How to Write a Scientific Paper

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How to Write a Scientific Paper
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Paper Format

• Standard
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References

• Review paper
• Abstract (mostly)
• Introduction
• Subheadings
• Conclusion
• References

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Journal Article Summary

• THESE ARE PRIMARY SOURCES
• What were their aims?
• Pay attention to abstract
• It will guide you through the paper
• Pick out main points and methods used
• What were their main conclusions?
• Did they miss anything?

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Abstract

• Overview of entire paper
• Summarize
• what you did
• how you did it
• results
• conclusions
• Concise

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Introduction

• Background information
• Summarize previous studies
• Cite all appropriate references
• Outline question/problem to be addressed

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Materials Methods

• What you did
• How you did it
• Enough information for someone else to repeat
  your experiments
• Falsifiability

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Results

• What you found
• Often use tables and figures
• graphs
• graphical representations of results
• Should be easily understandable
• Should address every point from the methods, if
  not more

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Discussion

• The real meat of the paper
• Put your results in light of other studies
• How does your study conflict or support other
  studies?
• Big picture
• Problems encountered
• Future directions

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General Writing Style

• Dont be too personal
• I think that ...
• They say this, but I dont believe it ...
• Use evidence (or lack)
• Our data show that ...
• They say this, but their evidence is, at best,
  sketchy ...

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General Writing Style

• Be clear and concise!
• Say what you need to say, then quit
• Who is your audience?
• No word contractions
• e.g., dont, wont, cant
• Avoid colloquialisms
• Shows bad English, and we have enough of that
  already

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References

• Journal-style referencing is best
• Refer to handout
• Posted online
• Reference EVERY article that you cite and use
  (and cite every reference in the text)