A Guideline for
Writing a Scientific Paper

(Step by Step)

A customized summary of the guideline developed by Grey Anderson, Bates College

University of Furtwangen
Nov.2011

How to write a scientific paper:

Your scientific papers are subdivided into the following sections: Title, Authors and Affiliation, Abstract, Discussion, Conclusion, Literature Cited, and Appendices. This is the system we will use. In the following we will describe the style, content, and format associated with each section.

The sections appear in a paper in the following prescribed order:

Content | Section of Paper | What is the paper about in nutshell? | Abstract | What is the problem or case which is analyzed?The methods and materials used for analysis. | Discussion | Results and the findings of the analysis. | Conclusion | Whose work did you refer to? | Literature Cited | Extra information | Appendices (Optional) |

1. 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:

Abstract

Subheadings; Use subheadings to help organize the presentation. Subheadings should be capitalized (first letter in each word), left justified, bold italics, and double spaced from the lines above and below.

Example of a subheading:

Effects of Light Intensity on the Rate of Electron Transport

2. Title, Authors' Names, and Institutional Affiliations

* 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. A majority of readers will find your paper via electronic database searches and those search engines key on words found in the title. * The Title usually is written at the beginning but is often modified once the final form of the paper clearly known.

* The Title should be bold and centered at the top of page. (DO NOT use a title page); the title is NOT underlined or italicized.

* The authors' names (primary author first) and institutional affiliation are double-spaced from and centered below the title.

e.g.:
A RESOURCE-BASED ANALYSIS
OF IT SOURCING

Vital Roy, vital.roy@hec.ca HEC Montreal,

and

Benoit A. Aubert benoit.aubert@hec.ca HEC Montreal

* The title is not a section, but it is necessary and important. The title should be short and unambiguous, yet be an adequate description of the work. A general rule-of-thumb is that the title should contain the key words describing the work presented. Remember that the title becomes the basis for most on-line computer searches - if your title is insufficient, few people will find or read your paper.

3. Abstract
An abstract summarizes, in one paragraph (usually), the major aspects of the entire paper in the following prescribed sequence:

* The question(s) you investigated (or purpose). State the purpose very clearly in the first or second sentence. * Mention if specific analysis methods and techniques used without going into excessive detail-be sure to indicate the key techniques used. * The major findings including key quantitative results or any discovered trends (from Results) and relative change or differences, etc. * Report those results which answer the questions you were asking. * A brief summary of your interpretations and conclusions. * Clearly state the implications of the answers your results gave you.

Whereas the Title can only make the simplest statement about the content of your article, the Abstract allows you to elaborate more on each major aspect of the paper. The length of your Abstract should be kept to about 200-300 words maximum.
Limit your statements concerning each segment of the paper (i.e. purpose, methods, results, etc.) to two or three sentences.
The Abstract SHOULD NOT contain:

* Lengthy background information, * References to other literature, * Elliptical (i.e., ending with ...) or incomplete sentences, * Abbreviations or terms that may be confusing to readers, * Any sort of illustration, figure, or table, or references to them.

Although it is the first section of your paper, the Abstract, by definition, must be written last since it will summarize the paper. To begin composing your Abstract, take whole sentences or key phrases from each section and put them in a sequence which summarizes the paper. Then set about revising or adding words to make it all cohesive and clear. As you become more proficient you will most likely compose the Abstract from scratch.
Once you have the completed abstract, check to make sure that the information in the abstract completely agrees with what is written in the paper. Confirm that all the information appearing the abstract actually appears in the body of the paper.

4. Discussion

* Establish the context of the work being reported. This is accomplished by discussing the relevant primary research literature (with citations) and summarizing our current understanding of the problem you are investigating; * State the purpose of the work in the form of the question, or problem you investigated; * Briefly explain your rationale and approach and, whenever possible, the possible outcomes your study can reveal. * Use the active voice as much as possible.

Quite literally, the Introduction must answer the questions, "What was I studying? Why was it an important question? What did we know about it before I did this study? How will this study advance our knowledge?"

The structure of the paper can be thought of as an inverted triangle – the broadest part at the top representing the most general information and focusing down to the specific problem you studied. Organize the information to present the more general aspects of the topic early in the paper, then narrow toward the more specific topical information that provides context, finally arriving at your results.

Begin your Discussion by clearly identifying the subject area of interest. Do this by using key words from your Title in the first few sentences of the discussion to get it focused directly on topic at the appropriate level. This insures that you get to the primary subject matter quickly without losing focus, or discussing information that is too general.

Establish the context by providing a brief and balanced review of the pertinent published literature that is available on the subject. The key is to summarize (for the reader) what we knew about the specific topic or problem before you did your studies. This is accomplished with a general review of the primary research literature (with citations) but should not include very specific, lengthy explanations that you will probably discuss in greater detail later. Lead the reader to your purpose by focusing your literature review from the more general context (the big picture) to the more specific topic of interest to you.

5.1. Balanced Review of the Primary Research Literature:
Do an in-depth, balanced review of the primary research literature relevant to your study. This review will help you learn what is known about the topic you are investigating and may let you avoid unnecessarily repeating work done by others.

You may read some general background references (encyclopedias, textbooks, etc.) to get yourself acquainted with the subject area, do not cite these, because they contain information that is considered fundamental or "common" knowledge within the discipline. Cite, instead, articles that reported specific results relevant to your study.

5.2. Methods Used in the Study
In this section you explain clearly how you carried out your study, how it is structured and organized and if any specific analysis methods were used. Giving a short interview about the structure of your study will help the reader to understand the logical flow of the studies. Subheadings work well for this purpose.

Remember to use the past tense throughout - the work being reported is done, and was performed in the past, not the future. The Methods section is Not a step-by-step, directive, protocol as you might see in a manual.

5.3. Analysis
The function of this section is to interpret your results in light of what was already known about the subject of the investigation.

5.4. Tables & Figures * Tables present lists of numbers or text in columns, each column having a title or label. Do not use a table when you wish to show a trend or a pattern of relationship between sets of values - these are better presented in a Figure. * Figures are visual presentations of results, including graphs, diagrams, photos, drawings, schematics, maps, etc. Graphs are the most common type of figure and show trends or patterns of relationship. * Every Figure and Table included in the paper MUST be referred to the text. Use sentences that draw the reader's attention to the relationship or trend you wish to highlight, referring to the appropriate Figure or Table: e.g.,
“Growth rates were significantly higher after a specific interval. (Fig. 4).” * Avoid sentences that give no information other than directing the reader to the Figure or Table: e.g.,
“Table 1 shows the summary results for male and female heights at Bates College.” * When referring to a Figure in the text, the word "Figure" is abbreviated as "Fig.", while "Table" is not abbreviated. * Figures and Tables are numbered independently, in the sequence in which you refer to them in the text, starting with Figure 1 and Table 1. If, in revision, you change the presentation sequence of the figures and tables, you must renumber them to reflect the new sequence. * Place each Table or Figure as near as possible to the place where you first refer to it (e.g., the next page). The Figures and Tables may be embedded in the text, but avoid breaking up the text into small blocks. * Specific explanatory information needed to interpret the results shown in tables and figures; this is frequently done as footnotes. * Do not simply restate the axis labels with a "versus" written in between. * Table legends should be located above the body of the Table and are left justified; Tables are read from the top down. * Figure legends should be located below the graph; graphs and other types of Figures are usually read from the bottom up.
e.g.:
Table Legend

Table 3. Technical features and application of Operational databases and BI target databases.

Operational Database | Column Titles
BI* Target Database | Geared toward eliminating redundancy, coordination updates and repeating the same typed of operations many times a day, everyday (e.g., airline reservation) | Table Body (Data)
Geared toward supporting a wide range of queries and reports. Queries and reports may vary from one business analyst to another or from one department too another. All of the queries and reports may not run on the same day and may not run everyday (e.g., quarterly trend analysis reports on region sales) | Most of the transactional system require sub-second response time | Although response time is important, sub-seconds cannot be expected. Typical response times are seconds, minutes or hours. | Highly normalized to support consistent updates and maintenance of referential integrity | Lines (demarcating different parts of the table)
Highly de-normalized to provide quick retrieval of a wide range and a large amount of data. Data that belongs together from analytical reporting perspective is usually stored together. |
Footnotes

* Business Intelligence Target Databases

Origin
Y axis label with units
X axis label with units
Key to Symbols
Data

Figure Legend

Figure2. Sales volume trend from 2003 to 2009 in two-year intervals for company A.

* When you have multiple graphs, or graphs and others illustrative materials that are interrelated, it may be most efficient to present them as a compound figure. Compound figures combine multiple graphs into one common figure and share a common legend. Each figure must be clearly identified by capital letter (A, B, C, etc), and, when referred to from the text, is specifically identified by that letter, e.g., "...(Fig. 1B)". The legend of the compound figure must also identify each graph and the data it presents by letter.

Notice here that:

* A photograph is a figure. * Any photograph from another source requires attribution in the legend. * Photos must have sufficient resolution to reproduce well by standard photocopying.

5.5. Citation in the body of the paper:
Throughout the body of your paper, whenever you refer to outside sources of information, you must cite the sources from which you drew information. The simplest way to do this is to parenthetically give the author's last name and the year of publication, e.g., (Clarke 2001). When citing information from another's publication, be sure to report the relevant aspects of the work clearly and succinctly, IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Provide a reference to the work as soon as possible after giving the information.

* Typically, only the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication are given, e.g., (Bugjuice 1970). Your Literature Cited section (References) will contain the complete reference, and the reader can look it up there.

* Notice that the reference to the book has a page number (Gumwad 1952. p.209). This is to facilitate a reader's finding the reference in a long publication such as a book (not done for journal articles). The paper by Bugjuice (1970) is short, and if readers want to find the referenced information, they would not have as much trouble.

* For two author papers, give both authors' last names (e.g., Click and Clack 1974). Articles with more than two authors are cited by the first authors last name followed "and others" or "et al.", and then the year.

* When a book, paper, or article has no identifiable author, cite it as Anon. Year, e.g., (Anon.1996) (Anon. is the abbreviation for anonymous).

* If you want reference a paper found in another article, do so as follows: (Driblick 1923, in Oobleck 1978).

* A string of citations should be separated by semicolons, e.g., (Gumwad 1952. p.209; Bugjuice 1970; Bruhahauser et al 1973).

* You should note the placement of the period AFTER the parenthetical citation – the citation, too, is part of a sentence, e.g., "...courtship behavior (Gumwad 1952. p.209; Bugjuice 1970)."

* Theses and dissertations should be cited as follows:
Mortimer, R. 1975. A study of hormonal regulation of body temperature and consequences for reproductive success in the common house mouse (Mus musculus) in Nome, Alaska. Masters Thesis, University of Alaska, Anchorage. 83 p.

* World Wide Web/Internet source citations: WWW citation should be done with caution since so much is posted without peer review. When necessary, report the complete URL in the text including the site author's name:
".....(Gumwad, B. http://www.csu.edu/~gumwad/hormones/onlinepubs.html)"
Internet sources should be included in your Literature Cited section.

DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING:

* DO NOT USE FOOTNOTES: Footnoting, although commonly done in books and other literary writing, is only rarely done in journal style papers. Cite references in the flow of the text as shown above.

* DO NOT USE DIRECT QUOTES From Published Material: In 99.99% of the cases, the information you want from a research article is an objective result or interpretation. How the author stated this information, i.e., their prose, is of little importance compared to the results or interpretations themselves. Take the information and put it into your own words; avoid paraphrasing since this can potentially lead to plagiarism.

5. Citations used in the Literature Cited

In the Literature Cited you must provide complete citations for each of the published sources cited in your paper.

* All citation entries are listed in alphabetical order based the first author's last name; * If the same author(s) are cited for more than one paper having the same order of authors' names, the papers should be listed in chronological sequence by year of publication. * Authors' names MUST be listed in the citation in the same order as in the article.

Bugjuice, Timm and Cratchet (1990). The role of estrogen in mouse courtship behavior changes as mice age. J Physiol 62(6): p.1130-1142.

Cratchet, Bugjuice and Timm (1994). Estrogen, schmestrogen!: Mouse (Mus musculus) as a dietary alternative for humans. J Nutrition 33(6): p.113 -114.

* If no author is listed, use the word Anonymous in place of the author name(s). Anonymous (1992). .....give rest of citation using appropriate format.

Detailed specification with more examples:

* Journal Article: Single author

Bugjuice (1970). Physiological effects of estrogen on mouse courtshipbehavior. J Physiol 40(2): p.140-145. |

In the citation of Bugjuice's paper, note the following:

* Mention the author last name and then the year in parentheses (); e.g., Bugjuice (1970). * Capitalization of the words in the title is just as it were a sentence; e.g., Physiological effects of estrogen on mouse courtship behavior. * Abbreviation of the journal name; usually the header on the article will list the appropriate abbreviation for the journal; no periods in abbreviated form of journal name; e.g., J Physiol * "40" is the volume number "(2)" is the number of the issue; if no issue is given, the colon follows the volume number; * "140-145" is the inclusive page numbers of the article; * placement of periods is standard; * Indentation of the second line (and all subsequent lines) in the citation. This applies to all citations.

* Journal Article: Multiple authors Bugjuice, Timm, and Cratchet (1990). The role of estrogen in mouse courtship behavior changes as mice age. J Physiol 2(6): p.1130-1142. |

* If number of authors are two, mention the authors’ last names and then the year in parentheses (); e.g., Timm and Bugjuice (1989)

* If number of authors are three, mention the authors’ last names and then the year in parentheses (); e.g., Huth, Brogan, and Danick (1994).

* When the number of authors are more than three, a shorter form should be used and only last name of the first author will be mentioned; e.g., Bugjuice et al. (1990)

* Book: Single author Gumwad (1952). Behavior patterns of mice. 2nd ed. New York: Harper& Row. P.347. |

In the citation of Gumwad’s book, note the following:

* Mention the author last name and then the year in parentheses (); e.g., Gumwad (1952).

* Capitalization of the words in the title is just as it were a sentence. (The title is not underlined); e.g., Behavior patterns of mice.

* “2nd ed.” means second edition; if the book is a first edition; no entry is made, here, but if 2nd, 3rd, etc., then the notation is made;

* Give city of publication, and the name of the publisher; e.g., New York. Harper&Row

* "p.347- …" or “p.347” is the inclusive page numbers of the article;

* Year of publication follows authors' names;

* Placement of periods is standard;

* Indentation of all lines after the first;

* Book: Multiple authors Huth, Brogan and Danick (1994). Scientific format and style. 6th ed. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. P.825. |

* If number of authors are two, mention the authors’ last names and then the year in parentheses (); e.g., Huth and Brogan (1994).

* When the number of authors are more than three, a shorter form should be used and only the last name of the first author will be mentioned; e.g., Huth et al. (1994)

* Book: Authors contributing a specific chapter

Kuret and Murad (1990). Adenohypophyseal hormones and related substances. In: Gilman et al. editors. The pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 8th ed.New York: Pergamon. p.60-111. |

* Author(s) Unknown or Not Named Anonymous (1979). A Survival Guide for College Students in the 20th Century. Maine: Waazah County Health Department. 6 p. |

If the authorship of a paper or other document is not provided, cite the author using the word "Anonymous" in the place of the authors name(s); e.g., Anonymous (1979)

6. Appendices
An Appendix contains information that is non-essential to understanding of the paper, but may present information that further clarifies a point without burdening the body of the presentation. An appendix is an optional part of the paper, and is only rarely found in published papers.

Note: Each Appendix should be identified by a Roman numeral in sequence, e.g., Appendix I, Appendix II, etc. Each appendix should contain different material.

7. Write the conclusion Section:
Remember that the Conclusion section can have both text and illustrative materials (Tables and Figures). Use the text component to guide the reader through your key results, i.e., those results which answer the question(s) you investigated. Each Table and Figure must be referenced in the text portion of the results, and you must tell the reader what the key result(s) is that each Table or Figure conveys.

8. Self-Revise the Paper
Papers should be read by the authors at least 2-3 times before giving it out for peer review. 1. Read the paper carefully and loud. It should say what the author wanted it to say? 2. Do any ideas, experiments, or interpretations need to be moved around within the text to enhance the logical flow of the arguments? 3. Can you shorten long sentences to clarify them? 4. Can you change passive verbs to active forms? 5. Do the Tables and Figures have sufficient information to stand alone outside the context of the paper? 6. Use your dictionary to correct spelling and your spell checker to catch typos.

9. Peer Review: 1. Ask knowledgeable colleagues to criticize your paper. 2. Use their comments to revise your paper.

10. Prepare the Final Draft: 1. Carefully proof-read your final draft to make sure it is as well done as possible. 2. Double check that you've properly cited all your sources in the text and in the Literature cited. 3. Check the formatting one last time. The instructors LOVE to give full credit for format issues.