What’s in a name? Nothing, according to Shakespeare, but a researcher thinks otherwise. We want credit for our work and don’t want to give credit to anyone else, or take credit for any work but our own. This is a real problem in today’s…

When writing a research paper, a researcher will often need to refer to a previous publication and summarize the findings in a paraphrase. Why? Because quoting the entire passage of interest will take up too much space and may contain much…

The quality of a journal’s papers is largely determined by the quality of its peer review. This screening mechanism is designed to ensure that the data and conclusions presented in the papers are reliable and reasonable. But how do we…

A google search on how to improve your English grammar gives about 9 million results in less than a second. Since English is the undeclared lingua franca in academic research, any article that intends to help you improve your English…

How Do Scientists Cheat? Academic fraud can be broken down into three categories: Plagiarism – the use of a colleague’s work without clear attribution and citation. Falsification of Data – also known as fudging or massaging the…