Writing a scientific paper - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
The Scientific Paper
Alona Bachi and Kevin Bonine, January 2005
The purpose of scientific writing is to pass along knowledge and information. Short, clear sentences are more effective than unorganized writing. The work of a scientist is practically worthless if he or she can’t explain to others what was done and the meaning of the work. Effective scientific writing can be done in many styles (look for example in the journals Conservation Biology, Ecology, Animal Behaviour, or American Naturalist), but will almost always include the following sections:
Title: Relays the content of the paper and allows searches for relevant research using key words.
Abstract: A brief synopsis of the paper including rationale for the work, important findings, and conclusions and implications for the scientific discipline. Typically, you do not include citations here. The abstract is what people read first to decide if your paper is important, interesting, and relevant; only then might the average busy reader dive into the rest of the paper.
Introduction: A background. Why is this research important and interesting? Why was the study conducted? What hypotheses were tested? What principals are demonstrated? This section should attract the reader to read the rest of the article. It is usually the place to include a short overview of other scientific work conducted on the same topic (+citations!) and put your work in the proper perspective. The introduction should lead into the hypotheses and predictions of the current work and give the basis for them.
Methods: What exactly did you do and how? Mention special methods in more detail and explain the statistical methods as well. The methods should include where you worked and how you collected data. Enough detail should be provided so that someone else could redo the experiments and analyses (an important part of peer-reviewed science). DO NOT INCLUDE ANY RESULTS HERE.
Results: Present the data using tables and graphs, accompanied by explanations. Write using whole sentences and paragraphs. Usually, there is no need to present the same result both in a table and a figure – this is a waste of space – unless you are adding more information. The results section is for presenting the data and observations; it is not meant for discussion and evaluation of the meaning of the data. Summarize your data but DO NOT INTERPRET YOUR DATA (or discuss complications) HERE.
Tables, Figures: Place tables in the paper after the table title. Use clear, appropriate column headings. Include units - don't leave anything ambiguous. Place figures where they make sense, with figure captions below the figure, and ALWAYS LABEL AXES. Number each table and figure.
Discussion: This is the most important component of the paper, or report. While the other sections above are mostly technical, in the discussion you get a chance to express your scientific point of view and the biological significance of your work. The purpose is not to summarize the results (although you can open with that), but rather to make conclusions and evaluate the results within the general context of the research. In this section include the answers to questions that were asked in the introduction. Demonstrate how your results support, or refute your hypotheses and how they fit your conclusions. You can use the discussion to put your results in a general scientific context, again using appropriately cited literature references.
Acknowledgements: You didn't do this work by yourself. Thank somebody, including folks who offered advice, feedback, or funding.
Bibliography / Literature cited: Include full literature citations for any information taken from other studies and literature, which was mentioned in your work. It is customary and strongly encouraged to use ideas, information and results of other studies providing that the source is cited in full. Use of ideas, or data by other people, without mentioning the source is plagiarism.
~ Don’t Be Afraid To Be Creative AND Enjoy The Scientific Process ~
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