Interlude: Giving, Time, and Author Contributions

When I was a kid, my mom would make huge batches of homemade soup, bread, and jam. While the bread was still warm from the oven, she would wrap it up tightly in towels to keep it warm and then load it into the car along with mason jars of soup and jam. Then we would drive all over town to leave the treats on her friends' doorsteps. She would tell me to drop the treats at the door, ring the doorbell, and then run back to the car so we could take off before we were noticed.

I had so much fun delivering treats with my mom. And it taught me an important value.

Giving.

To this day, I leave "treat surprises" for my friends and neighbors. But my philosophy of giving doesn't stop there. It also extends into my work. I want to give researchers and other professional writers like you the tools you need to write well and advance your career.

That's why I created the Scientific Writing Masterclass—to equip you with the principles, resources, and systems you need to write well. And that's why I also expanded the course to include a community. This community creates a platform where I and other members of the community can give you ongoing support with your writing.

I'd be thrilled to support you in the masterclass and The Grove community. But doors close on Monday, so you'll need to enroll soon.

Now onto this week's round-up...

💌 Round-up

💻 From My Desk

​The Best Order to Draft a Research Manuscript​
When you write a manuscript, do you start with the Introduction section? Although you might start with the Introduction when reading a manuscript, you don't want to start with this section when writing a manuscript. Writing your manuscript in a different order than you read it can save you time and energy.

👓 Reading

​Is it time to change our approach to reporting author contributions?​
“Rechavi and Tomancak’s approach involves assigning credit to each result in a manuscript. They ‘argue that it should be known who thought of each idea, who ran each experiment, and who analysed the data.’ But how exactly would this be achieved? The authors propose two ways. Rechavi suggests substituting the word ‘we’ for the names of specific, responsible authors. For instance, ‘we sequenced RNA’ would become ‘Rechavi sequenced RNA’. Alternatively, Tomancak proposes assigning a number to each author in the author list and citing these for each contribution. For example, ‘we sequenced RNA1’ would credit the first author in the author list.”

🧰 Tools

​Harvest​
After testing different tools to track my time, I finally landed on Harvest. I like the user interface, customizability, and reporting options. Even if you do not need to track time for your work, I recommend tracking your time for at least one month. You might be surprised to learn how much time you spend writing, answering emails, and attending meetings.

...Oh, if you want access to our ongoing list of helpful tools, we just added a resource library to The Grove community in our Scientific Writing Masterclass. You can get access to our growing list of resources, including writing tips, management tools, funding opportunities, and much, much more.

💬 Quote

“Getting good at communication—particularly written communication—is an investment worth making. My best advice for communicating clearly is to first make sure your thinking is clear and then use plain, concise language.” – Sam Altman

📝 Experiment

The next time you whip up a batch of treats or visit a bakery, leave a "treat surprise" for your friend, colleague, or neighbor. If you'd like, you can also leave a little note so they know the treat is from you.

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal