The biggest focus of graduate students or researchers is publishing. However, researchers often fear that their study won’t give them the results they want. 

What if you pursue a project and you won’t be able to publish it later? 

This article will walk you through how to publish studies that are traditionally difficult to publish: pilot studies and negative results. 

Step 1: Find Your Story 

The very first step is to find the story in your results or your research.  

If you're struggling with creating a story, I suggest you download my scientific...

One of the hardest parts of starting a research article is the first sentence. I use to sit and stare at a blank document willing myself to write my first sentence. Unfortunately, many of my early papers had horrible first sentences. So in this tutorial, I will quickly walk you through how to start every paper to hook your reader and get started writing your articles! If you want even more guidance on writing your research articles, download my free Scientific Research Paper Checklist today!

Importance

The goal of your first sentence is to show the...

Zotero is a great software for managing all of your references. However, to get the most out of Zotero, it is important to know how to use all of the tools in Zotero. Therefore, in this post, I will walk you step-by-step through how to create new collections and subcollections in Zotero.

Using Collections and Subcollections

Before we walk through how to create collections and subcollections, let's first discuss why they are important and how to use them. Collections and Subcollections are similar to the file structure on your computer. If you had all of your files in a single folder on your...

Literature reviews are often misrepresented. Many early-stage researchers believe that literature reviews are an easier way to be published than research articles; however, this is not necessarily true. If you are struggling to write research articles, consider getting my Scientific Research Paper Checklist below!

Instead, literature reviews fulfill an important role for both the writer and the reader. In this article, we are going to discuss the purpose of literature reviews, different types of literature reviews, and common misconceptions of literature reviews.

Purpose of Literature...

If you are working on writing a scientific paper, I know that writing your results section can be difficult. You may feel like you do not know what to write or how to talk about your data. When I first started writing results sections, I did not know how to dive into my results or how to not be repetitive.

Therefore, now that I have written and published many papers, I want to share how I write my results sections of my scientific papers! If you want access to my full process for writing and submitting research papers, get my Scientific Research Paper Checklist!

Make a Figure Outline First

The t-test function in excel can be incredibly powerful. Without the coding necessary to operate Python or R, everyone can calculate the likelihood that two sets of data are actually different. This function has powered dissertations and scientific discoveries including my own! Unfortunately, many people still do not understand the t-test, how to use this function, or interpret the results of the function.

Through this article, we are going to examine each part of this function and prepare you to use the function to its fullest potential.

What Is a T-Test?

When you have two sets of...

The majority of Ph.D. students think about leaving during their time as graduate students.

Initially in graduate school, I felt like I didn’t have any control over my life. Every little setback made me feel like a complete failure. I felt like I didn’t belong in my Ph.D. program.

It seems impossible to be able to objectively look at your own progress while you are going through graduate school. Therefore, I want to share some advice if you are thinking about leaving your Ph.D. program.

Reasons I Wanted to Leave

If you are debating whether to leave or not, I want to share reasons...

Every research project begins as a research idea. Therefore, to become a successful researcher, it is important to be able to develop research ideas.

Many people see the development of research ideas as something that only certain people can do; however, the truth is that the ability to develop research ideas is a skill. It takes time and practice to develop this skill. Asking others for topics and ideas does not allow you to build this skill set.

There are a few different ways to develop the skills of creating research ideas and with practice, you could develop new research ideas...

Review papers and research papers play essential, but distinct roles in communicating scientific findings. As researchers, it is important to know the different ways to communicate your findings to the scientific community. There are three key differences between a review paper and a research paper: purpose, structure, and timeframe.

Purpose

Review papers are a special type of paper that summarizes a body of research within a specific field. The purpose of a review is to give the background knowledge of a field and to tell a story of innovation within a specific field. In contrast, a...

Two essential components of any research paper are the abstract and introduction. However, when you are writing these pieces, it can be difficult to decipher how these sections differ.

Much of the same information should be included in both sections. However, the purpose, structure, and length of your abstract and introduction should be very different. In this post, we will dive into each of these differences to help you to write killer abstracts and introductions!

Purpose

Abstracts and Introductions have fundamentally different purposes.

Abstract

The purpose of your abstract is to give a...