B. Subidea
（C. Subidea）
Para. 2Subidea A
Para. 3Subidea B
（Para. 4 Subidea C）
Para. 4\/5Concluding: restate the main idea
[Sample 3]
Understanding Depression (excerpted)
(黃一瑜、閔楠、殷紅梅，2008)
Depression often looks different in men and women. An awareness of these differences helps ensure that the problem is recognized and treated.
Depression is a loaded word in our culture. Many associate it, however wrongly, with a sign of weakness and excessive emotion. This is especially true with men. Depressed men are less likely than women to acknowledge feelings of selfloathing and hopelessness. Indeed, they tend to complain about fatigue, irritability, sleep problems, and loss of interest in work and hobbies. Other signs and symptoms of depression in men include anger, aggression, violence, reckless behavior, and substance abuse. Even though depression rates for women are twice as high as those in men, men are a higher suicide risk, especially older men.
Rates of depression in women are twice as high as they are in men. This is due in part to hormonal factors, particularly when it comes to premenstrual syndrome (PMS), premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), postpartum depression, and perimenopausal depression. As for signs and symptoms, women are more likely than men to experience pronounced feelings of guilt, sleep excessively, overeat, and gain weight. Women are also more likely to suffer from seasonal affective disorder.
[Analysis]
Sample 3 is an unified essay because it maintains its unity by keeping the main idea of this essay in consistence with “different depression in men and women”. The last two paragraphs follow the same topic “depression” and show in details how men and women are different in depression sufferings. The first paragraph states the thesis of the essay, the second explains in detail the depressions of men, and compared with men, the third paragraph explains the depressions of women. This organization can keep discourse unified.
3.2.2Coherent conventions and thematic progression coherence in medical journal essays
Generally speaking, coherence means that the part of the paragraph is logically connected. Coherence of a paragraph is concerned with its form or its organization. The sentences in a paragraph should be arranged in a clear, logical order, and the transition should be smooth and natural. A coherent paragraph shows the features of both logical order and appropriate transitions which tie the sentences and ideas closely and smoothly via thematic progression, given and new information, and cohesion.
More specifically, the means of realizing the textual cohesion consist of grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion and thematic cohesion. Thematic cohesion interacting with grammatical and lexical cohesion enhances the cohesion of the text and its internal information organization. The thematic organization of the text is closely connected with discourse coherence or text connection.
3.3Theme and rheme
Every sentence has its own theme and rheme. From a functional point of view, theme and rheme were first proposed by Vitem Mathesius (1973), the founder and lifelong chairman of the Prague School. Then, the theory of theme and rheme was developed by Halliday and other linguists (2000). “The theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that with which the clause is concerned. The remainder of the message, the part in which the theme is developed, is called in Prague School terminology the rheme” in Hallidays book An Introduction to Functional Grammar. For example,
[Sample 4]
A safe and effective SARSCoV2 vaccine may be required to end the global COVID19 pandemic.
[Sample 5]
To end the global COVID19 pandemic, a safe and effective SARSCoV2 vaccine may be required.
[Analysis]
“A safe and effective SARSCoV2 vaccine” is the grammatical subject in both sentences, but theme in Sample 4 and rheme in Sample 5.
Generally speaking, theme can be understood as where the speaker begins to express information and it tells people that, from this concerning point, the sentence starts its message progression. The rest of the sentence is rheme, which expresses the information that is developed from theme.
Every sentence contains a theme part and a rheme part which are definite and unchangeable in a single sentence. However, in a context or discourse, as Halliday points out, it does not mean theme definitely falls on the position at the beginning of the sentence. The position is just an assistance to realize the function of theme.
3.4Thematic progression
Most of the discourses are composed of more than two sentences, and these sentences have grammatical or semantic relation. Moreover, they are also internally related to each other in terms of themes and rhemes. Thus the theme and rheme in the following sentences will have some connection with the theme and rheme in the former sentences.
The study of thematic progression is made mainly by Danes and Fries. Thematic progression might be viewed as the skeleton of the plot (Danes, 1974). It reflects the way of thinking of human beings. Danes finds that the connection between sentences is realized with the progression process from theme to rheme, and he thinks that it is the theme that plays an important constructing role in a context. That is to say that the real thematic progression of a discourse actually refers to the cohesion and connection of the themes, the relationships between themes and their subordinates and the relationship between themes, the paragraph, the whole discourse and the setting. All these kinds of relationships are called “the pattern of thematic progression” by Danes.
Frantisek Danes (1974) is the first person who claimed the concept of thematic progression. He postulates three main types of thematic progression: simple linear thematic progression, thematic progression with a constant\/continuous theme and thematic progression with derived theme\/split theme pattern.
3.4.1Simple linear thematic progression
In this pattern, the rheme or a part of the rheme in the preceding clause\/sentence becomes the theme of the subsequent clause\/sentence. Danes (1974) refers to this as the most elementary or basic thematic progression. This model could be manifested in the following graph (T=theme, R=rheme):
T1R1
T2 (=R1)R2
T3(=R2)R3
[Sample 6]
It (T1) all began more than three decades ago when Lovelock devised the electron—capture detector (R1). Still widely used, this electronic nose (T2=R1) is able to sniff out a few parts per trillion of chemicals found in the soil, water or air (R2).
[Analysis]
In this text, the theme of the first sentence is “It”; the rheme of the first sentence is “the electron capture detector” and it becomes theme of the second sentence “this electronic nose”.
In linear thematic progression, each theme naturally grows out of each previous rheme, and the paragraph coherence is achieved as themes are clearly related. With the development of theme, new content is presented to the readers one after another, so it is easier for the readers to get the main flow of the writers ideas. In terms of writing skill, this thematic pattern can make it easier for the writer to describe or explain the object to the readers, or to emphasize the theme or rheme in a naturally logical way.
3.4.2Thematic progression with a constant\/continuous theme
In this pattern, all the clauses\/sentences in the preceding and the subsequent clauses\/sentences share the same theme while the rheme for each sentence is different. It could be manifested in the following graph:
T1R1
T2(=T1)R2
Tn(=T1)Rn
T1(T1Tn)
R1
R2
Rn
Here, rhemes describe the different aspects of the same event or thing from different angles. Peter H. Fries called this type of thematic progression theme iteration. The result of this type of thematic progression is that the themes in the text constitute a chain of coreferential items, which extend through as a sequence of sentences.
[Sample 7]
...the Gaia Hypothesis (T1) is a revolutionary idea (R1). It (T2=T1) argues that living things are not passive victims of their environment but can alter it (R2). The theory (T3=T2=T1) could transform scientific thinking much as did Sir Isaac Newtons image of the universe as a clockwork mechanism(R3). Gaia (T4=T3=T2=T1) challenges the scientific establishment—whose experts jealously rule narrow specialties—to see a bigger picture: the world as one system in which sea and sky and life transform one another(R4).
[Analysis]
This text is also from The Man Who Discovered Mother Nature by Lowell Ponte, and it provides an illustration of constant thematic progression (TP) pattern in use; here the theme of each sentence refers to the main topic of the text, the theory of Gaia Hypothesis.
3.4.3The derived thematic progression
3.4.3.1The derived\/split themes pattern
This pattern means the metatheme is either given in a preceding statement, or must be inferred from the common element of the subthemes that are discussed.
T(meta-theme)R
T1R1
T2R2
TnRn
In this pattern, the first sentence is usually the topic sentence, so the theme of the first clause\/sentence is often called hypertheme of the text. The themes of other sentences are all derived from the socalled hypertheme. In this way, theme and rheme expand separately at the same time.
[Sample 8]
Countrylevel percentage (T=T1+T2+T3+T4) change in the prevalence of children at risk between 2004 and 2010 when extreme poverty measures were used is shown in figure 3 (R). Of the 141 countries assessed (T1), 123 had reductions in prevalence (R1). Among 27 countries with reduction of 20% or more (T2), 23 were middleincome countries including Vietnam (45%, the largest rate of decline), China (40%, the second largest rate of decline), and India at margin (by 20%) (R2). Six subSaharan countries (T3) also declined by more than 20% (Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Congo Brazzaville, Mauritania, and South Africa) (R3). Of the 17 countries with no change or an increase in prevalence of children at risk of poor development (T4), 11 were in subSaharan Africa (R4). (Lu et al., 2016)
[Analysis]
In this sample, the first sentence is the topic sentence, and the theme of the first sentence (“Countrylevel percentage”) is the hypertheme of the text. Each of the subordinate themes (T1, T2, T3 and T4) is derived from this hypertheme and expands separately at the same time with the development of corresponding rheme. This kind of thematic progression pattern is normally used as the beginning paragraph, particularly in an argumentative, informative and explanatory text.
3.4.3.2The derived\/split rhemes pattern
This pattern occurs when the rheme of a clause has two or more components, each of which provides the theme for one or more following statements. It means that the themes in the subsequent clauses may derive from the rheme of the first clause\/sentence. Like the derived themes pattern, the first sentence is also usually the topic sentence, and the rheme of the first clause\/sentence is often called hyperrheme of the text.
TR(=T1+T2+Tn)
T1R1
T2R2
TnRn
[Sample 9]
There are two sides to the brain(T), the left and the right (R=T1+T2). According to one theory, the right side (T1) deals with the senses (what we see, hear, feel and smell) (R1). The left side (T2) is concerned with logic (R2).
[Analysis]
Here, the first sentence has a superrheme “the left and the right”. In the following sentences, each applies one side of the brain as its theme, which is derived from the original rheme of the first sentence. This kind of thematic progression pattern is frequently used to illustrate a certain point in compositions.
[Sample 10]
This study(T) has several important limitations (R=T1+T2+T3). First, the vaccine (T1) was not consistently given concomitantly with the spoken polio vaccine (R1)....Second, the Vesikari score (T2) was originally designed for use in settings of high parental literacy, which may have led to underscoring of some cases in our trial because of low parental literacy(R2), although....Finally, at the time of the analysis, no extensive genotyping data (T3) were available to weigh the vaccine efficacy against a changing pattern of circulating serotypes (R3), and...(Isanaka et al., 2017)
[Analysis]
The superrheme is “several important limitations” in the first sentence, which is also the topic sentence. Each of the derived themes of the following supporting sentences is taken from the superrheme in the first sentence, explaining different aspects of the “limitations” (the vaccine, the Vesikari score and extensive genotyping data) in this study.
Chapter Review
This unit introduces the theory of coherence in academic English of medical journal essays chiefly by two sides:
1. paragraph unity in academic English of medical journal essays,
2. and paragraph coherence in academic English of medical journal essays.
Then cohesive ways are also illustrated in academic English of medical journal essays, namely:
1. grammatical transitions,
2. and lexical transitions.
Assignments
Task 1
Read the following two paragraphs and find the irrelevant sentences in them.
A. Only children lack companionship. An only child can have trouble making friends, since he or she isnt used to being around other children. Often, the only child comes home to an empty house; both parents are working, and there are no brothers or sisters to play with or to talk to about the day. At dinner, the single
child cant tell jokes, giggle, or throw food while the adults discuss boring adult subjects. An only child always has his or her own room but never has anyone to whisper to half the night when sleep doesnt come. Some only children thrive on this isolation and channel their energies into creative activities.
B. These days the weather is getting chilly. Dressed in heavy clothes, students go back to dormitory after a days studying. It should be an relaxing time when falling in asleep but something nettlesome change it into a nightmare. The mosquitoes are the perpetrators. Why there still are mosquitoes in such cold days? Students suffering from annoying buzz complain and wonder. In many peoples notion, mosquitoes and bears alike sleep during winter. Actually, the mosquitoes are the reverse as they are still alive above 2 centigrade which means if any place indoor is warm their eggs will hatch and then become mosquitoes. So you will be annoyed by mosquitoes even in these cold days.
Task 2
Discuss the following paragraphs in light of unity, coherence, and cohesion.
A. In addition to being relaxing, television is entertaining. Along with the standard comedies, dramas, and game shows that provide enjoyment to viewers, television offers a variety of movies and sports events. Moreover, in many areas, viewers can pay a monthly fee and receive special cable programming. With this service, viewers can watch firstrun movies, rock and classical music concerts, and specialized sports events, like international soccer and Grand Prix racing (大獎賽). Viewers can also buy or rent movies to show on their television sets through DVD players or VCRs. Still another growing area of TV entertainment is video games. Cartridges (暗盒) are available for everything from electronic baseball to Mortal Kombat (格鬥之王), allowing the owner to have a video game arcade (視頻遊戲拱廊)in the living room (Langan, 2010).
B. Across mammals more broadly, the relationship between adult brain mass and longevity is accounted for by patterns of maternal investment and is generally interpreted as a manifestation of developmental costs of producing larger brained offspring, rather than necessarily due to any cognitive or behavioral mechanism. Here, however, we found that the associations of longevity with absolute and relative brain volume remain when controlling for maternal investment. Therefore, in primates, compared with mammals in general, variation in adult brain size across species cannot be fully accounted for by patterns of maternal investment, and the relationship between brain and lifespan is potentially indicative of a cognitive
buffering, rather than solely developmental, mechanism through which cultural intelligence facilitates survival. This contrast can perhaps be explained by divergent scaling relationships between brain volume and neuron number in primates compared with other mammalian lineages. Unlike nonprimate mammalian lineages, such as rodents, in which neuron size increases and neuron density decreases with increased brain volume, in primates, the number of neurons increases approximately isometrically with brain volume. Therefore, in primates, larger brains may confer stronger benefits in terms of increased cognitive function and behavioral flexibility compared with other mammalian lineages. Overall, together with the strong relationship between social learning and longevity, these findings are consistent with the hypotheses that cultural knowledge facilities survival and that extended longevity facilitates the acquisition exploitation and social transmission of life skills (Street et al.).
Task 3
Analyze the following essay in light of unity, coherence, and cohesion.
Cognitive Changes Associated with Aging (excerpted)
(黃一瑜、閔楠、殷紅梅，2008)
Research on the human brain has documented dramatic decreases in brain size and efficiency throughout our lives, beginning virtually from the time of birth. Yet, in spite of these anatomical and physiological declines, studies have found evidence of only limited decrements in actual intellectual functioning associated with the aging process. This section examines some of these known decrements in two fundamental domains of cognitive functioning: intelligence, and learning and memory.
The fact that quite a lot of older persons experience virtually no functional impairment despite their cognitive limitations is a testimony to the redundancy built into the human brain, as well as the ability of humans to find ways to compensate for potential cognitive limitations. It also reflects the fact that intellectual ability is only one of many factors affecting functioning in later life. Ultimately, intellect may be considerably less important than selfcare ability and social competence in determining an older persons ability to function independently and competently, and to live a rich, rewarding life.
Intelligence
Intelligence generally can be thought of as including a range of abilities that allow us to make sense of our experiences: the ability to comprehend new
information, the ability to think abstractly, the ability to make rational decisions, spatial ability, numerical ability, verbal fluency, etc. Some abilities (e.g. the ability to think abstractly) are heavily biologically determined and are relatively independent of particular applications, reflecting what has been called “fluid intelligence.” Other intellectual abilities (e.g. verbal fluency) are more apt to reflect the knowledge and skills a person has gained through life experience, or “crystallized intelligence.”
Intelligence tests have demonstrated a pattern of agerelated changes in intellectual functioning typically beginning after the age of 60. This“classic aging pattern” involves somewhat poorer performance on tests of fluid intelligence, but little or no difference on tests of crystallized intelligence. It should be noted, however, that there is a great deal of variability in the test scores of older adults, with some older persons actually doing better than some younger persons. Moreover, older adults intellectual functioning can be improved significantly with training and practice, although improvements generally are less than those experienced by younger persons with the same amount of training.
The factor that older persons seem to perform more poorly on tests of fluid intelligence is due in part to reduced efficiency or nerve transmission in the brain, resulting in slower information processing and greater loss of information during transmission. However, performance decrements may also be due to a variety of noncognitive factors, including impairments in motor ability and sensation. Slower motor performance can significantly reduce an older persons ability to respond on tests that require fine hand movements (e.g. filling in the proper rectangle on an answer sheet). Sensory deficits associated with aging, for example, can result in perceptual inaccuracies, requiring the aging mind to commit more attention and cognitive effort to comprehending sensory input and reducing its capacity to quickly process new information.
Learning and memory
Most persons experience a modest increase in memory problems as they get older, particularly with regard to the ability to remember relatively recent experiences. Decrements are found both in the ability to accumulate new information and in the ability to retrieve existing information from memory storage, although there is little decline in the ability to store new information once it is learned.
The process of learning new information and encoding it for storage requires more time as individuals get older, because of the reduced efficiency of neural transmission and because of sensory deficits that limit ones ability to quickly and
accurately perceive information to be learned (as discussed above). In fastmoving daytoday experiences, this may prevent individual experiences (e.g. the name of someone to whom one is introduced) from receiving the attention needed for complete encoding into secondary memory. In addition, the extensive life experience of older persons makes it likely that new information will not adequately be distinguishable from previous learning (e.g. the names of other similar people one has met over the years), making it difficult to establish unique cues and linkages for new experiences.
Older persons also experience decrements in their ability to retrieve information once it is stored. In part, this is because of the difficulty identifying just the right piece of information from the vast store of information they have accumulated over a lifetime of experiences. This can be particularly difficult when the new information resembles previously learned information (e.g. when one is trying to recall a phone number from a thousand of phone numbers that have been learned over a lifetime). Consequently, older persons tend to do considerably worse than younger persons on tests of free recall, where they are asked to retrieve learned information but given only minimal cues. However, few decrements are found when older adults are given sufficient orienting parameters to limit the scope of the research, or are asked to select the correct answer from among a small of opinions (e.g. on a multiple choice test).
Task 4
Write a unified, logical, cohensive essay with the topics like schoolers depression, obesity, human disaster, healthcare, blood donation, environment risks or else.
PART Ⅱ
English Medical Academic Paper Writing
Chapter FourEnglish Academic Paper Writing
Chapter Four
English Academic Paper Writing
Leadin Questions
1. Have you read some academic papers in English?
2. Do you have any plans to do a project and write a paper?
3. What kind of sources would you use to review the literature?
Learning Objectives
After learning this chapter, you will be able to:
1. get an overall idea about the basic procedure of medical research and English academic paper writing,
2. understand SCI and SCI papers,
3. and understand ways of topic selection.
參考答案
課件申請
學術資源
4.1An overview on English academic paper writing
For scholars all over the world, writing academic papers in English and publishing them in international academic journals has become an important choice in order to make their scientific achievements more widely known and accepted. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of Chinas scientific research strength and capability, the number and impact factors of SCI papers published in international journals increase significantly every year, and the influence of science and technology also increases year by year. Publication in international academic journals including SCI journals has become an important symbol to measure the academic level of individuals and institutions. It has become the norm for teachers and students in medical schools, researchers in medical research institutions and medical workers in hospitals to write and publish scientific papers in English.
However, international academic journals always have their specific requirements on paper writing, especially in the following three aspects: the structural layout, logic of argumentation and language expression. Although most of the paper authors in China have more than a decade or more of English learning experience, their ability to write and express in standard academic English is still poor. Despite the good viewpoints and data of the paper, it is a pity that the paper cannot be accepted and published due to the inadequate or even incorrect expression of English language. Actually, writing and publishing academic paper in English is a challenge to most Chinese learners.
In most cases, an academic paper is both argumentative and expositive in order to share its information on a given research subject. The previous chapters have prepared the students in the aspects of lexis, sentence building, paragraph construction, essay coherence and rhetorical modes, which are the basic skills needed to write a research paper in English. The following chapters are designed mainly to shape the students to understand the structural layout and logic of argumentation\/expression.
Before moving on to the following chapters, lets talk about a few things.
4.2SCI, SCI paper and CNKI
SCI, Science Citation Index, compiled by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), is a list of scientific texts from all over the world. For each scientific paper, it has information about the author, the title, the subject, etc. All this information is taken from thousands of scientific journals.
SCI papers refer to papers included in SCI. Chinese people have a vague concept of SCI papers. A small number of people mistakenly think SCI is a journal.
SCI (Science Citation Index), EI (Engineering Index) and ISTP (Science Conference Catalogue Index) are three famous scientific literature retrieval systems in the world. They are internationally recognized as the main retrieval tools for scientific statistics and evaluation, among which SCI is the most important.
Currently, SCI publishes journals in print and CDROM formats, as well as online databases, and now also publishes online Web databases, covering biological and environmental sciences, medicine and life sciences, engineering technology and applied science, physics and chemistry, behavioral science and other more than 100 disciplines. Every year, more than 600,000 new articles are reported, involving 9 million citations.
There are four indexes in SCI: citation index, journal source index, subjectword index and institution index(引文索引\/期刊源索引\/主題詞索引\/機構索引).It can be retrieved over the Internet. To find SCI journals, use the following website：http:\/\/ipscience.thomsonreuters.com\/mjl\/.
4.2.1Impact factors of SCI papers
The selected SCI journals are based on the literature analysis method, namely the scientific citation analysis method. In this analysis, the citation frequency of journal papers is used as the evaluation index, and the higher the citation frequency is, the greater the influence of the journal will be.
The impact factor of a journal is the total number of citations of papers published in a journal within a given period (usually the first two years) divided by the total number of papers in that journal during that period. Generally speaking, the impact factor is published in June of each year. The impact factor is not the impact factor of the year, but the impact factor of the previous year.
4.2.2Basic requirements for SCI papers
Clear: Clear thinking, Clear concept, Clear hierarchy and Clear expression.
Complete: Complete content and structure.
Correct: Correct scientific content, Correct data (reliable data), Correct language (Correct grammar).
Concise: a treatise that clarifies scientific meaning and uses quantitative methods.
4.2.3Understanding and thinking of SCI
From the perspective of SCIs strict selection principle and strict expert evaluation system, it has certain objectivity and could reflect the level and quality of papers in a more realistic way.
However, SCI was originally intended as a powerful document retrieval tool. Different from conventional way by subject or classification retrieval literature practice, SCI sets up a unique “citation index”, a piece of literature as a search term. In this way, the context of a research project and its relevant research literature could be found quickly by collecting the cited references and following up the cited situation after publication.
Though SCI is an objective evaluation tool, it can only be used as one of the perspectives in the evaluation work, and cannot represent all the evaluated objects. Therefore, the impact factor should not be used as the only basis to evaluate the journal level, but only as one of the reference indicators.
4.2.4Understanding CNKI
CNKI has built the most comprehensive system of China academic knowledge resources, which collected over 90% of China knowledge resources, comprehensive coverage of journals, dissertations, newspapers, proceedings, reference works, encyclopedia, patents, standards, S & T achievements and laws & regulations.
4.3Academic research paper and its
textual structure elements
Academic research papers are original works written by one or a group of researchers after careful designs, experiments, observation and statistical analysis. Research papers are the researchers authentic academic contributions which contain their own academic views and creativities. Research papers are different from other types of papers such as review, translation and case report.
To explore the composition of a paper, EAP (English academic research papers or English academic papers) can be generally divided into experimental research and case study or literature research papers. Their textual structure elements normally consist of title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions and references totally, which form an organic whole of English academic papers internationally. The text of the paper includes introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusions.
An English Academic Paper
Title
Abstract
Introduction
Materials &
Methods
Results
Discussion &
Conclusions
References
Figure 1The textual structure elements of an English academic paper (EAP)
4.4The basic procedure of medical research and
the output process of a paper
4.4.1Topic selection of journal papers
How are scientific papers produced? To answer this question, we must first figure out the basic procedure of medical research because writing and publishing papers is the last but also an extremely important part of the research work, which is the most effective embodiment of all the previous work.
Scientific research project\/topic selection is the first step of medical research, followed by project design, research implementation, result analysis, and finally writing and publishing papers.
project\/topic
selection
project
design
research
implementation
result
analysis
paper
writing
paper
publication
Figure 2The basic procedure of medical research
It can be seen that this is also the basic process of quantitative scientific research.
4.4.2The basic process of scientific research topic selection
The basic process of scientific research topic selection includes four steps. The first is to find problems in work and study. After consulting relevant literature and materials, reevaluation is conducted to analyze the feasibility and finally determine the subject or topic.
The process of research topic selection
Find problems
Consult
literature
Reevaluate the
feasibility
Determine the
topic
Figure 3The basic process of research topic selection
4.4.3Topic selection process of journal papers
The choice of a topic is a vital step in writing a research paper. Ideally a researcher should choose a topic he\/she is interested in. However, it is not always an easy job to decide on an appropriate topic and establish a title accordingly, as one may be interested in many aspects of a particular topic.
A good beginning is half done, while selecting a good topic is a wise beginning of a project. A wellselected research topic should be a distilled or filtered topic that could be narrowed down enough to establish a clear focus so that the paper has a clear purpose and is not too broad or too general. Selecting a topic requires careful consideration.
To make a wellselected topic, the basic process of scientific research topic selection discussed above implies a path to follow step by step.
1. Develop a topic scope for the target problems.
Clarifying the scope of the target problem makes the topic selection path more visible and clearer. By doing so, you could take advantage of your special knowledge to make a deeper understanding of the research you have conducted or you are performing and develop one or several draft topic\/topics for your paper to be written.
2. Narrow down the topic by consulting literature.
Consult and review the published SCI papers of peers in this field to confirm the research direction and specific experimental scheme you have made. In this process, youll have some good ideas to make the topic even clearer and more perfect gradually which conforms to the project or research being done, and even in turn promote and revise the project.
Also, if no suitable topic can be found, it is time to fire up the computer and search the Internet for ideas. One of the most popular search engines, for example, is Google. A Google link for research paper topics might lead a net browser to a source that never occurred to you.
3. Focus the topic by reevaluating the feasibility of the project.
A topic with specific focus could be developed in the process of a brief feasibility reevaluation of the project.
4. Determine the topic.
In general, after going through the three steps above, a focused topic could be determined naturally. Developing a specific focused topic will help establish a suitable title. Now you start a right way to write your research paper in English.
4.5Ways of topic writing
4.5.1Choose a new topic
Take your time searching for a topic. Do not settle on the first idea that pops into your head. Think it over. Ask yourself whether you would enjoy spending five weeks reading and writing about the topic. If you have doubts, keep looking until you hit on an idea that excites you. All of us are or can be excited about something. Whatever you do, do not make the mistake of choosing any old topic. Choose carelessly now, and you will pay later in boredom. Choose carefully, and you will be rewarded with the ageold excitement of research. (Winkler & Metherell, 2017)
4.5.2Keep asking questions
One of the best ways to find a topic is to ask yourself questions about your general interests. The idea is to probe until you hit a nerve. You might begin by asking yourself some general questions. What do I want to write about? What particular subject interests me? What do I really like? If you have no immediate answer, keep asking the questions. Once you have an answer, use it to ask another, more focused question. For example, if your answer to “what do I really like?” is literature, you can then ask, “What kind of literature?” By this process, you gradually narrow down your range of writing options. It is simple, and it works. All you need is a moment of reflection.
4.5.3Narrow down
Table 41 has listed two layers of narrowing steps. Please analyze the examples of the narrowing a researcher has to face.
Table 41Narrowing steps
General subjectFirst narrowingSecond narrowing
British and
American humor
British and American humor in The Brink and Yes, Minister
A contrastive study of British and American humor from the perspective of cooperative principle theory—A case study of The Brink and Yes, Minister
(Continued)
General subjectFirst narrowingSecond narrowing
Parallel skin
Analysis of parallel skin
Parallel skin: A visionbased dermatological analysis framework
Educational psychology
Psychological testing in schools
The thematic apperception test (TAT) and its presentday adaptations
Emergency medicine
Digital clinical pathway for emergency medicine
Development of a digital clinical pathway for emergency medicine: Lessons from usability testing and implementation failure
Chinese medicine herbs
Traditional Chinese medicine herbs in oncology clinical trials
Evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine herbs in oncology clinical trials
Clinical pharmacology
Clinical pharmacology as a medical subspecialty
Enhancing the visibility and prestige of clinical pharmacology as a medical subspecialty
Clinical teaching
Clinical teaching of oncology
Application of MDT mode in clinical teaching of oncology
Clinical genomics
Clinical genomics and precision medicine
Debutant iOS app and genedisease complexities in clinical genomics and precision medicine
Cardiac
rehabilitation interventions
Cardiac rehabilitation
interventions in patients with unstable angina pectoris
The effects of cardiac rehabilitation interventions in patients with unstable angina pectoris after their incomplete revascularization
As shown in Table 41, the first attempt to narrow a subject usually is easier than the second, which must yield a specific topic. Use trial and error until you have a topic you like. Further narrowing may occur naturally after you are into the actual research. Remember that whatever subject you choose must be approved by your instructor.
4.6Topics to be avoided
1. Long topics
Research topics, according to international journal articles, tend to be 10 words long or so, and a few articles have a topic of more than 20 words. Here is a case: a long topic of 23 words “Risk of poor development in young children in lowincome and middleincome countries: an estimation and analysis at the global, regional, and country level.”
A long topic contains many reference sources, or a bibliography, or opinion, data, or information. The solution is to narrow the topic down, focusing on the related key concept.
2. Topics of a single source
The research paper is intended to expose a researcher to the opinions of different authorities, to a variety of books, articles, and other references. If a topic is so skimpy that all the data on it come from a single source, say, a compelling biography, you are defeating the purpose of the paper. Choose only topics that are broad enough to be researched from multiple sources and are not dominated by the opinions of a single writer. (Winkler & Metherell, 2017)
3. Too technical topics
Writing about things that are technical often requires the vocabulary that might sound to your instructor like “gobbledygook” and be dismissed as a “snow job”. Also, the skills that a research paper should teach are better learned in a paper on a general topic. Naturally, whether your paper is too technical depends on the class for which it is written. Ask your instructor. A topic like “Heisenbergs Principle of Indeterminacy as It Applies to Subparticle Research” is fine for a physics class but a dubious choice for a class in writing. Dont stick to topics that can not be understood by any educated reader. (Winkler & Metherell, 2017)
4. Trivial topics
The definition of “trivial” is insignificant, or of no importance, such as “History of the Tennis Ball”, “How to Rumor Arise in the Year Around”, “Walking is Good Aerobic Exercise”, and so on. Such trivial topics cannot inspire a researcher to do best writing. Therefore, trivial topics have to be avoided in research articles.
5. Hot topics
A topic that still smells of gunpowder from being hotly debated in the arena of public opinion is best avoided. There are at least two good reasons to stay away from such topics. First, it is often difficult to find unbiased sources on them; second, the information that is available usually comes from newspapers and magazines whose speculative reporting can make your documentation seem flimsy. Intellectually solid papers will reflect opinions taken from a variety of sources—books, periodicals, reference volumes, specialized indexes, and various electronic sources—which require a topic that has weathered both time and scholarly commentary.
Chapter Review
This chapter, firstly focuses on a general understanding about what an English academic paper is like. You have learnt what are SCI and SCI journals, what textual structure elements should be included in EAP, whats a basic procedure of medical research and how to select a topic.
1. In most cases, an academic paper is both argumentative and expositive.International academic journals always have their specific requirements on paper writing especially in the following three aspects:
the structural layout,
logic of argumentation,
and language expression.
2. The Science Citation Index (SCI) is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield. There are four indexes in SCI:
citation index,
journal source index,
subjectword index,
and institution index.
3. The textual structure of an academic research paper normally consists of 7 classic and important elements:
title,
abstract,
introduction,
materials and methods,
results,
discussion and conclusions,
and references.
4. The basic process of scientific research topic selection includes four steps:
finding problems,
consulting relevant literature and materials,
reevaluating and analyzing the feasibility of the topic,
and determining the subject or topic.
Assignments
Task 1
Answer the questions concerning information retrieval tools.
1. In what way do people retrieve information before computers were widely used?
2. How do people often retrieve information with the help of a computer?
Task 2
Try to write an essay covering the following three aspects: a. to answer a question; b. to discuss an issue; c. to solve a problem. The titles below may give you some hints.
What do you think of losing weight?
Does government play a major role in prevention and control of major infectious diseases， such as SARS and COVID19(新型冠狀病毒性肺炎)?
Should humans be banned from using GMF (genetically modified food)?
Task 3
Scan the QR code and read the titles of the SCI papers in Appendix Ⅱ, and search for at least five articles of the original text, using search engines and periodical databases.
Task 4
Ask your seniors for advice on how they design their subjects and choose the topics of their thesis. Youd better browse their published papers. Then discuss with your tutor about the direction of your later project. Select an article, as a reference, from Appendix Ⅱ that might be related to your conjecture topic, try to choose one or two topics, and try to write a title for it.
Chapter FiveTitle Selection and Authorrelated Contents of Research Papers
Chapter Five
Title Selection and Authorrelated
Contents of Research Papers
Leadin Questions
1. What should be included in the title?
2. What is a wellwritten title?
3. What are the functions of a title?
Learning Objectives
After learning this unit, you will be able to:
1. identify the choice of a journal topic,
2. know how to give your paper or study a suitable title,
3. select good topics,
4. correctly write author(s), corresponding author(s), their affiliated institutions and contact information.
參考答案
課件申請
學術資源
5.1The function and elements of a title
The most important part of academic English paper or thesis writing is the title, which is a significant mark that distinguishes one paper from other papers. The title of a paper provides the readers with the most essential information about the whole paper. It can also be said to be the punchline of the thesis because it influences the first impression of the paper, so that readers can judge the value of the paper and its relevance to their own research, and decide whether to continue reading the paper and whether it can be retrieved.
It is a rather subjective question to clarify the function of the title because the answer will be different for different fields and for different audiences. For a hypothesis testing paper, the function of the title is to express either the topic or the message of a paper through the independent variable and the dependent variable (自變量和因變量) used in the passage. As for a medical or biomedical paper, it could be hypothetic or descriptive. Its title also has two functions: to identify both the main topic and the message of the paper and to attract readers. Generally, a title has the following functions:
1) to show the most important achievement(s)\/results in the research,
2) to convey key information for the readers of the relevant field,
3) to indicate both the specific study and the general research field,
4) to illustrate the unique research methodology,
5) to report the location, period of time, and subjects\/populations of the experiment,
6) to highlight the significant purpose of the work,
7) and to manifest the original nature of the paper.
Based on the general functions of a title, it is reasonable to infer that the main elements of a title are related to research purpose, research subject\/population, research location, research materials and methods, research results and conclusions. It is a conventional rule and good idea to take these relevant elements into consideration seriously when writing a wellconstructed and fascinating title for a research paper. However, what kinds of elements should be included in the title actually depends on the essential point in a particular research that the writer(s) want(s) to tell the readers.
[Sample 1]
Childhood vaccines and antibiotic use in low and middleincome countries (Lewnard et al., 2020)
[Sample 2]
Two phase 3 trials of inclisiran in patients with elevated LDL cholesterol (Ray et al., 2020)
[Analysis]
In these two samples, many relevant elements are included: the population, materials, location, method, so as to set the minimum and maximum scope of effect for the study and to generalize the population as broadly as possible within the constraints of the study.
Briefly, the title provides a distilled description of the complete article and should include information that, along with the abstract, will make electronic retrieval of the article sensitive and specific.
5.2The main points of a title
Generally, many of the related essential factors like the specific research field, research purpose, subjects and material, are included in a title. Sometimes important research methods or other crucial factors are contained in a title. It is also proposed that final conclusion be presented in the title. Normally, there are several main points that should be noted in drawing up a title.
1) Core issues of study. That is: what problem is the research trying to solve.
[Samples 3—4]
Inclisiran in patients at high cardiovascular risk with elevated LDL cholesterol
Childhood vaccines and antibiotic use in low and middleincome countries
2) Main results of the study. That is: what the most significant result of the study was.
[Samples 5—6]
A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement
Diarrhoeal disease in children due to contaminated food
3) The unique material or research methodology. That is: what kind of specific materials or magnificent methods was used or created in a study?
[Samples 7—8]
Reducing deaths from diarrhoea through spoken rehydration therapy.
Use of quantitative molecular diagnostic methods to identify causes of diarrhoea in children: a reanalysis of the GEMS casecontrol study.
4） Main conclusions of the study. That is: what are the conclusions drawn from the research results?
[Samples 9—10]
Global increase and geographic convergence are in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015.
Antibiotic treatment of diarrhoea is associated with decreased time to the next diarrhoea episode among young children in Vellore, India.
5.3The features of a title and title page
5.3.1Four features
Based on the analysis of some international medical journals such as Lancet, Nature, SCI Rep, NEJM, and JVI, four common features of paper titles are identified, in spite of the characteristics of paper titles in different journals.
First, paper titles are chiefly composed of three elements: subject, objective, and methodology. Second, subtitles are mostly used in journal articles, such as “Persistence of Zika Virus in Body Fluids—Final Report” (NEJM, 2018). Third, many of them are in forms of noun phrases rather than sentences. Last, the average length of article titles is about 10 words. Generally speaking, good titles share the features of being concise, informative, and compliant with journal formal requirements, such as “Epidemiology of Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Children and Yong Adults” from The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM, 2017). These merits of titles will also greatly promote the acceptance of related papers, and influence the peer review and efficient citation.
5.3.2Title pages
Most journals require a title page (cover page) in submission package which states general information about an article and its authors and usually includes the article title, author information, any disclaimers, sources of support, word count, and sometimes the number of tables and figures (mostly, as the LEGEND presented at the end of the paper).
When editors of SCI journals receive letters from authors, the first focus of attention is the title page of the manuscript because generally in the title page, the editor can roughly understand some information related to the content of the manuscript, and then make a preliminary judgment on the manuscript. So how exactly should SCI titles be written? Its contents generally include:
5.3.2.1Article title
Accurate, concise and informative titles make deep first impression on editors and reviewers. An article title is a must.
5.3.2.2Author information
The authors name with highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliations where the work should be attributed should be specified, and the title page should also list the corresponding authors (通訊作者的) telephone and fax numbers and email addresses.
5.3.2.3Disclaimers
A disclaimer is an authors statement that the views expressed in the submitted paper are his or her own and not an official position of the institution or funder.
5.3.2.4Source(s) of support
The source(s) of support include grants, equipment, drugs, and\/or other support that facilitated conduct of the work described in the paper or the writing of the paper itself. They are usually identified by:
This study\/work\/research\/project was supported\/funded\/granted\/sponsored by...
Study\/Work\/Research\/Project supported\/funded\/granted\/sponsored by...
Supported\/Funded\/Granted\/Sponsored by...
Source of funding;
Grant sponsor.
5.3.2.5Word count
A word count for the papers text, excluding its abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, and references, allows editors and reviewers to assess whether the information contained in the paper warrants the papers length, and whether the submitted manuscript fits within the journals formats and word limits. A separate word count for the abstract is useful for the same reason.
5.3.2.6A short running head or title
When submitting an article, journals or magazines often require running head\/title. It is a short title of an article, which is usually shorter than the title and less than 40—50 English characters(字符) (not words but characters, including spaces).
5.3.2.7Number of figures and tables
Some submission systems require specification of the number of figures and tables before uploading the relevant files. These numbers allow editorial staff and reviewers to confirm that all figures and tables were actually included with the manuscript and, because tables and figures occupy space, to assess if the information provided by the figures and tables warrants the papers length and if the manuscript fits within the journals space limits.
5.3.2.8Conflict of interest declaration
Conflict of interest information for each author needs to be part of the manuscript; each journal should develop standards with regard to the form the information should take and where it will be posted. Editors may also require conflict of interest declarations on the manuscript title page. The author(s) should truthfully explain “Conflict of Interest” so as to avoid unnecessary disputes and provide references for editors to make decisions.
[ Sample 11 Title page]
Maternal Cytomegalovirus Seroprevalence and Congenital Infection
Prevalence and Its Clinical Manifestations in China
Running title:CMV Seroprevalence and Congenital Infection
Shiwen Wang*, Tongzhan Wang*,Wenqiang Zhang*, Xiaolin Liu*,
Xiaofang Wang, Haiyan Wang, Xiaozhou He, Shunxian Zhang, Shuhui Xu,
Yang Yu, Xingbing Jia, Lijun Wang, Aiqiang Xu, Wei Ma, Minal Amin,
Stephanie R. Bialek, Sheila Dollard, Chengbin Wang
National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China (S Wang MD PhD, X Wang MD PhD, X He MD, S Zhang MD)
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention,Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, Shandong, China (T Wang MD, W Zhang MD PhD, X Liu MD, H Wang MD, A Xu MD PhD)
Jinan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, Shandong, China (S Xu MD)
Weihai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Weihai, Shandong, China (Y Yu MD)
Pingyin County Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Pingyin, Shandong, China (X Jia MD)
Wendeng County Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wendeng,Shandong, China (L Wang MD)
School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China (W Ma MD PhD)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (M Amin MPH, S R Bialek MD, S Dollard PhD, C Wang MD PhD)
*Joint first authors
Correspondence to: Aiqiang Xu, MD, PhD, Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 16992 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250014, China, Email: [email protected], or Chengbin Wang, MD, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd MS A34, Atlanta, Georgia, 30333, USA, Email: [email protected].
Word counts: XXX in abstract, XXX in text (excluding 1 figure, 3 tables and XXX references)
Key Words: Cytomegalovirus, Seroprevalence, Congenital Infection
Financial Disclosure: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose
Funding:This study was supported by a cooperative agreement between the U.S. and China CDC, and by the Taishan Scholar Program of Shandong Provincial CDC.
Disclaimer:The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
5.4Principles of a good title
A wellwritten title can function as the brand of a paper to attract editors, reviewers and readers from the very first glance, and be retrieved easily from electronic databases. Generally speaking, a wellwritten title should be accurate, consistent, informative and concise.
5.4.1Accurate and consistent
An accurate title should precisely reflect the most important messages of the article by key words. The most important thing is to use the same keywords in the title as in the paper.
For a hypothesistesting paper, find out whether your title is accurate by comparing it with the question and answer. The independent variable, the dependent variable, the animal or population, the material, the condition (if necessary), the experimental approach (if necessary), and the message (if stated) should be the same in the title as in the question and answer stated in the introduction, discussion and abstract.
[Sample 12]
Title: NeutrophilInduced Injury of Epithelial Cells in the Pulmonary Alveoli of Rats
Questions: To determine whether the injury of epithelial cells in the pulmonary alveoli that occurs in many inflammatory conditions is induced in part by stimulated neutrophils, we exposed monolayers of purified alveolar epithelial cells from rats to stimulated human neutrophils and measured cytotoxicity using a 51 Crrelease assay.
[Analysis]
We conclude that stimulated neutrophils induce injury in epithelial cells in the pulmonary alveoli.
For a descriptive paper, the terms used for the structure and the function in the title should be the same as those in the message (or the message and the implication) stated in the introduction and the discussion.
[Sample 13]
Title: ARC, an Inhibitor of Apoptosis Expressed in Skeletal Muscle and Heart that Interacts Selectively with Caspases
Introduction: We have identified and characterized a human cDNA encoding an apoptosis repressor with a CARD (ARC) that is expressed in skeletal muscle and heart. ARC interacts selectively with caspases and functions as an inhibitor of apoptosis.
[Analysis]
For a method paper, the name of the method, its purpose, and the animal or population (if any) should be the same in the title as in the sections of introduction, discussion, and abstract.
[Sample 14]
Title: A Method for Purifying the Glycoprotein IIbIIIa Complex in Platelet Membrane
Abstract: We have developed a method for the rapid purification of the glycoprotein IIbIIIa complex in platelet membrane.
5.4.2Concise
Short titles have more impact than long titles do, so make your title as short as possible without sacrificing accuracy and completeness. That is, to make the title concise. Some journals require a short title, usually with no more than 40 characters (including letters and spaces) on the title page or as a separate entry in an electronic submission system. Electronic submission systems may restrict the number of characters in the title. Whatever the journals limit is, keep in mind that the aim is not to fill the space allowed. The aim is to convey the topic or the message of your paper accurately, completely, specifically, and unambiguously. If you can devise a short title that fulfills these criteria, do so. Phrases (such as noun phrases and gerunds) are often preferred to achieve conciseness. It is also advisable to avoid using “decorative” or “empty” expressions such as “A report on”, “Observations on”, “Some thought on”, and “A research of.”
Two ways to make title concise are by omitting unnecessary words and by compacting the necessary words as tightly as possible.
5.4.2.1Omitting unnecessary words
[Sample 15]
Pharmacokinetic Studies of the Disposition of Acetaminophen in the Sheep MaternalPlacentalFetal Unit
[Analysis]
Here “Pharmacokinetic Studies of” is regarded as nonspecific opening and should be omitted.
Revision: Disposition of Acetaminophen in the Sheep MaternalPlacentalFetal Unit
[Sample 16]
Alterations Induced by Administration of Chlorphentermine in Phospholipids and Proteins in Alveolar Surfactant
Revision A: Alterations Induced by Chlorphentermine in Phospholipids and Proteins in Alveolar Surfactant
Revision B: ChlorphentermineInduced Alterations in Phospholipids and Proteins in Alveolar Surfactant
5.4.2.2Compacting necessary words
Three compacting techniques can be used to shorten titles： category terms, adjectives to express a message and noun clusters.
Category terms： One important compacting technique is to use a category term instead of details. As the following example shows, it has replaced the specific tissues with a category term, which avoids the danger of giving trees but not the forest.
[Sample 17]
Electron Microscopic Demonstration of Lysosomal Inclusion Bodies in Lung, Liver, Lymph Nodes, and Blood Leukocytes of Patients with AmiodaroneInduced Pulmonary Toxicity
Revision: Electron Microscopic Demonstration of Lysosomal Inclusion Bodies in Extrapulmonary Tissues of Patients with AmiodaroneInduced Pulmonary Toxicity
[Analysis]
By substituting the category term“Extrapulmonary Tissues” for liver, lymph nodes, and blood leukocytes and omitting “lung”, we get the forest.
An adjective can be used instead of a noun followed by a preposition to express a message, as in the following example, where “reduced” is used instead of “reduction in.”
[Sample 18]
Reduction in Metabolic Rate during RadioFrequency Irradiation in Rats
Revision: Reduced Metabolic Rate during RadioFrequency Irradiation in Rats
Noun clusters. Noun clusters sometimes can be used instead of prepositional phrases. But this technique must be used carefully to avoid creating an ambiguous title.
[Sample 19]
Renal Mechanism of Action of Atrial Natriuretic Factor in Rats
Revision: Renal Mechanism of Action of Rat Atrial Natriuretic Factor
5.4.3Informative
As a condensed reflection of the paper, the title should provide enough information for the readers to know what to expect when they finish reading the whole paper. Select the most important information for the title. Keep in mind that, just as the abstract cannot replace the paper, the title cannot replace the abstract. Announcing the main information of the paper is stronger than trying to fit all the information into the title.
5.5The structure of a title
A title is usually a noun\/gerund phrase, a sentence, or even a combination of a phrase and a sentence. Prepositional phrase is often used as an effective and skillful means to modify or link other phrases in a title.
Though different written forms are required by different individual journals, a title may contain two or three sections, to emphasize two or three aspects of a research. Logically, they may be generalspecific in content, or in some other relationship. In terms of messagestructure, titles could be classified into three forms.
5.5.1Topic phrase titles
A topic title is a phrase that identifies the topic of the paper. It answers the question: “What is the paper about?” A topic phrase title may be a noun phrase or a gerund phrase. For example:
1. Noun phrase
Alcohol Use, Myocardial Infarction, Sudden Cardiac Death, and Hypertension Surgery for Infective Endocarditis
Physician Clinical Performance Assessment: Prospects and Barriers
An Ecological and Digital Epidemiology Analysis on the Role of Human Behavior on the 2014 Chikungunya Outbreak in Martinique
2. Gerund phrase
Controlling Rectal Cancer
Engaging Medical Students in the Feedback Process
Explaining Insurancerelated and Racial Disparities in the Surgical Management of Patients with Acute Appendictis
So, how exactly should SCI titles be well written or well structured? Firstly, lets observe the following 3 title samples and tell which one of them is a wellorganized title.
[Sample 20]
The Relationship of Eating Kelp, the Prevention for Thyromegaly (甲狀腺腫) and Adults
[Sample 21]
The Relationship between Eating Kelp and Prevention for Thyromegaly in Adults
[Sample 22]
The Effect of Eating Kelp for Prevention of Thyromegaly in Adults
[Analysis]
It can be seen that there involved two concepts in forms of noun phrase: eating kelp, prevention for thyromegaly. It seems reasonable and possible for the hypothesis of this study to be verified that eating kelp helps prevent people from suffering thyromegaly. However, the topic of this paper is neither about eating kelp (independent variable) nor thyromegaly (dependent variable), nor adults (population), but about the relationships between these three things.
Sample 20 is a noun phrase and looks like a topic phrase title. However, it could not implement the function of a title because the relationship between these three concepts has been explained too vague and confusing for the readers to differentiate between the three concepts within the relationship.
As for Sample 21, the population “adult” generalizes the population within the constraints of the study and the three concepts (independent variable, dependent variable and population) are clearly expressed. However, just as in Sample 20, the noun phrase “relationship” is not a proper phrase to express or present a cause and effect. Instead, Sample 22 could be a good title because it expresses the topic of the paper properly and the function of each concept involved is expressed properly.
In these two samples, many relevant elements are included: the population, materials, location, method, so as to set the minimum and maximum scope of effect for the study and to generalize the population as broad as possible within the constraints of the study.
Briefly, the title provides a distilled description of the complete article and should include information that, along with the abstract, will make electronic retrieval of the article sensitive and specific.
5.5.2Message phrase titles
“What is the main discovery\/result about the research?” is the question that a message phrase title should answer. Noun phrase and gerund phrase are also commonly used to express a message title; however, the specific discovery\/result must be presented. For example, if we change the topic phrase title “The Effect of Eating Kelp for Prevention of Thyromegaly in Adults” into a message phrase title, three possible research results would create three titles respectively:
[Sample 23]
The Increased Incidence of Thyromegaly by Eating Kelp in Adults
[Sample 24]
The Decreased Incidence of Thyromegaly by Eating Kelp in Adults
[Sample 25]
No Effect on the Incidence of Thyromegaly by Eating Kelp in Adults
[Analysis]
In these three message titles above,followed the dependent variable (Incidence of Thyromegaly) are the independent variable (Eating Kelp) and the population (Adults), both of which are placed in propositional phrases. Most importantly, the dependent variable is modified by past participle (Increased and Decreased) and common negation (No) respectively so that the three message titles are created, reflecting three different experimental results.
5.5.3Message sentence titles
In terms of grammatical structure, a message sentence title is written in the form of a sentence or even a combination of phrase and sentence. For example:
1. Sentence
Human hR24L gene is involved in DNA excision repair and recombination repair.
When should patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia be treated?
2. Combination
Outpatient Thyroidectomy: Is It a Safe and Reasonable Option?
Unsolved Issue: Do Drinkers Have Less Coronary Heart Disease?
In a message sentence title, the independent variable serves as the subject of a sentence and dependent as the object of the sentence; while, the verb of the sentence makes a summarized description of trend in results and the verb must be used in the present tense because it is a truth claim instead of a description of the result. Samples 26, 27 and 28 could help us understand the writing of message sentence titles easily.
[Sample 26]
Eating Kelp Increases the Incidence of Thyromegaly in Adults
[Sample 27]
Eating Kelp Decreases the Incidence of Thyromegaly in Adults
[Sample 28]
Eating Kelp Has No Effect on the Incidence of Thyromegaly in Adults
5.6Some suggestions on writing a good title
1. Review and study articles published in journals that are similar to your research topic.
If you are not sure how to write a title for your article, youd better check out journal articles on similar topics first and write your title in the same format. If youre also unsure how to use specialized vocabulary, look at articles with similar content and use the same keywords to write your title. Remember not to copy the title of other research papers.
2. The format of the topic and the number of words should conform to the requirements of the journal.
As many journals have special requirements on the format and number of article titles， it is quite necessary for us to carefully read the “Information for Authors”, and avoid exceeding the word limit.
3. SCI paper titles should be accurate and original.
SCI paper titles should be accurate and original, highlighting the most important and original research findings.
4. Ensure that the title of your paper could be retrieved easily.
In order to make the title of SCI paper more searchable, the title should be written with strict and standard keywords.
5. Write a draft of a title first and make it perfect gradually.
It is a good idea to write a draft of a title at the beginning of paper writing. In the process of writing, when you have a good idea, you can revise the original title and make it perfect gradually. Sometimes, its only in the writing process that certain nuances of meaning become clearer and give you the inspiration to write a good title.
5.7Author, affiliation and contact information
Authors and their affiliated institutions, linked by superscript numbers or ranked by the importance of their contribution, should be listed on the opening page of the manuscript.
The email, correspondence address and other contact information of the corresponding author will be published together with the paper on the opening page of the manuscript, so that other international counterparts engaged in relevant research can contact him after the paper is published.
Closely related to the authorship,the involved authors affiliations also appear, such as universities, institutes, hospitals, etc. Attention should be paid to the accuracy of the name of the involved affiliations when translated into English. For those internationally renowned institutes, their English translated names should adopt the longused version that is generally accepted by the international academic community, so that peers can use the affiliations for literature retrieval.
[Sample 29—Nature]
Early prediction of circulatory failure in the intensive care
unit using machine learning
Stephanie L. Hyland1,2,3,4,10, Martin Faltys5,10, Matthias Hüser1,4,10, Xinrui Lyu1,4,10, Thomas Gumbsch6,7,10, Cristóbal Esteban1,4, Christian Bock6,7, Max Horn6,7, Michael Moor6,7, Bastian Rieck6,7, Marc Zimmermann1, Dean Bodenham6,7, Karsten Borgwardt6,7,11, Gunnar Rtsch1,2,3,4,7,8,11 and Tobias M. Merz5,9,11
1Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. 2Computational Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. 3TriInstitutional PhD Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA. 4Medical Informatics Unit, Zürich University Hospital, Zürich, Switzerland. 5Department of Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 6Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, Basel, Switzerland. 7Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland. 8Department of Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. 9Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. 10These authors contributed equally: Stephanie L. Hyland, Martin Faltys, Matthias Hüser, Xinrui Lyu, Thomas Gumbsch. 11These authors jointly supervised this work: Karsten Borgwardt, Gunnar Rtsch, Tobias M. Merz. email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
[Analysis]
Sample 29 is an excerpt from Nature. A title page of Nature should include:
manuscript title,
each authors name and affiliation\/institution,
contact information for corresponding authors.
In Sample 29, the authors of the paper are listed just beneath the title with Stephanie L. Hyland as the first author. The last three of the authors (Tobias M. Merz, Gunnar Rtsch and Karsten Borgwardt) are equally contributed cocorresponding authors. According to each authors linked superscript numbers, the authors affiliated institutions are listed on the opening page of the manuscript, especially with the emails of three corresponding authors.
The authors of SCI papers should be the main accomplisher of the research reported in the papers and should participate in the process of paper writing. Chinese authors should pay attention to the British and American custom when publishing SCI papers, i.e. putting authors first name first and last name last (uppercasing the first letter of the first name and last name respectively). At the same time, when publishing SCI papers, pay attention to the requirements of the contributing journals. The first and last name format must be unified and consistent, so as to facilitate literature retrieval by peers and understand your research comprehensively and systematically.
Among all the authors, the first author and corresponding author are the biggest contributors. The first author is usually the subject implementer, that is, the fulfiller of the main experimental tasks and the author of the paper. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate, and usually the chief person in charge of the research, determining the idea of the project or research, providing experimental funds and reviewing the paper. Some SCI journals allow authors with equivalent contributions to be cofirst authors or cocorresponding authors, for example,“Drs. Ray and Wright contributed equally to this article.”
The authors of SCI papers should be listed in the order of first author, other authors and corresponding authors. Other authors, often more than one, should be ranked in descending importance according to their degree of contribution. The ranking of authors is related to recognition of the importance of their work and must be agreed between the first author and the corresponding author and approved by other authors.
[Sample 30—N Engl J Med]
Observational Study of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with COVID19
Joshua Geleris, M.D., Yifei Sun, Ph.D., Jonathan Platt, Ph.D., Jason Zucker, M.D., Matthew Baldwin, M.D., George Hripcsak, M.D., Angelena Labella, M.D., Daniel K. Manson, M.D., Christine Kubin, Pharm.D., R. Graham Barr, M.D., Dr.P.H., Magdalena E. Sobieszczyk, M.D., M.P.H., and Neil W. Schluger, M.D.
From the Divisions of General Medicine, Infectious Diseases, and Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine (J.G., J.Z., M.B., A.L., D.K.M., C.K., R.G.B., M.E.S., N.W.S.), the Departments of Biostatistics (Y.S.) and Epidemiology ( J.P., R.G.B., N.W.S.), Mailman School of Public Health, and the Department of Biomedical Informatics (G.H.), Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and New York—Presbyterian Hospital—Columbia University Irving Medical Center (J.G., J.Z., M.B., A.L., D.K.M., C.K., R.G.B., M.E.S., N.W.S.) — all in New York. Address reprint requests to Dr. Schluger at the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, PH8 E., Rm. 101, 622 W. 168th St., New York, NY 10032, or at [email protected].
[Analysis]
A title page of N Engl J Med should include:
manuscript title,
each authors name, highest degree, and affiliation\/institution,
contact information for the corresponding author.
In Sample 30, Dr. Geleris is the first author. Dr. Schluger is the corresponding author and his correspondence address and email are included at the end of the list of the authors affiliation.
Chapter Review
A good title of a research paper provides a distilled description of the complete article and should include information that, along with the abstract, will make electronic retrieval of the article sensitive and specific.
Based on the functions and main elements of a title, in this chapter, we have also discussed the main points, common principles, features and structure of a good title, and title page in international medical journals. Finally, some ways of writing a good title are suggested.
1. It is a conventional rule and good idea to take some relevant elements of a title into consideration seriously when writing a wellconstructed and fascinating title for a research paper.
Easy to understand
Accurate promise of the papers content
Specifying the scope of the study
No use of unexplained abbreviations unless they are widely accepted by the target journals audience (e.g. HIV, AIDS, DNA, RNA, IQ)
Simple, short, concise
10 to 12 words long
Interesting
Stating the subject of the article, sometimes the conclusion
Nondeclarative
Indicating the study design
Eyecatching
Beginning with a key word
Grammatically correct
Worded appropriately for the target journals audience
2. There are several main points that should be noted in drawing up a title.
Core issues of the study to answer the question: what problem is the research trying to solve?
Main results of the study to answer the question: what was the most significant result of the study?
Sometimes, the unique material or research methodology.
Main conclusions of the study concerning what are the conclusions drawn from the research.
3. Three forms of title structure:
A topic title: about the question “What is the paper about?”
A message title: about “What is the main discovery\/result about the research?”
A message sentence title: written in the form of sentence or even a combination of phrase and sentence.
Assignments
Task 1
Search the journals in your specialty to find some papers with titles of the following types.
Noun Phrases
Gerunds
Sentences
Combination
Task 2
Rewrite the following titles to make them concise and clear.
1. A study of two cases of primary sclerosing cholangitis
2. Studies on the pathogenesis of refractory anemia
3. Investigation of pathology of noncirrhotic portal fibrosis
4. Discussion on cause of anemia in malaria
5. Evaluation of etiology of liver disease in renaltransplant patients
6. On histologic classification of thyroid cancer
Task 3
Mark out the steps you think are useful for writing a title.
1. Write a draft of a title at the beginning of the paper writing and make it perfect gradually in the process of writing.
2. Rewrite the title after the paper is finished since you have got a very clear idea about the paper then.
3. Decide what kind of structural title you are going to write according to the general topic structure of the journal you are submitting to.
4. Study the linguistic features of titles in the journal that you are going to submit your paper to.
5. Correctly express three concepts: the independent variables, dependent variables and population.
6. Pick out the most informative words.
7. Revise the title to maximize the meaningful content within an appropriate length.
8. Link all the phrases with proper linking devices.
9. Use noun phrases or gerunds to present dependent variables.
10. Include the core study issue, main study result and main conclusion exactly in the title.
11. Review and study articles published in journals that are similar to your research topic.
12. Make sure that the title of your paper could be retrieved easily.
Chapter SixAbstract Writing
Chapter Six
Abstract Writing
Leadin Questions
1. Should you write your abstract before or after finishing the body of your paper?
2. Have you ever read some abstracts in your study field?
3. Have you ever read abstracts to consult relevant reference in your study field?
4. Are there any uniformed standards for writing medical abstract?
Learning Objectives
After learning this chapter, you will be able to:
1. understand function, characteristics and processing of abstract writing,
2. and understand the five “moves” included in the abstract and try to get some writing practice.
參考答案
課件申請
學術資源
6.1An overview on abstract and the
function of abstract
The abstract is the first section of an experimental research paper, served as the point of entry, coming after the title and before the section of introduction. Besides the title, an abstract is the most frequently read part of a research paper. It is a part of a published paper that biomedical and clinical researchers can read for free when they use PubMed, an online search engine, for literature retrieval.
The abstract provides the readers with a brief preview of the study based on information from the other sections of the paper. It is the epitome, refinement and summary of scientific research works. The abstract can be called a miniature version of an article. APA (American Psychological Association) defines abstract as:
A brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the article; it allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly, and like a title, it enables abstracting and information services to index and retrieve articles.
This definition also indicates that the abstract is used as an important measure for retrieving papers and for promoting the international scitech exchange. Generally, it is used to accomplish three important tasks:
to help readers identify the interest of a paper,
to outline the main points of a paper,
and to guide the reading of a paper.
Before the paper comes in official publication, the abstract impresses the editor about the content and quality of the paper and help the editor decide whether the article is worth publishing. A wellwritten abstract, therefore, contributes much to the acceptance and publication of the article.
Once the article is published, the abstract will be indexed in many electronic databases, and it will help readers to locate and retrieve the article quickly and efficiently. Before reading through the paper, readers can have a general understanding of the core problems to be solved, research methods to be studied, important conclusions, etc., and get an overall impression of the work to judge the content of the paper and relevance to their research work.
Briefly speaking, an abstract plays a vital role for its author to convince the journal editor to accept and publish his\/her paper first, by providing an overview and specific highlight of the paper. The other main function of an abstract is to provide specific key elements from each of the other sections of the paper, by providing its readers with a brief preview about the whole paper, and with explicit or implicit information about research background, introduction, purposes, methods, results and conclusions of the paper, upon which its readers might depend to decide whether to read the paper or not. Thus, the abstract should make sense both when read alone and when read with the paper.
6.2Identification of an abstract and
academic summary
To learn how to write normative abstracts, wed better make clear what an abstract is like and what an academic summary is like because they are easily confused.
An abstract and academic summary both highlight the major points in an article or a paper and they are separated from the article. However, they are quite different from each other: an abstract is a short statement about an article designed to give a complete yet concise understanding of its research and findings while an academic summary is a brief and concise restatement of the main facts or points of an article or a book; an abstract usually appears at the beginning of the paper as the point of entry while a summary at the end of an article; an abstract is more condensed and thus shorter than a summary (normally with only one paragraph), which must contain key words (essential in a paper).
Now, read through the following two samples and try to get a general feeling or sense about their tone, writing style, linguistic features and discourse structure, etc.
[Sample 1Abstract]
A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement
Abstract: (1) A global priority for the behavioural sciences is to develop costeffective, scalable interventions that could improve the academic outcomes of adolescents at a population level, but no such interventions have so far been evaluated in a populationgeneralizable sample.(2) Here we show that a short (less than one hour), online growth mindset intervention—which teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed—improved grades among lowerachieving students and increased overall enrollment to advanced mathematics courses in a nationally representative sample of students in secondary education in the United States. (3) Notably, the study identified school contexts that sustained the effects of the growth mindset intervention: the intervention changed grades when peer norms aligned with the messages of the intervention. (4) Confidence in the conclusions of this study comes from independent data collection and processing, preregistration of analyses, and corroboration of results by a blinded Bayesian analysis.
(Yeager et al., 2019)
[Sample 2Summary]
Summary: The authors in this study assessed the relationship between job performance in firstlevel managers (as rated by their supervisors) and their affective commitment, continuance commitment, and job satisfaction. Affective commitment is defined as an emotional attachment to the organization (Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin, & Jackson, 1989). Alternatively, continuance commitment is based on the costs that employees associate with leaving the organization. Job performance was assessed according to 3 dimensions (1) composite performance, according to an average on 6 specific activities, (2) overall performance, based on a subjective rating given by the immediate supervisor, and (3) promotability. The participants were 23 district managers and 65 unit managers from a large food service organization. The researchers found that affective commitment was positively related to overall performance and promotability. The correlations between continuance commitment and all 3 performance dimensions were negative and significant. What I learned from this article and these findings is that supervisor ratings of performance and promotability increase as the employees affective commitment increases; on the other hand, supervisor ratings of performance and promotability decrease as continuance commitment increases.
[Analysis]
Both of the samples above have some similar highlights or the major points
to be explained or declared, such as methods and materials, study purpose, results and conclusions. However, they are quite different in their tone, writing style, linguistic features and discourse structure, etc.
The typical abstract usually consists of five parts or moves: introduction, purpose, methods, results and conclusion. On the other hand, an academic summary typically outlines four elements relevant to the completed work: research focus, research method, results\/findings, conclusion and recommendation. Sample 2 is a proper academic summary.
6.3Moves in an abstract
There are chiefly three types of abstracts according to their functions: descriptive abstracts, evaluative abstracts and informative abstracts. When most people use the word “abstract” they are probably referring to the informative abstract. No personal feelings or thoughts are injected; the main points of the material are presented objectively. It serves as a substitute of the original and is the proper form for paper retrieving. Scitech\/research paper abstracts, including biomedical and clinical medicine papers, are usually written in this form.
6.3.1Five moves or key elements in the abstract
Usually, five moves or key elements are included in the abstract.
Table 61Moves or key elements in the abstract
MoveKey elementsFunctions\/contents\/tense
Move 1
Introduction\/
Background
Introduces the background, present situation, problems, etc., usually written in the present tense.
Move 2
Purpose
States the premise, purpose, problem, task, or thesis of the research, usually written in the past tense.
Move 3
Methods
States the principles, objects, population, location, materials, technology, methods or procedures of the research, usually written in the past tense.
Move 4
Results
States the results, such as the data, effects or properties of the research, usually written in the past tense.
Move 5
Conclusions\/
Implications
Gives comparison or application of the results, or raises questions, recommendations or predictions on the basis of the results, usually written in the present tense.
6.3.2Movereduced abstract
Abstracts should be as brief and concise as possible and the submitted abstract must fit within the journals formats and word limits. In order to satisfy such requirement, the background information can be omitted.
The reduced abstract typically focuses on only two or three elements, with the emphasis placed on the results of the study. Information concerning the purpose and method is presented first. Then the most important results are summarized. Finally, conclusions and recommendations may be included in one or two sentences.
Moves of Information Elements in Reduced Abstract 1
Purpose
Methods of the study
Results
Conclusions and\/or recommendations
Moves of Information Elements in Reduced Abstract 2
Background\/introduction
Methods of the study
Results
Conclusions and\/or recommendations
6.3.3Move discourse
6.3.3.1Move 1 and Move 2
Usually, text of an abstract starts from Move 1 and\/or Move 2. To make the abstract short, Move 1 can be omitted. There are basically four types of abstractopening sentences (Swales & Feak, 2009).
Type 1: Start with an introduction of background information.
E.g. Anemia(貧血), which is common in the critically ill, is often treated with redcell transfusions, which are associated with poor clinical outcomes.
Type 2: Start with a problem or a doubt, often combined with Type 1.
E.g. Very few studies...have focused on emerging infections, generating a gap of knowledge that hampers epidemiological response planning.
E.g. Types 1+2：The congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the leading viral cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in developed countries. However, the CMV seroprevalence and congenital CMV infection are not well defined in China yet.
Type 3: Start with study purpose or objective, or study purpose and method.
E.g. To investigate the helpseeking behaviors and related factors of Chinese psychiatric inpatients with schizophrenia....
E.g. To determine the bacteria causing stomach troubles, biopsy specimens were taken from intact areas of antral mucosa in 100 consecutive consenting patients presenting for gastroscopy.
Type 4: Start with present research action.
E.g. We performed a pairwise epistatic interaction test using the chicken 60 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip for the 11th generation of the Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content.
6.3.3.2Move 3
Lots of information should be described concisely in Move 3 which states many keydetailed points of the study methods like the principles, objects or population, data, location, materials, technology, methods or procedures of the research. This information must be refined and distilled.
E.g.
Methods: Newborns from five birthing hospitals in two counties of Shandong Province, China, were enrolled from March 2011 to October 2013. Dried blood spots (DBS) and saliva were collected from heel stick or swabs within 4 days after birth. CMV IgG was tested on DBS with ELISA for maternal seroprevalence assessment. Real time PCR was performed on saliva and DBS for viral detection of congenital CMV infection.
6.3.3.3Move 4
Move 4 is thought to be the most important part of an abstract. In Move 4, the results of a study are summarized, usually in order of importance. There are two basic writing structures: listtosummary type and generaltospecific type.
[Sample 3Move 4]
Here, we analyze the case of a Chikungunya outbreak that occurred in Martinique in 2014. Using time series estimates from a network of sentinel practitioners covering the entire island, we first analyze the spatiotempspoken dynamics and show that the largest city has served as the epicenter of this epidemic. We further show that the epidemic spread from there through two different propagation waves moving northwards and southwards, probably by individuals moving along the road network. We then develop a mathematical model to explore the drivers of the femoral dynamics of this mosquitoborne virus. Finally, we show that human behavior, inferred by a textual analysis of messages published on the social network Twitter, is required to explain the epidemiological dynamics over time. Overall, our results suggest that human behavior has been a key component of the outbreak propagation, and we argue that such results can lead to more efficient public health strategies specifically targeting the propagation process. (Roche et al., 2017)
[Analysis]
Sample 3 is a listtosummary type of Move 4. The specific results of the study are listed one by one, then a summary of the results is presented. By the way, Sample 3 is also a good example of Moves 3 & 4 combined type.
In quantitative studies, Move 4 of the abstract tends to provide exact numbers and percentages. See the following sample of listtosummary type of Move 4:
[Sample 4Move 4]
A total of 5,020 newborns had CMV IgG tested and 4,827 were seropositive with CMV
seroprevalence of 96.2% [95% confidence interval (CI):95.6%—96.7%]. Of the 10,933 newborns screened for congenital CMV infection, 75 had CMV detected with prevalence of 0.7% (95% CI: 0.5%—0.8%). Congenital CMV infection prevalence decreased along with increased maternal age (0.9%, 0.6%, and 0.3% among newborns from mothers aged 16—25 years, 26—35 years, and >35 years, respectively; P=0.03), and was higher among newborns with preterm birth (1.3% vs.0.6%, P=0.04), with intrauterine growth restriction (1.8% vs.0.7%, P=0.03), and twins or triplets (2.4% vs.0.7%, P=0.002).
[Sample 5Move 4]
(1) The models show that feedbacks between the biological and economic systems can lead to a state of persistent poverty. (2) Analyses of a wide range of specific systems under alternative assumptions show the existence of three possible regimes corresponding to a globally stable development equilibrium...(Ngonghald, 2017)
[Analysis]
Sample 5 is the type of generaltospecific. The first sentence indicates the general results of the models of the paper, while the specific findings\/results are presented from the second sentence.
6.3.3.4Move 5
In Move 5, the conclusions or implications of a study are stated directly or indirectly by giving some points like comparison or application of the results, questions, recommendations or predictions on the basis of the results. Major tendencies and significant individual or grouped results are emphasized. Whether or not Move 5 is included in an abstract depends on the research itself and the requirements or the target journal. In biomedical and clinical fields, an abstract is more likely to include Move 5, to stress the significance or applicability of the result.
[Sample 6Move 5]
Overall, our results suggest that human behavior has been a key component of the outbreak propagation, and we argue that such results can lead to more efficient public health strategies specifically targeting the propagation process (Roche et al., 2017).
[Sample 7Move 5]
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of cases of XDR tuberculosis in KwaZuluNatal, South Africa, an area with a high tuberculosis burden, were probably due to transmission rather than to inadequate treatment of MDR tuberculosis. These data suggest that control of the epidemic of drugresistant tuberculosis requires an increased focus on interrupting transmission. (Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others) (Shah et al., 2017)
6.4Requirements for an abstract
By reading an abstract, the readers can understand the broad content, results and conclusions without needing to read the whole paper (McCormack & Slaght, 2015, p.73). However, different SCI journals have different requirements for abstract writing, which are detailed in Instructions to Authors or Guideline for Authors. The author should write his\/her abstract according to the writing requirements of the journal, or modify the abstract to meet the requirements of the target journal.
6.4.1The writing requirements of NEJM for abstract
NEJM details its requirements for the abstract as:
Provide an abstract of not more than 250 words. It should consist of four paragraphs, labelled background, methods, results and conclusion. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the others.
[Analysis]
It can be seen that NEJM requires authors to put forward structured abstracts.
6.4.2The writing requirements of Science for abstract
In the Instructions to Authors, Science details its writing requirements for the abstract as:
Abstracts explain to the general reader why the research was done, what was found and why the results are important. They should start with some brief BACKGROUND information: a sentence giving a broad introduction to the field comprehensible to the general reader, and then a sentence of more detailed background specific to your study. This should be followed by an explanation of OBJECTIVES\/METHODS and then the RESULTS. The final sentence should outline the main CONCLUSION of the study, in terms that will be comprehensible or to all our readers. The abstract is distinct from the main body of the text. Please do not include citations or abbreviations in the Abstract. The abstract should be 125 words or less.
[Analysis]
In the Instructions to Authors of Science, it is suggested that Science usually requires nonstructured abstracts.
6.4.3The writing requirements of Internal Medicine Journal for abstract
Internal Medicine Journal makes the following abstract requirements in its author guideline:
Each manuscript should carry a structured abstract of not more than 250 words presented in the following form. Background: brief statement of relevant work or clinical situation, and hypothesis, if applicable. Aims: brief statement of the overall aim. Methods: laboratory or other techniques used, including statistical analysis. Outcome measures clearly stated. Results: statistically significant results and relevant negative data cited. Conclusions: referable to the aims of the study and may include suggestions for future action.
6.5Formats of an abstract
Different academic journals require different abstract formats. Generally, abstracts fall into two categories: nonstructured abstracts and structured abstracts.
6.5.1Nonstructured abstracts
A nonstructured abstract is more traditional format. It consists of only one paragraph with about 250 words, all written in complete sentences. This abstract paragraph must be complete with itself for its readers before reading the full paper and it has no citations, no references.
The abstract could start with background (Move 1) if it is necessary for understanding the hypothesis of the paper. Otherwise, the abstract could directly start from Move 2 or Move 3.
Although a nonstructured abstract has no headings, it should include all the most important information\/elements of the article. The element content should be presented in the same order as the body of the paper, starting from a general introduction (Move 1, if necessary), moving on to more specific element contents (methods, materials and results), and ending with a touch on conclusions or discussion. In the course of different movedeveloping, signal words or phrases should be used for transition from move to move.
In spite of the traditional format, a nonstructured abstract continues to be used by many SCI journals like Science, Nature and JVI (Journal of Virology), etc.
[Sample 8A nonstructured abstract]
DNA vaccine protection against SARSCoV2 in rhesus macaques(恒河猴)
(1) The global COVID19 pandemic(COVID19大流行) caused by the SARSCoV2 virus has made the development of a vaccine a top biomedical priority. (2) In this study, we developed a series of DNA vaccine candidates expressing different forms of the SARSCoV2 Spike (S) protein and evaluated them in 35 rhesus macaques. (3) Vaccinated animals developed humoral and cellular immune responses, including neutralizing antibody titers comparable to those found in convalescent humans and macaques infected with SARSCoV2. (4) Following vaccination, all animals were challenged with SARSCoV2, and the vaccine encoding the fulllength S protein resulted in >3.1 and >3.7 log10 reductions in median viral loads in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal mucosa, respectively, as compared with sham controls. (5) Vaccineelicited neutralizing antibody titers correlated with protective efficacy, suggesting an immune correlate of protection. (6) These data demonstrate vaccine protection against SARSCoV2 in nonhuman primates. (Yu et al., 2020)
[Analysis]
This is a paper published in Science in 2020. It is a nonstructured abstract, which is consistent with the requirements of Science for abstract. In the fourth sentence, the results are reported and a research method is explained, because it is a more techniqueoriented paper. The following table helps us understand the writing of nonstructured abstract by the sample illustration.
Table 62The format of a nonstructured abstract
SentenceMoveInformationSignal(direct or implied)
(1)
Move 1
Broad background
(2)
Move 1
Detailed background
In this study
(3)
Move 4
First result
Vaccinated animals developed
(4)
Moves 4 & 3
Second result and method
Following vaccination, challenged, as compared with sham controls
(5) & (6)
Move 5
Conclusion
...suggesting an immune correlate of protection, These data demonstrate...
6.5.2Structured abstracts
Although a large number of biomedical and medical journals are still using nonstructured abstracts, the trend is that more are shifting to a structured format. Structured abstracts briefly provide the important points of the study by using subheadings. One obvious difference between a nonstructured abstract and a structured one is that a structured abstract is multiparagraph, with each paragraph under a heading.
Structured abstracts have been used by many SCI journals, such as NEJM (the New England Journal of Medicine), Lancet, HIV Medicine, Internal Medicine Journal, Nuclear Medicine and Biology, British Journal of Surgery. According to the recommendations of ICMJE, original research, systematic reviews, and metaanalyses require structured abstracts. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the studys purpose, basic procedures (selection of study participants, settings, measurements, analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical and clinical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations, note important limitations, and not overinterpret findings. Clinical trial abstracts should include items that the CONSORT group has identified as essential (www.consortstatement.org\/resources\/downloads\/extensions\/consortextensionforabstracts2008pdf\/). Funding sources should be listed separately after the abstract to facilitate proper display and indexing for search retrieval by MEDLINE.
Journals differ widely on the format for abstracts, including the nonstructured format. Before submitting your paper, you have to read the relevant requirements specific to the target journal, and read through some previous published papers to see what headings should be included in the structured abstract of your target journal.
Take 23 minutes to browse through the following sample of structured abstract cited from NEJM. (PazBailey et al., 2018)
[Sample 9—A structured abstract]
Persistence of Zika Virus in Body Fluids
—Final Report
BACKGROUND
To estimate the frequency and duration of detectable Zika virus (ZIKV) RNA in human body fluids, we prospectively assessed a cohort of recently infected participants in Puerto Rico.
METHODS
We evaluated samples obtained from 295 participants (including 94 men who provided semen specimens) in whom ZIKV RNA was detected on reversetranscriptasepolymerasechainreaction (RTPCR) assay in urine or blood at an enhanced arboviral clinical surveillance site. We collected serum, urine, saliva, semen, and vaginal secretions weekly for the first month and at 2, 4, and 6 months. All specimens were tested by means of RTPCR, and serum was tested with the use of antiZIKV IgM enzymelinked immunosorbent assay. Among the participants with ZIKV RNA in any specimen at week 4, collection continued every 2 weeks thereafter until all specimens tested negative. We used parametric Weibull regression models to estimate the time until the loss of ZIKV RNA detection in each body fluid and reported the findings in medians and 95th percentiles.
RESULTS
The medians and 95th percentiles for the time until the loss of ZIKV RNA detection were 15 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 14 to 17) and 41 days (95% CI, 37 to 44), respectively, in serum; 11 days (95% CI, 9 to 12) and 34 days (95% CI, 30 to 38) in urine; and 42 days (95% CI, 35 to 50) and 120 days (95% CI, 100 to 139) in semen. Less than 5% of participants had detectable ZIKV RNA in saliva or vaginal secretions.
CONCLUSIONS
The prolonged time until ZIKV RNA clearance in serum in this study may have implications for the diagnosis and prevention of ZIKV infection. In 95% of the men in this study, ZIKV RNA was cleared from semen after approximately 4 months. (Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
[Analysis]
The advantage of a structured abstract is that readers can quickly find the element of the research that is relevant to their particular situation or interest. To some extent, structured abstracts will be more concise and carry more information than nonstructured abstracts.
6.6Process of abstract writing
6.6.1Process of abstract writing
(1) Write your abstract after the paper is finished;
(2) Before submitting your paper, read the relevant requirements in the Instructions to Authors specific to the target journal to see what kind of abstract format is required;
(3) Read through some of the abstracts of previous published papers of your target journal to see what elements or headings should be included and what detailed information of each element or heading should be explained;
(4) Read your original paper carefully to get the overall picture and a deeper understanding;
(5) Sort out a clear clue to your studys main points including the move elements (background, materials and methods, results and conclusions) and their important information, then list them in the note form;
(6) Write your abstract according to the writing requirements of the target journal, with the understanding of your preparation and study work for abstract writing;
(7) Modify the abstract to meet the requirements of the target journal, using transitional words and phrases where necessary to ensure coherence;
(8) Submit your paper with a good abstract.
6.6.2Usages of abstracts
Abstracts allow researchers to find and assess a wide range of relevant work, thus remaining in touch with the large quantity of literature in their field. In effect, they assist the wider academic community in working together on common problems or areas of interest. When searching for information, researchers use key words to find relevant information. An abstract should therefore contain key words in relation to the article or paper, for ease of retrieval.
As a student, it is very useful to read an abstract in order to find out quickly about the main idea of a text, and thus to decide whether the text is relevant to your needs. You may be expected to include abstracts at the beginning of pieces of extending writings, as well as to submit an abstract if you are going to give a presentation based on your project.
Chapter Review
This chapter is designed to consolidate the learners understanding of research abstract writing in terms of the function of the abstract, moves included in the abstract, requirements for abstracts and formats of abstract.
1. According to Swales and Feak(2009), there are four basic types of abstractopening sentences:
Type 1: Start with an introduction of background information;
Type 2: Start with a problem or a doubt often combined with Type 1;
Type 3: Start with study purpose or objective, or study purpose and method;
Type 4: Start with present research action.
2. Different academic journals require different abstract formats. Generally, abstracts fall into two categories:
nonstructured abstracts;
structured abstracts.
3. Your abstract must be written according to the requirements of the target journal. Different SCI journals have different requirements for abstract writing, which are detailed in Instructions to Authors or Guideline for Authors. The author should write his\/her abstract according to the writing requirements of the journal, or modify the abstract to meet the requirements of the target journal.
Assignments
Task 1
Read at least 10 opening sentences in your own reference corpus of abstracts, and identify the opening Movetype they fall into. Is there any type you cannot classify?
Task 2
Discuss with your partner: Should you write your abstract before or after you finish the paper? What is your strategy for deciding what key words to identify?
Task 3
The following disordered sentences are taken from an abstract, entitled “Childhood Vaccines and Antibiotic Use in Low and Middleincome Countries” (Lewnard, 2020), focusing on functional key words and context move and ignoring unfamiliar words. Rearrange these sentences into a wellorganized nonstructured abstract by numbering them from 1 to 7.
A. Here we show that vaccines that have recently been implemented in the World Health Organizations Expanded Programme on Immunization reduce antibiotic consumption substantially among children under five years of age in LMICs.
B. Under current coverage levels, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines prevent 23.8 million and 13.6 million episodes of antibiotictreated illness, respectively, among children under five years of age in LMICs each year.
C. Vaccines may reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance, in part by preventing infections for which treatment often includes the use of antibiotics.
D. By analysing data from largescale studies of households, we estimate that pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and live attenuated rotavirus vaccines confer 19.7% (95% confidence interval, 3.4%—43.4%) and 11.4% (4.0%—18.6%)
protection against antibiotictreated episodes of acute respiratory infection and diarrhea, respectively, in age groups that experience the greatest disease burden attributable to the vaccinetargeted pathogens.
E. However, the effects of vaccination on antibiotic consumption remain poorly understood—especially in lowand middleincome countries (LMICs), where the burden of antimicrobial resistance is greatest.
F. This evidence supports the prioritization of vaccines within the global strategy to combat antimicrobial resistance.
G. Direct protection resulting from the achievement of universal coverage targets for these vaccines could prevent an additional 40.0 million episodes of antibiotictreated illness.
Task 4
Write an abstract of 250 words and decide key words for the research paper below.
Cohort study on maternal cytomegalovirus seroprevalence and prevalence and
clinical manifestations of congenital infection in China
1. Introduction
Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection results from vertical transmission of CMV from mother to the fetus during pregnancy. Although any maternal infection during pregnancy, primary or nonprimary (reinfection and reactivation), can result in congenital CMV infection, the risk of vertical viral transmission is lower in nonprimary than primary maternal infections.[1] Moreover, congenital CMV infections from nonprimary maternal infection are less likely to present with symptoms at birth, and are thought to be less likely to result in longterm permanent sequelae such as hearing loss and developmental disabilities. [2] CMV infection is well documented as the leading viral cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in developed countries[3], which typically have moderate maternal seroprevalences of 40% to 70%. [47] However, the epidemiology of congenital CMV infection in developing countries with very high maternal seroprevalence (>90%) is not as well understood.[8,9] With high CMV seroprevalence, congenital CMV infection is less attributable to maternal primary infection than in countries with lower maternal seroprevalence. [10,11] Moreover, the likelihood of symptomatic infection and permanent sequelae among infants with congenital infection in these populations is unknown. To investigate congenital CMV prevalence and its clinical manifestations in China, where maternal CMV seroprevalence is reported to be higher than 95%,[12] we conducted universal screening for congenital CMV infection among infants born in 2 counties of Shandong Province, China.
2. Methods
2.1Study population and data collection
Newborn screening for congenital CMV infection was conducted from March 2011 to August 2013 in 5 birthing hospitals of Pingyin and Wendeng Counties of Shandong Province which comprised more than 80% of infants delivered in the 2 counties. Wendeng County was more populous (609737 vs 331712 in 2010 census) and had a higher GDP per capita (96249 yuan, approximately 15778 US dollars) than Pingyin County (44128 yuan, approximately 7234 US dollars). GDP in both of these counties was higher than the national GDP per capita (6265 US dollars in 2012). The birthrate in Pingyin County was higher than in Wendeng County (9.5‰ vs 7.4‰).
All parents were approached in the hospital about enrolling their infants before
delivery, with more than 90% of infants enrolled. Demographic information on the mothers was collected by interviews by research staff. Information on delivery and outcomes of routine clinical evaluations, including newborn hearing screening, was collected from the medical record. Newborn hearing screening was typically conducted at least 48 hours after birth and before discharge in the birthing hospitals using transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (AccuScreen, Denmark). Infants who failed were retested within 6 weeks after birth and referred for diagnostic hearing testing within 3 months of age if they failed the rescreen.
Microcephaly was defined as head circumference exceeding 2 standard deviations below the mean according to international newborn standard values,[13] assessed for a majority of infants but not infants during the 1st year of the study. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) was defined as birth weight less than the 5th percentile of the genderspecific gestational agecorrected standard reference values for Chinese infants. [14] Symptomatic congenital CMV infection was defined as presence of microcephaly, petechiae, or seizure detected through routine newborn care before discharge, along with congenital CMV infection which was identified by realtime PCR. Congenital CMV infection without any of these 3 symptoms at birth was defined as asymptomatic congenital CMV infection.
2.2Specimen collection and laboratory testing
Specimens were collected from the enrolled infants within 4 days of birth. Dried blood spots (DBS) were collected using 903 Whatman filter paper (GE Healthcare, UK) only from infants enrolled during the first 12 months of the 30month study period. Saliva specimens were collected from all infants enrolled in the study using a sterile polyester swab that was placed in the infants mouth against the cheek and rotated for 10 seconds. To prevent potential contamination from breast milk, saliva specimens were collected at least 1 hour after breast feeding. Saliva specimens were frozen immediately, stored at 20℃ and transported on ice to the testing laboratory (wet saliva). In order to compare saliva collection methods, a 2nd saliva specimen was collected from infants enrolled during the last 12 months of the study and air dried at room temperature overnight, placed in small tube, transported at room temperature, and then stored at 20℃ until processing (dried saliva).
CMV serostatus of mothers was determined by CMV IgG testing on infant DBS using the SeraQuest enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (Dspoken, FL) since infant IgG reflects maternal IgG.
Congenital CMV infection was identified by the detection of CMV DNA in the
collected saliva or DBS specimens. All laboratory testing was done in the central laboratory of Shandong provincial CDC with local staff trained by US CDC laboratory staff. DNA was eluted from swabs with Extracta (Beverly, MA) and extracted from DBS using thermal shock. [15] Realtime PCR was performed with TaqManbased primers and probes targeting the viral glycoprotein B gene on Mx3000P qPCR Systems (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA). [15] For quality control, all PCR raw data were reviewed by US CDC laboratory staff, and all CMV PCR positive specimens were retested by US CDC laboratory staff with at least 100 randomly selected PCR negative specimens during annual site visits. Positive results were defined as ≥5 copies of CMV DNA per PCR reaction for saliva or ≥1 copies of CMV DNA for DBS.