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An overview of the different types of academic writing for researchers

 

An academic career cannot take off smoothly unless a researcher masters the art of writing in academics. A researcher is usually a student pursuing PhD or post-doctoral research. Therefore, they can put their creativity and imagination to good use in academics. Proposal writing and abstract writing are the two most important types of academic writing, which are needed to secure research grants and publications. In this article, we provide tips on how to master the art of academic writing.

Proposal Writing

In academia, researchers have to write a draft of research proposals or grant proposals. This draft should basically provide an outline of your research. A well-written research proposal is the best way to communicate research plans, which can then be implemented successfully. A grant proposal needs to be well written for receiving funds from a bank or other funding institution. The structure of the writing proposal needs to be carefully drafted for this purpose.

In general, a conventional paper would have the following components: title, abstract, introduction, research questions, literature review, methodology, conclusion, and bibliography. Most readers are well acquainted with such kinds of research plans and the results of such a proposal will be maximum. While writing a grant proposal, academics should clearly outline the following terms: source of funding, goals, timing of the research study, educational qualifications, and documentation.

Dissertation Writing

In academic writing, most researchers are compelled to master the art of dissertation writing. To complete their MSc or PhD degree, most researchers have to defend their completed dissertation. The tone of writing, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and citations are all very important aspects of dissertation writing. In a dissertation, all ideas have to be presented and cited from related studies. The sources that are referenced should be done in accordance with academic style guides, such as the APA, AMA, or the Chicago Manual of Style. The arguments presented in the dissertation must be obtained from trusted sources.

Abstract writing

Among all forms of academic writing, abstracts are required to be written by all researchers in their dissertation and thesis. An abstract is a short summary of the entire paper and should present the objectives, methods, results, and conclusion in not more than 250 to 300 words. Because of wordcount limit, researchers need to write the content very precisely and concisely. An abstract would also include a number of keywords, depending on the topic of the research study. Most essays and thesis contain an abstract section before the introduction section.

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AMA Manual of Style workshop for biomedical researchers

The American Medical Association’s Manual of Style is a guide to authors and editors in biomedical sciences. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has editors who have compiled this style guide for biomedical authors. Many biomedical journals are published by the American Medical Association. The AMA Manual of Style guides all biomedical authors in writing and editing their manuscripts meant for publication in these academic journals. It also has a specific citation and referencing style for use in publications.

The AMA Manual of Style was first published in the year 1962, and its 11th edition has been published in the year 2020. Not only is it beneficial for writers and editors in biology and medicine, but the book also covers a range of topics related to publication ethics and biomedical statistics. The publication committee of this book is socially active with its Twitter handle of @AMA Manual of Style. The content has included many new terminologies pertaining to the latest COVID-19 pandemic. The AMA Manual of Style is also used for writing allied health topics of nursing. It serves as a guide for writing medical and health textbooks.

The world of medical publishing has undergone a metamorphosis, and the AMA Manual of Style is updated regularly to take into account the latest medical literature. Various types of articles are published daily in medical journals, but randomized controlled trials are the most commonly used experimental study designs. The style and mechanics of presenting medical papers depend on grammar and punctuation, especially in the context of scientific publications. A general overview of genetics is also useful and it helps many novice editors in gaining knowledge of genetic coding and sequencing.

Harrisco is a noted company that organizes academic writing workshops for researchers all across the globe. In the month of December, the company plans to hold a presentation on the AMA manual of style. Come, let us learn the nuances of scientific writing and overcome the barriers of understanding experimental study design and biomedical statistics.

 

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Drinking coffee and tea reduces the risk of developing stroke and dementia

The risk of developing stroke and dementia is substantially reduced by consuming tea or coffee every day. This was the finding of a study carried out on healthy subjects aged between 50 to 74 years. The recent study was published in the noted journal PLOS Medicine. The risk of developing dementia after a stroke was also lowered in these individuals as they drank coffee regularly.

Approximately 10% of deaths are caused by stroke globally, so a patient who has recovered from stroke has conquered a life-threatening event. Dementia is the medical term for a loss of cognitive function of the brain, leading to memory loss. Both the conditions are global health concerns, causing a considerable burden in terms of money and other resources.

The study was conducted at Tianjin Medical University by Yuan Zhang and her colleagues. The study included 365,682 participants who received treatment between 2006 and 2010; however, they attended follow up sessions till 2020. Initially, the participants themselves reported about their tea and coffee consumption. However, as the study period progressed, dementia had developed in 5,079 participants and about 10,053 participants had got a stroke at least once.

The incidence of stroke or dementia was the lowest in participants who consumed about 4-6 cups of coffee and tea each day. This finding also included participants who consumed 3-5 cups of tea or 2-3 cups of coffee each day. Compared to those who did not drink any tea or coffee, the risk of stroke was lowered by as much as 32% in participants who drank 2-3 cups of coffee and 2-3 cups of tea per day. Moreover, the risk of dementia was also lowered by as much as 28% in participants who drank tea and coffee daily.

The study was conducted on a relatively healthy sample, which did not have complications like the general population aged 50-74 years. Therefore, the findings of this study cannot be generalized on a larger scale. The results cannot be applied to larger populations as relatively fewer people developed stroke and dementia in this study. One can only say drinking tea and coffee daily offered protection against stroke and dementia; however, the result is restricted to participants of this study.

In conclusion, consuming tea and coffee in moderation certainly reduces the risk of developing stroke and dementia in old age.

 

 

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Harrisco organizes academic writing workshops for researchers all across the globe

 

Researchers may be well versed with experiments and results, but writing an introduction and discussion is not easy in a research paper. Do you know that research grants of novice authors are based on how well crafted is the conclusion? Well, all these doubts and issues will be clarified by Professor Mario Garcia Lee in Seoul, Korea. He is a well-established researcher who has published more than 2,500 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. Come, let’s understand the craft of writing scientifically, concisely, and precisely.

Harrisco’s academic writing workshops are of 2 hours, 4 hours, and 8 hours duration. The registration fee is nominal at 50$, 100$, and 150 $. Not only does the speaker guide you through the mechanics of writing a scientific paper, he also teaches you to identify citations of related studies and how to present them well in your introduction section. Writing an abstract is an art as well as a skill that will be taught intensely in the academic writing workshop. Moreover, the speaker will also teach how to control the tone and diction of the content through proper word choice. Besides, citing well-known references will only increase the impact of the paper.

In an academic paper, it is not just enough to write a good abstract, introduction, and methods sections. One needs to understand that the methods section should focus on the visualization of the experiment. Moreover, the logical flow of ideas should be interesting enough to the readers and also lay the background for the presentation of results and conclusions.

The conclusion should not merely summarize the findings of the experiment, it should lay stress on the novelty of the findings and help the reviewer understand the significance of the research study. The workshops would be online webinars and would be relayed to participants through Zoom. We are offering a 10% discount to all participants that register through our marketing partners and website.

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The risk of heart failure increases with aspirin consumption

 

In people with an underlying risk factor for heart failure, aspirin should never be prescribed as it increases the risk of heart failure by as much as 26%. This finding was published in the ESC Heart Failure journal, which is affiliated with the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The underlying risk factors include smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

This is a path-breaking study as it is the first to report how dangerous aspirin medication is to people having at least one risk factor of heart failure. Although the potentially dangerous link between aspirin consumption and heart failure has been unraveled, the finding needs to be backed up with substantial evidence that confirms the finding. The association of aspirin with heart failure can seem to be baffling to some medical researchers.

In the journal article, researchers explained how the incidence of heart failure was related to people with and without any heart ailment. Thereafter, they also assessed whether the use of a drug could lead to a new diagnosis of heart failure in people who have underlying risk factors. In this study, researchers investigated 30,827 patients with a risk factor for heart failure. These patients were from Western European countries and the US, that is, patients from the developed world.

The age of participants was at least 40 years and above, with the average age being 67 years. At the time of enrolment, they did not have any incidence of heart failure. Based on the usage of aspirin medication, the participants were divided into two groups: users and non-users. The patients who had the first incidence of heart failure were followed up, regardless of whether the attack was fatal or non-fatal as the incidence needed hospitalization.

About 34% of the participants were women. Nearly 25% of the participants were consuming aspirin, that is, 7698 patients in total. In the follow-up period of 5.3 years, heart failure occurred in about 1330 participants. The researchers investigated whether the use of aspirin was truly related to the incidence of heart failure in patients.

They also took into consideration several risk factors: gender, age, body mass index, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, creatinine levels, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc. Some of the other risk factors for heart failure included treatment of drugs inhibiting the levels of renin, angiotensin, and aldosterone, blockers of calcium channel, beta-blockers, diuretics, and drugs used to lower lipids. The researchers reported that the consumption of aspirin increased the risk of heart failure by about 26%.

 

 

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What is scientific editing?

Scientific editing is basically a thorough evaluation of the scientific rigor of the manuscript. A scientific editor is a native English speaker with an impressive track record of publications in international peer-reviewed journals of science, technology, medicine, and business.

Such an editor would not just be polishing the manuscript for English language errors, he or she would also be reviewing the scientific content of the document. Therefore, they would be pointing the errors involved in the experimental study design, biomedical statistics, results, and conclusion of the study.

Scientific editing is performed by technical reviewers with MS/PhD degrees. As they are native speakers of English, they will also rectify errors related to grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, word choice, and logical flow of ideas in the manuscript.

Harrisco is a leading academic company with a global network of 500 scientific editors. The steps involved in scientific editing include manuscript evaluation, a scientific review of the manuscript, and English editing services. Harrisco introduced scientific editing service through its premium brand named Quorum in 2017.

Quorum is a premium service that has helped most novice authors get thorough feedback on the scientific content of their manuscript. The research papers of authors are submitted to the system, which then recommends the services of three most appropriate reviewers.

The comments provided by reviewers are in simple academic English, and their main goal is to improve the chances of publication of the manuscript in many strict SCI journals.

Harrisco company requests all Asian researchers to not just avail of English editing services but also scientific editing services. The scientific reviewers are usually post-doctoral researchers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The reviewers suggested by Quorum’s system are quite genuine as the system follows a double-blind system of peer review. This implies that the names of authors and reviewers are not known to either of the two parties. Thus, the chances of bias based on nationality, race, and gender does not arise.

Quite often, scientific editing would also involve wordcount reduction of the Abstract as most English journals do not want more than 250 words. Moreover, a scientific paper must also fit within the wordcount limit of about 6000 words.

Harrisco takes great pride in letting its customer know of its cooperation with more than 200 universities and 500 academic societies. By availing the scientific editing services of Harrisco, authors can certainly increase their chances of publication in high impact journals.

 

 

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Publication support services by Harrisco: top academic company of Korea

 

Harrisco is a leading academic editing and translation company based in Seoul, South Korea. Ever since its inception in 1997, Harrisco has been consistently offering publication support services to researchers all across Asia. These include cover letter development, plagiarism check and rewriting, journal selection, formatting as per journal guidelines, etc.

After English editing and translation, most researchers also avail of publication support services of Harrisco. Most Asian researchers have a limited knowledge of the high standards set by international peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, they usually need publication support services. A paper may have scientifically accurate content and good English language usage, but it may still be rejected by a journal editor for not adhering to formatting guidelines of the journal.

Now, let’s understand the most popular service of publication support. It is none other than journal selection. Every academic field of study will have hundreds or thousands of academic journals for submission of manuscripts. However, Harrisco’s team of experts are PhD professionals who themselves have a track record of publication in international journals.

After carefully reviewing the content of the manuscript, they will provide names of three journals that are most suitable for publication. Journal impact factor, scope and aims of the journal, publishing model, type of manuscript, etc. are some factors considered for journal selection. Most researchers in Asia intend to publish their work in high impact factor SCI (Science Citation Index) journals. They receive research grants only after publishing in high impact journals.

The next most popular service of publication support is plagiarism check. Harrisco has a sophisticated software named CopyKiller to check the content of academic papers. Most journal editors reject a paper outright if it has plagiarized content. The content must be original and all plagiarised sentences need to rewritten in different words.

Researchers can’t just cite related works in their research paper and offer plagiarised content. The findings of related studies have to be presented in own words. Scientific editors of Harrisco provide rewriting services to researchers caught in plagiarism issues. Other important services of publication support include manuscript formatting and figure formatting.

Harrisco’s editors are well versed in several journal style guides, such as the AMA Manual of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, or the APA Manual of Style. Most biomedical journal editors expect papers to be formatted as per the AMA Manual of Style. The title, page layout, font size, references, citations, etc. are all formatted according to a prescribed style guide or journal’s formatting guidelines displayed on the website.

Figure formatting is done by scientific illustrators who are well versed with the complex figure formatting guidelines of the journal. These rules are used for formatting figures and tables in the manuscript. Cover letter development is usually the sought after service of novice researchers who have never submitted a cover letter earlier to a journal. Manuscript preparation is a daunting task for most Asian researchers, so publication support services of Harrisco are availed by many researchers of Asia.

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How to do journal selection for your manuscript?

Many factors have to be considered while doing right journal selection for your manuscript. Most novice researchers do not know the factors to be considered before submitting the manuscript to a journal. If the journal is not related to the topic of your research, the article would be rejected even without being subjected to peer review process. Now, let us understand which factors need to be considered for journal selection.

  • Topic of research: Each journal has aims and scopes, which should be explored and matched with the topic of research. Suppose a researcher has written an article on novel therapies for lung cancer, then the researcher should submit the paper to a journal whose name and scope is aligned with lung cancer therapy.
  • Types of articles: Many journals publish a certain type of article. Full length paper will not be published in a journal that publishes only case study. Moreover, a systematic review would not be appropriate for publication in a journal of manuscripts.
  • Journal’s impact factor: Before submitting a paper to a journal, always consider the impact factor of the journal. Greater the impact factor of the journal, higher is the visibility of the article. Papers published in high impact journals usually receive greater citations and credibility.
  • Journal’s target audience: The content of the article should be compliant with the target audience of the journal. If an article is about latest medications and therapies, then the article would be read by a clinical journal and not by a chemical journal. There are many interdisciplinary fields of study, such as robotic surgery in bioinformatics. These papers are read by both surgeons and biomedical engineers.
  • Length of the article: Most journals have laid down strict wordcount restrictions. In general, most biomedical journals do not want abstracts that are more than 250 words. Similarly, most academic journals accept papers that have a wordcount of 3000-5000 words. A pre-press service author education company should be hired to concise the article and abstract and adhere to wordcount restrictions. These wordcount limits are usually displayed in the “Instructions to Authors” Tab of the journal’s website.
  • The type of journal: Science Citation Index (SCI), Open Access (OA), and Hybrid are the three types of journals in academic publishing. The leading publishers are Elsevier, Springer, Nature, Wiley, etc. In general, most Asian researchers publish in SCI journals, while most European researchers prefer to publish in OA journals. Today, hybrid mode of publishing includes the benefits of both SCI and OA journals, so it is now used by researchers all across the world.

Based on these factors, researchers should select three closely related journals for publication of their manuscript.

 

 

 

 

 

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Academic translation services by Harrisco: top academic company in Seoul, Korea

English is a second language or foreign language in many advanced countries, such as China, Japan, Korea, and Europe. The researchers of these countries have limited working knowledge of English language. They perform their research work in their native language.

This implies that most Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese researchers need the services of a professional adept at academic translation.

The base language is their native language, while the source language is English. These ESL researchers still need to publish their work in international peer-reviewed English journals. That’s where Harrisco company’s translation services come into effect.

Harrisco is an academic editing and translation company that has been in service in Seoul, Korea since 1997. The professional translators are themselves academics with MS and PhD degrees. They also have additional professional English degrees, such as CELTA, BELS, and TOEFL.

Why choose Harrisco’s translators over other freelance talent? Well, Harrisco is a reputed company that employs only technically qualified translators with five years of experience. Be assured that your academic manuscript is in safe hands with Harrisco. The company has a global network of more than 150 translators, with advanced degrees in science and technology.

These bilingual individuals are an invaluable resource to the field of academic publishing. This is because although English is the lingua franca of scientific publishing, the onus of scientific research has now shifted to ESL countries like China and Korea.

Some ESL researchers may seek the help of their bilingual friends for translation. However, they must be warned that bilingual friends have just elementary fluency in source and target languages. Will they understand technical jargon of science, technology, and medicine in English?

By hiring Harrisco’s academic translators, all technical terminology can be translated correctly from the source to the target language. This ensures that the manuscript is translated with utmost care, ensuring accuracy of content. Thus, authors who are not fluent in English can seek help from Harrisco academic translations and smoothen the publication process of an international journal.

Harrisco’s academic translations have become a name to reckon with in Korea, Japan, and China. The company has a track record of 100% publication output in international peer-reviewed English journals. Even novice researchers may find it difficult to write their manuscript in impeccable English, especially if they live in ESL and EFL countries.

In such cases, it is always preferable to translate the manuscript from the source language to the target language, that is, English. Harrisco offers complete publication support to ESL and EFL authors, ensuring that their work does not face any English language issues. Harrisco is a top brand associated with the world of academic publishing.

 

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Harrisco offers peer review services to academics

 

Harrisco, a leading academic editing company in Seoul, now offers peer review services to academics. Peer review is the process of evaluating the scientific content of the document. This is a pre-press service that is offered before submitting the manuscript to an international journal.

The content is reviewed by independent researchers through a double-blind peer review process. The content is evaluated for quality, originality, and significance. Based on the reviews, the editors would make an informed decision on whether to publish the article or not in the journal.

Now, let’s understand why peer review process is essential at a pre-press level. Just like English language errors, a translated manuscript also has errors related to content. The researchers from native English speaking countries have a successful track record of international journal publications. They are subject matter experts in their particular field of study.

These subject matter experts will review whether the content meets the rigorous standards of an international SCI (Science Citation Index) journal. Do you know why Harrisco offers double-blind peer review of manuscripts? The names of the authors are not known to the reviewers. At the same time, the names of the reviewers are not known to the authors. As the identities of both the parties are concealed, there is no question of bias based on nationality and gender.

The significance of the peer review process cannot be mitigated or ignored. It is used to validate the authenticity of the content. Peer reviewers are volunteers who get an honorarium to review the manuscript. They are experts both in terms of subject matter and international publications. As they have attended numerous academic conferences, they understand the crux of scientific publishing.

Harrisco services of peer review have now been integrated under the product Quorum. We have a different website for peer review submission. Please peruse through the website www.iquorum.net to understand more about pricing and process. For the double blind review, authors can select upto three reviewers in their field of study. The peer review process makes the content more robust and easy to read.

The errors pointed out may not just be restricted to experiments, they may also be presented in statistical analyses of results. Peer review is thus a very useful process in the development of a manuscript meant for submission to an SCI journal. Come, join hands in improving the quality of the manuscript. Harrisco only employs PhD level peer reviewers for the manuscript.