How to write a scientific paper – and win the game scientists play!

Publication of scientific research is important for many reasons. You may be forced to publish because you are competing for funding, because you need to improve your curricula and get a better position or simply because you are selfish and want to enjoy yourself! Whatever the reasons, the publication process has a positive impact on your own work, often suggesting new avenues which otherwise you would not have explored in your research. However, preparing a good report is not an easy task. It is often the case that people who are good with numbers are not good at writing and vice versa. If your friend is good at both, there you are with a potential professor! A good coach will tell you to understand your own weaknesses and about the need for cooperation with other researchers. Starting to write is not only difficult for junior researchers owing to their lack of experience and skills at the beginning of their career, but it is also a challenge for good and experienced writers. An unsystematic search we made on PubMed about ‘‘writing a scientific paper’’ produced about 325 reports, most of them were excellent! So, considering the number of available publications on the web, from editorial boards or post graduation syllabus, why do we need yet another paper on scientific writing? Well. . . because our