Introduction by Mathis Plapp

Hello everybody, and welcome to this course on how to write and publish a scientific paper. My name is Mathis Plapp. And I am a senior researcher with which is France largest public research organization. So far, in my career, I have published about 70 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. I am also associate editor of one such journal, The Journal of Crystal Growth. I have therefore seen the publication process from both sides as an author and as an editor. Finally, I am also a professor at the Physics Department of Ecole Polytechnique, and therefore I supervise PhD students. During a thesis, each student must publish at least one research paper. However, the process of writing a scientific paper and get published can be long and painful. Therefore, any advice you can get is helpful. Of course, your advisor can and actually should help you, but advice from your peers might be even better. The following course was put together by a group of students of Ecole Polytechnique with the help of Ecole Polytechnique’s technical staff. So, let yourself guide by them through the process,of creating a paper. Enjoy the course.