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A scientific paper is a written report describing the original research results, and it is the most effective way for researchers to share their scientific findings and express their academic opinions, so as to win peer recognition and industry recognition. It is really difficult for first-time contributors to write scientific papers! So how to solve this problem? Here, I refer to the main points of thesis writing recommended by Nature magazine, and combine my own experience to arrange the following writing guidelines for you, hoping to help you with your thesis writing!
First of all, we should understand that the writing of scientific papers does not require the author to have high literary talent, but the information and research results that the paper needs to convey are the most important. In addition, the logic of the article and the presentation of research results are also very important, and clear logical thinking can better enable readers to obtain the information they need.
Scientific papers are mainly composed of title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, achievements and discussion. However, it should be noted that most publications have regulations on the format of papers: some divide papers into these parts or parts, while others do not, and the order of these parts may be different in different publications. Therefore, when you are ready to contribute, you must adjust the paper to the format required by the publication.
(1) title
Even if you publish a paper with an incorrect title, you may never get the expected effect, so you must determine the title before writing the article, and the content of the article should always be consistent with the title during the writing process. The title should be as short as possible, accurately describe the content of the paper, use words that are easy to search, and omit all useless words, such as "research on …", "investigation on …" and "observation on …".
If the research involves specific species or chemicals, please list the names in the title; If the research is limited to a specific field or system, and its inferences are limited, it is necessary to name the field or system in the title.
(2) Keywords
In addition to the keywords already in the title, the keyword list also needs readers to search. Therefore, the correct use of keywords can increase the convenience for readers to retrieve articles.
(3) Abstract
Readers can quickly and accurately understand the basic content of the article, determine its relevance to personal research direction, and then decide whether to read it completely. This paper briefly summarizes the research purpose, materials, methods and results of the article.
Writing must be concise, and most journals stipulate the length, which generally does not exceed 250 words. If you can express the basic details of the paper in 100 words, don't use 200 words. Also, don't repeat the information contained in the title. Omit all reference documents, tables or charts, and omit obscure abbreviations and acronyms. A good abstract can improve the rate of Chinese manuscripts and attract readers better.
(4) Introduction
The introduction should first introduce the relevant literature in this field to readers. If you don't do a good job of literature research in the early stage, it will be very difficult to write. In addition, a common mistake is to introduce the author and his research field in general when writing the introduction, without mentioning their main findings in detail.
An important role of introduction is to determine the importance of your current job: why do you need to do this research? What is the contribution of this paper in this field? What is the application prospect? After introducing relevant literature and proving the necessity of current research, the author should clearly explain the scope and objectives of the research.
The introduction has a wide audience, so the use of jargon should be minimized in the writing process. Professional concepts and terms should be clearly explained in the context to avoid confusion when reading, and all abbreviations and terms should be clearly defined when they first appear.
(5) Materials and methods
The main purpose of "Materials and Methods" is to provide enough experimental details for researchers to repeat your research and reproduce the results.
The equipment and materials used (such as Licor underwater quantum sensor, model LI 192SB) shall be accurately described, and the source of materials shall be provided if there is any difference in quality between suppliers. Explain the methods used to prepare reagents, fixatives and dyes accurately, and quote the literature appropriately.
Methods are usually arranged in chronological order. If your experimental method is not published, you must provide all the details of the experiment so that readers can repeat your experiment. However, if it is a previously published method, you only need to provide the name and reference of the method. It should be noted that the experimental steps should not be confused with the results.
(6) results
In this part, you should ensure the completeness of the narrative and show the readers the key results of this research (not all the experimental data). Because the results contain the new knowledge you have contributed in this field, it is very important to state your findings clearly and simply. You should describe the experimental results in the past tense.
The result should be short and smooth, but not too concise. You can't expect readers to get important information from data without help. All data should be accurate and consistent in the full text, and each result should correspond to the material part.
(7) Discussion is the core of scientific papers.
For the author who contributed for the first time or many times, the discussion part is very, very difficult and needs to be scrutinized repeatedly. In the discussion, you need to explain what scientific research results have been established or strengthened by this research; How do your findings compare with the expectations of others or based on previous work? And whether your work has any theoretical/practical significance.
The discussion must be based on the evidence provided in the results section, which is a comment on the results rather than a narrative. Discuss the meaning of each result and its support for the conclusion in logical order.
(8) References If you quote information from another paper, you must indicate the source of the information.
For example, "Overexpression of SPX6 causes changes in subcellular localization of PHR2 (Zhong et al., 20 18)".
If two authors are involved, references should contain two surnames. But if more authors are involved, you need to use "et al.", which is Latin abbreviation and means "with others". If two articles written by the same author in the same year are cited, most journals will require you to add suffixes "A" and "B" to the text and the list of references.
The list of references should include all references cited in this paper. Each reference should include the author, publication year, article title, journal or book name, publication place, book volume and page number.
Different journals have different formats, so when you are ready to contribute, please choose the journals in your field of interest as a reference list.
(9) Appendix
The appendix contains more detailed information than that provided in the text, which may be of interest to researchers in the same field. This part only includes the appendices mentioned in the text.
(10) chart
The legend of the diagram in the paper should be concise and clear while providing enough information, so that readers can understand the diagram without consulting the text, and the legend should be placed at the bottom of the diagram. When drawing data analysis charts such as bar charts and line charts, professional data analysis software should be used for drawing. Generally, the picture quality is above 300dpi, first in black and white, then in gray or shadow, and finally in color.
Red/green should be avoided (this will affect the normal reading of blind readers). Nature series magazines have this requirement for picture color.
The title and column title of the table in the paper should contain enough information so that readers can understand the contents of the table without consulting the text. Display data in tabular or text form, but don't display the same data in both forms. Choose the right units and avoid using too many numbers. Do not use vertical lines to separate columns unless absolutely necessary.
In addition to the above precautions, there are some special requirements for the writing of scientific papers in different journals. Friends must read the magazine's author's guide carefully before submitting! Of course, good articles are not written, but revised. The revision of the paper is a polishing process, so we must choose our words carefully. You can refer to the excellent articles of contributing magazines, look at them from the perspective of reviewers and readers, and think about what readers want to see and what they can get from the articles.