A bunch of scientific writing rules not explicitly stated anywhere

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Writing scientific texts like articles, thesis, etc. can be tricky if nobody ever told you some of the (often hidden) rules you need to follow. Here are some of them.

English grammar:

• Make sure your english spelling is consistent
  • use consistent spelling of words
• Use accurate words
  • avoid mundane words
  • do not use contractions (won't, hasn't,...)
• Avoid common pitfalls in english grammar
  • check articles (a/an/the)
  • use Oxforx comma in lists
  • add comma after glue words (However, ...)

Technical LaTeX tips:

• Formulas
  • use math mode for (most) numbers ($1$)
  • use roman font for units inside math mode ($10 \mathrm{K}$)
  • use roman font for (most) subscripts ($t_{\mathrm{start}}$)
  • check that equations connect to the sentence, including proper punctuation
• Figures
  • refer to your own figures as Fig.\ref{label} or Figure.\ref{label}
  • make sure figures appear close to where they are described in the compiled text
• Tables
  • do not overuse vertical or horizontal lines
  • use the same number of significant digits when listing numbers
• Technical LaTeX tricks
  • do not use the old {\rm xxx} syntax but favor the new \textrm{xxx}

Manuscript structure:

• Article structure
  • Introduction
    • cite (relevant) previous literature
    • introduce the problem or gap in the knowledge
    • describe how this particular work adddresses that gap

Extra:

• More to read

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Spelling

Most importantly, select either US or UK spelling. Selection does not matter much, (in astronomy/astrophysics MNRAS wants UK, ApJ wants US; rest of the journals are fine with both). Just be consistent with your selection.

Check for correct spelling (using spelling software set to correct localization) for typical mistakes like

• disc vs. disk
• color vs. colour

Mundane words

Avoid mundane everyday words like "huge", "quite" etc. Scientific writing should be accurate. Pick words carefully and check their definition, if needed.

Use Thesaurus.com to find more "scientific" synonyms. Google "def: word" is also useful.

Do not use contractions like "won't", "hasn't", etc. Scientific writing favors the full "will not", "has not",... form.

English grammar

Check for correct a vs. an usage:

• a paper
• an example

Make sure your punctuation is spot on. Use Oxford comma: e.g., *"...consisting of one, two, and three elements."

Check commas after glue words:

• However,
• For example,
• i.e., (US specific)
• On the other hand,...

Check capitalization. Common words to capitalize:

• Universe,...

Trick words:

• "due to" equals to "caused by"
  • "damage was due to the recent rain" -> "damage was caused by the recent rain".

Formulas

Numbers, plus and minus signs etc. should be given in math mode using $xxx$. Units in math mode are given using the roman font; $10^{10}~\mathrm{K}^{-1}$. Note the tilde ~ separating digits and units.

Variables are given in normal math mode and subscripts (that define/specialize the variable) with roman font; $t_{\mathrm{start}}$.

Introduce any new variables and note the comma before where at the end of the equation:

...given as
\begin{equation}
F = \int I \Omega,
\end{equation}
where $F$ is the source flux, $I$ is the intensity,...

Figures

Figures should be given in the text on the same two pages that are physically open for the reader. This means you have to play around a bit with LaTeX. Try using [ht!] (Here, Top, !="I really mean it, try harder latex!"). You might also have to copy/paste the figure code to different places in the .tex file to get it to correct position.

Check that axes are labeled using roman font, variables using italic and units again in roman; in python r'Flux, $F$ (keV s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$)'

Own figures (presented in the article/thesis) are referred to using Fig.~\ref{fig:blaa} while others (outside of the article/thesis) are cited as fig.~\ref{fig:blabla} in \cite{ABC123}. Note the capitalization.

Tables

Tables do not usually have vertical or horizontal lines (\hline or c |c in LaTeX).

Be consistent with the accuracy of your numbers, i.e., give same amount of significant digits for each number of each column.

Example for -2/-1/0/+1/+2 confidence limit array that is coupled with multicolumn{} to give nice subtitles for different subsections of the array.

\begin{table*}[!ht]
\caption{Most probable values and $68\%$ and $95\%$ confidence limits
  for the EoS parameters.}
\centering
\begin{footnotesize}
  \begin{tabular}[c]{l c c c c c}
    \hline
    \hline
  Quantity & $95\%$ lower limit & $68\%$ lower limit & Most probable value / median & $68\%$ upper limit & $95\%$ upper limit \\
  \hline
  \multicolumn{6}{c}{QMC parameters (with Model A)}\\
  $\mathcal{S}$ (MeV) & 29.6 & 30.4 & 32.2 & 33.3 & 35.0 \\
  $\mathcal{L}$ (MeV) & 32.1 & 42.1 & 54.9 & 67.7 & 69.4 \\
  \hline
  \multicolumn{6}{c}{Model A parameters}\\
  $n_1$ & 0.36 & 0.45 & 0.55 & 0.66 & 0.68 \\
  $\epsilon_1$ (MeV fm$^{-3}$) & 156 & 164 & 712 & 865 & 1020 \\
  $n_2$ & 0.25 & 0.25 & 0.47 & 4.80 & 7.55 \\
  $\epsilon_2$ (MeV fm$^{-3}$) & 531 & 794 & 1190 & 1510 & 1560 \\
  $n_3$ & 0.95 & 0.99 & 1.41 & 6.80 & 7.76 \\
  \hline
  \hline
  \multicolumn{6}{c}{QMC parameters (with Model C)}\\
  $\mathcal{S}$ (MeV) & 29.7 & 30.4 & 31.8 & 33.6 & 35.2 \\
  $\mathcal{L}$ (MeV) & 32.0 & 41.4 & 54.9 & 68.4 & 69.4 \\
  \hline
  \multicolumn{6}{c}{Model C parameters}\\
  $\Delta P_1$ (MeV/fm$^{3}$) & 5.0 & 9.9 & 15 & 23 & 31 \\
  $\Delta P_2$ (MeV/fm$^{3}$) & 59 & 122 & 176 & 194 & 195 \\
  $\Delta P_3$ (MeV/fm$^{3}$) & 44 & 186 & 345 & 386 & 390 \\
  $\Delta P_4$ (MeV/fm$^{3}$) & 12 & 26 & 199 & 372 & 385 \\
  \hline
 \end{tabular}
\end{footnotesize}
\label{tab:param_posteriors}
\begin{center}
  {\small{
      Notes: For the $\mathcal{L}$ and $\Delta P_4$ parameters we give the median value of the flat distribution between the $1\sigma$ limits.
}}
   \end{center}
\end{table*}

LaTeX tricks

Do not use old TeX syntax with {\rm blaa} but instead the new \textrm{ blaa}. New syntax can have many styles embed unlike the old one.

Common packages for TeX include:

\usepackage[varg]{txfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{epsfig}
\usepackage{graphics}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}

And some common declerations:

\DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathpzc}{OT1}{pzc}{m}{it}

\newcommand{\red}[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1}}
\newcommand{\blue}[1]{\textcolor{blue}{#1}}
\newcommand{\green}[1]{\textcolor{green}{#1}}

\newcommand{\Msun}{\ensuremath{\mathrm{M}_{\sun}}}

This gives you also the useful \red{blaa} coloring for higlighting questions to co-authors.

Article structure

Introduction

Article introductions have a simple structure:

• Literature review and very general introduction
• More specific intro to the problem in hand
• Problem or a gap in the current knowledge
• Description of how this article presents a solution to the gap
• Summary of sections that are there
  • "First in Sect. 1 we introduce the method,...,Next in Sect. we apply the,...Results are presented in...,Finally, in Sect. X we summarize the work done."

More to read

• Reduced chi squared is non-trivial! https://arxiv.org/abs/1012.3754
• Good enough practises with computers https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.00037
• Error estimation in astronomy https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.2755