“The Pathway to Publishing”: A Guide

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Teaching can be a good way to learn. In preparing to teach, I expand and update my knowledge. And I learn from researchers attending my workshops.

For instance, last week at a workshop in Bangladesh, a participant showed me a research-writing book by two experts who had worked in low-income countries. On looking at this openly accessible book, I realized that many researchers could find it useful. Therefore I’ve added it to the AuthorAID resource library, and I’m featuring it in this blog post. The image from its cover accompanies this post.

The book, titled The Pathway to Publishing: A Guide to Quantitative Writing in the Health Sciences, focuses on eight groups of common errors in research writing. Specifically, it discusses avoiding errors in the following:

• General aspects of research and writing (for instance, the error of “not referencing statements”)
• Content (for instance, “assuming association is causality”)
• Mechanics of writing (for instance, “using non-standard abbreviations”)
• Grammar and style (for instance, “misplaced modifiers”)
• Word choice (for instance, mistakenly “using the term ‘illiterate’ as a synonym for ‘[having] no formal education’”)
• Presenting scientific data (for instance, “using incomplete headings for tables and figures”)
• Approaching publication (for instance, “failure to respond to reviewers’ comments”)
• Slide and poster presentations (for instance, “copying a manuscript figure instead of developing a custom figure”)

Much of the advice applies to writing in many fields of research. Strengths of the book include its many examples of alternatives to deficient wording.

I hope you’ll consider looking at this resource. Special thanks to the researcher who introduced me to it.

Until the next post—

Barbara