Writing Statistical Papers, Exams of Statistics

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Panel on Writing Mathematical Papers

(with a special focus on Statistics)

P. Lafaye de Micheaux

1 School of Mathematics and Statistics

UNSW Sydney

20th of September, 2018

Outline of the talk

Introduction

Why bother writing?

Structure

Style

Advice

Why bother writing?

Why bother writing?

I research is useful only if it is communicated to others

I orally in conferences or seminars (fast but ephemeral)

I written in a scientific journal (permanent)

New research is built on previous one, that has been

authenticated as original and important.

Why bother writing?

Choice of a journal

I There exists many statistical journals http://web.

maths.unsw.edu.au/~lafaye/alfjourn.html

I Each one has a different readership in mind

Ideally, you should choose the journal before writing. Always

have in mind who you are writing to.

Structure

Structure of an article in experimental sciences

In experimental sciences (e.g., medicine), structure is often well

defined :

1. Introduction

2. Material

3. Methods

4. Results

5. Discussion

Structure

Structure of an article in statistics

In Statistics, structure is usually as follows :

1. Title (short, punchy, meaningful, informative)

2. Abstract + keywords

3. Introduction

4. Description of the problem

5. Solution to the problem and proof

6. Exemple(s)

7. Simulations

8. Discussion and/or conclusion

9. Acknowledgments (thanks, grants)

10. References

11. Appendix

Structure

Section 2

Here you go into the details. Give the main results, theorems.

Lengthy or complicated proofs are usually postponed to the

Appendix.

Structure

Example

Provide access to the data, to the code used to study the data

set. Choose an example that might interest a lot of people.

Structure

Conclusion

Main ideas and findings in the paper. Potential for future

research.

Style

Style of an article

Our time is precious. This is not a novel. Be concise, clear,

accurate, simple. Write very short sentences (one idea = one

sentence). Back up each one of your claim with a reference or

a clear explanation. Do not use emotional adjectives.

References

References

Brown, G. (1986). The Teaching of Mathematics : Writing Mathematical Dialogues. Amer. Math. Monthly, 93(4) :296–298.

Daepp, U. and Gorkin, P. (2011). Reading, writing, and proving. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer, New York. A closer look at mathematics, Second edition [of MR1997305].

Derntl, M. (2014). Basics of research paper writing and publishing. Int. J. Technol. Enhanc. Learn., 6(2) :105–123.

Ehrenberg, A. S. (1982). Writing technical papers or reports. The American Statistician, 36(4) :326–329.

Gastel, B. and Day, R. A. (2016). How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. Greenwood, eighth edition edition.

Gelman, A., Pasarica, C., and Dodhia, R. (2002).

Let’s practice what we preach. The American Statistician, 56(2) :121–130.

Gillman, L. (1987). Writing Mathematics Well, A Manual for Authors.

Mathematical Association of America.

Higham, N. J. (1998). Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences. SIAM, second edition edition.

Kane, J. M. (2016). Writing proofs in analysis. Springer, [Cham].

Knuth, D. E., Larrabee, T., and Roberts, P. M. (1989). Mathematical Writing. Mathematical Association of America, Washington, DC, USA.

Krantz, S. G. (1998). A Primer of Mathematical Writing, Being a Disquisition on Having Your Ideas Recorded, Typeset, Published, Read, and Appreciated.

References

American Mathematical Society.

Krantz, S. G. (2000). Handbook of Typography for the Mathematical Sciences. CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, FL, USA.

Maddox, R. B. (2002). Mathematical Thinking and Writing, A Transition to Abstract Mathematics. Academic Press.

Marron, J. S. (1999). Effective writing in mathematical statistics. Statistica Neerlandica, 53(1) :68–75.

Miller, J. E. (2006). How to communicate statistical findings : an expository writing approach. Chance, 19(4) :43–49.

Miller, J. E. (2013). The Chicago guide to writing about multivariate analysis.

Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Second edition [MR2195180].

Petard, H. (1966). Mathematical Education Notes : A Brief Dictionary of Phrases Used in Mathematical Writing. Amer. Math. Monthly, 73(2) :196–197.

Sundstrom, T. (2014). Mathematical Reasoning : Writing and Proof. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Trzeciak, J. (1993). Writing Mathematical Papes in English, A Practical Guide. Gdanskie Wydawnictwo Oswiatowe.

Vivaldi, F. (2011). Mathematical Writing, An Undergraduate Course. Queen Mary, University of London.