Writing for Earth Scientists 52 Lessons in Academic Publishing

About this book

There are many books on how to write and be published aimed at research students and other aspiring academics. Many of these are readable, comprehensive and provide good advice. 52 Lessons in Academic Publishing is composed of numerous short chapters on this subject, all directly relevant to one or more aspects of academic publishing and aimed particularly at the Earth scientists in the broadest sense. Geologists will be encouraged to use the book as much as a reference as a reader, 'dipping in' to the chapters that contain relevant tips, hints and comments to enable them to improve the paper that they are currently writing. The book is intended to be informative, readable and, above all, of practical application for all readers. In summary, 52 Lessons in Academic Publishing will be a readable compilation investigating many facets of academic publishing relevant to the Earth sciences. It will be of particular interest to postgraduate students, postdocs and new academics

Contents

Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xiii

1 Introduction to Writing 1
2 Publication Diversity 7
3 Theses 11
4 Books and Monographs 15
5 Invited Chapters for Books 19
6 Peer–Reviewed Research Papers 23
7 Short Notes 27
8 Discussions of and Replies to Published Papers 31
9 Book Reviews and Book Reviewing 35
10 Conference Abstracts 39
11 Papers for Non–Peer–Reviewed Publications 43
12 Field Guides 47
13 Title 51
14 Abstract 55
15 Key Words 59
16 Introduction 63
17 Materials and Methods/Localities and Horizons 67
18 Results 69
19 Discussion and Conclusions 71
20 Acknowledgements 75
21 References 77
22 Why Write? (1) 81
23 Line Drawings 85
24 Maps 89
25 Photographic Plates 93
26 Tables 101
27 Co–authors and Others 105
28 Cover Letters 109
29 Submission 113
30 Editors 115
31 Reviewers 119
32 Why Write? (2) 123
33 Reviews 127
34 Revision: Corrections and Resubmission 131
35 Acceptance 135
36 Rejection 139
37 Copyright 143
38 Open Access 147
39 Offprints and Pdfs 151
40 Reading 157
41 Reviewing 161
42 Why Write? (3) 167
43 Productivity 171
44 Space and Time 175
45 Writer’s Block 179
46 Plain English 183
47 The Native English Speaker 187
48 Why Write? (4) 191
49 Editing Journals 197
50 A Space of Your Own 201
51 Contracts, Agents, Publishers and Your First Book 205
52 How Did I Write This Book? 209

Appendix: Book Proposal 213
Index 221

Customer Reviews

Biography

Professor Stephen K. Donovan has been publishing on such diverse subjects as Caribbean geology, palaeontology, the history of science, ichnology and academic publishing for over 30 years. He loves research, writing and publishing. This book can be read from cover-to-cover, dipped into when an answer to a specific question is needed or both. The aim is to help all geologists to write improved papers – both better organised and more readable – and to get them published.