Writing a Scientific Paper
Scientific papers follow a specific format called IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion). Each section has a specific role.
Introduction
- Background, purpose, and/or rationale behind the article/research
- May include a review of the literature (or a review of the literature may be its own section)
- Authors will use evidence (citations) in the background and/or review of the literature
Methods
- Study design
- Authors may use references if the methods are from previous experiments
Results
- Presentation of the data collected
- text in paragraph format
- figures and tables
Discussion
- Discussion/Conclusion based on the results of the study
- Results are placed into context and interpreted by the authors
- Authors discuss if the question was answered and the possibilities for future research
- Authors will use evidence to relate the findings to previous research
