Winning the Publications Game - 4th Edition (2016)

Foreword to the fourth edition ix
know yourself: what are the self- imposed barriers to
getting started? How do you translate complex ideas
in your brain to straightforward words on a page?
Why should academics and clinicians be unashamed of
using techniques that are second nature in marketing
and journalism? The other half provides ammunition
on breaching editors’ defences by demonstrating how
to use the style and design of scientific papers that
history shows they most appreciate – ‘evidence- based
writing’.
There is another way that this book is divided in two.
Half the chapters are devoted to what authors need to
do after they have collected their data but before writing
a single word. Did you know, for example, that a
successful paper has four key sentences, the first six
words matter and there is likely to be just one of three
conclusions? Or that a key to acceptance is to provide
a single unambiguous identifiable message for readers?
Or that a lengthy cycle ride along a towpath is the
best way to mull over what to write (but only in the
Netherlands)?
In the second set of steps, once you have the message
defined, the target journal identified, the co- authors
in agreement and the ethical committee placated, Tim
Albert employs his long experience as editor, author
and journalist to show you how to draft, redraft and
obtain competent assistance from informal reviewers
before hitting SEND on the submission system. During
more than a decade as an editor I lost count of the times
I wished an author had read Winning the Publications
Game before sending me a paper that was confusing,