The document discusses the anatomy and structure of effective scientific writing. It outlines when to start writing, such as at the beginning of an experiment or when starting a paper. It describes the typical anatomy of a paper, including the title, author list, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion sections. It provides guidance on writing titles, organizing abstracts, and including figures, references, and an explanatory big picture. The document is intended as a guide for researchers on how to structure their scientific writing.

1. Art and Craft of Effective
Scientific Writing
Debdoot Sheet
Technical Program Committee Chair, IEEE TechSym 2014
Editor in Chief, IEEE Tech. in Engg. Education
Regional Editor, IEEE Pulse
Reviewer, IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, IEEE Trans. Image Processing, IET
Trans. Image Processing, Neurocomputing

2. When do you start?
At the start of an Experiment
• Aim
• Hypothesis
• Objectives
• Cost functions
• Evaluations
• Deliverables expected
• Collaterals analyzed
• Conclusion
Starting to write a Paper
• Aim
• Objectives
• Preamble to the Problem
• State of Art
• Benchmarks
• Discussion
• Conclusion
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3. Anatomy of a
Paper
• Title
• Author list
• Abstract
• Body of the Paper
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion
• References
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4. Writing a Title
• Aim
• Methodology genre
Structure
_________________ of
_________________ through
_________________ for / in
_________________
• Computational Histology of
Retina through Transfer
Learning of Tissue Photon
Interaction in Optical
Coherence Tomography
• Hunting for necrosis in the
shadows for intravascular
ultrasound
01-03-2014 Debdoot Sheet / Art and Craft of Effective Scientific Writing 4

5. Organizing an
Abstract
• Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major
cause of irreversible visual loss in the elderly
population. It is caused by deposition of drusen
between the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the
Bruch's membrane. Optical coherence tomography
(OCT) is clinically used for investigating AMD by
examining the intact nature of RPE and Bruch's
membrane, and their marginal separation. However,
being located in the posterior part of the eye,
grayscale OCT images do not offer good contrast
between these layers and thus show decreased
diagnostic specificity. In this paper we propose transfer
learning of tissue specific photon interaction statistical
physics in OCT for characterizing the anterior coat,
RPE and posterior coat starting at Bruch's membrane.
It is experimentally validated using images of 20 AMD
+ 20 healthy subjects, and 100 image per subject.
Anterior coat is identified at accuracy of 0.98, RPE at
0.92, posterior coat at 0.99, substantiating its use for
computational histology of retina.
•Word limits ~ 150 words
•Preamble (57 words)
•Aim (27 words)
•Methodology (29 words)
•Milestone (33 words)
•Conclusive statement
(8 words)
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6. Body of the Paper
• Introduction (1 – 1.5 cols)
– Preamble
– Challenge
– Approach
– Impact
• State of Art (0.5 column)
– Who else
– What else
– How else
• Formal Definition (100
words)
• Exposition to the Solution (1
page)
– Framework
– How you start addressing
– Cost function
– Milestone
• Experiments and Results (1
column)
• Discussion (1 page)
• Conclusion (0.5 column)
01-03-2014 Debdoot Sheet / Art and Craft of Effective Scientific Writing 6

7. Figures
01-03-2014 Debdoot Sheet / Art and Craft of Effective Scientific Writing 7

8. The Explanatory Big Picture
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9. References
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