writing.

4) Give yourself deadlines

Deadlines keep you focused on work. That’s why they should be a part of your writing plan. Besides the final deadline for submission, include several deadlines for the specific goals in your writing plan.

We usually take the final deadline seriously but tend to put other things off.  Therefore, involve other members while setting a deadline so they can keep you focused.

5) Find your ideal writing time

Getting up at 4 am every day and writing for two hours may seem ideal for some people, but not for many including you. So, don’t pressurize yourself.

Try writing at different times of the day for two weeks and assess at what time you were most focused and efficient. That’s your ideal writing time.

 6) Make a daily to-do list

Don’t just write “Write Paper” in your to-do list. Instead, put the daily tasks of scientific writing that you will be able to finish that day. For example, “writing the discussion section”, “cross-checking all references” or “proof-reading the results section” etc.

Finally, know that productivity in scientific writing is all about planning your tasks. Plan your writing tasks in bits and keep a check on how you spend your time.

Scientific Paper Writing
Categories Scientific Communication

Scientific Paper Writing: Have you Selected the Right Research Question?

The first and most important step in scientific paper writing is to choose your research question. You must choose a topic that will advance and add to the existing scientific knowledge. Even the journal editor won’t accept a paper that does not have a good research question.

The significance of a good research question:

A good research question:

  • Gives the researchers more clarity on developing the study protocol, designing the study, and analysing the data.
  • Makes a good initial impression on the scientific journal editors and peer reviewers.
  • Shows a well-thought research.
  • Increases your chances of publication in the journal.

Although your paper can address more than one research question, it’s better to focus on one primary research question.

But what makes a good research question?

Though this will vary for different papers and across disciplines, there is an overall criterion to keep in mind while planning your research question.

So, let’s dive in to learn that criteria!

1) So what?

Foremost, after choosing your research question, always ask yourself “So what?” This means that the findings/ result pursuing from the question must be important, interesting, and meaningful.

For example, the research question “Is exercising beneficial to reduce impairment in people?” won’t yield any meaningful knowledge. A targeted question like “Is therapeutic exercise of benefit in reducing impairment for people who would be expected to consult a physiotherapist?” could help physiotherapists revive their treatment procedure for the patients.

2) Unobviousness

Scientific journal editors’ stress on novelty and “unobviousness” i.e. the research question should not have an obvious or an undisputed answer.  You can ensure this unobviousness and provide value in one of the following ways:

  • Contribute new information that has a real-world application or leads to further lines of research
  • Validate the existing information and extend its applicability
  • Provide findings that contradict the existing literature OR
  • Critically review and analyse the literature.

Good research questions arise from critical thinking about current practices and problems and from applying new concepts to solve old problems.

3) Replication is sometimes acceptable

It’s not always necessary to convey unknown information through your research paper. You may replicate other researchers’ observations, especially if they were controversial or weak but significant. You can research whether the findings in one population also apply to others or clarify known relationships by using new methodologies.

So, when you formulate your research question, check whether it fulfils the above three requirements. And if yes, you’ve probably got a worthwhile research question.

After knowing the qualities of a good research question, it’s time for the tips to formulate one.

Tips for finding and formulating good research questions

Your field of experience and your own research interests are obviously important to identify the potential lines of research. However, you must review the existing literature to know whether your question is still relevant.

In addition, keep abreast of the current developments in the field to avoid doing same thing someone else has done.

Ways of finding a new research question:

  1. From the old literature. The ‘Discussion’ section of many papers often mentions the questions that remain unresolved or additional studies that can be done. You can formulate a good research question from the old literature by identifying the gaps and weaknesses in them.
  2. Attending conferences. Recent advances in any field of Science are presented at the academic conferences. Participating in such conferences will help you network with the experts in the field and aid in your own research.

Conclusion

Since research question is the most crucial element of any scientific paper, you must take extreme care while choosing it. If you write a paper with results that are unoriginal, predictable, or trivial, it’s less likely to be published. So, contact our professional scientific writing services team to develop the right research question that will help you avoid problems in future.