- Email: [email protected]
Scientific papers: Which type would you prefer?
Journal of Integrative Medicine 17 (2019) 77–79
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Integrative Medicine journal homepage: www.jcimjournal.com/jim www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-integrative-medicine
Global Views
Scientific papers: Which type would you prefer? Chun-song Hu Jiangxi Academy of Medical Science, Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
a r t i c l e
i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 21 September 2018 Accepted 13 January 2019 Available online 20 February 2019
It’s very important to enhance the quality of scientific papers produced by postgraduates and scholars from academic institutions. To encourage their academic and professional development, these young scientists should be encouraged to compose nonresearch articles, in addition to original research articles, including short essays, perspectives and reviews.
Keywords: Article type Postgraduates Scholars Scientific papers
Please cite this article as: Hu CS. Scientific papers: Which type would you prefer?. J Integr Med. 2019; 17(2): 77–79. Ó 2019 Shanghai Changhai Hospital. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. China’s increasing publication rate In the new era, with the rapid development of economy and society, China’s scientific and technological scholarship has grown tremendously, now claiming second highest publication rate of any country in the world. Among these scientific papers, a large proportion are dissertations, theses and research papers. Therefore, the increasing number of scientific publications reflects the productivity in Chinese colleges and universities. It is the graduation season again, and thousands of graduate students have completed their thesis defense. Usually, a dissertation is subject to blind review. Moreover, in some colleges and universities, students need to publish 1 or 2 relevant scientific papers in journals listed in the Science Citation Index before the dissertation defense. In some cases the article type and impact factor (IF) of the journal must meet specific criteria. However, scientific publications provide a platform to share ideas, and it is said that if you can ‘‘be brief and you will be good” [1]. Thus, the impact of scientific papers may be better correlated with their innovation rather than the type of article or journal in which the article is published. Of course, generally speaking, the higher the IF of a scientific journal, the better. 2. The concept of scientific paper, types of article, and evaluation of scientific impact There are several general classes of scientific paper, such as original research article (ORA), review, perspective and correspondence. However, popular scientific articles in newspapers and E-mail address: [email protected]
periodicals do not meet the peer review standards of academic journals. Comprehensive or professional scientific journals publish academic articles with different levels of quality, but do you think these papers ‘‘garbage”? Sometimes, the value and significance of nonoriginal research articles like correspondence, perspective and review articles could have more impact than research articles due to their innovation. The prediction of long-term scientific impact is not so easy [2–4]; new, more reliable models [5–8], methods [9–11] or tools are continually developed to better assess the impacts of scientific research [12]. In addition, the grants of the fund research can also influence the impacts of resulting publications [4]. However, a scientist’s impact is easy to estimate, according to indicators that may include publishing in journals with higher IF, the h-index, cumulative citations, and independent recognition, such as prizes [8,13]. A classic example is the articles on the double helix structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids, which were only two and three pages [14,15], did not conform to the format of traditional research papers, yet won the Nobel Prize as landmark of academic papers. Here, ORAs that include ‘‘Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion” have been called ‘‘four-part essays,” and are reminiscent of the ‘‘eight-part essay” from ancient China. This nickname was given several years ago during my communications with famous scholars. In fact, both ORAs and nonresearch articles (NRAs) are important publications and are worthwhile efforts for postgraduates and scholars (Fig. 1). 3. Both ORAs and NRAs should be encouraged Therefore, postgraduate students and scholars cannot be asked to only write academic papers in the style of the ‘‘four-part essay.”
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joim.2019.02.003 2095-4964/Ó 2019 Shanghai Changhai Hospital. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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C.-s. Hu / Journal of Integrative Medicine 17 (2019) 77–79
Fig. 1. Percentage of original research articles in top journals. Original research articles (ORAs) comprise about 70%, 28%, 34%, 12%, 10% and 13% of published work in Cell, Nature, Science, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) respectively. Generally speaking, the higher the impact factor (IF) of journals, the less ORAs there are. That is to say, there are more nonresearch articles in journals with the higher IF, which include editorials, review, comment, perspective, viewpoint, correspondence, and others.
Short essays, correspondence and perspective articles may have greater value and impact due to the shorter publication cycle, and low cost to prepare, compared with write-ups of clinical or experimental studies. The latter are expensive to produce, and the cycle is extended [16,17]. Thus, postgraduate students and scholars should be encouraged to write short articles. This requires courage and a change in mindset of the established scientific administration, rather than simply requiring researchers to produce innovative original research. Allowing the focus to be on production of research articles detracts from our true goal of encouraging researchers to have innovative breakthroughs. Current expectations demonstrate a lack of strategic vision. We should encourage researchers to promote their scholarship and novel ideas through the full range of article types. Upon examination, you will find that there are more News & Views and Perspective articles than ever, in Nature and Science. Essentially, we promote more innovation and less formality. Please keep a respectful attitude toward the traditional forms of scientific communication, but we do not need to place the ‘‘four-part essay” on a pedestal. Consider that research papers, in their synthesis of the work of many scientists, rarely represent the opinions of researchers whose contributions they seek to contextualize [18].
4. Conclusion It’s very important to enhance the quality of scientific papers produced by postgraduate students and academic scholars, not only in China but also around the world. To do this, we should encourage these scholars to broaden their focus to include not only ORAs (Chinese [16] or English [17]) but also NRAs, including short essays, editorial comments [19], correspondence [20,21], letters to the editor [22], perspectives [23–25] and long review articles [26]. These articles will help to expand one’s academic influence and raise professional awareness.
Since it is time for action against noncommunicable diseases [27], and lifestyle plays a more and more important role in healthy cities [28], primary care research will definitely receive greater attention [29]. Whatever type of scientific papers will be valued and selected by the editors, just like the article on a magic and novel ‘‘polypill” published in European Heart Journal [30]. Indeed, to assess the quality of science and scientists, one needs to ‘‘measure the unmeasurable” [31]. Of course, articles that follow a journal’s focus are more likely to be accepted for publication [32]. In addition, since scientific writing is an important professional skill for students and scholars, we should provide courses that emphasize critical reading skills, as well as the technical, effective writing needed to articulate scientific discovery and theories across an academic career or professional life [33,34]. Conflict of interest The author declares that there is no conflict of interest. References [1] Picardi N. Rules to be adopted for publishing a scientific paper. Ann Ital Chir 2016;87:1–3. [2] Wang D, Song C, Barabási AL. Quantifying long-term scientific impact. Science 2013;342(6154):127–32. [3] Wang J, Mei Y, Hicks D. Science communication. Comment on ‘‘Quantifying long-term scientific impact”. Science 2014;345(6193):149. [4] Wang D, Song C, Shen HW, Barabási AL. Science communication. Response to comment on ‘‘Quantifying long-term scientific impact”. Science 2014;345 (6193):149. [5] Sarli CC, Dubinsky EK, Holmes KL. Beyond citation analysis: a model for assessment of research impact. J Med Libr Assoc 2010;98(1):17–23. [6] Sarli CC, Carpenter CR. Measuring academic productivity and changing definitions of scientific impact. Mo Med 2014;111(5):399–403. [7] Petersen AM, Fortunato S, Pan RK, Kaski K, Penner O, Rungi A, et al. Reputation and impact in academic careers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014;111 (43):15316–21. [8] Sinatra R, Wang D, Deville P, Song C, Barabási AL. Quantifying the evolution of individual scientific impact. Science 2016;354(6312):aaf5239.
C.-s. Hu / Journal of Integrative Medicine 17 (2019) 77–79 [9] Brueton VC, Vale CL, Choodari-Oskooei B, Jinks R, Tierney JF. Measuring the impact of methodological research: a framework and methods to identify evidence of impact. Trials 2014;15:464. [10] Bornmann L, Marx W. How good is research really? Measuring the citation impact of publications with percentiles increases correct assessments and fair comparisons. EMBO Rep 2013;14(3):226–30. [11] Bornmann L, Marx W. The journal impact factor and alternative metrics: a variety of bibliometric measures has been developed to supplant the impact factor to better assess the impact of individual research papers. EMBO Rep 2016;17(8):1094–7. [12] Wang J, Shapira P. Is there a relationship between research sponsorship and publication impact? An analysis of funding acknowledgments in nanotechnology papers. PLoS ONE 2015;10(2):e0117727. [13] Braile DM. The scientific article and the good science. Rev Bras Cir Cardiovasc 2015;30(4):I–III. [14] Watson JD, Crick FH. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 1953;171(4356):737–8. [15] Wilkins MH, Stokes AR, Wilson HR. Molecular structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids. Nature 1953;171(4356):738–40. [16] Qiu H, Jin GQ, Zhao WK. Establishment of analogous oxidative damaged Alzheimer’s disease rat model and effect of Tiaoxin recipe on it. Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 2003;23(8):603–5 [Chinese with abstract in English]. [17] Yoon YS, Murayama T, Gravereaux E, Tkebuchava T, Silver M, Curry C, et al. VEGF-C gene therapy augments postnatal lymphangiogenesis and ameliorates secondary lymphedema. J Clin Invest 2003;111(5):717–25. [18] Horton R. The hidden research paper. JAMA 2002;287(21):2775–8. [19] Chen H, Yang M, Lao L. Acupuncture for women undergoing in vitro fertilization. JAMA 2018;320(13):1385. [20] Hu CS, Tkebuchava T. New ‘‘P” in medical model. Chin Med J (Engl) 2016;129 (4):492–3.
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[21] Hu CS, Tkebuchava T. Structure-editing: a new branch? Chin Med J (Engl) 2016;129(13):1629–30. [22] Hu C, Wu Q. Health: a dream from reality to the future. Front Med 2016;10 (2):233–5. [23] Hu CS, Tkebuchava T. SEEDi1.0-3.0 strategies for major noncommunicable diseases in China. J Integr Med 2017;15(4):265–9. [24] Hu CS, Han YL, Ge JB, Wu QH, Liu YN, Ma CS, et al. A novel management program for hypertension. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther 2015;5(4):316–22. [25] Hu CS, Wu QH, Hu DY, Tkebuchava T. Novel strategies halt cardiovascular, diabetes, and cancer strips. Chronic Dis Transl Med 2017;3(3):159–64. [26] Wang X, Wang N, Cheung F, Lao L, Li C, Feng Y. Chinese medicines for prevention and treatment of human hepatocellular carcinoma: current progress on pharmacological actions and mechanisms. J Integr Med 2015;13 (3):142–64. [27] Horton R, Sargent J. 2018 must be the year for action against NCDs. Lancet 2018;391(10134):1971–3. [28] Summerskill W, Wang HH, Horton R. Healthy cities: key to a healthy future in China. Lancet 2018;391(10135):2086–7. [29] James A, Summerskill W, Horton R. Primary care research: a call for papers. Lancet 2018;391(10121):642. [30] Hu C. Grants supporting research in China. Eur Heart J 2018;39(25):2342–4. [31] Lüscher TF. Measuring the unmeasurable: assessing the quality of science and scientists. Eur Heart J 2018;39(20):1765–9. [32] Loder E, Groves T, Schroter S, Merino JG, Weber W. Qualitative research and The BMJ. BMJ 2016;352:i641. [33] Henary M, Owens EA, Tawney JG. Creative report writing in undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory inspires nonmajors. J Chem Educ 2015;92 (1):90–5. [34] Ogunsolu OO, Wang JC, Hanson K. Writing a review article: a graduate level writing class. J Chem Educ 2018;95(5):810–6.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Integrative Medicine journal homepage: www.jcimjournal.com/jim www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-integrative-medicine
Global Views
Scientific papers: Which type would you prefer? Chun-song Hu Jiangxi Academy of Medical Science, Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
a r t i c l e
i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 21 September 2018 Accepted 13 January 2019 Available online 20 February 2019
It’s very important to enhance the quality of scientific papers produced by postgraduates and scholars from academic institutions. To encourage their academic and professional development, these young scientists should be encouraged to compose nonresearch articles, in addition to original research articles, including short essays, perspectives and reviews.
Keywords: Article type Postgraduates Scholars Scientific papers
Please cite this article as: Hu CS. Scientific papers: Which type would you prefer?. J Integr Med. 2019; 17(2): 77–79. Ó 2019 Shanghai Changhai Hospital. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. China’s increasing publication rate In the new era, with the rapid development of economy and society, China’s scientific and technological scholarship has grown tremendously, now claiming second highest publication rate of any country in the world. Among these scientific papers, a large proportion are dissertations, theses and research papers. Therefore, the increasing number of scientific publications reflects the productivity in Chinese colleges and universities. It is the graduation season again, and thousands of graduate students have completed their thesis defense. Usually, a dissertation is subject to blind review. Moreover, in some colleges and universities, students need to publish 1 or 2 relevant scientific papers in journals listed in the Science Citation Index before the dissertation defense. In some cases the article type and impact factor (IF) of the journal must meet specific criteria. However, scientific publications provide a platform to share ideas, and it is said that if you can ‘‘be brief and you will be good” [1]. Thus, the impact of scientific papers may be better correlated with their innovation rather than the type of article or journal in which the article is published. Of course, generally speaking, the higher the IF of a scientific journal, the better. 2. The concept of scientific paper, types of article, and evaluation of scientific impact There are several general classes of scientific paper, such as original research article (ORA), review, perspective and correspondence. However, popular scientific articles in newspapers and E-mail address: [email protected]
periodicals do not meet the peer review standards of academic journals. Comprehensive or professional scientific journals publish academic articles with different levels of quality, but do you think these papers ‘‘garbage”? Sometimes, the value and significance of nonoriginal research articles like correspondence, perspective and review articles could have more impact than research articles due to their innovation. The prediction of long-term scientific impact is not so easy [2–4]; new, more reliable models [5–8], methods [9–11] or tools are continually developed to better assess the impacts of scientific research [12]. In addition, the grants of the fund research can also influence the impacts of resulting publications [4]. However, a scientist’s impact is easy to estimate, according to indicators that may include publishing in journals with higher IF, the h-index, cumulative citations, and independent recognition, such as prizes [8,13]. A classic example is the articles on the double helix structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids, which were only two and three pages [14,15], did not conform to the format of traditional research papers, yet won the Nobel Prize as landmark of academic papers. Here, ORAs that include ‘‘Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion” have been called ‘‘four-part essays,” and are reminiscent of the ‘‘eight-part essay” from ancient China. This nickname was given several years ago during my communications with famous scholars. In fact, both ORAs and nonresearch articles (NRAs) are important publications and are worthwhile efforts for postgraduates and scholars (Fig. 1). 3. Both ORAs and NRAs should be encouraged Therefore, postgraduate students and scholars cannot be asked to only write academic papers in the style of the ‘‘four-part essay.”
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joim.2019.02.003 2095-4964/Ó 2019 Shanghai Changhai Hospital. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
78
C.-s. Hu / Journal of Integrative Medicine 17 (2019) 77–79
Fig. 1. Percentage of original research articles in top journals. Original research articles (ORAs) comprise about 70%, 28%, 34%, 12%, 10% and 13% of published work in Cell, Nature, Science, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) respectively. Generally speaking, the higher the impact factor (IF) of journals, the less ORAs there are. That is to say, there are more nonresearch articles in journals with the higher IF, which include editorials, review, comment, perspective, viewpoint, correspondence, and others.
Short essays, correspondence and perspective articles may have greater value and impact due to the shorter publication cycle, and low cost to prepare, compared with write-ups of clinical or experimental studies. The latter are expensive to produce, and the cycle is extended [16,17]. Thus, postgraduate students and scholars should be encouraged to write short articles. This requires courage and a change in mindset of the established scientific administration, rather than simply requiring researchers to produce innovative original research. Allowing the focus to be on production of research articles detracts from our true goal of encouraging researchers to have innovative breakthroughs. Current expectations demonstrate a lack of strategic vision. We should encourage researchers to promote their scholarship and novel ideas through the full range of article types. Upon examination, you will find that there are more News & Views and Perspective articles than ever, in Nature and Science. Essentially, we promote more innovation and less formality. Please keep a respectful attitude toward the traditional forms of scientific communication, but we do not need to place the ‘‘four-part essay” on a pedestal. Consider that research papers, in their synthesis of the work of many scientists, rarely represent the opinions of researchers whose contributions they seek to contextualize [18].
4. Conclusion It’s very important to enhance the quality of scientific papers produced by postgraduate students and academic scholars, not only in China but also around the world. To do this, we should encourage these scholars to broaden their focus to include not only ORAs (Chinese [16] or English [17]) but also NRAs, including short essays, editorial comments [19], correspondence [20,21], letters to the editor [22], perspectives [23–25] and long review articles [26]. These articles will help to expand one’s academic influence and raise professional awareness.
Since it is time for action against noncommunicable diseases [27], and lifestyle plays a more and more important role in healthy cities [28], primary care research will definitely receive greater attention [29]. Whatever type of scientific papers will be valued and selected by the editors, just like the article on a magic and novel ‘‘polypill” published in European Heart Journal [30]. Indeed, to assess the quality of science and scientists, one needs to ‘‘measure the unmeasurable” [31]. Of course, articles that follow a journal’s focus are more likely to be accepted for publication [32]. In addition, since scientific writing is an important professional skill for students and scholars, we should provide courses that emphasize critical reading skills, as well as the technical, effective writing needed to articulate scientific discovery and theories across an academic career or professional life [33,34]. Conflict of interest The author declares that there is no conflict of interest. References [1] Picardi N. Rules to be adopted for publishing a scientific paper. Ann Ital Chir 2016;87:1–3. [2] Wang D, Song C, Barabási AL. Quantifying long-term scientific impact. Science 2013;342(6154):127–32. [3] Wang J, Mei Y, Hicks D. Science communication. Comment on ‘‘Quantifying long-term scientific impact”. Science 2014;345(6193):149. [4] Wang D, Song C, Shen HW, Barabási AL. Science communication. Response to comment on ‘‘Quantifying long-term scientific impact”. Science 2014;345 (6193):149. [5] Sarli CC, Dubinsky EK, Holmes KL. Beyond citation analysis: a model for assessment of research impact. J Med Libr Assoc 2010;98(1):17–23. [6] Sarli CC, Carpenter CR. Measuring academic productivity and changing definitions of scientific impact. Mo Med 2014;111(5):399–403. [7] Petersen AM, Fortunato S, Pan RK, Kaski K, Penner O, Rungi A, et al. Reputation and impact in academic careers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014;111 (43):15316–21. [8] Sinatra R, Wang D, Deville P, Song C, Barabási AL. Quantifying the evolution of individual scientific impact. Science 2016;354(6312):aaf5239.
C.-s. Hu / Journal of Integrative Medicine 17 (2019) 77–79 [9] Brueton VC, Vale CL, Choodari-Oskooei B, Jinks R, Tierney JF. Measuring the impact of methodological research: a framework and methods to identify evidence of impact. Trials 2014;15:464. [10] Bornmann L, Marx W. How good is research really? Measuring the citation impact of publications with percentiles increases correct assessments and fair comparisons. EMBO Rep 2013;14(3):226–30. [11] Bornmann L, Marx W. The journal impact factor and alternative metrics: a variety of bibliometric measures has been developed to supplant the impact factor to better assess the impact of individual research papers. EMBO Rep 2016;17(8):1094–7. [12] Wang J, Shapira P. Is there a relationship between research sponsorship and publication impact? An analysis of funding acknowledgments in nanotechnology papers. PLoS ONE 2015;10(2):e0117727. [13] Braile DM. The scientific article and the good science. Rev Bras Cir Cardiovasc 2015;30(4):I–III. [14] Watson JD, Crick FH. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 1953;171(4356):737–8. [15] Wilkins MH, Stokes AR, Wilson HR. Molecular structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids. Nature 1953;171(4356):738–40. [16] Qiu H, Jin GQ, Zhao WK. Establishment of analogous oxidative damaged Alzheimer’s disease rat model and effect of Tiaoxin recipe on it. Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 2003;23(8):603–5 [Chinese with abstract in English]. [17] Yoon YS, Murayama T, Gravereaux E, Tkebuchava T, Silver M, Curry C, et al. VEGF-C gene therapy augments postnatal lymphangiogenesis and ameliorates secondary lymphedema. J Clin Invest 2003;111(5):717–25. [18] Horton R. The hidden research paper. JAMA 2002;287(21):2775–8. [19] Chen H, Yang M, Lao L. Acupuncture for women undergoing in vitro fertilization. JAMA 2018;320(13):1385. [20] Hu CS, Tkebuchava T. New ‘‘P” in medical model. Chin Med J (Engl) 2016;129 (4):492–3.
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[21] Hu CS, Tkebuchava T. Structure-editing: a new branch? Chin Med J (Engl) 2016;129(13):1629–30. [22] Hu C, Wu Q. Health: a dream from reality to the future. Front Med 2016;10 (2):233–5. [23] Hu CS, Tkebuchava T. SEEDi1.0-3.0 strategies for major noncommunicable diseases in China. J Integr Med 2017;15(4):265–9. [24] Hu CS, Han YL, Ge JB, Wu QH, Liu YN, Ma CS, et al. A novel management program for hypertension. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther 2015;5(4):316–22. [25] Hu CS, Wu QH, Hu DY, Tkebuchava T. Novel strategies halt cardiovascular, diabetes, and cancer strips. Chronic Dis Transl Med 2017;3(3):159–64. [26] Wang X, Wang N, Cheung F, Lao L, Li C, Feng Y. Chinese medicines for prevention and treatment of human hepatocellular carcinoma: current progress on pharmacological actions and mechanisms. J Integr Med 2015;13 (3):142–64. [27] Horton R, Sargent J. 2018 must be the year for action against NCDs. Lancet 2018;391(10134):1971–3. [28] Summerskill W, Wang HH, Horton R. Healthy cities: key to a healthy future in China. Lancet 2018;391(10135):2086–7. [29] James A, Summerskill W, Horton R. Primary care research: a call for papers. Lancet 2018;391(10121):642. [30] Hu C. Grants supporting research in China. Eur Heart J 2018;39(25):2342–4. [31] Lüscher TF. Measuring the unmeasurable: assessing the quality of science and scientists. Eur Heart J 2018;39(20):1765–9. [32] Loder E, Groves T, Schroter S, Merino JG, Weber W. Qualitative research and The BMJ. BMJ 2016;352:i641. [33] Henary M, Owens EA, Tawney JG. Creative report writing in undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory inspires nonmajors. J Chem Educ 2015;92 (1):90–5. [34] Ogunsolu OO, Wang JC, Hanson K. Writing a review article: a graduate level writing class. J Chem Educ 2018;95(5):810–6.