1. Module: WRITING ARTICLES FOR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

This module has been prepared as an output of a multi-national and multi-partner European Union project. One of the most important pillars of this project, which aimed to increase the academic research and reporting skills of academics, was the development of article writing skills for academic journals. Therefore, this study has been prepared to guide researchers, students and authors who aim to write articles for academic journals in their article writing process.

Article writing is an important, yet complex stage of academic research processes require interdisciplinary competence that develops knowledge-based thinking, analysing and effective communication skills. Therefore, article writing requires not only thinking deeply about a topic, but also expressing these thoughts in a clear, coherent and convincing way. Therefore, the process of writing an article with the right methods and strategies is of great importance for writers.

This module aims to provide a comprehensive guide to each stage of article writing. To this end, all the important elements of article writing are covered, from the initial stage of writing to the formatting of the article, from the use of sources to different writing styles. The structural framework of the article is explained through the basic sections of introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, conclusion and recommendations.  The module also discusses how to avoid common mistakes in article writing, tips on the correct and effective use of language, and how academic writing should strike a balance between originality and coherence. Special emphasis is also placed on the importance of citing sources correctly and maintaining academic integrity.

Supported by practical advice and examples, this guide will provide readers not only with the technical aspects of writing, but also with the skills to cope with the challenges of academic writing. We hope that this module will contribute to researchers who are conducting academic research and intend to publish it in academic journals.

Dr. Mustafa Özgenel, Dr. Osman Özdemir, Dr. Şakir Çınkır

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION

Objective 1 – Explain the importance of scientific publications.

Objective 2 – Arrange the scientific writings in terms of the audience.

Objective 3 – Create the realistic timeline in scientific writing.

Objective 4 – Know the appropriate collaboration and cooperation.

Objective 5 – Understand the importance of ethics and integrity.

Objective 6 – Identify the original research topic.

Objective 7 – Write the argument of the study in appropriate part of the text.

Objective 8 - Know the organization of the academic writing.

Objective 9 – Write an appropriate abstract to the study.

Objective 10 – Explain the statement of the problem in introduction.

Objective 11 – Explain the importance of the study in introduction. 

Chapter 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Objective 1 – Define the literature review process.

Objective 2 – Know the notion of literature analysis.

Objective 3 – Explain the synthesis writing with the literature.

Objective 4 – Express the significance / contributions of the study.

Objective 5 – Define the notions of research questions and hypothesis.

Objective 6 – Explain the importance of the frameworks.  

Objective 7 – Give guidelines on how make visual representations.   

Chapter 3. METHODOLOGY

Objective 1 – Give guidelines on how to write methodology section.

Objective 2 – Explain the qualitative research method and designs.

Objective 3 – Explain the quantitative research method and designs.

Objective 4 – Explain the mixed research method and designs.

Objective 5 – Explain how to write mixed research method and designs.

Objective 6 – Explain how to write population/sample/study group section in terms of the research method.

Objective 7 – Explain the essentials of data collection tools and process.

Objective 8 – Give guidelines on how to report the validity, reliability, and trustworthiness of the study.

Chapter 4. DATA ANALYSIS

Objective 1 – Define the quantitative data analysis process in scientific writing.

Objective 2 – Define the qualitative data analysis process in scientific writing.

Objective 3 – Give guidelines on how to report data analysis section in scientific writing.

Chapter 5. FINDINGS / RESULTS

Objective 1 – Give guidelines on how to report findings/results section in scientific writing

Objective 2 – Know how to interpret data to reach specific results. 

Objective 3 – Know how to use tables and figures to reinforce the interpretations on findings.

Chapter 6. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Objective 1 – Give guidelines on how to write discussion section.

Objective 2 – Explain how to discuss the results with related studies in literature.

Objective 3 – Give guidelines on how to write conclusion section.

Objective 4 – Explain how to interpret the results as a conclusion.

Objective 5 – Give guidelines on how to write recommendations.

Objective 6 – Explain how to make recommendations to the other researchers and practitioners.  

Objective 7 – Give guidelines on how to report the study’s limitations.

Chapter 7. ADDITIONAL TOPICS

Objective 1 – Explain how to make ethical declaration.

Objective 2 – Explain how to declare conflict of interest.

Objective 3 – Explain how to declare funding and sponsorship in scientific writing.

Objective 4 – Know the essentials of copyright issues.

Objective 5 – Give guidelines on how to write acknowledgements.

Chapter 8. WRITING REFERENCES

Objective 1 – Give guidelines on how to list references in scientific writing.

Objective 2 – Give guidelines on how to write references section with different scientific writing styles.   

Objective 3 – Know how to reach different scientific writing style manuals.  

The main focus of the module 1 is to explain the process of preparing scientific documents and their main parts. In line with this aim, this module aims to assist researchers in the processes before, during and after the writing of scientific manuscripts. Regarding the sections of this module, the first section is about the introductory sections of scientific papers. In this section, it is explained what researchers should do before starting to write scientific articles and how to write the importance of scientific articles in the introduction. Then the elements of the introduction such as research topic, argument, text organization, abstract and keywords are explained. Chapter 2 focuses on how to write the theoretical background in scientific writing. In this chapter, it is firstly discussed how to conduct a literature review, how to analyze and synthesize relevant studies. Then, other theoretical background elements such as significance, contributions, research questions and hypotheses are explained. Finally, some tips on preparing and presenting frames and visual representations are given. Chapter 3 is about methodology in scientific writing. This chapter first explains how to report the chosen research methods and design. Then, the implementation process of the methodology is explained by determining the population, sample, and study group, defining the data collection tools, and explaining the data collection process. Finally, the methodological features of validity, reliability and trustworthiness concepts were explained. Chapter 4 deals with data analysis. These are how to analyze quantitative and qualitative data and report them into the academic writing. Chapter 5 is about writing findings/results sections in scientific writing process. In this chapter how to interpret the findings, and to use tables and figures for enforcing the interpretations of the study’s result. Chapter 6 gives some tips about making discussion with related studies in literature, preparing conclusions in terms of study’s results and declaring the limitations of the study. Additional topics such as ethical declaration, conflict of interest, copyright…etc. explained in Chapter 7. The last one, Chapter 8, explains how to write the references in terms of Chicago, MLA, and APA academic writing styles. 

Authors

Dr. Mustafa ÖZGENEL

Dr. Osman ÖZDEMİR

Dr. Şakir ÇINKIR

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