How to write a

geological paper for an

international journal
Lecture 1 – Introduction (to this course)
Or how to get your brilliant work past the evil reviewers
Dr Kathryn Cutts

@KathrynCutts
 A New Hope

For the future of your PhD and the Galaxy

Basis of this course:
I am also currently a co-editor of two Special volumes:
The Dynamic Neoproterozoic Evolution of eastern Brazil: Crustal
evolution, supercontinent assembly and breakup
Precambrian Research

Archean to Paleoproterozoic Crustal Evolution of South America

Geoscience Frontiers
Both received 10-15 submissions, with many coming from students….

Often student contributions make very simple mistakes (supervisors

should pick these up but for some reason this often does not happen),
which can make the difference between major revisions and rejection.

Hence this course!

Course objectives:

Learn how to appropriately structure a scientific paper

 Order of sections and how each should be internally structured
 Advice for how to have nice figures and tables
 How best to prepare your paper to get through review.
 Submission process

The review process

 What is involved?
 Dealing with reviewer comments
 How to be a good reviewer
 When to appeal to the editor
Course Plan:
Lecture 1 (today) – Introduction. Where do I start? Why do we write
papers anyway? What journal should I submit to? What happens when
I submit my paper to a journal? Open access, Predatory journals, main
sections that your paper needs.
Bk Chpts 1, 2, 12.

Lecture 2 – Review – how to deal with reviewer criticism, strategies for

addressing reviewer comments, how to be a good reviewer.
Bk Chpts 3, 13, 14.

Lecture 3 - Writing your paper - Abstract and title, setting the scene
with the geological setting, how to write the methods. How to avoid
plagiarism.
Bk Chpts 7, 10, 11.
Course plan (a bit vague):
Lecture 4 - Results as a story - presenting data and figures. How to avoid
interpretation, data table mistakes, how to make nice looking figures,
Geochron. data mistakes, be organised!
Bk Chpts 4, 5, 6

Lecture 5 – The introduction (and discussion) – what these are, how the
introduction should be written (the secret formula), don’t be afraid to
rewrite the whole thing.
Bk Chpt. 8

Lecture 6 – The discussion – the interpretation of results and supporting

evidence, comparison with related studies, significance.
Bk Chpt. 9.
Course Plan (the most vague)
Lecture 7 – bringing everything together – does your paper flow –
importance of proof-reading, journal selection, submission process and
files you need (cover letters!), the role of co-authors.
Bk Chpt 12, 13, 15.

Lecture 8 - Additional skill development – writing groups, English skills

(most common mistakes in English that you can look out for).
Bk Chpts 16 & 17.

If there is something that you want us to cover then please send me

an email – I am still arranging the later lectures.
Course work
Given the size of this class, I can’t prescribe detailed writing
assignments.
However, there will be some small assignments/quizzes that I hope will
be helpful or fun (or both).
I do encourage you to work on your own article during the course (if you
have something that you are currently writing) and I would be very
happy to assist with any specific problems or questions that you might
have.
Resources
I have added some useful material to the google drive included the
suggested text book, some example “response to reviewer
comments”/cover letters and a few other potentially useful things.

Access it here:
Let me introduce you to my kind survey respondents:

Academic level: Number of publications:

retired other
research 1% 4% PhD/MSc
scientist/tec student more than 50
hnician 15% 19% 5 or less
6% 27%

Senior
lecturer/Prof
24%

16 to 50
22%
Post Doc
29%
6 to 15
Junior 32%
lecturer
21%
Let me introduce you to my kind survey respondents:
Do you want to stay in English native speaker?
Academia? Asked to improve English in review:
working in government/industry No english check English native speaker and
3% NA 2% requested (non-native reviewer has asked for
speaker) english check
retired/retiring 4% 19% 7%
I would like to
but I do not
think it is a
healthy
environment
6%
Non-native
english speaker
Yes
and reviewer
54%
has asked for
english check
I would like 30%
to but I am
worried No english check requested
about job (native speaker)
availability 44%
27% No
4%
Before we start – some important points
 READ AS MANY PAPERS AS YOU CAN!!!!! I can’t emphasise this
point enough.
This is also the solution to most problems you may have writing:
- not sure how to format your paper for a journal – read some papers from that
journal
- not sure what is important to put in your discussion – check some papers
from similar area/similar topics to yours.
- not sure what information/how to format figures – read papers!!!

 Be connected!!!! You don’t have to write your paper alone.

- Discuss your problems with your supervisor, co-authors and peers.
- Make a writing club
- Join twitter! Geotwitter and academic twitter are very active and pretty
friendly!!
Why write papers? Do you like writing papers?

For fun?
No
31%
Leave a record of the research that
others can add to.
Yes
Receive recognition for ideas and 69%

results…

Attract interest of others in the research area.

Receive expert feedback on results

Legitimise the results

As an aside - how much recognition for ideas and
results should we recieve??
https://medium.com/@devang/science-first-scientists-later-
6419cbc4ac9b

The idea here is that author

lists are replaced by
contribution statements

Check out the article and

tell me what you think!
Why might something like this be useful?

The work would stand on its own.

Reduce the effect of bias in the

review process.
No english check English native speaker
requested (non- and reviewer has asked
native speaker) for english check
19% 7%

Non-native
english
speaker and
reviewer has
asked for
english
No english check requested check
(native speaker) 30%
44%
What journal should I submit to?

 Who do you want your paper to

reach?

 Cost, Open Access?

 Speed.

 Impact

 All journals indicate the topics they publish on. Also you can
check recently published papers to see if your work fits in.
What journal should I submit to?

- Check the webpage of the journals you are interested in.

- They also provide information about how your submission needs

to be structured
Predatory Journals

 Have legit sounding titles

 Offer speedy peer review for

only a modest fee

 Often they will contact you

 If in doubt check:
https://beallslist.net/ or
https://predatoryjournals.com/j
ournals/ or
https://thinkchecksubmit.org/
Open access journals
Open access journals

Most journal will publish articles open access for a fee (i.e.
Precambrian Research, Gondwana Research, JMG, JGL, etc).

Some journals are entirely open access (i.e. Geoscience

Frontiers, Geology, GSA Bulletin, MDPI journals) but most have
publication fees.

Community-led diamond open access journals – Free to

publish, access and read…
Pre-print servers

Allow you to upload your work before it has been accepted.

This means you can discuss your work with the community/get
advice prior to article acceptance.

Assigned a DOI so your work is citable and indexed by google

scholar.

Lots of these around now - https://eartharxiv.org/

https://www.essoar.org/
What happens to my paper when I submit it?
It is different depending on the journal but
this is generally what happens….or is it?
What happens to my paper when I submit it?
It is different depending on the journal but
this is generally what happens….or is it?
What is the longest time it has taken you to get a
manuscript published?
>5 years
4%

2 - 5 years
24%

1 year or
less
53%

2 years or
less
19%
What actually happens to my paper when I submit it?
Can I do anything about this?

Not really.
Can I do anything about this?

Talk to colleagues about how long their review times have

been at particular journals.

When you submit, you nominate 5-6 reviewers who you think
would be capable of providing a good review of your work. The
editor will definitely search using this list.

Choose people:
Who you have not worked with in the past 5 years (or friends)
Who have time (a post-doc or ECR is better than prof.)
Who will give you a useful review
What do I need when I submit my paper?

Along with 5-6 suggestions for reviewers and your manuscript file you
need a cover letter.

You must also ensure that all the co-authors have seen the final
version of the paper and approve the submission.

Sometimes they ask for a list of the last five papers you and your co-
authors have published.

They often ask for keywords (up to 6), and an author contribution
statement.
What is a cover letter?

A formal letter introducing your manuscript to the editor and explaining

why it should be published.

It should include the highlights of your paper (not the “Highlights”) but the
main takeaway point of your paper.

It should also explain why your paper belongs in this particular journal.
How to format a cover letter:
Dear Editor,

Please find attached our submission “What Star Wars can tell us about
plate tectonics” by Lucas, Fisher, Hamil and Ford. In our contribution we
highlight the impact the Star Wars franchise has on encouraging young
people to pursue science thus leading to a greater understanding of plate
tectonics. We also find that the death star, being neither star sized or
incandescent is more of a death moon.
We believe our publication is well suited to your journal “Movies and
Geoscience”. Our work also furthers the debate raised in “Star Trek
produces the best geoscientists” by Shatner & Nimoy, also published in
your journal.
Best regards,
How to format a cover letter
Dear Editor, 1 2
Please find attached our submission “What Star Wars can tell us about
plate tectonics” by Lucas, Fisher, Hamil and Ford. In our contribution we
highlight the impact the Star Wars franchise has on encouraging young
people to pursue science thus leading to a greater understanding of plate

3
tectonics. We also find that the death star, being neither star sized or
incandescent is more of a death moon.
We believe our publication is well suited to your journal “Movies and
Geoscience”. Our work also furthers the debate raised in “Star Trek
produces the best geoscientists” by Shatner & Nimoy, also published in
your journal.
Best regards, 4
Cover letter dos and don’ts

Don’t just paste your abstract in there

The whole letter should be one page

Don’t refer to your previous really awesome papers

Don’t write the journal name or editor’s name wrong

Don’t be presumptive

Avoid jargon.
Let’s
return… to
the subject
we really
care about –
your paper!
How to structure your paper:
Everything in your article must be connected to the
results.

Introduction should start with a broad focus, then

background information and narrows into your results
ending with a statement of the aims/purpose of the
work.

Methods establish credibility for the results

Discussion starts with your results and broadens to

address the big issues you raised in the introduction.
Adapted from Fig. 2.1
How to structure your paper:
These both show how geology
papers are generally structured.

Depending on how you structure

the sample description it can go
before or after the methods
section.
How to structure your paper:
And this is how Geology papers are structured.

Methods are removed to the supplementary material

to save space in short format papers.

This short format is also used in Nature and Science.

These papers can be really hard to write.

How do I start my paper?
The best way to start writing your own paper is to pick a published paper
like the one you want to write and base your paper on this one.

For example:

Vance et al (1998) Geology

My results using the same data but updated models gave more
modest peak pressures:
My supervisor suggested publishing the results as a short format paper,
we did not think the results were significant enough for Geology so we
aimed for a special publication with the Journal of the Geological
Society.
So I downloaded several example papers and chose one to base my
paper on:

Headings:
Introduction
Sample description
U-Pb zircon results
Discussion
Conclusion
This is what I wrote:
Headings:
Introduction
Sample description
Pressure temperature conditions
(results)
Discussion
Conclusion

Starting using a template like this makes it much easier to

write.
A few tips to improve writing:

 Write shorter – don’t use ten words to say something you can say
in five

 Shorten your sentences – long sentences confuse the reader. This

is a very common mistake (I do this all the time).

 Avoid jargon – science is really terrible for this. I really hate

diachronous – I think it means prolonged duration….

 Don’t keep the reader in suspense. Tell us the exciting results right
away!!
Next time on HTWAGPFAIJ:

Review – how to deal with

reviewer criticism, strategies for
addressing reviewer comments,
how to be a good reviewer.
Bk Chpts 3, 13, 14.
Quiz to check if you were paying attention:
Email me your answers (and your name) at [email protected]

1. What are the first names of the two authors of the book we will be
using in this course?

2. What section of the paper comes after the introduction?

3. Name one open access journal.

4. What mineral is the best?

5. Choose a published paper that represents what you want your

paper to be like. What are the main headings and subheadings?