OUP Blog Posts
The risks of boosterism in research writing
At first glance, the significance of a piece of research may not be obvious. Its novelty, importance, and future impact are often uncertain, needing time to become clear to the research community. To improve the reception of your own work, you may be tempted to point out one or more of its virtues. Read more ...
The curious popularity of “however” in research articles
There are many ways to signal a change of direction or mood in a piece of text, but the most common is by inserting a “but” — as I’ve just done here. Alternatives such as “although,” “though,” “however,” “yet,” and “nevertheless” generally run a poor second. In research articles, though, the prevalence of “however” increases — especially in some disciplines. Read more ...
How research abstracts succeed and fail
The abstract of a research article has a simple remit: to faithfully summarize the reported research. After the title, it's the most read section of the article. Crucially, it makes the case for reading the article in full. Although some abstracts succeed, others fail. Why? Read more ...
The problem with overqualified research
Not all research findings turn out to be true, and practising researchers learn quickly to qualify their claims to guard against future failure. But it's easy to go to far. Read more ...
Why authors announce plans for research that might never happen
Why do researchers report their plans for further work at the end of their papers in journals? These announcements can present readers with a dilemma. Should they restrict their own research to avoid duplication or, more drastically, turn to a different area of study? Read more ...
Long, short, and efficient titles for research articles
The title of a research article has an almost impossible remit. As the freely available representative of the work, it needs to accurately capture what was achieved, differentiate it from other works, and, of course, attract the attention of the reader, who might be searching a journal's contents list or the return from a database query. Read more ...
First person pronouns and the passive voice in scientific writing
Imagine you're explaining your research to a friend. You might say “I tested this factor” or “We examined that effect”. But when you later prepare a written version for a scientific journal, you'd probably eliminate the “I” and “we” in favour of the passive voice. That, unfortunately, can sometimes present a challenge. Read more ...