The Scientific Paper

Types, structure and logic

There is no one way to write a paper

ALL have a role to play

Paper types:

Research reports

Reviews

Progress reports

Hypothesis articles

???

Some papers are short and concise (2.5 pages in Nature)

SmallWorld

Networks

Some papers are long and rambling

Some papers are just weird

Some papers aren't research papers at all,but essays offering valuable perspective

Why don't YOU write one!!

Nature, 23 February 2006

BUT... all papers have structure

Long, short, research, review, all papers have:

1. An introduction (first or several paragraphs)2. Description of methods and results (several paragraphs to many pages)3. Discussion of the relationship of this work to previous work, and potential implications4. A short conclusion

This stereotyped structure – AGAIN! -- helps avoid confusion by meeting the reader's expectations.

Methods and Results

These sections should:

State very clearly what you've done and howyou've done it, with enough detail so thatother scientists could, in principle, reproduceyour results.

Journal of Colloids and Interfaces:

“Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced”

Be complete – trust your judgement!!

Discussion

If it's not introduction, methods, references, ...then it's probably “discussion”!

Don't hold back – this is your opportunity.

Just remain within the frame of your overall argument

Key Points:

1. Have you established some specific result?Almost established it, yet with caveats? What are they?

2. Do your findings contradict/support earlier studies?Some of both?

3. Why should the reader care? What are the implications?Can your method be extended? Have you raised surprising questions?

4. Are there key shortcomings of method, data, assumptions. How might they be overcome?

5. Conjectures? How to demonstrate?

Introduction

This section should do several things:

1. Describe the background or problem in more detail than the abstract; introduce!

2. Describe briefly what you've done that is new, how you've attacked the problem, preparing the reader to move to the methods

3. Tease the reader, promise a later pay-off with a taste of the results to come.

In Good Health? Thank Your 100 Trillion Bacteria

By GINA KOLATA (13 June, 2012)

For years, bacteria have had a bad name. They are the cause of infections, of diseases. They are something to be scrubbed away, things to be avoided. … No one really knew much about them. … what do they look like in healthy people, and how much do they vary from person to person?

… the Human Microbiome Project… sequenced the genetic material of bacteria taken from nearly 250 healthy people.... They discovered more strains than they had ever imagined — as many as a thousand strains on each person. And each person’s collection of microbes, the microbiome, was different from the next person’s. To the scientists’ surprise, they also found genetic signatures of disease-causing bacteria lurking in everyone’s microbiome. But instead of making people ill, or even infectious, these disease-causing microbes simply live peacefully among their neighbors.

The “teaser” paragraph

Introduction

This section should do several things:

1. Describe the background or problem in more detail than the abstract; introduce!

2. Describe briefly what you've done that is new, how you've attacked the problem, preparing the reader to move to the methods

3. Tease the reader, promise a later pay-off with a taste of the results to come.

This section should introduce the WHOLE PAPER and promise the reader a pay-off if they keep reading.

A good introduction...

.....

PNAS, 9 September 2008

Background, of course...

.....

Brief detail on methods, of course...

.....

AND some results/conclusions...

.....

Another effective introduction

.....

.....

1. Introduction

Recent investigations have uncovered large, consistent deviations from the predictions of the textbook presentation of Homo economicus. One problem appears to lie in economists' assumption that individuals are entirely self-interested; in addition to their own material payoffs, many experimental subjects appear to care about fairness and reciprocity...

First paragraph

.....

Fundamental questions remain unanswered. Are the deviations from the canonical model evidence ofuniversal patterns of behaviour, or do the individuals'economic and social environments shape behaviour?...

Second paragraph

.....

Existing research cannot answer such questions becausevirtually all subjects have been university students.... To address the above questions, we and our collaboratorsundertook a large cross-cultural study... in twelve countrieson four continents...

Third paragraph

.....

We can summarize our results as follows. First, thecanonical model is not supported in any society studied.Second, there is considerably more behavioural variability across groups than had been found in previouscross-cultural research and...

Fourth paragraph

Comparably, not so good...

.....

Nature, 3 September 2009

Background, yes...

But not even a hint about results/conclusions...

.....

This is a missed opportunity

Are these divisions fixed and inflexible?

ANYTHING goes as long as it works to youradvantage in getting your points across

NO!!

Only one fixed rule:

Constructing a working draft:An exercise

Using topic sentences to your advantage

Writing has a fractal nature

It's all parts within parts

Write as you would build a house

First, construct (outline) the main structure

Then elaborate each main structure into key parts

Then elaborate those parts into smaller parts

Continue down to the level of sentences

Write as you would build a house

First, construct (outline) the main structure

Then elaborate each main structure into key parts

Then elaborate those parts into smaller parts

Continue down to the level of sentences

Expect the initial result to be horrifically ugly!!

Outlining the entire paper

Introduction

Description of methods/work

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

Para.1para.2..

Introduction1. Topic sentence [notes on what to put here]

2. Topic sentence [notes on what to put here]

etc

Methods1. Topic sentence [notes on what to put here]

etc

Introduction

P1. The Vlasov-Poisson equations describe plasma physicsin the so-called “collisionless” regime. [Add details of background and history].

P2. Smith and Rogers recently discovered new solutions to these equations by exploiting advances in non-linear mathematics. [Add detail; what advances? What solutions?]

P3. Here we show how this new class of solutions can be extended by using symplectic methods. [Add detail; how and towhat effect?]

Methods

P1. Symplectic methods allow... [Add detail on ...]

For example: