Elements of the Scientific Paper: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students and Professionals

by Michael J. Katz, Katz, Michael J. Katz, Michael J.

Shared knowledge is indispensable to the practice of science, and the scientific paper―whether published in a journal or collation volume―is the chief means by which scientists communicate ideas and results to their colleagues. Mastering the genre is thus an essential element in every scientist’s training.
Using a published paper as a guide, Michael J. Katz takes the reader through every step of the writing process, including the use of standard formats (abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, and references), language (style and word usage), and publication (choosing the appropriate journal, the review process, and revising). Other chapters discuss figures (photographs, schematic diagrams, and graphs), writing with a computer, and numbers (algorithms and statistics). Nine appendices provide a handy reference to commonly needed information such as scientific abbreviations, non-technical words, and mathematic formulae.
While recognizing that the scientific paper is constrained within a well-defined form, the book also stresses that the genre is narrative prose requiring a lucid, precise, and careful style. The elements of composition―gestation, diction, revision, and rewriting―are discussed in detail.
Elements of the Scientific Paper is a useful handbook for young scientists and graduate students beginning their publishing careers, as well as for anyone wishing a review of or introduction to the elements of scientific style.

Genres: Science

132 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1985

Reviews

[Mikhail · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most difficult part of scientific writing is to construct a text that is at once simple and thoughtful.

What is a Scientific Paper?
Scientific papers form the scaffolding of science.
Why write a paper?
Choosing the appropriate forum
... the scientific publishing community operates with the faith that its reviewers are conscientious scientists who will filter out the poorly presented manuscripts and recognize good scientific papers.
Writing with a computer
As a start, set down an outline for each separate section.
... I write the first version of each section with abandon and let the early drafts be a rush and jumble of ideas.
A. B. Thus, C.
Use the syllogistic form to outline troublesome paragraphs.
Writing is research; it is a process of discovery.
Language
The primary purpose of a scientific paper is not to speak to the heart but to the brain.
cell staining was performed -> cells were stained
in a linear fashion -> linearly
Write in the active voice when possible.
... hyphenated neologisms only clutter an article
ad hoc, alternate, arbitrarily (blindly, without plan), comprise, continual, deduce/induce/infer, definitive, putative (likely), imply/indicate/intimate/suggest + appear/seem, important/interesting BECAUSE, inherent/intrinsic, parameter/variable, significantly (how?), that/which, yield -> give/produce.
Numbers
Stay close to the observations; use as few and simple statistics.
Try to describe the shape of the distribution of your numbers.
Materials and Methods
The materials and methods are considered so basic and so important that it is the one section that reviewers never asked to be trimmed.
Write this section in concise formulaic sentences, without colourful language, without extraneous comments or asides, and without indeterminate sentences.
The materials and methods section is formulaic: it should be a direct narrative list of items and events.
Organising the Raw Data
That there will be such a natural order is not preordained fact, it is only a useful working hypothesis and it is an article of faith.
Results
To lay your case before the scientific jury you should present sufficient details in the results for others to draw their own inferences and to construct their own complete explanations, and this means including a complete set of data with a fairly comprehensive indication of the variation that you found.
It is not only that "our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world" (John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley).
A good rule is : include sufficient primary details for the reader to confidently build his own hypotheses, that is, give enough raw data for the armchair scientist to formulate his own explanation.
The reader's reaction to the paper is always colored by the confidence that he has in the details of the data, and thorough descriptions in which the imperfections of the real world are apparent give an important solidity to a paper.
In selecting your examples, there are two equally acceptable routes: you can present either best cases or representative cases.
What tense should be used in scientific writing? One common rule is: statements for which you could cite other references and statements that are considered general knowledge should both be presented in the present tense, while statements that are new or that are specific to your experiments should be presented in the past tense.
A simple question is a good device for defining classes of observations.
Use the active voice whenever possible, and do not shy away from first person singular pronouns when they are appropriate.
Figures
In general, figures portraying techniques fit in the materials and methods section, figures of actual data belong in results, and figures of synthetic ideas, abstractions, and models should be in the discussion.
It is helpful to have the first sentence in the legend summarize the figure, because this sentence behaves like a title.
Footnotes and Appendices
A footnote is a short, one paragraph appendix.
Discussion
The discussion should be a brief essay essentially sufficient unto itself; therefore, start with a few sentences that summarize the most important results. Focus the remainder of the discussion around only two or three points and make each of these into individual analyses in separate sections. Begin each section with a statement of your observations, add a brief summary of relevant observations from other studies, and end with a specific hypothesis, implication or conclusion.
Likewise, the overall discussion should also follow this natural flow of presentation: the earlier sections should analyze particulars, such as underlying mechanisms and detailed explanations, while the last section should consider the most general and wide-reaching implications of your observations.
Nonetheless, it is helpful to begin by organizing your discussion around three questions:
The summary. What are the major patterns among the observations?
The analytic inferences. What are the likely causes (mechanisms) underlying these patterns?
The synthetic inferences. What are the resulting predictions?
Seeing the particular patterns in your system, what patterns would you predict in other systems?
Inferring these particular cases for your system, what causes would you predict for other systems?
Knowing of similar patterns or similar causes in other systems, what links can you suggest between these systems and yours?
Conclusions
End your paper with a firm conclusion.
Usually, after a brief summary of the results, the discussion proceeds from the particular to the general, from explanations of the observations to the considerations of the broader implications; thus, the conclusion is usually a general statement.
When the conclusion is the last few sentences of the discussion, it is helpful to introduce with "Thus", "Therefore", or "in conclusion", but in my papre these adverbs are inappropriate.
Introduction
As you build your introduction, begin by laying out the general scientific issues, then describe what is already known and define the current frontiers.. Finally, explain exactly where your experiments fit in. "To find where you are going, you must know where you are" (John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley).
Set the stage with a statement of the general phenomenon and with an entree into the classic literature.
Provide sufficient sources for the reader to educate himself in the details of recent observations and of contemporary thoughts across the full range of the field.
Next, begin to lay out the general problem.
Now, describe which general experimental paradigms offer solutions.
Proceed from from the general to the particular — the opposite direction of argument presented in the discussion — and end the introduction with a simple statement of the one most important specific question that you will address in your paper.
Abstract and Title
A scientific paper can be summarized, recapitulated, and reviewed; a work of art cannot.
State what was done. Use the past tense.
State the major result. Past tense.
Present one major explanation. Present tense.
Point out one significant implication. Present tense.
Rather than summarize the abstract, use the title to further shape the organization of your argument and to orient your readers. Titles are usually used for indexing articles, and it is a good plan to include key words. One technique for building a title is to list three or four terms that embody the most vital concepts of the paper and then to arrange these words into a complete phrase.
References
Acknowledgements
Which is opportunity to thank those who helped you technically, intellectually, and financially.
I am indebted to ....
The Art of a Scientific Paper
Gestation and Rewriting
Read each sentence and ask:
What is the main point, and can it be said more simply or more clearly? Is it necessary, or is it a digression that can be omitted?
Does it follow from the sentence before? Is the logic correct, and is it complete? Are there hidden thoughts that must be stated explicitly?
Be exacting and unemotional.
If there is any question about the clarity of an argument, expand it; if you at all are uncomfortable about an idea, remove it.
Editors, Referees, and Revisions
All scientist have been hit with criticism that sting.
Appendix I. Common nontechnical science words
active(activity)
analysis (analyze, analytical)
appear (appearance)
compare (comparison)
contain
control
data
determine
differ (different, differences) / similar (similarity)
effect
effective
evidence
experiment
identify (identification)
important (importance)
increase / decrease
indicate
lack
level
observe (observation)
occur
produce
product (production)
rate
regulate (regulation, regulatory)
result (resultant)
sequence (sequential)
show
study
suggest (suggestive)
type

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so you aren't going to want to read this one unless you are writing or analyzing scientific articles, but it is the best paper-writing textbook ever required for any of my writing classes. (And I got an "A" on all of my papers due in the super-hard biology class that required this textbook.)