While writing on my thesis and various papers, I found that there sometimes is a disconnect between my perception and what others make of the same data. I started thinking about why that is and how it could be solved. I found a simple, yet effective solution: have other people tell you their version of the story. Here is why.
One of the most important aspects of research is communicating your ideas. It does not help the world if you are brilliant but cannot convey your thoughts. It is also one of the most difficult tasks. What you want and what your average reader wants differs slightly, and while you know your needs, in the end, it is the needs of your readers you have to cover in order to convey your idea.
By the time you are ready to publish, you have spent a lot of time setting up experiments, tweaking parameters, searching related work, and collecting data points. You have devoted a sizeable part of your life to this, you know all the details, and you are very attached to the outcome. You want the world to know how much work it was, and to be able to understand it in all its complexity.
The awful truth is: most people do not care about the details of how you reached your final results. At all. They want a take-home message they can readily understand themselves and relate to others. And they should get one!
Dwelling on the details might make your paper very reproducible, but it is also a surefire way to drive away your readers. They will soon lose interest and skip the details, trying to find what they are looking for. Or stop reading altoghether. If this happens, all your work was basically in vain. They won’t get your idea, and they won’t tell others about it.
So how can you meet your readers needs?
A solution that worked surprisingly well for me was to simply ask them. Tell your friends/colleagues the general problem, give them a few data points, and ask them what they think the paper looks like (obviously, don’t give them your version yet). You’d be surprised how much the stories can differ.
Your friends are unburdened by the details, and still able to see the forest instead of the trees. If they ask you for more information, supply it. You will learn which parts only you saw (because you spent so much time on it), and you can go back and make them clear(er).
Pay attention to how they would present your findings. What do they emphasize, what do they leave out, what is the story they spin? If they reach another conclusion, maybe you need to give them more information, or you have to re-evaluate yours. Don’t reject their outline thinking they did not understand it. If they don’t, neither will your reviewers!
If you do it with enough people, you will find things that pop up again and again, and the holes that need to be filled.
This solution is obviously not foolproof. You have to be able to let go of some parts you really liked, and you have to be able to draw attention to some important your helpers might have skipped. It can not guarantee you an accepted paper, but it will help you to make it more readable, and convey your idea better. Also, it’s a good way to let your friends know what you’re working on.