Scientific Writing and Communication in Agriculture and Natural Resources

The purpose of this book is to help early career professionals in agriculture and natural resources write their research papers for high-quality journals and present their results properly at professional meetings. Different fields have different conventions for writing style such that the authors of the book have found it difficult to recommend to young scientists in these fields a specific book or source material out of the several that are available as the “go to” guide. Writing a scientific paper is a tedious task even to experienced writers; but it is particularly so for the early career professionals such as students, trainees, scientists and scholars in agriculture and natural resources; the challenge is even more when their first language of communication is not English. This book is targeted mainly to that group.

Preface.- Part 1: Essentials for Good Writing.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Organization of a Research Paper: The IMRAD Format.- 3. Tables and Figures.- 4. The “Nuts and Bolts”: Numbers, Units, Dates, Abbreviations, Nomenclature.- Part 2: English – The International Language of Science.- 5. Words.- 6. Sentences.- Part 3: Manuscript: Preparation, Submission, and Follow-up.- 7. Preparing the Manuscript.- 8. Dealing with the Journal.- Part 4: Oral and Poster Presentations.- 9. Oral Presentations.- 10. Poster Presentations.- References and Recommended Reading.- Subject Index.