Quelles sont certaines des meilleures pratiques et normes pour la rédaction et la révision scientifiques?

A few years ago, in a scientific writing course, the topic of one class was "Avoid passive voice!". With that only class, I realized that communicating science in an active voice imprints power to the researcher, the writer, and the team. Makes science moves. Makes scientific writing active and real. I embrace that way of communicating science.

This is one of the main things I talk about when it comes to creating CME and medcomms materials for healthcare professionals (HCPs). As in the principles of adult learning, HCPs are motivated to engage when certain parameters have been met. Therefore, knowing what they find valuable is key.

I find the title misleading. Because a scientific paper has a well defined group of audience. Another title such as defining the article type or scope of the article would be more suitable. If you want to keep the title then defining the tone is irrelevant because the audience of a scientific paper is expected to be experts and semi experts with enough scientific background to read and understand the paper. You don't need to adopt the tone according to the audience. You need to match the paper with scope of your study and the journal you're hoping to publish in.

I agree, this is one of the most important aspect of scientific writing. If you are writing a research article, then the language should be such that at least undergraduate students should be able to understand. Whereas if you are writing for a newspaper story then you have to keep in mind the general audience and write in plain language.

The ACCME guidelines are crucial for creating compliant resources for HCPs. At its core, CME content must be fair, balanced, and evidence-based.

Style guides are very important when writing and editing. And this is not just for the reference section. How are numbers written? P values? Formulae? One way to make your life easy is to have a checklist. Luckily there are softwares to help with the reference section.

During the first week of my master, one of my supervisor told me to avoid “anaconda sentences” at all cost in scientific writing. Anaconda sentences are long, convoluted sentences that make the whole reading experience less smooth and more difficult. I have always thought about that analogy and tried to avoid sentences longer than 20-22 words when writing papers and scientific content in general.

Make the overall language comprehensible and minimize the use of jargon and abbreviations. It's easy to think that using more complicated-sounding phrases will give your text a more scientific feel or convey intelligence, but inflated language usually makes your writing harder to follow. And if your writing is difficult to follow, your readers may lose interest.

When you write or edit, imagine your words are music in a concert. Your goal isn't just to share facts but to make a tune that touches your readers. Keep it easy and clear, like a musician playing a violin skillfully. Use short, lively sentences that move nicely, each one important and easy to understand. Make your paragraphs strong like sturdy pillars, holding up your thoughts in a logical way. Avoid long, dull sentences that make your point hard to see. Get rid of anything you don't need, and write your piece like a sculptor perfecting a masterpiece. Let your voice be strong and clear, helping your readers understand and learn.

Use proper scientific language. Check if the sentences are concise. Convey only one idea per sentence. Multiple statements should not be included in one sentence. The average length of a sentence in scientific writing is 12-17 words. Check if you use active voice. The active voice will usually sound more dynamic and interesting for the reader. The present tense should be used for recognized facts and for hypothesis. The past tense should be used for describing experiments conducted and for the results of these experiments. Minimize the use of adverbs, such as “greatly”, "enough", "extremely". Delete redundant phrases, such as "each and every".

To add few tips here - Write in active voice -use stronger verb -use less transitional words, limiting to one in a paragraph is good. - keep the subject and verb closer as much as you can. - correct usage of grammar - give few days to a week gap after writing the content and editing, this will increase the visibility of the error in your writing

It's also important to read the sources you cite (beyond the abstract) to avoid misrepresenting them, and where possible to cite the primary (original) source of the data.

Visuals are a very effective way of presenting the findings of your research. Presenting the essential data visually, in an effective way, is key. Our brains process images faster than words in sentences. The caption of your visuals should be concise. It is the visual that communicates the key message. Graphs and charts are commonly used to compare experimental results with theoretical values or previous works. Do not overcrowd them. Make them easy to grasp. The results are commonly presented in tables, but it is best to avoid long and tedious tables. If necessary, place them in the Supplementary Materials section, and make them as easy to read as possible. Ensure that all images and photographs have a scale marker and clear resolution.

While visuals are critical, you need to have conversations with your editor (or whoever else you are working with) beforehand about what resources are available before you launch into a project. Many publications have only limit art and design resources. Not only that, but artwork can take a lot more time than you expect. Asking for a clever graph or illustration may seem like a great idea, but it will be totally impossible if there is a tight deadline. Still, great visuals are worth the effort, but do not think you can lob it over to the art department and everything will work out.

Embrace active voice to breathe life into your writing, but don't shy away from passive voice when the focus should be on the action, not the actor. Figures and tables are your allies – use them wisely to break up text and illustrate key points. When editing, put on your skeptic's hat: question every claim, every statistic. Is it supported? Is it necessary? And for the love of science, cite your sources properly – standing on the shoulders of giants requires giving credit where it's due. Remember, good scientific writing is a team sport: seek feedback, embrace constructive criticism, and be prepared to revise, revise, revise.