Resources with research writing advice
Mar 21, 2021
I was going through a few resources with some good advice on writing research papers. Might be of interest to some of you:
- How to write a great research paper (Simon Peyton Jones from Microsoft gives seven suggestions for how to improve your research papers)
- Ten simple rules for structuring papers (Table 1 in the paper gives a good summary of the ten "rules")
- Writing Empirical Articles: Transparency, Reproducibility, Clarity, and Memorability (some good advice on how to write good science, e.g. increasing the transparency)
- Writing a scientific paper, step by painful step (I'm not a fan of some of the suggestions, such as organising p-values, but overall a lot of good advice)
- Robert’s Rules:Suggestions for Writing (motivational piece, e.g. "Write fast, in multiple drafts")
- 10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly (especially relevant for people starting in grad school)
- How to construct a Nature summary paragraph (good example on how to write a summary paragraph)
- Publication, Publication (Gary King on how to structure a publishable paper)
- Writing Tips for Ph. D. Students (a must read)
- Common Expositional Problems in Students’ Papers and Theses (great set of advice -- including some detailed advice on details)
- Doing a Literature Review (recommended reading if you are doing a literature review)
- Managing Your Research Pipeline (practical advice on how to structure multiple papers)
- Mathematical Writing (+100 pages subject-specific advice on mathematical writing)
- Three Templates for Introductions to Political Science Articles (great templates for introductions)
- Writing Guide (Daniel Simons' recommendations - including a good revision worksheet)
- Of Publishable Quality: Ideas for Political Science Seminar Papers (great paper on how to think about ideas for research projects)
- Rookie Mistakes: Preemptive Comments on Graduate Student Empirical Research Manuscripts (another great paper on rookie mistakes in empirical papers)
- How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article (focus is on reading an article but also relevant for writing)