科研是一个不断探索的过程，也是一个不断试错的过程。因而，阴性结果的出现是非常普遍及正常的，而且阴性结果并不一定就意味着研究失败。有些通过高质量的研究设计和研究方法而获得的切实可信的阴性结果也可以告诉读者一个有价值的信息，有时甚至相比于阳性结果意义更加重大。
一个切实可信的阴性结果可避免重复的错误，加快技术的进步。
三、参考文献：不是多就是少，该如何取舍？
参考文献是不是越多越好呢？其实不然，它一个双刃剑，太多参考文献可以理解为相关研究比较热，同时也可理解为你的文章可有可无，是多一篇不多，少一篇不少。比如，有时候一句话后面添加了10个甚至10个以上的参考文献，这实在是让人匪夷所思的。
如果这句话内容都有这么多文章都认识到了，在业界应该成为常识了吧，还需要加上参考文献干什么?而且，这本身就是一个悖论，越容易找到相关证据和说法支持的内容，越是已经达到共识的，相反，越是难于找到资料的，越可能是新发现的源头。所以，不要为了形式而添加任何一篇参考文献。
正确的做法还似乎与此相反：不需要参考文献就能表达清楚的近乎常识性的内容，尽量不要加。当然，另一方面，能为文章的主要内容提供重要佐证和支撑的文献必须引用。这样处理，同时也杜绝了那些非相关文献引用的喧宾夺主，这其实也是规范的科技论文写作所要求的。
四、投稿后：对待审稿修稿意见就该全盘接收？
首先，我们是应该尊重那些审稿人的，SCI 的审稿几乎都是免费的，要人家静下心来认真拜读您那可能水平并不高的论文，本身就值得我们尊敬。可以毫不夸张地说，在你的文章出版之前，甚至出版之后，没有几个人会像审稿人那样仔细体会和分析你的文章。
因此，在这种背景下，我们首先是应该充满感激的，也认真思考和领会他们所提出的每一条意见，甚至是近乎苛刻的意见，这是前提，这就是我说的“不亢”。对于审稿人提出的意见，切忌“硬碰硬”，回复技巧很重要。
技巧1：先礼后兵，礼貌开头
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “文章题目”. These comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made corrections which we hope meet with approval. （你的提议太有用了，我论文的质量蹭蹭蹭就上去了！我们相当仔细研究了你的建议之类的话）The responds to the reviewer’s comments are as follows: .......
技巧2：细节修改，不容小觑，一一作答，有礼有节
比如审稿人提出：图中需要补充比例尺
回复：As for the referee’s concern, we have added scale bars to the Figures.
比如审稿人提出：部分图片没有显著性差异
回复：As for the referee’s concern, we have indicated a significant difference with asterisk in figures.
比如审稿人提出：通篇语言问题不过关
回复：We are very sorry for the mistakes in this manuscript and inconvenience they caused in your reading. The manuscript has been thoroughly revised and edited by a native speaker, so we hope it can meet the journal’s standard. Thanks so much for your useful comments.
比如审稿人提出：补充缩写词的全称
回复：As for the referee’s concern, the full descriptions of the abbreviations like IHC, MTT etc have been supplemented in the revised manuscript.
比如审稿人提出：裂解液成分有问题
回复：We are very sorry for the mistake. Lentivirus-transduced cells were washed twice with PBS, and suspended in a lysis buffer (2% mercaptoethanol, 20% glycerol, and 4% SDS, in 100 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 6.8). The information for the lysis buffer has been corrected in the materials and methods.
技巧3：补充实验，耗时耗力，如果不补，只能argue
比如审稿人提出：补充正常皮肤细胞作对照
Tips：如果你真的不想补，或者正常细胞株，你也买不到，还是查一查正常细胞株的名字，告诉审稿人你确实是去努力过，只是事与愿违啊！
回复：Indeed, it will be more convincing if we get a comparative assessment on normal keratinocytes. However, the normal skin cell line TE 353.SK that we recently obtained could not be cultured stably under the condition of our lab at this time. We are also collecting human tissue samples from patients with primary melanoma and benign nevi. Based on our data, XXX expression will be analyzed in clinical samples by immunohistochemistry, and the correlation between XXX expression and the prognosis of melanoma will be determined in our subsequent investigations. Therefore, the referee’s concern is of importance for our further study, and we will show the results in our next paper for XXX.
比如审稿人提出：补充体内实验
Tips：补充动物实验，是审稿人最爱发的一招，其实一点不令人意外。既然躲不过，就要见招拆招，如果能补上，当然是给了漂亮的回马枪；要是没有条件补，或者实验来不及，也要尽量说的委婉点，假装你确实努力了，是审稿人给的时间太短了，我根本来不及啊！
回复：We are appreciative of the reviewer’s suggestion. Indeed, it will be more profound if we get the relevant results in vivo. We have purchased 10 thymus-null BALB/c nude mice (female, age 4-6 weeks) from the Animal Center of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Osteosarcoma xenografts were established in nude mice according to a previous report (Gao et al., 2009) （我们去买了若干只小鼠，按照文献的方法操作）. Briefly, control lentivirus or XXX gene shRNA-expressing lentivirus infected XXX cells (1×105) were suspended in 0.1 ml PBS and then injected subcutaneously into the proximal tibia of each anesthetized nude mice (n=5 in each group). Unfortunately, the xenografts could not grow after inoculation for three weeks （满怀欣喜的接种到动物身上，然而实验这东西，哪能一遍就成呢，我们做了一遍，结果没能成瘤，实在是悲剧了）. The limitation of technical condition may be the main reason. Also, we doubt that the cell viability could be insufficient to initiate osteosarcoma tumorigenesis in vivo due to the long-distance transport. Therefore, we seek for the editor’s tolerance and understanding. Many thanks for your kind help!
然而，补充实验，还是逃不过的一截，究竟是申请延期，再老老实实把实验做完，还是想投机取巧，argue一下，就看自己的运气了。一般情况，可以对照审稿人的意见综合权衡。高分文章，最好还是该补的全补了，低分文章，如果你觉得有80%的把握，完全可以凭你的劲爆人品成功拿下审稿人。
