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Guidelines For Writing Scientific
Papers
When writing any scientific paper, it is important that it be laid out in a
logical and orderly fashion as outlined below:
- Title - State
the work and attract the reader's attention. Include words that will allow
for a useful computer search later.
- Author - Give your name and how someone could contact you, typically your
professional address.
- Abstract - A brief summary (about 250 words) of the main findings of the research.
- Key words - Give a list of words useful in cross referencing your paper.
These words should be important ones not in your title, and probably not in
your abstract. They facilitate computer searches.
- Introduction - Introduce the topic giving the general context of
your observations and the phenomena. You might also include an
overview of what others have seen, as recorded in the literature.
- Materials and Methods - Describe how you made the observations
including time, date, duration, and any methods you might have used to get
the data. List any important or unique pieces of equipment that aided
in the research.
- Results - Describe what you observed. Be very precise and
factual. Data can often be summarized in the form of tables and
figures. No speculation or interpretation is included in this
section. Just the facts, please.
- Discussion - Generally discuss your findings, especially in the
context of what other people have found. You may add some of your own
interpretation for the data you gathered. Some speculation of
plausible interpretations is appropriate here to spur interest in future
research. You may discuss questions that were raised by your
observations that you think deserve further investigation. Any
inconsistencies or ambiguities between your observations and published
accounts should be noted.
- Acknowledgments - Give thanks to those who may have helped you in
any way. Perhaps include people who gave you key ideas, people who
assisted you in obtaining field data, sources of funding, and people who
helped you prepare the report.
- Literature Cited - Give proper bibliographic citations for work
related to your topic. The format of references should follow the
standard format found in such journals as American Naturalist,
Evolution, Ecology, Southwestern Naturalist or Great Basin Naturalist.
This format is called the Name-Year system in your text Writing Papers in
the Biological Sciences, Second Edition, by V.E. McMillan. Note
examples given in the text for particular questions regarding format.
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