Writing Checklist

In addition to the checklist below, read John Drake’s How to write a paper in 15 steps (short version).pdf

General

It can be helpful to find papers that you like or are similar, especially in a target journal, and find super clear and model your formatting/language after those papers.
- Intro - Where do they state the knowledge gap? How is the intro organized? How soon do they mention the study species? How do they emphasize what is novel about their approach?
- Discussion - How do they start the discussion? How do they structure it? What kinds of studies do they compare and contrast to? How repetitive are they of the results? Do they cite figures again?

does your introduction start with the study species or study system in the first paragraph? If so, work on making the first paragraph broader about the concepts that many scientists will be interested in
where is the knowledge gap and novelty of the study explained? Try to put the bottom line up front, in the first 1-2 paragraphs
Does your first 1-2 paragraphs follow the baby-werewolf-silver bullet framework?
Do any paragraphs start on a negative note (e.g. species being threatened or declining?). If so, try to start on a positive note, e.g. the benefits of having the species in the ecosystem.
Do you have a conceptual figure that summarizes the patterns predicted by major hypotheses or questions? If not, consider adding one.
If you use jargon, do you introduce the term? If not, make sure to explain terms
Does each paragraph start with a topic sentence and end with a transition? Does every sentence in the paragraph relate to the topic?

Do you explain why you choose the analysis that you did? e.g. to address X or answer question Y, we did Z. We chose Z because ABCD.
Do you need a conceptual figure to explain particularly complicated designs or pipelines?
When you explain models, do you specifically list the explanatory variables and response variables? E.g. “We modeled the response variable Y as a function of the explanatory variables A and Y with an ANCOVA.”
when you explain a statistical model, do you list the assumptions and how you checked them? If not, make sure to do so.
Do you have a lot of models or different subsets of data that go into different analyses? If so, consider adding a table and giving each model a name that you can refer to.

Be prepared to go through 100 different versions of your figures. It’s not just Katie who will make you do this (pers. comm. MLA).
Are your results technically accurate but hard for readers to follow (e.g. a list of numbers, repetition)? If so, try to write in a way that conveys the message you want the reader to take home, rather than just report what you found. Bottom line up front.
Do you remind readers what study question is being addressed before you report the results? If not, make sure to remind them.
Are your figures color-blind friendly? If not, consider ways to modify them to make them so.
For scatterplots with trendlines: (i) do you show the confidence intervals? if not, add them. (ii) Do you use solid lines for significant slopes and dotted lines for non-significant slopes? Make sure to do so.