Scientific paper structure

　　why a scientific format?

　　the scientific format may seem confusing for the beginning science writer due

　　to its rigid structure which is so different from writing in the humanities.

　　one reason for using this format is that it is a means of efficiently

　　communicating scientific findings to the broad community of scientists in a

　　uniform manner. another reason, perhaps more important than the first, is

　　that this format allows the paper to be read at several different levels. for

　　example, many people skim titles to find out what information is available on

　　a subject. others may read only titles and abstracts. those wanting to go

　　deeper may look at the tables and figures in the results, and so on. the take

　　home point here is that the scientific format helps to insure that at

　　whatever level a person reads your paper (beyond title skimming), they will

　　likely get the key results and conclusions.

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　　the sections of the paper

　　most journal-style scientific papers are subdivided into the following

　　sections: title, authors and affiliation, abstract, introduction, methods,

　　results, discussion, acknowledgments, and literature cited, which parallel

　　the experimental process. this is the system we will use. this website

　　describes the style, content, and format associated with each section.

　　the sections appear in a journal style paper in the following prescribed

　　order:

　　experimental process

　　section of paper

　　what did i do in a nutshell?

　　abstract

　　what is the problem?

　　introduction

　　how did i solve the problem?

　　materials and methods

　　what did i find out?

　　results

　　what does it mean?

　　discussion

　　who helped me out?

　　acknowledgments (optional)

　　whose work did i refer to?

　　literature cited

　　extra information

　　appendices (optional)

　　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:

　　introduction

　　subheadings: when your paper reports on more than one experiment, use

　　subheadings to help organize the presentation. subheadings should be

　　capitalized (first letter in each word), left justified, and either bold

　　italics or underlined.

　　example of a subheading:

　　effects of light intensity on the rate of electron transport

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　　title, authors' names, and institutional affiliations

　　1. function: 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: the molecule studied, the organism

　　used or studied, the