The art of writing a scientific article

The art of writing a scientific article

15/10/ · Good writing involves more than just writing: the vast majority of scientific papers employ figures to illustrate important concepts and present supporting data. If crafted with skill and care, these can boost the impact of your work nearly as much as the entirety of your blogger.com by: 20 The art and science of writing a scientific review article. Edison Iglesias de Oliveira Vidal Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu, Brasil Request PDF | On Jan 1, , K.S. Kim and others published The art of writing a scientific article | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

Over Scientific Papers Have Cited a 'Phantom' Reference That Never Existed

It can be pretty frustrating when you're searching for an academic reference and just can't find it anywhere you look — but it's downright spooky if the paper you seek never existed in the first place.

That's exactly what happened to a Dutch statistician who stumbled upon a truly bizarre mystery: more than research papers referencing a 'phantom' article that was never actually written.

But if the paper wasn't real, why on Earth were so many researchers citing it? The statistician in question, Pieter Kroonenberg from Leiden University, first chanced upon the riddle when checking on the submission guidelines for a journal to which he intended to submit a new paper.

In the submission guidelines, the art of writing a scientific article, Kroonenberg noted a particular paper being used as an example for how to cite research:. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci. Okay, so there's nothing at all remarkable about that, but as recounted on the blog of fellow researcher Anne-Wil Harzing from Middlesex University London, Kroonenberg's curiosity was piqued when he noticed a former colleague was one of the authors of the paper.

Only, a few things didn't seem to add up. Why was the former colleague — an experimental psychologist — dabbling in how-to guides on the art of academic writing? Also, his name seemed to be misspelled. Kroonenberg's former colleague was John van de Geer, but here the surname was listed as Van der Geer. It got weirder still, the art of writing a scientific article. Further investigation revealed there was a Journal of Science Communicationbut not a Journal of Science Communications — another strange error.

The thing is, that Italian journal was first published in — except here the paper appeared to be published in What gives? As Harzing explainsafter a lot more digging, Kroonenberg discovered "The art of writing a scientific article" was actually a complete fake:. It was a "phantom reference" that had been created merely to illustrate Elsevier's desired reference format. Okay, fair enough — it was a made-up example only ever intended to serve as a template.

Perfectly understandable. In the course of searching for "The art of writing a scientific article", Kroonenberg came across almost papers on the Web of Science research database citing the non-existing reference, and even more on Google Scholar. More digging revealed that most of these citations to the phantom reference "occurred in fairly low-quality conference papers the art of writing a scientific article by authors from emerging economies [seeming] to point to quality control as a potential source of our problem," Harzing writes.

But even so, some 40 of the references were made in respected, established journals — a pretty bizarre phenomenon, but one which Harzing and Kroonenberg put down to "sloppy writing and sloppy quality control".

Retraction Watch got in touch with several of the researchers who listed "The art of writing a scientific article" among their bibliographic references and "all attributed it to some kind of mistake", with at least one saying they would attempt to fix the art of writing a scientific article error with their publisher.

While "The art of writing a scientific article" may never have existed, it turns out there is an art to writing a scientific article after all. Over Scientific Papers Have Cited a 'Phantom' Reference That Never Existed. PETER DOCKRILL.

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art and science of writing a publishable article | Journal of Urban Ecology | Oxford Academic

16/11/ · As Harzing explains, after a lot more digging, Kroonenberg discovered "The art of writing a scientific article" was actually a complete fake: "To cut a long story short, the article appeared to be completely made up and did not in fact exist. It was a "phantom reference" that had been created merely to illustrate Elsevier's desired reference format." Request PDF | On Jan 1, , K.S. Kim and others published The art of writing a scientific article | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate The art and science of writing a scientific review article. Edison Iglesias de Oliveira Vidal Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu, Brasil