WRITING A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ARTICLE

FORMAT FOR THE PAPER

Scientific research articles provide a method for scientists to communicate with other
scientists about the results of their research. A standard format is used for these articles, in
which the author presents the research in an orderly, logical manner. This format is:

(1) Title
(2) Authors
(3) Abstract
(4) Introduction
(5) Materials and Methods (Preliminaries)
(6) Results
(7) Tables and Graphs
(8) Discussion
(9) Acknowledgement
(10) References

TITLE

1. Make your title specific enough to describe the contents of the paper, but not so
technical that only specialists will understand. The title usually describes the subject
matter of the article. Sometimes a title that summarizes the results is more effective.

AUTHORS

1. The person who did the work and wrote the paper is generally listed as the first author of a
research paper.

2. For published articles, other people who made substantial contributions to the work are
also listed as authors. Ask your mentor's permission before including his/her name as co-
author.

ABSTRACT

1. An abstract, or summary, is published together with a research article, giving the reader a
"preview" of what's to come. Such abstracts may also be published separately in
bibliographical sources. They allow other scientists to quickly scan the large scientific
literature, and decide which articles they want to read in depth.

2. Your abstract should be one paragraph, of 100-250 words (or as said by Journal publisher),
which summarizes the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the paper.

3. It is not easy to include all this information in just a few words. Start by writing a summary
that includes whatever you think is important, and then gradually compressing its size by
removing unnecessary words, while still retaining the necessary concepts.

3. Don't use abbreviations or citations in the abstract. It should be able to stand alone without
any footnotes.
INTRODUCTION

What question did you ask in your experiment/work? Why is it interesting? The introduction
summarizes the relevant literature so that the reader will understand why you were interested
in the question you asked. One to four paragraphs should be enough. End with a sentence
explaining the specific question you asked in this experiment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS(PRELIMINARIES)

1. How did you answer this question? There should be enough information here to allow
another scientist to repeat your experiment/work. Look at other papers that have been
published in your field to get some idea of what is included in this section.

2. Do not put results in this section. You may, however, include preliminary results that were
used to design the main experiment/work that you are reporting on.

RESULTS

1. This is where you present the results you've gotten. Use graphs and tables if appropriate,
but also summarize your main findings in the text. Do NOT discuss the results as to why
something happened; that goes in the Discussion.

2. Use appropriate methods of showing data. Don't try to manipulate the data to make it look
like you did more than you actually did.

TABLES AND GRAPHS

1. If you present your data in a table or graph, include a title describing what's in the table.
For graphs, you should also label the x and y axes.

2.If you can summarize the information in one sentence, then a table or graph is not
necessary.

DISCUSSION

1. Highlight the most significant results, but don't just repeat the results what you've written
in the Results section. How do these results relate to the original question? If your results
were unexpected, try to explain why. Is there another way to interpret your results? What
further research would be necessary to answer the questions raised by your results? Lastly
write summary of your conclusion, emphasizing why it is relevant.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This section is optional. You can thank those who either helped with the experiments/work,
or made other important contributions, such as commenting on the manuscript, or some
funding agency of your research.

REFERENCES (LITERATURE CITED)

There are several possible ways to organize this section. Here is one commonly used way:
1. In the text, cite the literature in the appropriate places:

Browder, F.E., Nonexpansive nonlinear operators in Banach space, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A, 54, (1965), 1041 - 1044.

2. In the References section list citations in alphabetical order.

[1] Browder, F.E., Nonexpansive nonlinear operators in Banach space, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A, 54, (1965), 1041 - 1044.

[2] Bruck, R.E. and Reich, S., Nonexpansive pro jections and resolvents of accretive
operators in Banach spaces, Houstan J. Math. 3., (1977), no.4, 459-470.

[3] Du,W., Huang,Y. and Yen,C., Fixed point thIndigo, A. C., and Mauve, B. E. 1994. Queer
place for qwerty: gene isolation from the platypus. Science 275, 1213-1214.

[4] Gohde, D., Zum prinzip der kontraktiven Abbildung Math. Nachr.30 (1965) 251-
258(German).

[5] Ishikawa,S., Fixed points by a new iteration method, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., 44, (1974),
147-150. MR 49 ♯1243. Zbl 286.47036.

[6] Kirk, W.A., A fixed point theorem for mappings which do not increase the distances,
Amer. Math. Monthly, 72, (1965), 1004-1006.