In the afternoon of December 14, 2018,Dr. Dangsheng Li, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of CellResearch and Executive Editor of CellDiscovery, visited the Medical College of Soochow University and presentedthe lecture “How to write a good research paper” for the first year Ph.D.students in the course of scientific writing for the biological and medicalsciences.
Dr. Li began with the most importantquestions every graduate student would meet, such as “why it is important topublish papers”, “how to choose research projects”, “how to perform goodresearch”, etc. He used vivid examples to dissect each component, including Introduction,Results, Discussion, Experimental Procedures, of a research paper in detail. Healso taught students how to tactically reply the reviewers’ comments andprovided some technical guidance. He further used real cases to discuss how touse proper tones and tenses and how to choose the right words during scientificwriting.
In the two-hour lecture, Dr. Li not onlyshared the theory, logic, and writing techniques, but also discussed thedetails we should pay attention to during the scientific writing. During hislecture, Dr. Li also summarized the elements, requirements, and principles forthe scientific writing and provided strategies for students to overcome thelanguage barrier during the scientific writing.
During the discussion section, Dr. Liexplained the difference between novel and conceptually novel and shared theprinciples and philosophy during the initial assessment of manuscriptssubmitted to Cell Research. More than100 people attended this lecture, including the dean and vice deans of theMedical College of Soochow University, Prof. Eugene Y. Chin, Prof. Yaqiu Long,Prof. Xiong Su, principle investigators, graduate students, and postdoctoralassociates. During his visit, Dr. Li also discussed research projects with PIsin the college and provided valuable suggestion and comments. The course organizer,Prof. Guoqiang Xu, hosted this lecture.