Page 233 - English for Writing Research Papers

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13.1 What's the buzz?

1) Below is a structured abstract ( 13.10 ) entitled Language and publication in
Cardiovascular Research articles and was published in the international journal
Cardiovascular Research . The author, Robert Coates, talks about the reasons
why papers are and are not accepted for publication.

Read the abstract and think about:

• how it is structured and what information is contained in each of the four parts
• how relevant Dr Coates’ research is in terms of you writing a manuscript for

publication in an international journal

• what kinds of English language errors you tend to make when writing papers
and how you could avoid them

background : The acceptance rate of non-mother English tongue authors is generally a lot
lower than for native English tongue authors. Obviously the scientific quality of an article is the

principal reason for publication. However, is editorial rejection purely on scientifi c grounds?
English mother tongue writers publish more than non mother-tongue writers—so are editors
discriminating linguistically? We therefore decided to survey language errors in manuscripts
submitted for publication to Cardiovascular Research (CVR).
method : We surveyed language errors in 120 medical articles which had been submitted for
publication in 1999 and 2000. The language ‘error’ categories were divided into three principal
groups: grammatical, structural and lexical which were then further sub-divided into key areas.
The articles were corrected without any knowledge of the author's nationality or the corrections
made by other language researchers. After an initial correction, a sample of the papers were
cross-checked to verify reliability.
results : The control groups of US and UK authors had an almost identical acceptance rate and
overall ‘error’ rate indicating that the language categories were objective categories also for the
other nationalities. Although there was not a direct relationship between the acceptance rate
and the amount of language errors, there was a clear indication that badly written articles cor-
related with a high rejection rate. The US/UK acceptance rate of 30.4% was higher than for all
the other countries. The lowest acceptance rate of 9% (Italian) also had the highest error rate.
discussion : Many factors could influence the rejection of an article. However, we found clear

indications that carelessly written articles could often have either a direct or subliminal infl u-

ence on whether a paper was accepted or rejected. On equal scientific merit, a badly written
article will have less chance of being accepted. This is even if the editor involved in rejecting a
paper does not necessarily identify language problems as a motive for rejection. A more
detailed look at the types and categories of language errors is needed. Furthermore we suggest
the introduction of standardized guidelines in scientific writing.