1. Effectively Communicating your Research
download: liwenbianji.cn/BUAA_2014
Author Academy:
Effectively Communicating your Research
Beihang University
29 October 2014
Jeffrey Robens, PhD Senior Research Consultant Education Group Leader

2. Be an effective communicator
Your goal should not only to be published, but also to be widely read/cited
Good research design
Choose the best journal
Logically organize your ideas
Navigate through peer review

3. Good experimental design
download: liwenbianji.cn/BUAA_2014
Section 1
Good experimental design
We’ll start by talking about good experimental design, and also discuss ethical issues as they apply to medical studies and manuscript publishing.

4. What do journal editors want?
High quality
research
Increase
impact
Original and novel research
Well-designed study
Logically organized
Learn by example
Learn the difference between good and bad writing
Real-world applications
Interesting to journal’s readership

5. What do journal editors want?
Real-world relevance
Technical quality
Learn by example
Learn the difference between good and bad writing
Develop material that can withstand colder-than-published temperatures
Novelty

6. What do journal editors want?
Real-world relevance
Technical quality
Learn by example
Learn the difference between good and bad writing
Develop new material that can withstand cold temperature, high salinity and high pressure
Novelty

7. Research that has impact
Read primary literature
Read reviews
Identify an important question
Is the question focused?
Do you have the expertise/resources?
What is new?
How is it useful?
Getting a bit more specific, as doctors, many of you might be involved in conducting clinical trials. Clinical trials can be quite large and complicated, so good study design is very important to the success of your study. Before you start, you want to consider what type of clinical trial you are going to conduct. Is it a randomized controlled trial? Is it an observational or post-marketing study of a particular treatment or device? What level of blinding is required?
As mentioned earlier, it’s also essential that you identify what type of controls you are going to use in your study. Are you comparing the before and after effects of a treatment on the same patients, or do you want to see the effects compared with a healthy placebo-controlled group?
Whatever type of trial you are conducting, it is important to have a well-defined study protocol so that the appropriate funding and research committees can understand the details of each stage of your proposed study.
It’s also important to remember that only studies that have been properly approved and conducted are likely to be accepted for publication.

8. Data fabrication or falsification Consequences of unethical behavior
Publication ethics
Data fabrication or falsification
Plagiarism
Author contribution
Conflicts of interest
Always follow ethical guidelines
Consequences of unethical behavior
Unable to publish
Loss of employment

9. download: liwenbianji.cn/BUAA_2014
Section 2
Journal selection

10. Evaluating significance
How new are your findings?
Low or high impact journal
Novelty
How broadly relevant are your findings?
International/regional & general/specialized
Relevance
What are the important
real-world applications?
Appeal

11. Factors to consider when choosing a journal
Aims & scope
Readership
Indexing
Open access
Impact factor
Which factor is most important to you?

12. Journal Selector www.liwenbianji.cn/journal_selector
Insert your proposed abstract

13. Journal Selector www.liwenbianji.cn/journal_selector
Matching journals
Filter by:
Impact factor
Publishing frequency
Open access

14. Journal Selector www.liwenbianji.cn/journal_selector
springer.com/gp/authors-editors/journal-author
Journal’s aims & scope, IF
and publication frequency
Are they published recently?
Have you cited some of them?
Similar published articles

15. download: liwenbianji.cn/BUAA_2014
Section 3
Manuscript structure

16. Problems with current solutions
Introduction
Aims
Setting the context
General problem
Problems with current solutions
Specific aims

17. Identify an important problem
Writing the Introduction
Identify an important problem
Problem in the field
However, conventional thin-film materials limit the use of such thin-film transistors in flexible backplane-circuitry due to their fragility and relatively low mobility.
Problems with current solution
Two-dimensional layered semiconducting chalcogenides (such as MoS2) have attracted attention due to their having an intrinsically high carrier mobility, mechanical flexibility, and a finite bandgap.
However, improvements for MoS2 transistors have been hampered by the presence of a Schottky barrier…
Lee et al. J Korean Phys Soc 2014; 64: L945–L948.

18. Writing the Introduction
Your aims should address the identified problem
Aims
In this research, we investigated the high-temperature electrical behavior of a MoS2 transistor with a high Schottky barrier…
High temperature leads to a larger thermionic emission that transports electrons over the energy barrier.
Propose a solution to the problem
Lee et al. J Korean Phys Soc 2014; 64: L945–L948.

19. Methods/Experimental
Study design
What was used
Materials
Software/hardware specifications
How it was done
General methods
Specific techniques
How it was analyzed
Models
Equations
Simulations

20. Results Example: Logical presentation Fabrication Characterization
Application
Logical presentation
Example:
Develop new soldering process to better withstand mechanical shock
Characterize the types of shock, the severity of shock, SEM, compare with current processes
Demonstrate this process is efficient and cost-effective

21. Each subsection corresponds to What you found, not what it means
Results
Fabrication
Characterization
Application
Logical presentation
Each subsection corresponds to
one figure
Subsections
What you found, not what it means
Factual description

22. Discussion Summary of findings Relevance of findings Implications for
Similarities/differences
Unexpected results
Negative results
Limitations
Implications for
the field

23. Results and Discussion
Logical presentation
Figure 1
Results
Interpretation
Fabrication
Figure 2
Results
Interpretation
Characterization
Figure 3
Results
Interpretation
Figure 4
Results
Interpretation
Application

24. Why your work is important to your readers
Conclusions
Why your work is important to your readers
The simulation of the non-linear behaviour of the composite materials is an open problem because of the complex phenomena that occur at the microscale level. The random distribution of defects in the matrix makes difficult to evaluate the effect of their interactions. For this reason, composite models with periodic distribution of heterogeneities are adopted in order to understand basic aspects of the composite non-linear behaviour. In this paper, a new method is presented for micromechanical finite element
analysis of unidirectional composites according to the second approach. The numerical analysis of the infinitely extended periodic composite is performed on a small part of it, namely half of the unit cell, making the method efficient in terms of processing time. The proposed method results especially effective in time-dependent analyses and can be easily used in commercial FEM software: with respect to other methods available in literature, it requires only the setting of suitable boundary conditions for half of the unit cell, without modifying the software source code.
Why needs to be done
Conclusion
Implications
Caporale & Luciano. Ann Solid Struct Mech. 2010; 1: 117–137.

25. Linking your ideas
General background
Current state of the field
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Problems in the field
Objectives
Methodology
Results and figures
Ask how some people read articles…
Summary of findings
Relevance of findings
Implications for the field
Logically link your ideas throughout your manuscript

26. Lee et al. J Korean Phys Soc 2014; 64: L945–L948.
Linking your ideas
Introduction
However, improvements for MoS2 transistors have been hampered by the presence of a Schottky barrier…
Problem
In this research, we investigated the high-temperature electrical behavior of a MoS2 transistor with a high Schottky barrier…
Objectives
Discussion
Ask how some people read articles…
…a high-performance 2D multilayer MoS2 transistor having a zero or slightly negative Schottky barrier can be realized.
Conclusion
Lee et al. J Korean Phys Soc 2014; 64: L945–L948.

27. Abstracts First impression of your paper Relevance of your aims
Importance of your results
Validity of your conclusions
First impression of your paper
Judge your writing style
Probably only part that will be read

28. Sections of an abstract
Concise summary of your research
Background
Why the study was done
Aims
Your hypothesis
Methods
Analyses
Results
Most important findings
Conclusion
Conclusion/implications

29. Unstructured abstract
Antilock braking systems are designed to control the wheel slip, such that the braking force is maximized and steerability is maintained during braking. However, the control of antilock braking systems is a challenging problem due to nonlinear braking dynamics and the uncertain and time-varying nature of the parameters. This paper presents an adaptive neural network-based hybrid controller for antilock braking systems. The hybrid controller is based on the well-known feedback linearization, combined with two feedforward neural networks that are proposed so as to learn the nonlinearities of the antilock braking system associated with feedback linearization controller. The adaptation law is derived based on the structure of the controller, using steepest descent gradient approach and backpropagation algorithm to adjust the networks weights. The weight adaptation is online and the stability of the proposed controller in the sense of Lyapunov is studied. Simulations are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller under various road conditions and parameter uncertainties.
Poursamad A. Mechatronics 2009; 19: 767–773.

30. Unstructured abstract
Background
Antilock braking systems are designed to control the wheel slip, such that the braking force is maximized and steerability is maintained during braking. However, the control of antilock braking systems is a challenging problem due to nonlinear braking dynamics and the uncertain and time-varying nature of the parameters.
Methods
This paper presents an adaptive neural network-based hybrid controller for antilock braking systems.
Results
The hybrid controller is based on the well-known feedback linearization, combined with two feedforward neural networks that are proposed so as to learn the nonlinearities of the antilock braking system associated with feedback linearization controller. The adaptation law is derived based on the structure of the controller, using steepest descent gradient approach and backpropagation algorithm to adjust the networks weights. The weight adaptation is online and the stability of the proposed controller in the sense of Lyapunov is studied.
Conclusion
Simulations are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller under various road conditions and parameter uncertainties.
Poursamad A. Mechatronics 2009; 19: 767–773.

31. Why the study needs to be done How helps advance the field
Writing your abstract
Antilock braking systems are designed to control the wheel slip, such that the braking force is maximized and steerability is maintained during braking. However, the control of antilock braking systems is a challenging problem due to nonlinear braking dynamics and the uncertain and time-varying nature of the parameters. This paper presents an adaptive neural network-based hybrid controller for antilock braking systems. The hybrid controller is based on the well-known feedback linearization, combined with two feedforward neural networks that are proposed so as to learn the nonlinearities of the antilock braking system associated with feedback linearization controller. The adaptation law is derived based on the structure of the controller, using steepest descent gradient approach and backpropagation algorithm to adjust the networks weights. The weight adaptation is online and the stability of the proposed controller in the sense of Lyapunov is studied. Simulations are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller under various road conditions and parameter uncertainties.
Why the study needs to be done
What was done
What was found
How helps advance the field
Poursamad A. Mechatronics 2009; 19: 767–773.

32. download: liwenbianji.cn/BUAA_2014
Section 4
Peer review

33. What reviewers are looking for
Relevant hypothesis
Good study design
Appropriate methodology
Good data analyses
Valid conclusions
The study
Logical flow of information
Manuscript structure and formatting
Appropriate references
High readability
The manuscript

34. Writing response letters
Read by the journal editor, not the reviewers
Respond to every reviewer comment
Refer to line and page numbers
Easy to see changes
Use a different color font
Highlight the text
Highlight the text

35. Agreeing with reviewers
Reviewer Comment: In your analysis of the data you have chosen to use a somewhat obscure fitting function (regression). In my opinion, a simple Gaussian function would have sufficed. Moreover, the results would be more instructive and easier to compare to previous results.
Response: We agree with the reviewer’s assessment of the analysis. Our tailored function, in its current form, makes it difficult to tell that this measurement constitutes a significant improvement over previously reported values. We describe our new analysis using a Gaussian fitting function in our revised Results section (Page 6, Lines 12–18).
Agreement
Revisions
Location

36. Disagreeing with reviewers
Reviewer Comment: In your analysis of the data you have chosen to use a somewhat obscure fitting function (regression). In my opinion, a simple Gaussian function would have sufficed. Moreover, the results would be more instructive and easier to compare to previous results.
Response: Although a simple Gaussian fit would facilitate comparison with the results of other studies, our tailored function allows for the analysis of the data in terms of the Smith model [Smith et al., 1998]. We have now explained the use of this function and the Smith model in our revised Discussion section (Page 12, Lines 2–6).
Evidence
Revisions
Location

37. “Unfair” reviewer comments
Reviewer comment: Currently, the authors’ conclusion that their new material is suitable for all tropical conditions is not completely valid because they only evaluated its efficiency in Asia. This material should also be tested in other tropical regions in Africa and/or South America.
Reasons why reviewers might make these comments
Current results are not appropriate for the scope or the impact factor of the journal
Reviewer is being “unfair”

38. First, contact the journal editor if you feel reviewer is being unfair
“Unfair” comments
What you should do
First, contact the journal editor if
you feel reviewer is being unfair
Do the experiments, revise, and resubmit
Withdraw submission and resubmit current manuscript to a lower impact factor journal

39. Be an effective communicator
Your goal should not only to be published, but also to be widely read/cited
Good research design
Choose the best journal
Logically organize your ideas
Navigate through peer review

40. Jeffrey Robens: jrobens@edanzgroup.com
Any questions?
谢谢！
Jeffrey Robens:
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