Rule 1: Give tips, not rules

Quick Tips are for guiding readers on developing scientific and technical skills on using databases, resources, computational or data analysis methods and tools. Quick Tips can teach how to analyze network data [6], use the Gene Ontology (GO) [7], or use deep learning in biology [8]. They have a specific educational perspective. With a Quick Tips article, you drive the reader towards learning and applying what they are learning. They are quick tips, not simple rules. As such, each tip needs to inform the reader about a different aspect of the overall problem (computational) biologists want to get better at.

Ten Simple Rules are more to develop soft skills, career promotion/advancement (how to organize a scientific conference [9], write your cover letter [10], write a literature review [11], etc.), or other broad issues in scientific practice (e.g., models for successful collaboration [12,13], developing scientific communities [14], or practicing inclusive science [15,16]).

Rule 2: Minimize overlap and amplify new insights

When putting together a Quick Tips article, ensure there is no redundancy with other Quick Tips or other educational articles. The Quick Tips articles have yet to become as famous as its sister collection, Ten Simple Rules, which counts 255 articles so far [4]. Still, plenty of valuable Quick Tips and education articles in PLOS and other journals may have treated the same topic as yours. But if you think you have a different or unique perspective on the same topic, do not forget to reference all those relevant to your Quick Tips in your manuscript and explain what makes yours unique. Paraphrasing Dashnow, Lonsdale, and Bourne’s wise advice in Rules 7 and 9: summarize, cite, and write well [5].

Rule 3: Make each tip a declarative statement, not simply a passing thought

The title of the tip is essential, and it needs to state a tip. At a glance, the reader must understand your main key message, which must simultaneously be persuasive and noteworthy.

When you declare a tip, make sure it is a statement and to the point. You are providing a unit of advice to your readers to perform (or not) specific tasks, and as such, you want to avoid misinterpretations. By making your tips declarative statements, you can ensure they are unambiguous and leave no room for interpretation or confusion. If you provide an opinion, provide evidence to sustain your point of view and convince your readers of your argument.

Rule 4: Be concise and to the point

Less is more. Quick Tips papers are currently part of the PLOS Computational Biology Education collection [17,18], and as for any article in this collection, a Quick Tips article is about 2,000 to 2,500 words [19]. From a pedagogical perspective, some educational models support the value of being concise (e.g., Miller) [20], which we support in the PLOS Education collection. However, there is some flexibility here. The story of your manuscript may be more important than the length of the manuscript you are submitting. Word limits provide boundaries and are a great tool to make you reflect on the primary key messages you want to deliver. You cannot neglect good writing practices because Quick Tips papers are short. Make sure to read and apply the excellent rules provided by Ehrhart and Evelo in [21] to your manuscript.

Rule 5: Be creative on the number of tips

Another important difference between the Quick Tips articles and Ten Simple Rules articles is that you are not restricted to 10 tips, as opposed to Ten Simple Rules, where 10 is one of the rules [5]. Please feel free to do so if it makes sense to have 8, 9, or 13 tips. As we see in Fig 2, the number of tips we have seen in Quick Tips articles ranges from 7 to 15.

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Fig 2. Distribution of the number of tips presented in the 36 Quick Tips articles from 2020–09 to 2023–10 [22].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011689.g002

Rule 6: Make sure your tips are presented logically and that there are no gaps

Quick Tips are like recipes, like a procedural order of execution of tasks for a given topic. They should follow at least a logical order. Consider them a “sorted checklist” that your readers will follow and apply. As for a recipe, you can’t miss any ingredients or procedures, as the result may not be as expected.

Rule 7: Be visual

Using images in a manuscript can help to make the content more accessible, engaging, and visually appealing to readers, and as the adage says: “an image is worth a thousand words.” Images can help visualize or clarify a concept or idea you are discussing in the text and provide evidence for your claims in the tips. As Weinstein and Sumeracki, two cognitive scientists, say “Pictures are usually remembered better than words, and can provide additional memory cues” and thus help learning and understanding [23]. Thus, we recommend Quick Tips authors incorporate a figure summarizing and illustrating their tips (Fig 1). By the way, we recommend the same for Ten Simple Rules authors.

Alternatively, suppose you do not use a figure. In that case, we recommend including a table in the introduction that declares the tips in a summarized way and allows the reader to get an overview of the text to follow.

For all images presented on the web or within a publication, it is important to have some alternative text (Alt-Txt) for visually impaired readers [24,25] and also to consider a color palette that color blind people will be able to interpret [26].

Rule 8: Be an empathic instructor

Quick Tips are educational articles and thus serve to teach scientific or technical skills to your readers. Be mindful of your language (avoid jargon, define terms), and be specific, clear, and concise. Quick Tips need to be written as a tutorial used by a classroom teacher or a reader to learn from you. Your ambition: be the reference article about teaching that topic.

You can write a Quick Tips article alone, but collaborating is better. Seven of the 10 most cited PLOS CB Quick Tips articles have three or more authors [22]. Your tips should be messages from a community of instructors you represent for a community of readers. When you write a Quick Tips article, you (singular, but hopefully plural) speak as experts with an aura of knowledge, authority, and empathy for your readers.

Rule 9: Ask for feedback before writing the manuscript

Well ahead of starting to work on that manuscript, outline the tips, and send this together with a summary to ploscompbiol@plos.org. We will happily comment and guide you before you spend too much time writing a full manuscript. One common question where people still need clarification: should it be a Ten Simple Rules or a Quick Tips submission? If you are unsure after reading this publication, please contact the section editors or PLOS Computational Biology directly (ploscompbiol@plos.org). As always, it is also a good idea to consult and share with colleagues before you submit any article.

Rule 10: Help the editors do a great job

As for all PLOS Computational Biology articles, we send the submissions for peer review, so don’t forget to include many suggestions for potential reviewers (5 or 6 is ideal) from which the section editors may select. Identify experts within your field who can serve as independent, objective reviewers and are free from competing interests. At the same time, since Quick Tips are for educational purposes and have a particular format (not to be confused with usual research papers), these experts should be aware of the Quick Tips format. They should also have an open and teaching mindset. Remember that suggesting recent collaborators or other researchers at your institution is inappropriate, as it would be for any other manuscript submission.