Important computer tools for writing scientific papers.

If you do not know how to type efficiently, take a course. It will probably turn out to be the most important investment you have made.

The following is a list of software tools that I use.

A word processor for entering the text: e.g. Microsoft Word.

Useful features

• Styles. Sets up a template of fonts for the different parts of a paper
• Revisions. Highlights changes. Especially useful when several authors make changes.

A search engine for references

• Try Pub Med.

A spread sheet program for assembling data, generating tables and bar graphs, and simple stats: e.g. Excel.

Useful features

1) Using Worksheets and Workbooks

• A Worksheet is a collection of spreadsheet pages. A Workbook is a collection of worksheets.

Suppose each experiment examined 1 of 5 factors in 7 subjects.

• One could then use worksheets and workbooks to organize the data as follows:

1. For each factor create a page of a worksheet with the data for 1 subject
2. A worksheet contains 7 pages, one for each subject.
3. A workbook contains 5 worksheets, each for a different factor.

2) Multiple linking of cells

• This automatically updates the values of cells in your worksheets whenever a change occurs in any one element.

A computer graphics program for generating the final figures: e.g. Corel Draw.

Useful features

• You can save a lot of time by drawing the figure in the scale it will appear in the journal.
  • In most cases this means scaling the width to 3.35" (1 column width). Use guidelines to mark these edges.
• Styles: Select two or three common fonts, font sizes and line thickness, etc. for all your figures.
• Multiple pages: Keeps all your figures in one file. This makes it easy to find and keep the figures in order.
• Print them and check that the text and lines are clearly visible. Make them larger or wider if necessary.

A data base for organizing the references: e.g. Reference Manager.

Useful features

• Reformats references automatically to that required by each journal.
• Links with your word processor so that references in the text are matched to your reference list.

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