History

Scientific writing in English started in the 14th century.

The Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 established good practice for scientific writing. Founder member Thomas Sprat

Thomas Sprat

Thomas Sprat , English divine, was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670.Having taken orders he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1660...

 wrote on the importance of plain and accurate description rather than rhetorical flourishes in his History of the Royal Society of London. Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...

 emphasized the importance of not boring the reader with a dull, flat style.

Because most scientific journals accept manuscripts only in English, an entire industry has developed to help non-native English speaking authors improve their text before submission. It is just now becoming an accepted practice to utilize the benefits of these services. This is making it easier for scientists to focus on their research and still get published in top journals.

Writing style guides

Different fields have different conventions for writing style, and individual journals within a field usually have their own style guides.

Some style guides for scientific writing recommend against use of the passive voice

Passive voice

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...

, while some encourage it. Some journals prefer using "we" rather than "I" as personal pronoun

Personal pronoun

Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...

. Note that "we" sometimes includes the reader, for example in mathematical deductions. Publication of research results is the global measure used by all disciplines to gauge a scientist’s level of success.

In the mathematical sciences, it is customary to report in the present tense.

See also

• Academic publishing
  Academic publishing
  Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...
  
  
• Citation
  Citation
  Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
  
   styles
• EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles
  EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles
  The EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles to be Published in English were first published by the European Association of Science Editors in 2010. An updated version appeared in June 2011...
  
  
• GLISC
• Impact factor
  Impact factor
  The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...
  
  
• IMRAD
  IMRAD
  - The basic structure of a scientific paper :The IMRAD structure is currently the most prominent norm for the structure of a scientific paper. IMRAD is an acronym for Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion...
  
   structure (Introduction, Method, Result and Discussion)
• Parenthetical referencing
  Parenthetical referencing
  Parenthetical referencing, also known as Harvard referencing, is a citation style in which partial citations are enclosed within parentheses and embedded in the text, either within or after a sentence, as opposed to the footnote style...
  
  
• Peer review
  Peer review
  Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
  
  
• Scientific literature
  Scientific literature
  Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences, and within a scientific field is often abbreviated as the literature. Academic publishing is the process of placing the results of one's research into the...
  
  
• Scientific method
  Scientific method
  Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...