Research paper
Accurate writing of the research paper is a well-known requirement to show the real value of your research, intellectual property. Also, it is the best way that researchers can find their answers.
The main difference between writing scientific achievements in journals and texts published in magazines is in the content and scope of the article. A paper published in a scientific journal has been compiled for a specific group of researchers, but the content published in magazines does not have this limitation and expertise.
The reader of the research paper published in journals is not a random selection of people in human society, but a group of specialists working in your field. These specialists know the basics and the general goals of your field. The intention of this special group of researchers is to get acquainted with your hypothesis, idea, method of work, reason, and conclusion to find an answer to their hypotheses or ideas in the shortest possible time.
How to write a research paper?
A research paper consists of a title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, final summary, and references. In the following, we will tell you how to write a research paper.
1. Title
A scientific article begins with a title. The title of the research paper shouldn’t be too long and should introduce the keywords for your work. The importance of this subject is that articles are searched through the Internet, and readers access your paper by entering keywords in search engines. Therefore, not choosing a suitable title can’t properly introduce your paper to readers. It is better not to use abbreviations or conjunctions in the title.
The names of the authors should be written at the bottom of the title, and if several authors are involved in the work, it is better to separate the names of the authors with a comma. Also, the responsible author should be distinguished from other writers with an asterisk so that readers know from whom to ask the answers to the questions that occurred while reading your article. The address of each author should be clearly stated below the names.
2. Abstract
The abstract of the research paper should be written in one paragraph and cover the main parts of the paper in one or three sentences. It is better to start with an introductory sentence and express the hypothesis and necessity of your work, and in the next sentences, the method of proving your hypothesis will be given. The method that you applied should be clearly stated, and it is also better to describe it. In the following, the main results of your research should be presented, and your scientific reason for these results should be explained.
In the last sentence, we should have a final summary of the research. The abstract should not only state the main results of your work, and this is a mistake that many writers make. The abstract should be different from the final summary. Another common mistake most writers make is to write the abstract as an introduction. Here are some mistakes that should be completely avoided in writing the abstract:
- Abstracts are usually between 200 and 300 words long, and avoid writing long abstracts.
- It is not common to refer to the research achievements of others in the abstract.
- Avoid acronyms and vague words as possible.
- Avoid tables, graphs, and designs in the abstract.
- Also, after writing the abstract, review it several times to make sure that all the contents of the abstract are fully included in the paper.
It is necessary to introduce a maximum of 5 to 6 keywords in each paper, and these keywords are usually provided in a separate section after the abstract. Avoid writing terms longer than 3 words separated by conjunctions (and, or).
3. Introduction
Introduction Builds the overall content of your research paper. It is better to divide the introduction into three parts in your mind. The first part can be written in one paragraph, and in this paragraph, you should point out the value and necessity of research. In other words, the introduction should have the structure of an inverted triangle, which begins with a generalization, and as the reader progresses to the end of the paper, he reaches the specific research topic.
In the second part, you should prove your level of mastery over the content by reviewing the references. These references should be chosen in such a way that the hypothesis formed in your mind also comes to the reader’s mind. Avoid reviewing too many references because you are not writing a review paper. Your purpose is only to introduce your general understanding of the subject so that the reader can be assured that you are well acquainted with the issue ahead. In this regard, we suggest that you read the review papers that have been written on the topic of your interest.
In the last part, it is better to present your approach to proving the hypothesis. In your approach, state briefly and explicitly that you found the answer to your hypothesis by experiment, mathematical modeling, random sampling, and so on. The advantages and disadvantages of the chosen method should be mentioned so that the reader can be confident in the findings of your research from the very beginning and have enough motivation to read the whole of your paper. Besides, you must bring the innovation of your work clearly and concisely in the final paragraph so that the reader knows the difference between your work and previous research.
- Avoid writing long introduction. Writing an introduction of more than 2,000 words can be a bit tedious.
4. Materials and methods
This section should clearly explain how you did the research and what methods you applied. For theoretical disciplines, this section may be called Mathematical modeling.
In this section, it is more satisfying to have several subsections and deal with the applied method in detail. Also, the arrangement of the subsections should be in accordance with the applied method, and there should be a connection between taking the data and presenting the results. Go into detail as much as possible so that the reader can easily implement your method.
Undoubtedly, the method you apply is a kind of intellectual property of yours, and if you do not want to present the results, first register your research findings in the form of a patent, because the purpose of publishing research results in the form of a research paper is the promotion of science and knowledge for the public. The only economic goal that can be imagined by publishing a paper is to introduce the capabilities of your research team to the world so that you can have research cooperation with other organizations or receive educational grants through this advertising method.
Here are some major points to consider in this section.
- All the sentences in this section should be written in the simple past or present perfect tense. The present tense should be avoided because you researched in the past, and you are presenting it now.
- Avoid writing sentences in the first person as much as possible and write passive sentences.
- The information should be given in a quantitative form and strictly avoid a qualitative description of the procedure.
- All formulas, equations, tables, and figures must be numbered. This is one of the most common mistakes that many writers make.
5. Results and Discussion
The results and discussion section in most research papers in the field of life sciences are presented in separate sections, but most technical and engineering journals present these two parts in one section. If these two parts are separate, the author should only present the results in the form of tables, charts, or plans without providing any analysis of the results because the interpretation of the results should be presented in the “discussion” section. The results should be presented logically in a way that leads the reader to prove the research hypothesis.
Try to give the reader a broad overview of all possible hypotheses and then present your applied method and its results.
A few points that you should pay attention to:
Another thing that can considerably improve the interest of your research is that you present a scheme of your main achievement so that the reader has a comprehensive picture of the whole results and discussion in mind. This comprehensive mental image exceedingly enhances the appeal of your text.
Another point to note is that you present your results per the title of your research. If you can not perform some of the experiments, or do not have access to some of the data, change the title of the article to solve this problem. For example, if you write the term of optimization in the title of your paper, you must first know all the effective parameters and identify the optimal conditions with a proper algorithm. In this way, if you select only a few parameters and get the best answer under a certain condition, you can not use the word optimization in the title, because you have not followed any of the optimization rules. In these cases, it is better to use one of the terms of study, impact, or evaluation.
If you do a statistical analysis and compare the two groups, not only do you point out that your two groups are significantly different, but you should also report the percentage of changes quantitatively, accurately and meaningfully.
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6. Final conclusion
In this section, you should present the main results and avoid writing sentences that only show the importance and necessity of your research. Conclude the paper by presenting the results as well as your main interpretation. It is also a good idea to write a suggestion for future work in the last sentence of this section. Your final summary should not be more than 150 words, and you can summarize it in 100 words as much as you can.
7. Reference
In this section, you should list all the references you cited in your paper.
To write this article, we use the following references:
- Chris Mack, How to write a good scientific paper: Structure and organization, Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, 2014, 13(4): 1-4.
- http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWsections.html
- https://www.elsevier.com/connect/11-steps-to-structuring-a-science-paper-editors-will-take-seriously