Scientific paper structure

why a scientific format?

the scientific format may seem confusing for the beginning science writer due

to its rigid structure which is so different from writing in the humanities.

one reason for using this format is that it is a means of efficiently

communicating scientific findings to the broad community of scientists in a

uniform manner. another reason, perhaps more important than the first, is

that this format allows the paper to be read at several different levels. for

example, many people skim titles to find out what information is available on

a subject. others may read only titles and abstracts. those wanting to go

deeper may look at the tables and figures in the results, and so on. the take

home point here is that the scientific format helps to insure that at

whatever level a person reads your paper (beyond title skimming), they will

likely get the key results and conclusions.

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the sections of the paper

most journal-style scientific papers are subdivided into the following

sections: title, authors and affiliation, abstract, introduction, methods,

results, discussion, acknowledgments, and literature cited, which parallel

the experimental process. this is the system we will use. this website

describes the style, content, and format associated with each section.

the sections appear in a journal style paper in the following prescribed

order:

experimental process

section of paper

what did i do in a nutshell?

abstract

what is the problem?

introduction

how did i solve the problem?

materials and methods

what did i find out?

results

what does it mean?

discussion

who helped me out?

acknowledgments (optional)

whose work did i refer to?

literature cited

extra information

appendices (optional)

section headings:

main section headings: each main section of the paper begins with a heading

which should be capitalized, centered at the beginning of the section, and

double spaced from the lines above and below. do not underline the section

heading or put a colon at the end.

example of a main section heading:

introduction

subheadings: when your paper reports on more than one experiment, use

subheadings to help organize the presentation. subheadings should be

capitalized (first letter in each word), left justified, and either bold

italics or underlined.

example of a subheading:

effects of light intensity on the rate of electron transport

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title, authors' names, and institutional affiliations

1. function: your paper should begin with a title that succinctly describes

the contents of the paper. use descriptive words that you would associate

strongly with the content of your paper: the molecule studied, the organism

used or studied, the