Many scientific research papers tend to be jargon-ridden, written for a specialist audience, and generally a struggle to read. But how can busy scientists find, and hence learn from, well-written papers? Earmarking clearly written manuscripts as one comes across them takes time, as does looking more closely at papers unrelated to one’s own discipline.
The Nature Network good paper journal club, run by a group of scientists — Martin Fenner, Linda Cooper and Richard Grant – is a collaborative online effort to help promote good scientific writing. Any scientist can join the group, select papers to be posted on the site and then discuss them online, and highlight the parts considered to be nicely written. The Network group has also set up a way to tag these exemplary papers in Connotea, a free online bookmarking service for scientific references. These easily accessible, shared resources should help provide guidance for scientists wishing to write their papers well.
Nature 452, x; 17 April 2008