Some resources for scientific writing

Some Resources for Scientific Writing in English

Where to find relevant scientific literature:

1) The reference lists in recent papers on your topic, especially review articles

2) Colleagues with experience in your field

3) PubMed ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed )

4) Web of Science ( http://apps.webofknowledge.com ), Scopus ( http://www.scopus.com/home.url ), available if you are connecting through UniVie

5) Google Scholar ( https://scholar.google.at/ ) is very broad and general, and sometimes links to full-text articles

6) The UniVie Library system ( http://bibliothek.univie.ac.at/eressourcen.html ) includes access to

BIOSIS Previews ( = Biological Abstracts); Zoological Record;

Science Citation Index (also ISI, which includes social sciences and humanities);

ProQuest for doctoral dissertations; Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek (EZB);

and about 1000 other databases

7) Use u:access to get University access to materials online

8) Get a reference manager program you like and start using it

e.g. Zotero (free), Mendeley (free), EndNote (avail. through ZID)

How to learn scientific writing:

1) Read good science writing, and pay attention to how it is presented.

2) Co-author papers with someone who writes well.

3) Practice, practice, practice!

4) Peer-review articles for journals.

5) A Short Guide To Writing About Biology, by J. Pechenik gives helpful advice and examples.

https://1lib.at/s/A%20Short%20Guide%20To%20Writing%20About%20Biology

6) Writing Science, by Josh Schimel (available online through u:search) is very good, and his blog at http://schimelwritingscience.wordpress.com/ is worth a look.

7) Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English, by Hilary Glasmann-Deal has some helpful lessons (also available online through u:search).

8) The Scientist’s Guide to Writing by S.B. Heard (available through u:search) and his blog at https://scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/

9) A helpful guide: https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Elements_of_Style.pdf

Citing sources and avoiding plagiarism:

Always ask the advice of someone with more experience in scientific writing.

One helpful page is at http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html

For writing grant proposals:

The Art of Grantsmanship, by Jacob Kraicer http://www.hfsp.org/funding/art-grantsmanship

English language references:

A good English dictionary with usage notes, e.g. Webster's, American Heritage, or one of the Oxford dictionaries, or a good dictionary app

Oxford English Dictionary online: http://www.oed.com; Webster's online: http://www.m-w.com/

Oxford Reference Online, including OED http://www.oxfordreference.com

The essential guide to writing in English is The Elements of Style by W. Strunk & E.B. White.

https://1lib.at/s/the%20elements%20of%20style

The original guide by Strunk, without White's additions, is free at http://www.bartleby.com/141/

All other English style manuals are just extended footnotes to Strunk & White.

German-English (and other languages) translation:

A German-English (or English) dictionary with usage examples: I like the printed dictionaries from Langenscheidt and Harper-Collins, and the Mac OS Dictionary app is good and there are extra plugins for translation dictionaries and other languages.

LEO http://dict.leo.org/ , and Google translate ( https://translate.google.com/ )

For the main European languages, DeepL is new and seems good: https://www.deepl.com/translator