How to write a scientific paper

When you write about scientific topics to specialists in that field of science, this is scientific writing.

The scientific paper has developed over the past three centuries into a tool to communicate the results of scientific inquiry. The main audience for scientific papers is extremely specialized. The purpose of these papers is twofold: to present information so that it is easy to retrieve, and to present enough information that the reader can duplicate the scientific study. A standard format with six main part helps readers to find expected information and analysis:

Title - subject and what aspect of the subject was studied

Abstract - summary of paper: the main reason for the study, the primary results, the main conclusions

Keywords – terms who describe the main concepts of the paper

Introduction - why the study was undertaken

Methods and Materials - how the study was undertaken

Results - what was found

Discussion - why these results could be significant (what the reasons might be for the patterns found or not found)

Conclusions – summing up

Acknowledgments - optional

Literature Cited - add your works cited section

There are many ways to approach the writing of a scientific paper, and no one way is right. Many people, however, find that drafting chunks in this order works best: Results, Discussion, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Abstract, and, finally, Title.

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Title

The title should be very limited and specific. Make your title specific enough to describe the contents of the paper, but not so technical that only specialists will understand. It should be appropriate for the intended audience and usually describes the subject matter of the article:

Examples:

"Effect of Smoking on Academic Performance"

"Renal disease susceptibility and hypertension are under independent genetic control in the fawn hooded rat"

"Territory size in Lincoln's Sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii)"

"Replacement of deciduous first premolars and dental eruption in archaeocete whales"

"The Radio-Frequency Single-Electron Transistor (RF-SET): A Fast and Ultrasensitive Electrometer