Read the text paying attention to an outline as a thinking aid for processing ideas. Memorize the structure and section content of a scientific article.
If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough
Albert Einstein
Experimental researching needs publishing in journals. To start writing down your ideas for a paper you should make an outline including all the main headings and subheadings in the most logical order. Typically an outline looks like a "to do" list or a "table of contents" of the text you are going to write, and arranges your ideas as building blocks in various combinations. Little by little, your ideas can become clearer and more detailed reflecting your most recent thoughts on the subject. The structure should contain some permanent parts, notably, introduction with describing the motivation, the problem and the previous work; your approach with the conceptual framework and methodology including data gathering and data processing; and finally comes the conclusion. Remember, that you must not lose a view of the whole, but flexibility is the core principle and you can change the order of ideas, and add or leave out things. Keep in mind that the outline structureis not a rigid form that you have to adhere to. The essence of an outline is that it is much shorter than a paper because you will avoid material that is of little relevance to your scientific topic, vague formulations, repetitions and cross-references.The outline paragraphs are not long because they are the list of key ideas written in "telegraph style", and do not form full sentences. It is a guide that will help to remind you of the most important things you have to cover in your paper. This guide will make your view of the issue clearer, and you will edit your ideas. Writing the actual text of your paper will become much easier because your ideas and the arrangement of headings will be in a direct and logical order. So an outline could be a tool not only for writing, but for thinking as well.
An organizational structure and the main headings of most scientific papers are standard for many scientific fields, and submitting a paper to a journal the author should refer to the instructions. Typically, scientific papers involving the results of a study or experiments follow the standard format and are divided into some appropriate sections provided with headings. Having written the appropriate outline you may start writing your paper keeping in mind its logical structure, which includes a title, an abstract, an introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgement and literature. Each section contains a specific type of information.
Developing a title the author should use key words so that the paper could be indexed. Well-written titles may describe the conducted study, performed experiments or obtained results. The contents should be described very clearly and precisely, so that readers can decide whether to read it or not. Such wasted words as “studies on”, “an investigation of” as well as abbreviations and contractions that are acceptable in less formal writing should be avoided.
Typically, an abstract is the most read section of a scientific paper because it contains a statement of the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of a study, and is included in databases.
An introduction briefly describes the theoretical background of the investigated problem and indicates why it is important. This section states a specific research question, presents key terms, poses concepts and hypothesis to be tested and summarizes relevant research so that readers can understand the conducted experiment, the method and its justification, and find out rationale to them.
Methods Section briefly explains the scientific procedure used in the research describing both specific techniques and the overall experimental strategy used by the author. Keep in mind that the methods section may not often be read in detail. According to discipline it may have subheadings as ‘Materials’ when describing subject material or equipment used in the experiment, or as ‘Methods’ (Procedures) when explaining the stages of the trial for obtaining a result. For a journal article the author should include enough detail, and quantify amounts (all metric), concentrations, measurements, temperatures (centigrade) and times (24-hour clock). Not all the deviations in obtained data must be ignored. As a science report explains exactly what happened during an experiment the author must provide details to support his claims. He must order procedures chronically providing them with subheadings, and use past tense and concise statement to explain what happened. Try to avoid passive verb forms and write, “When I increased the pressure area by 10%...”, but in such sentences as “It is shown in Table 1 that …” passive verb forms are appropriate. Only relevant information should be used without any common statistical procedures. Avoid any contractions because science writing is formal and concise.
The Results Section reports main results supported by selected data and contains tables and graphs. It very briefly describes the experiment as all the details and their interpretation are given in the Methods section. Multiple results must be ordered logically that is from most to least important or from simple to complex, and must not be mixed with procedures. The author should select citations and amount of detail from chosen studies and relevant papers. Moving from general to specific, he makes clear the research design, the links between the problem and solution as well as between the prior research and conducted experiment. Typically, readers do not readily accept the results but carefully analyze the raw data and figures in tables for drawing their own conclusions. Therefore, the author must use his opinions rather appropriately. Reporting the results of the conducted experiment the author should avoid asserting his opinion about what should have happened or why something did or did not happen, but must always back up his statements with supporting facts. Certainly, the author may state his opinion about why something happened in a response paper.
The Discussion Section is the final part in the paper where the author may anticipate and address any possible objections to his results. This section describes what the research suggests, how it relates to other studies, and focuses on the major issue. The author explains how his results relate to expectations and to literature he has cited in the Introduction, and shows whether they agree, contradict or may be exceptions to the rule. In case of exceptions, the author suggests some additional research that might resolve contradictions or explain these exceptions. All the explanations must be complete. He draws conclusions and summarizes the most important findings; explain the observations by describing the patterns, principles and relationships that are supported by the obtained results. The section must plausibly explain the agreements, contradictions, or exceptions. Each conclusion must be supported by evidence suggesting the theoretical implications and practical applications of the author’s results. Moving from specific to general, that is from the findings toliterature, and then to theory and to practice, the author proves that his study has achieved the goal because the hypothesis has been supported and the problem has been resolved.
The discussion section is also a place where the author can extend his findings to other situations, and discuss possible reasons for expected and unexpected findings suggesting areas of improvement for future research. However, the author should be careful about speculations that cannot be tested, and the suggestions should be justified.
The acknowledgments express gratitude and appreciation to people or institutions forcontributing to the work.
The literature cited section provides the selected sources cited throughout the paper and generates a list of background reading on the topic under study because it offers information on the range of other studies cited.
Exercise 3.1.1
Can you briefly discuss the following questions?
1. What is an outline for preparing a scientific paper?
2. Does the author cite only his own previous studies?
3. What sections must the scientific paper contain?
4. Are there any references listed in footnotes or bibliographies in the scientific papers?
Exercise 3.1.2