Your First Research Paper
It's a nice thing to hear and a strange place to be left. You have a result, a supervisor who is busy, a folder of scripts, three hundred figures, and no idea what happens next. You've read hundreds of papers and never once seen one being written.
Free · 98 pages (A4) · 130 pages (6 × 9) · DRM-free PDF
This book shows you that. From a finished project to a submitted manuscript, through peer review, and out the other side.
The hard part isn't the prose. It's knowing that a paper is one claim rather than everything you did, that the venue is chosen before the writing starts, that the figures come first, and that the referee is a tired volunteer looking for a reason to stop reading.
What this book helps you do
The four tests that tell you whether you have a paper yet
Picking a venue from your own reference list, and spotting predatory ones
The five-sentence abstract and the five-paragraph introduction
Related work as a map of the field, not a list of papers
Authorship, data, and the honesty rules nobody spells out
What referees mean, and how to answer them without losing the argument
What is inside
The downloadable editions include the complete chapters and toolkit listed below.
What a Paper Is
- Who Reads a Paper, and Why
- The Anatomy of a Paper
- Is This Publishable?
Before You Write
- Choosing the Venue
- Reading the Conversation You're Joining
- Planning the Paper Before You Write
Writing It
- The Title and the Abstract
- The Introduction
- Related Work Without the Laundry List
- The Method Section
- Results, Figures, and Tables
- Discussion, Limitations, and Conclusion
Authorship, Data, and Honesty
- Authorship, and the Conversation Nobody Has
- Data, Code, and Reproducibility
- Honesty: Plagiarism, Ethics, and AI Tools
Submission, Review, and After
- Preprints
- The Submission Package
- What Actually Happens in Peer Review
- Reading the Decision Letter
- Responding to Referees
- Rejection, Resubmission, and After Publication
Toolkit
- Cover Letter Templates
- The Submission Checklist
- Response-to-Referees Template
- Referee Phrases, Translated
- An Eight-Week Plan
- Glossary
Two PDF editions are included
Both layouts are free to download from this page. Use the 6 × 9 edition when you want the paperback reading experience or a compact printout. Use the A4 edition for a larger screen page and easier home or office printing.
A4 screen edition
PDF · 98 pages · 286 KB
A larger page for reading on screen, and the easier one to print at home or in an office.
Download this edition6 × 9 print edition
PDF · 130 pages · 304 KB
The paperback proportions, best when you want a compact printout or the book reading experience.
Download this edition- Title
- Your First Research Paper
- Subtitle
- From Project to Submission, Peer Review, and Publication
- Author
- Gaurav Tiwari
- Publisher
- Gaurav Tiwari Publications
- Formats
- 6 × 9 PDF and A4 PDF
- Language
- English
Download Your First Research Paper
Both editions are free and contain the same complete book. Pick the layout that matches how you read.