科研体会浅谈 《科技导报》“主编心语”栏目曾连载“研究生如何夯实成功科研生涯的基础”系列文章,强调科研成功的四个结构性要素是导师、时间、文献和表达,使我深受启发。在此,结合自己的科研经历谈谈我的科研体会。 保持与导师联系非常重要。在选题之前,我与导师进行了沟通,了解了各方向的主要研究内容,选择了自己最感兴趣的一个研究方向。进入实验室后,我每周都通过E-mail向导师汇报自己的工作进展,主要包括最近做了哪些实验、取得什么样的效果、有哪些不如意的地方、失败的可能原因分析以及下一步的实验计划,等等。有的同学认为实验没有达到预期效果,或者实验失败了,不好意思跟老师说——其实这是个很不好的想法。科研的道路从来都不是平坦的,失败在实验中可谓是司空见惯,我们要学会坦然面对失败,从失败中总结经验和教训。老师想了解的不是你取得了多好的成绩,而是当你发现问题时如何去解决。遇到难题时可以和导师沟通,毕竟导师对课题的了解要比我们深得多,考虑得也会更全面。经过老师点睛,就多了一种思维,多了一个建议,难题往往会迎刃而解。导师了解了每个阶段的研究情况,对你的论文会有更充分的了解,也能更好地提出一些修改建议。我的导师就经常给我发一些很有用的文献做参考,这很珍贵,是保持与导师联系的一个额外收获。 做好工作计划,做一个时间的管理者。磨刀不误砍柴工,安排好时间很重要,要做到“今日事,今日毕”。要有阶段性的计划,给出具体细节完成的时间底线。假如早上进入实验室之前还不知道今天要干什么,你最好想好了再去。我习惯每天做完实验之后进行总结,并安排第二天的实验,这样,一进实验室就可以直接开始工作了。有的实验很耗时,不需要一直盯着,这个时候可以看看文献、整理整理数据。科研需要一丝不苟的态度和严谨的作风,同时还需要灵活的思维方式——有时不能太执着,当遇到阻力时,不妨暂停实验,腾出一点时间换换脑子,试着改变一下实验方案。记住,最大的错误是重复犯同样的错误。科研时需要做好详细的实验记录,避免以后一些不必要的麻烦。此外,要协调好工作和休息时间,做到劳逸结合——只有会休息的人才会工作。 充分利用文献和善于表达自己。文献是科研的开始,是科研的重要组成部分;当然,也不能全部相信别人的成果。那么多文献,应该怎么看呢?我的做法是:多数文章看摘要,少数文章看全文。对于英文文献,我习惯将自己认为重要的部分划线并注释,这样写论文时可以拿来参考。对文献进行归类整理,做好标识,比如综述类、制备类、机理类,等等,方便以后再查阅。“好记性不如烂笔头”,必要时将重要的信息记录在本子上,加上个人观点进行总结。如果没有任何记录和标记,等于没看。通过写文献综述,不但能了解相关研究进展、目前存在的不足以及发展趋势,同时也提高了自己的总结概括能力。很多同学觉得写论文时参考文献的整理是一项麻烦事,尤其是内容修改后引用的文献序号又乱了。其实如果学会使用参考文献管理软件,那写起论文来就方便很多。我使用的是Endnote,该软件使我在文献著录方面的烦恼都不复存在,大大提高了写作效率。我还有这样的习惯,就是每天将当天的实验数据输入Excel,这样查数据时比翻实验记录本要方便许多。实验数据也要做好备份。定期写工作总结也是提高表达能力的一种方式,平时做好总结,写论文时就得心应手。同时要重视交流与合作,表达自己的想法,虚心向学长请教。 ——北京理工大学应用化学专业硕士研究生 陆科呈 如何应对审稿人的各种Comments and Judgements 从念博士、毕业,到现在成为一名教师,我发觉至少有1/4时间是在阅读和处理各个审稿人的Comments and Judgements(评论和意见)。同时,我也做过20来个期刊的审稿人,提出过不少问题。既然“斗争”和“被斗争”了6年多,自然积累了一些经验,现总结如下,抛砖引玉,请大家参考和补充。 审稿人很重要,不论是批评还是赞美你的工作,先虚心接受,来一句:Thank the reviewers for these precious comments and suggestions(感谢审稿人这些珍贵的评论和意见)。 对所有comments,必须Point by point: comments and response(一一响应:一条评论一条回应)。 尽力达到审稿人的要求,补充实验,补充结果比较,补充文献参考,补充实验描述,补充各色各样的内容。当无法达到审稿人的要求时,要耐心解释你已经尽最大努力在实施这个实验,但因为很多的客观原因而无法实施,并把过程和结果在报告里列出来。例如:已经在论文里review(回顾)了相关比较对象或者相似实验的论文,给读者提供更多参考性意见,并同时列举在Responding Report(回复报告)里,需要说明将来一旦可行了,必然完整进行这个实验。 当审稿人质疑你的模型和实验结果时,就需要旁征博引(其他文献),补充过程和实验细节,额外在Responding Report里增加一些容易实现的实验结果来增强审稿人信心。 当审稿人需要你验证某些方法和结论时,而你无法说明的时候,除了补充一些引用说明外,还需要特别指出:This is an interesting open issue, and we will continue to ……(这是一项很有意思的开放性问题,我们会继续……)。 当审稿人指出你的英文质量有问题时,需要在文章里尽量找错误,同时要在Responding Report里一一列出来,使审稿人认为你已经尽了最大努力。 尽量把Revision part(修订部分)一一列在Responding Report里相应的地方,而不要让审稿人到文章中去找你修改的地方。 尽量使得文章格式符合该期刊格式。例如,字体一般11号和1.5倍行距刚好。 顶级期刊往往有多于3个审稿人,因此必须认真对待,留足够的修改时间。对于较优秀的论文,集中精力,1年争取在1—2个顶级期刊(专业前5,非NSC之类)发表文章,少费心力在其他的期刊上。 ——上海大学机电工程与自动化学院副研究员 余建波 (责任编辑 秦政,张杰青)
最近在从 Emerald 下载文章时发现,它的每篇论文都有“结构性文摘”( Emerald 使用指南 上的提法 ),我倾向叫结构性摘要。摘要通常包括:研究目的、研究(设计)方法、研究结果、研究局限性、论文的应用性、原创性这些内容。国内许多期刊论文都有摘要,这些内容有些也能表达出来,但总觉得没有这样设计表达的清晰。 通过这种摘要可以让我们很快对文章的整体有一个了解。在学术论文阅读的过程中,如果一篇论文的没有这样的摘要,如果我们能够从这些角度去理解文章,并从文章中把些内容提炼出来,那么一篇文章就基本可以说看懂了。在定文章时如果能够把这些内容表述清楚,文章是否有价值也可以比较清楚地表达出来。 下面是一个实际的例子,供参考。 题名:Measuring the visibility of the university’s scientific production through scientometric methods: an exploratory study at the Transilvania University ofBrasov, Romania 作者:Angela Repanovici Transilvania University, Brasov, Romania 本文来源:Performance Measurement and Metrics, Volume 12 issue 2 ,2011 以下是本文摘要: Purpose The measurement of the quality of science is difficult. In this paper, we define the scientific production and productivity, and present the main indicatorsfor the measurement of the scientific activity. The impact of the research is measured and analyzed through citation analysis. The number of citationssuggests the quality of the university and the statistical evaluation of an individual’s scientific research results. Google Scholar, a freely availablescientometric database, indexes academic papers from open access repositories and commercial sources, and also identifies referenced citations. The freePublish or Perish software can be used as an analysis instrument for the impact of the research. Design/methodology We present an exploratory study made at the Transilvania University of Brasov to evaluate the research output of the faculty. We analyzed their 2008 researchperformances as documented in their annual evaluation that states the number of papers, books, and research contracts. Using Publish or Perish, we calculatedthe H-index, Gindex, HC-index and HI norm, of the 60 more-productive professors. We present correlation indicators and discuss the importance of open accesstools and repositories for increasing the impact of scientific research. Findings The Publish or Perish software is an easy to use instrument for analyzing the impact of research. It calculates the impact of the researchers using the veryvisible resource, Google Scholar. The data source provides a more comprehensive coverage of citations than ISI Web of Science, including citations in books,conference proceedings, working papers and non-ISI indexed journals. So, some consideration is needed about which scientometic tool to use depending on thefield of research. Google Scholar has better indexing of proceedings and non-English language material than ISI Web of Science, still does not perform sowell tracking citations from books and chapters of books. The natural sciences and those related to health are well covered in ISI Web of Science givenits journal coverage, and as a result Google Scholar fewer citations in these fields. Research implications Authors’ impact analysis and citations are not an assessment tool in Romanian universities, but it is commonly accepted that increasing research impactthrough more citations is one qualitative indicator. ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar are scientometric databases that can generate an individual’s H-index. The academic community is not familiar with these instruments and their potential role in describing the impact of one’s science. Practical implications This exploratory study was presented to academic community to illustrate the utility of these tools and to inform faculty of challenges with assessing theirimpact. We showed that professors with high H-index calculated using Publish or Perish are those with papers indexed in ISI Web of Science. This is notcorrelated with the number of research points garnered by faculty. We suggested to the faculty that all professors have to be analysed with the sameindicator. Further, we recommended that Google Scholar and the H-index obtained using Publish or Perish offer tools for assessing scientific research inuniversity and evaluating professors. Social implications Open access to scientific information through institutional digital repositories presents today’s world information environment and the transformationsimposed by information society. The first Romanian institutional repository was implemented at Transilvania University of Brasov. As part of the undertakenresearch, the visibility and the impact of the university's scientific production was measured using the scientific methods of scientometry, as a fundamentalinstrument for determining the international value of an university as well as for the statistical evaluation of scientific research results. The resultsshowed that an open access institutional repository would significantly add to the visibility of the university's scientific production. Originality/value We present the methodology and the results of an exploratory study made at the Transilvania University of Brasov regarding the h-index of the academic staff.H-index was calculated by using “Publish or Perish” software, comparing the number of ISI indexed published articles and the number of citations from “ISI Web of Science”. Using “Publish or Perish”, we calculated h-index, g-index, hc-index and HI norm. We analyzed the research performances achieved by Brasovacademic community in 2008, as realised in their annual evaluation -number of papers, books, research contracts, etc- by comparing the four indexes of those60 professors with the best results. We will present correlation indicators and the importance of open access for increasingthe impact of scientificresearch by using institutional repositories.