Writing a scientific research article

This course is here to help people who are relatively new to writing scientific research articles with the writing process. I tried to make the course that I wish I had when I was writing my own first research article. It is meant to help you become more effective at writing, and to get you started writing immediately, while taking this course.

In section one, you will

• Learn about the different types of scientific article

• Understand the different parts that make up a research article

Then, in section two you will learn

• My method to write each section in the easiest order. This is the main part of the course, where you will start writing your article – hint: Never start with the Introduction ;-)

In the last section, you will

• Learn to avoid several very common mistakes

• Get tips on how to collaborate with your co-authors, and how to select a journal

• Get a brief overview of the submission and review process

In this course, I will assume you have already started doing your research, and that you know the literature in your field – I cannot help you with the science. This course also assumes you have some idea how to write about science, at least a little bit, perhaps from all the articles you read. If you do, this course will help you structure your research article writing in a goal-oriented way, and to not waste time and energy on beginner mistakes.

My name is Arie, and I am a research biologist. I have now written over 50 articles, and have helped many Masters and PhD students to overcome the mistakes all beginners make when writing a research article. At this point, I have a lot of experience, but I also still remember how hard it was to write my own first scientific article. Now, I want to share my experience, and help you to speed up your writing process with the method I developed.

Much of what I will cover is general to article writing in most scientific fields- biology, biomedical sciences, astronomy, geology, computer science. If you have results to report, this method will help you to avoid getting stuck and save time. And, I will give you tips that may save you a lot of time and frustration.