Государственное учреждение образования «Республиканский институт высшей школы» Кафедра молодежной политики и социокультурных коммуникаций ВЫПУСКНАЯ РАБОТА Writing a scientific article. Step-by-step guide Исполнитель: Байко Д.С., слушатель группы МП 1.1.15 Руководитель: Кухаренко Н.С. Минск 2023 ANNOTATION Everyone, and it does not matter you are a researcher or not, has faced the problem of a blank slate. Even if you have a large amount of interesting data, looking at a blank sheet, you ask yourself: where should I start? how to present the received data? what should I focus on? etc... Describing one’s research work in a format that is understandable to others, and acceptable for publication is no easy task. This work is intended to provide practical assistance in writing scientific articles. 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 1.….............................................................................................................5 CHAPTER 2..................................................................................................................7 CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................11 VOCABULARY.........................................................................................................12 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................13 3 INTRODUCTION There are three basic reasons for research: to find out something new; to overcome some restrictions in physical or any other systems; to contribute to the discussion and body of knowledge on some issues. Thousands of researchers receive new knowledge and want to share it. The reality is that even incredibly valuable data needs to be able to be presented in an interesting and informative way with respect for the reader and his time. A scientific article is not a pile of text, tables, graphs and drawings, but an interesting story about an experiment, a phenomenon, a calculation and so on. There are certain rules and patterns of article construction that must be observed. 4 CHAPTER 1 Necessary preparatory work before writing an article And before any writing can begin, a certain amount of preparatory work needs to be done: The researcher should always think about the main purpose of the article. A clear understanding of the reason for writing an article is an absolutely necessary condition. Here are some points to think about when planning, selecting and sequencing your material: have a goal, a main idea and intent. The objective must be explicitly stated, and should include the exact parameter you aim to assess, and by what means. It is helpful to choose one formulation for your objective, and use the same one throughout the whole paper, i.e. in the introduction, the results, the discussion, the abstract and even partially, in the title. Do not be afraid of appearing repetitive; repetition is not necessarily a bad thing in an article. It shows the reader at least that you know what you are talking about, and using the same terms throughout avoids any confusion. Every idea, sentence and paragraph must lead towards that goal effectively. Stick to the matter at hand; omit anything that does not lead towards the goal, no matter how interesting. Have a reason for ordering your paper as you do, and then convince the reader of your argument by developing it smoothly and logically. Each idea and concept (with its substantiation) should flow logically from one to the next. Developing an understanding of your chosen topic and data you want to share. Always remember that written work must be ordered. Though information and ideas may come to you randomly, it is your job as a writer to clarify and structure your data and present it in a sane, sensible and logical fashion. Doing background research. This background work should generally already have been accomplished by the time you are at the writing stage, because it also serves as background to the research project you are 5 writing about. Determine whether you should share simplistic or specific background details of your topic. This depends on your target audience. Identifying your viewers. Is it a group of specialists or a general audience? If you target a specialist group, your background can be more technical and detailed. Solving this problem will help determine the answer to the point below. Identifying your target journal to publish your study. Each magazine has its own requirements for the design of articles and they are easy to find on the website. The requirements set out recommendations for the structure and technical details of the design of the article. 6 CHAPTER 2 Structure of the scientific article The structure of the scientific article is as follows: title, authors, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions, references. Title. Title needs to be about 15 words or less. That's not a lot of space for you to make a first impression (so use it wisely). Make sure that you include the purpose and scope of your study; you might include something about the methods used, if that's relevant. Keep it factual and professional. Do not use acronyms or abbreviations in the title. Don’t use the word “new”, as it is already clear that you’re writing about some new results. So, the title should be short and precise, clear and contain the main idea of the article. Authors. This section mentions the names of the authors, as well as additional information such as email address and physical address of the institution. The order of the authors' enumeration corresponds to the contribution of each to the overall work. Abstract. Having said that, a well-written abstract is essential, as it is the first item a publisher would read to determine if your article is the right fit for their journal. When writing your abstract, remember to keep it short (the abstract should be about 300 words), simple and attractive while also giving the publisher an inside look at your article. The most common type of abstract is the "informative" abstract, which includes information about the purpose, methods, findings and conclusions. Don't include speculation, evaluation, interpretation or discussion. Write in the past tense and keep it factual. Introduction. This section explains the rationale and aims of the research. With reference to existing literature, tell the reader about what it is that we know, and what we don't know, in the area that you're writing about. And in the context of what we don't know, you can introduce your research question (the purpose of your study). It is not necessary to cite every article in the literature on the topic; a careful selection of the most pertinent publications is sufficient. Similarly, it is not necessary to state universal truths that may seem over simplistic or eminently obvious. Yet you should try to achieve a suitable balance between relevant background information, and 7 excessive detail. In this regard, you should keep in mind the target audience you are aiming for. This will depend on the profile of the readership of the journal in which you intend to submit your research, as mentioned above. If you are targeting a specialty journal, then your background can be more detailed and technical than if you are addressing an audience of non-specialists in your field. The introduction should logically flow towards the identification of the gap in knowledge that you hope to fill. This is your opportunity to state the added value of your study, or the new information that your study will yield. Will your results change something? Will they help the scientific community at large to move towards consensus on a previously controversial topic by providing hard evidence in one direction or the other? This is your chance to make a sales pitch for your article, in the appropriate terms, of course. As far as possible, try to avoid diverging from the subject at hand. Every sentence should serve a purpose. Many journals have a limit on the length of the introduction, with a maximum number of words or pages allowed. You should check the instructions for authors of your target journal carefully for any indications regarding the appropriate length for the introduction. In the absence of any explicit recommendations, it is considered that the introduction should be around one to one and a half pages. Methodology. This section describes the methodology used to achieve the results of the article, including methods and analysis techniques. The objective of the methods section is to describe exactly what you did, and how, in sufficient detail such that any average reader with the same resources at their disposal would be able to reproduce your study. There must be a method described for every result you intend to include in your results section – i.e., you cannot present the results of a test or analysis that was not mentioned in the methods. Conversely, if details of any or all procedures have previously been published elsewhere, then a brief summary will suffice, accompanied by a reference to the relevant publication. Next will follow the description of whom or what you studied, i.e. the study of mater, animals, human cells. . .). Results. This section contains the conclusions of all the data and results obtained during the research. Results are accompanied by statistics, graphs, and tables 8 to illustrate the results. The aim of the results section is to describe what you observed, without commentary or discussion. It is no longer necessary to describe the methods; this has already been done in the methods section, so just give the result. The reader will remember what methods were used if they read the methods section attentively. It is also unnecessary to comment, or interpret, so phrases such as ‘‘surprisingly...’’ or ‘‘interestingly’’ are generally deemed to be out of place in the results section. You must describe a result for every method that was outlined in the methods section, and to make the paper easier to follow and read, it is good practice to present the results in the same order as the methods. Similarly, use of subtitles (again, the same ones as used in the methods section), can help to break down the results into easy-to-follow sections. A major question for many researchers when writing the results section is whether to describe the results in the text, or use a table or figure. While there are no strict rules for this, in general, results that can easily be described in one or two lines can be written in the text. Tables generally contain the most important results, and on their own, should be sufficient to give the reader a clear idea of your findings. Figures are useful in cases where the source data is either too complex for presentation or not easily interpretable. Relationships and trends are amenable to graphical presentation in figures. There may be a limit to the total number of illustrations (figures and tables) that you are allowed, depending on the target journal, so again, check for guidance before including too many. Pay attention also not to include too many illustrations, so that they do not lose their interest, and above all, do not repeat data in the text that already appears in a table or figure. Discussion. This section discusses the results and evaluates their impact on the research field. This discussion is where you interpret significance of your results, and how they fit into the wider picture of what has already been observed and reported on the same topic. In addition, this section analyzes previous changes and their connection to the current research. Putting your results in perspective with other reports is an important part of the discussion. How do your results compare to other reports in the literature? If your findings are different, do you have any plausible explanations? The discussion should start with a brief recap of the main findings of your study, preferably using the same formulation as that used for the primary 9 objective (in the introduction) and the primary endpoint (in the methods). This can be followed by the interpretation of your results. Pay attention when interpreting not to simply repeat the results, or at the other end of the scale, not to over-interpret. You should present your findings actually; after all, this is a scientific article, not a prose novel. In doing this, you will naturally want to describe what other authors have reported in similar contexts, in order to compare to your own findings. Remember, it pays to be diplomatic when criticizing the work of others. Instead of pointing out weaknesses in other people’s work, reformulate so as to present the strong points of your own work – the implication will be obvious, without you having to explicitly criticize your peers’ publications. Conclusions. This section contains a brief summary of the main idea of the article, as well as a brief summary of the results and their discussion. Help the reader understand why it is that your findings matter. State the answer to the research question that you asked and state any recommendation that can be derived from your findings. Keep in your mind that the research questions that were asked at the beginning of the article need to be answered in this section. So when readers look at the last paragraph of the introduction section and conclusion section, they should be able to understand what has been done, what is the scientific contribution of this study. Particularly, the conclusion section is the main take-home message to come out of your work. References. This section lists all sources cited in the article, which serve to support the argument and analysis of the article. Where possible, avoid citing internet sites, personal communication and unpublished data. Follow the referencing format of the journal you are planning to submit your article to, so check the guidelines and instructions. 10 CONCLUSION Overall, while writing an article from scratch may appear a daunting task for researchers, the process can be largely facilitated by good groundwork when preparing your research project, and a systematic approach to the writing. After all, sharing your knowledge to the benefit of others, contributing to the body of evidence on a specific topic, and capitalizing on your research with print publications are all components that will contribute to the success of your career. Currently, sciences are rapidly developing at the junction of various fields of knowledge. For example, if you work in the field of biophysics it will be difficult for you to understand a biologist's article with highly specialized terms specific to biology. Therefore, good advice to write in plain language. As Einstein said "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". Too much valuable knowledge is lost through poor communication by scientists. Scientific fields are more and more overlapping, so paper writers need to be aware of communicating beyond their specialist niche, and potentially to non-scientists. Remember that a good article in a suitable journal will not only get you citations but will also help you establish useful connections with other scientists. 11 VOCABULARY title [tīt′l] - название author [ô′thər] - автор abstract ['abstrakt] - вступление introduction [ɪntrəˈdʌkʃn] - вступление methodology [meθəˈdɒləʤɪ] - методология discussion [dɪsˈkʌʃn] - обсуждение conclusion [kənˈkluːʒən] - заключение references [ˈrefrənsɪz] – ссылки на литературу 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Ecarnot, M.-F. Seronde, R. Chopard, F. Schiele, N. Meneveau, Writing a scientific article: A step-by-step guide for beginners, European Geriatric Medicine, Volume 6, Issue 6, 2015, Pages 573-579, ISSN 1878-7649, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurger.2015.08.005. 2. Volker Wenzel, M.D., M.Sc., Martin W. Dünser, M.D.*, Karl H. Lindner, M.D, A Step by Step Guide to Writing a Scientific Manuscript, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria. 13
