Are you planning to write your first research paper?
Prof. Fritz Scholz, world-renowned electrochemist, published a short viewpoint for young scientists (and a reminder for older colleagues).
Here are the key messages with my comments:
1️⃣ Any scientific publication is a compromise between ‘publishing too late’ and ‘publishing too early’. Beginners often wildly underrate or overrate their data.
2️⃣ ‘Publishing too late’ (or never) is a well-known fault of some overcautious individuals, who withhold their data from public scrutiny because they are not satisfied with its accuracy and completeness.
BUT tax-payers’ money that is spent on unpublished work is wasted money, and this raises questions of probity.
- Not only this. Also, any unpublished work leaves others unaware that someone tried such studies before. As a result, next generations may be making same mistakes.
3️⃣ ‘Publishing too early’ is a fault of some reckless individuals who have scant regard for the integrity of the scientific process.
- In fact, most researchers publish their data too early these days. Quality is hugely compromised for quantity.
4️⃣ Nowadays, pollution of the scientific literature by worthless, irreproducible or sloppy work is an increasing and serious problem. Here I can only plead: please do not be tempted by the short-term advantages of overpublication. The benefits are illusory, and the damage is untold.
5️⃣ If the supervisor pressurizes the student to publish uncooked results, then the student has a big problem!
6️⃣ First of all, write clearly and understandably! The eminent physicist Carl Wagner famously wrote “Any fool can think and write something complicated”.
Very often, complicated constructions are the result of an insufficient understanding, or represent an attempt to disguise the omission of certain facts which might otherwise conflict with the overall claims being made.
7️⃣ Any “honorary” co-authorship is not allowed!
8️⃣ You, the author, should always presume that the reviewers are trying to help you to improve your manuscript. They are not your enemy, but on your side. The author should realize that a likelier explanation of a poor review is the poor quality of the manuscript.
- Stop seeing reviewers as enemies. In 85%, they want to help you. As for another 15%, report it to the editor clearly and professionally.
9️⃣ "Do not try to split your work into several pieces to increase the number of your publications. The scientific community is already overwhelmed by a flood of second-rate “minimalist” papers."
- THIS is what leads to overpublishing. Don’t expect me to subscribe for your Google Scholar updates if you publish crap or break studies into tiny papers.
🔟 Always remember that a published paper will remain forever attached to your name.
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Happy to share organic co-cystals science! 🧪 just out in Nature Communications!
Congratulations!! Authors🎉
Many thanks to Prof.@piyer73 for his kind supervision.🙏
Many thanks to all the collaborators. 🙏
Thank you @NatureComms🙏
Thank you @IITGuwahati🙏
https://t.co/OqiYTnmcFU
Breaking down barriers in the world of fluorescence! A new study @JPhysChem by Barman @dbarman723 & Krishnan Iyer @piyer73 reveals unique emission properties in anti-Kasha emissive AIEgenic rotors. https://t.co/PLKu2c1OVB A game-changing advancement for future research in this!
"Here we report four multifunctional anti-Kasha’s emissive molecular rotors, displaying WLE, TADF, RTP, ML, and MC, respectively".
Many Thanks to Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer (@piyer73) for his support.
Thank you @JPhysChem for finding our work worthy!
https://t.co/K7PuVAInom