Topic 2��What's in a scientific paper?��How to read a scientific paper?

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1 What is a scientific paper?

• Scientific papers are for sharing your own original research work with other scientists, or for reviewing the research conducted by others.
• As such, they are critical to the evolution of modern science, in which the work of one scientist builds upon that of others.

1 What is a scientific paper?

• To reach their goal of sharing information, papers must aim to inform, not impress.

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• Scientific papers must be highly readable — that is, clear, accurate, and concise.
• They are more likely to be cited by other scientists if they are helpful rather than cryptic or self-centered.

1 What is a scientific paper?

• Scientific papers typically have two audiences:

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• 1) the referees, who help the journal editor decide whether a paper is suitable for publication;

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• 2) the journal readers themselves, who may be more or less knowledgeable about the topic addressed in the paper.

1 What is a scientific paper?

• To be accepted by referees and cited by readers, papers must do more than simply present a chronological account of the research work.
• Rather, they must convince their audience that the research presented is important, valid, and relevant to other scientists in the same field.
• To this end, they must emphasize both the motivation for the work and the outcome of it, and they must include just enough evidence to establish the validity of this outcome.

1 What is a scientific paper?

• Scientific papers (also known as a "journal articles") are a special type of written work that have particular characteristics:

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1. Journal

• Scientific papers are usually published in a periodical called a journal, whose purpose is to publish this kind of work. 
• Generally, journals differ greatly from general interest writing on scientific topics such as magazine articles and science news (e.g. those in National Geographic, Scientific American, Discover, PanSci, etc.)
• Although some journals also have a section devoted to general interest writing.  Occasionally scientific papers are compiled in book form but this is not the norm.

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2. Peer Reviewed

• Scientific papers are peer reviewed. 

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• That means that the paper has been subjected to the scrutiny of several experts in the field who verify the quality of the writing and the accuracy of the analysis and conclusions drawn by the authors. 

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3. Citable

• Scientific papers are citable. 

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• This means that: the content is stable, the journal is readily available in libraries and (usually) through the Web, and there are standardized methods of identifying a particular article. 
• Thus, an author can refer to a paper with confidence that a reader can easily look up that reference at any point in the future.

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4. Citations

• Scientific papers include citations. 

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• This means that the paper frequently makes reference to previous publications that are relevant to the work being discussed. 

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• All cited works are listed in a reference section at the end of the paper.  Footnotes at the bottom of each page are not used to make citations. 

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5. Style

• They follow a standardized style of writing and data presentation.

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• The general outline/flow is as follows:
• Title
• Author(s)
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References/Literature cited

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Structure of Paper

• Paper from our lab as an example (Lee & Lin 2012)

Title & Author

Correspondence

Title & Author

• Who conducted the research?
• What were/are their interests?
• Why did they do this research?
• What was and was not known at the time of writing?

Author

• Author’s background

Acknowledgements

• Other information

The introduction

• The Introduction section clarifies the motivation for the work presented, and prepares readers for the structure of the paper.

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The introduction – 1^st paragraph

(Identify the problem)

(Background)

The introduction - 1^st paragraph

(Identify the questions/motivation)

The introduction – 2^nd paragraph

(Review research topics)

The introduction – 3^rd paragraph

(Study organisms/systems)

The introduction – 3^rd paragraph

(Justification/motivation/reasoning)

The introduction – 4th paragraph

(More justification/motivation/reasoning)

The introduction – 5th paragraph

(Background/Methodology)

The introduction – 5^th final paragraph

(Structure/Hypotheses/Predictions)

Materials and Methods

• The Materials and Methods section provides sufficient detail for other scientists to “reproduce” the experiments presented in the paper.
• In some journals, this information is placed in an appendix, because it is not what most readers want to know first.

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Results and Discussion

• The Results and Discussion sections present and discuss the research results, respectively.

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• They are often usefully combined into one section, however, because readers can seldom make sense of results alone without accompanying interpretation — they need to be told what the results mean.

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Questions?