On how to shorten a paper (or where do I begin cutting?) - Jason Thatcher
On how to shorten a paper (or where do I begin cutting?). A few years ago, my favorite journal unexpectedly imposed page limits on submissions. Suddenly, authors were expected to tighten their work up & submit more parsimonious work. The request evoked panic. I wasn't ready to lose any precious words I had written. So, I submitted an over-the-length paper. It was promptly returned. I wanted to publish the paper, so what did I do? I slashed pages from the manuscript. First, I eliminated hanging words. Hanging words refers to the extra word or two in a sentence that extends into the line. It can be tricky slicing them, esp. if you are already a tight writer. I have cut as many as two pages from papers by doing so. Second, I revisited the method. Authors tend to overexplain their analysis - both how they did it and how to interpret the results. Usually, I go through and remove extra words. In doing so, I notice where my tone goes from explanatory to didactic. I delete the didact...