What Is The Most Popular Scientific Research Paper Format?

A scientific research paper is meant to communicate results to other scientists in a logical and orderly manner. Almost all scientific research papers share a similar format.

Title

Most scientific research papers start with a title. The title needs to be appropriate for the audience and describe the subject matter. The most effective titles summarize the results.

Authors

After this, you should list the authors who did the work for the paper and wrote the paper. If the work is being published, you want to include the names of those who made a substantial contribution to the paper or research.v

Abstract

This is the summary which provides the reader with a preview of the article. Many abstracts will be published separately and provide other scientists with a quick scan of your work, so that they can decide whether or not to read the entire thin. This is limited to a single paragraph between 100 and 250 words.

Introduction

This is where you introduce your question or hypothesis and summarize any relevant literature. It should end with a single sentence explaining the question you specifically addressed in your work.

Materials and Methods

This is where you explain how you answered your question. You should include enough information that a reader could recreate your experiment. You also want to include a diagram or flowchart if your protocol was particularly complicated. This is also where you would mention any ethical considerations, such as getting consent from human participants or minimizing pain for animal participants.

Results

This is the area where you explain the results of your experiment. You can include graphs and tables if appropriate.

Tables and Graphs

In this section you will present your findings in the form of a graph, with the x and y axes appropriately labeled, or in the form of a table. Only include these if you need them to better explain your results. If you can explain the results with a single sentence, then do so.

Discussion

This section is where you highlight how your results relate to your hypothesis, whether the results are consistent or not. This is also where you try and explain why your results were unexpected, if they were or if there is some other way you could interpret them. You can wrap up by listing further research which could be conducted and the grand implications your findings have in the field.

Acknowledgements

Finally you can thank those who helped you during the experiment. This can include someone who bought you dinner countless nights you were up late, someone who commented on your manuscript, or something who assisted with the experiment.

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