How to Write a Good Scientific Paper

In January of 2012 I became the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, known as JM3 (sometimes pronounced "JM cubed"), published by SPIE. One of the privileges of the job is to write an editorial for each quarterly issue. Beginnng with my second editorial I began a series on the topic of how to write a good scientific paper. At the beginning of 2018 I compiled these editorials, with some changes and additions, into a book published by SPIE. And thanks to SPIE's generocity, the electronic version of the book is available for free in order to widen its distribution and impact.

Download the pdf of the book here:

How to Write a Good Scientific Paper cover

by Chris A. Mack

Information on the print version can be found here.

Here are links to all of the original JM3 editorials on which the book was based:

The 350 Year History of the Scientific Journal

Title, Abstract, and Keywords

Citations

The Problem (?) with Self-citations

Structure and Organization

Checklist for Editors, Reviewers, and Authors

The Peer Review Process

Picking the Right Journal

The Ethics of Scientific Publication

Here is a link to a webinar I gave on April 24, 2015 for CIAN-ERC on the topic:
(59 min) Getting Published: How to write a good science paper

Here is a link to a talk I gave at the SPIE Optics+Photonics conference on August 28, 2016:
(77 min) Getting Published: How to write a good science paper

For a different perspective on how to write a scientific paper, check out this article from the journal Improbable Research.

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