SciED 306: Trends and

Researches in Science and

Education
How to write and Publish a Scientific Paper
(A Project-Oriented Course)
Know Your Paper (KYP)
Q1: What is my paper about?
Is what I want to write about worth it?

1. So what test
1. What will be the contribution of the paper to this field you're interested in?
2. What will change in the way academics see the field?
3. What will I bring to the table that hasn't been said before in those terms?

Q2: Whom should I discuss in order to make sure that I pass the so
what test?
Know Your Paper (KYP)
Q2: Whom should I discuss in order to make sure that I pass the so
what test? How do I ensure that I pass the so what test?

This part is as scientific as it is political and dialectic.

You have to be sure that the vocabulary that you use in the frame of
your proposition will be coherent with the way the reviewer will make
sense of the issue you're raising.
To ensure that, identify colleagues and member of your network that
can help you position the paper in the terms that you have chosen.
Know Your Paper (KYP)
Q3: What kind of paper do you want to write?

Academics paper can have different goals. Whether your goal is

theoretical, empirical, or a methodological one, the design of the paper
will be different. As the contributions and aim of these papers are
different, so will be the setting, the methodologies, and the research
question. Your contribution will marginally impacted by this
orientation.
Example: Henry Chesbrough published in
both paper of the idea open innovation
Publishing for management journal like the Harvard Business
Review, which is oriented toward industry professional as well as
academics. The journal will not be looking for the same contribution
as a pure academic oriented journal. However, the subject of the
publication can be the same.
All these questions and elements are linked to your research
question. The research question is the main question raised in your
paper, and the one you bring elements of answer to in the paper.
The so what test is passed only conditionally to your research
question.
Q1-Q3 should be kept in mind through the
building of your literature review, to ensure that
what you write is still coherent with what you set
out to do.
The goal you pursue is twofold in delimiting your paper.
1. Aim at building your coherent reasoning through the paper.
2. Position your paper so that the community of researchers you are
specialized in the theme you have chosen will accept it.

To conclude, you have to understand this field. Know what you can
contribute to it, and know how to communicate your contribution to
this academic community.
 Assessment:
Compatibility between paper and journal
We ask you to write the main idea for your paper, making sure that this idea
is compatible with a publication in the academic journal you previously
selected (see the Know Your Community section).
Step 1: Is the contribution of your paper theoretical, empirical, or
methodological?
Step 2: Regardless of the type of contribution your paper will make, it should
fit the type of paper the journal is seeking. To understand the type of paper
the journal is seeking, select some similar papers that have been published in
is journal, and identify the problematic raised in each paper.
Step 3: Check to make sure that the problematic you raise in your own paper
is coherent with those previously published.
So, what?
Practice Quiz, 1 question
1. How would you define the so what test?(one good answer)

What is the original contribution of your paper to the scientific

community?
Is the methodology coherent with the results of your paper?
The questions you have to ask yourself (who, where, when, why, ...)
I haven't got a clue...
Literature Review: What is it and Why do it?
Let's begin with the definition of what we're doing, a sentence, when
we are doing a literary review.
RESEARCH QUESTION
-its what drives us, and with the purpose of expanding human
understanding.

Philosophers defined the understanding as the frontier between

knowledge and non-knowledge.
A scientific problem arises only on this frontier between what is known
and what is unknown.
Let's say you've got your research question.
First you know nothing. (You need to learn what has already been done
in your field and then get closer to the frontier of knowledge. )

It's not that easy to delimit this frontier and to position yourself on
it. Science is always in motion. Theories get proven, as others get
debunked. You have to take this into account when building your
literature review.

This fact explain the necessary critical dimension of the literature

review and why the frontier between knowledge and non-knowledge is
always moving
Literature Review Analogy
Be Pragmatic!
Establishing the literature review is a way for you to specify why
and how your work is original, by moving the knowledge frontier.
DIMENSIONS OF Originality:
1. leading new empirical work,
2. interpreting known ideas in a new way,
3. giving new data to old problems,
4. translating results from one technique or context to another.
5. Reading trans-disciplinary research
6. Producing original sentences or even finding a new field of
research.
 Understanding how the literature review is
structured
We ask you to read some literature reviews. You can either
1. Pick a journal in your discipline, one that suits your work well and to which you have free
access. Go to the top cited articles and pick three papers, read and compare their literature
reviews.
2. Read the literature reviews in the following papers:
a. Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein, David Lazer (2015) Facts and Figuring: An Experimental
Investigation of Network Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces.
Organization Science 26(5):1432-1446.
- http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/orsc.2015.0980
b. Frank den Hond, Kathleen A. Rehbein, Frank G. A. de Bakker, and Hilde Kooijmans-van
Lankveld (2014) Playing on Two Chessboards: Reputation Effects between Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Political Activity (CPA), Journal of Management Studies
51(5): 790-813
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12063/epdf
c. Weick Karl E., (2010) Reflections on Enacted Sensemaking in the Bhopal Disaster. Journal
of Management Studies 47(3): 537-538
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00900.x/epdf
Literature Review: Quiz, 3 questions
1. How would you define the knowledge frontier? (only one good
answer)

The separation between different academic fields and scientific

communities

The separation between different types of results (qualitative vs

quantitative)

Your own progression in terms of scientific knowledge

The separation between what is known and what is unknown in

terms of scientific knowledge
3.What different dimensions of originality could
you think of for your academic paper? (several
good answers)
Leading new empirical work

Leading trans-disciplinary research

Finding a new field of research

Producing an original synthesis

Interpreting known ideas in a new ways

How to: The Bibliography Part 2
Goals of the Literature Review
1. Identify the knowledge frontier and what needs to be studied.
2. Identify the context of research question.
3. Identify key words, variables linking to your research question, and
their potential relationships.
4. Establish the relationships between theoretical frames on one part
and empirical consideration on the other.
Hands on
1. How to use Google Scholar
2. etc
Finding References: Keywords are not Neutral

Complex Several New

Problematic Keywords keywords
Finding References

ARTICLES

journals
Journal, HANDBOOK

REVIEW PAPERS
REMEMBER YOUR READINGS
Authors
Date
Full reference
Problematic
Used thesis
Methodology
Qoute(with the page)directly from the article
Personal quotes---your personal idea about this article
 In order to help you decide what is important during the creation of your
bibliographical data, we have gathered here a few examples of books, and/or
reference managers. Feel free to leave your books and reference manager in the
forum!
Academic books:
Dumez H. (2013), Mthodologie de la recherche qualitative, Paris, Vuibert.
Dumez H. (2016), Comprehensive Research. A methodological and
epistemological introduction to qualitative research, Copenhagen, Copenhagen
Business School Press.
To store references, a non exhaustive list:
Zotero
Mendeley
Papers
Endnote
Readcube
For those who use LaTex as editing software, you should know
about BibTex and JabRef. Furthermore, you have the possibility from any other
software such as Zotero to export in BibTex.
Practice:

Which animal is it? (Wittgenstein, Philosophical

investigations, 1953)
(one good answer)

A duck

A rabbit

It's both, it depends on how you decide to look at it...

A butterfly
Main Ideas
1. What is the first thing to do to in order to find references? (one good
answer)

Ask to advisor, colleagues for references

Ask your research question to google

Think about keywords that fits your research question

2. How to read an article? (several good answers)

With a highlighter, to highlight the most important ideas, concepts...

With your memory, because you remember everything

With someone talking with you in the same time about completely
something else

With a pen and a paper (or any other medium, notebook, computer, etc.)
Finding Useful References: Difficulties & Strategies for Success.

Please, try to find some references on YOUR subject, and discuss here
difficulties, strategies, or solutions that you encountered while finding
useful references.

--end of session---