Writing in your field!!!

Introduction to Shana Roy

  • Name: Shana Roy
  • Affiliation: UMass Lowell
  • Position: Teaching Faculty Member in the Biology Department (since January 2014)
  • Additional Role: Director of Student Success in the College of Sciences (for the past 3 years)

Types of Writing in Biology

  • Personal Writing Practices:

    • Limited writing currently (proposals from meetings, grant writing for student success role).

  • Common Writing Forms in Biology:

    • Research Publications: Primary writing form for tenure-track research faculty.
    • Involves designing experiments to address specific questions and writing up findings for publication.
    • Refers to submissions in what is called primary literature.
    • Includes peer-reviewed publications to ensure quality and validity.

  • Publication Process:

    • Write in manuscript form.
    • Select an appropriate journal for submission based on the relevance of the work.
    • Manuscripts undergo a review process involving:
    • Review by collaborators and competitors in the field.
    • Outcomes can include:
      • Rejection.
      • Acceptance with revisions (feedback requests).
      • Requests for additional experiments to justify claims.
    • Final resubmission based on feedback.

Structure of Scientific Papers

  • Comparison with Lab Reports:

    • Scientific papers are similar to lab reports but are more technical.

  • Main Sections in Scientific Papers:

    • Introduction:
    • Serves as a literature review, focusing on existing knowledge and how it relates to the research question.
    • Materials and Methods:
    • Detailed description of experimental setup and procedures.
    • Must provide enough detail for reproducibility (e.g., concentrations of buffers, incubation times, instrumental settings).
    • Results:
    • Presentation of data through graphs, tables, and other visuals.
    • Explanation of what the results signify, integrating textual justification alongside figures.
    • Conclusions:
    • Interpretation of results in the context of existing literature.
    • Discuss how findings corroborate or contrast with previous studies.
    • Justification of any conflicting results based on differences in experimental design.

Grant Writing

  • Importance of Grants:
    • Funding is essential for conducting research.
    • Grants allow researchers to propose their study plans in order to secure funding.
    • Common funding sources for biological research include:
    • NSF (National Science Foundation)
    • NIH (National Institutes of Health)
    • Other potential sources:
      • Department of Defense
      • NASA (especially in physics-related research).
  • Shana's Specific Grants:
    • Currently involved with grants from foundations, focusing on nonprofit-driven funding.