When I wrote my first paper, the senior people who were working with me on the paper told me this one profound thing, which is that every sentence you write in a paper should be backed with a citation, with a citation from another peer reviewed paper, or an experimental result in your own paper.

Anything else that you say in the paper is more like an opinion. It’s a very simple statement, but pretty profound in how much it forces you to say things that are only right.

• Aravind Srinivas