Carefully crafted language will take you only so far in describing data, lab procedures or surgical technique. Including carefully selected, high-quality images can elegantly and quickly show data, demonstrate a technique or make a point clear. This article explains the significance and provides some tips for including high-quality images in your scientific paper.

A well-written abstract should provide readers with all of the information they need to understand why the study was performed, how it was performed, what it showed and what it means, without any extraneous information to distract them from these points.

This article provides some pointers on writing the key components of a conference abstract.

The Conclusion is an important part of your paper where you distil your study and give the paper a sense of finality. This articles explains the dos and don'ts of writing the Conclusion section along with an example.

A paper in conference proceedings is based on a talk or poster presented at an academic symposium or conference. This article explains all that you need to keep in mind and do when working on such a paper.

Depending on the discipline that your research is located in and your specific research project, there are broadly two different ways in which you can approach organising, reading for and writing your literature review: either chronologically or thematically. This article explores some of the factors to consider as you begin to plan your literature review.

The main focus in a chronological literature review is to trace the development of studies, debates or theories in your subject area, and to identify how a central ‘problem’ or question(s) has been dealt with over a period of time.

In a thematic literature review, you group the literature "as you see it". It is perhaps therefore a more common way to organise your literature review than a chronological literature review. 

The significance of a study refers to the contribution(s) to and impact of the study on a research field. The significance also signals who benefits from the research findings and how.

In this webinar organised for Academic Writing Month 2022, watch our experts share tips on how to write your literature review.

In this webinar organised for Academic Writing Month 2022, watch our experts share tips and strategies on how to avoid common academic writing errors.

An academic monograph agree is generally a single-authored, scholarly contribution of professional research on a specific topic or aspect of a topic. This article explains the reasons and considerations for writing and publishing a monograph.

Academic writing isn’t just scientific; it can also be about expressing your views on a topic or field of interest. Journal articles that come in this category of ‘viewpoint writing’ include perspective articles, opinion articles and commentary articles. 

In academic writing, when you talk about the findings of your research, you should be careful and make claims of ‘appropriate strength’. This language, which softens claims, is called hedging.

Academics are increasingly writing outside their specific discipline and for much broader readership. This change can be attractive as it enables academics to expand their readership and to have an impact beyond the narrow confines of their expertise. 

An op-ed is an opinion-based article, though the origin of the name actually lies in its position in print media, where such articles were traditionally placed opposite the editorial. These short articles, around 400–800 words long, express an opinion on a highly topical issue with the aim of suggesting how this issue can be improved. 

In many disciplines, there is an obvious need to bring in data and discuss what this data means. Non-verbal data are shown in tables or figures that are placed either within the text or in an appendix. Figures include graphs, illustrations, maps, diagrams, pictures and other non-verbal information. There are many issues to consider when contemplating the best form that this information can take.

Referring to the work of other authors is a key aspect of any academic research: the references you cite display your academic credentials and also locate or situate your research to identify the contribution it makes in the context of earlier studies.

This article will help you understand the difference between authorship and contribution and tackle such issues. Before that, though, let’s consider the importance attached to authorship and the order of authors in academia.

Have you ever received peer review feedback from a leading journal that your work is not ground-breaking or novel? Some journals will flatly refuse to publish negative findings.