Peter King
Research Paper
You will find many examples of research papers in journals, each of which have their own peculiar style criteria. You may copy any of their formats but a key feature is to be consistent. In general your paper should have the following sections;
Abstract
One paragraph summary of your findings.
Introduction
Tell the reader what the underlying reasons for the research are.
Aims
Aims should express the hypotheses you intend to test. This is often incorporated
into the introduction.
Materials and Methods
Materials and methods should go into enough detail so that a person reading
the report can repeat the experiment. e.g. blood samples were taken each
day between 1.00pm and 3.00pm from the right femoral artery using a 22g
needle and syringe. Be pedantic!
Results
Present your data, possibly in summary such as a table with any statistical
analysis, in a form that supports your conclusions. Do not make any interpretation
of data. Tables of all raw data may be tabled in an appendix.
Discussion
Interpret your data and compare it to other research in this subject. This
is usually the longest section and can be treated in some ways as a library
research paper with emphasis on your own results.
Literature cited
This should not be an afterthought but is an extremely important section
of any research paper. This becomes a tool for research in the future. See
examples of citation formats below.
General comments on writing
It is important to remember the audience for whom you are writing. Assume
the reader has the same general biology education as yourself. Do not use
technical jargon found in a reference source that you do not understand.
Part of the learning experience of such a paper is to demonstrate that you
understand the subject.
Be careful of information that you find on the internet. It can be a wonderful
source of some things such as graphics etc. but its factual content needs
to be questioned.
Beware of plagiarism i.e. the presentation of somebody else's work as your own. Direct quotes from another source must be acknowledged as such. Try and reorganize information that you find and express it in your own words that will be more appropriate to the reader. For more detailed information on plagiarism see http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
It is important to acknowledge the source of your information when comparing
your results with others. The are a number of ways to refer to an information
source. General references should appear at the end of a paragraph. More
specific reference to a single fact may need to be closer to the information.
References in the text need only be referred to by author and date of publication
which is usually placed in parentheses at the end of a paragraph. It is
usually not necessary to quote pages for each reference within the text.
Following are some examples to demonstrate references in the text and the
details recorded in a 'Literature cited' at the end. Science writers generally
do not use the MLA style but variations of the APA style.
Examples
Hibernating Chrysemys picta reportedly had lower whole blood oxygen
affinities than did summer-active animals and this was interpreted as the
influence of organic phosphates (Maginniss et al., 1983).
Tucker (1966) found two different circulation patterns in a group of Iguana
iguana indicated by differences in oxygenation of the blood in the right
and left aortic arches.
Gregor Mendel was raised on a farm and had a keen interest in agriculture.
His knowledge of mathematics combined with his interest in plant breeding
led him to his hypotheses on inheritance (Starr and Taggart, 1995).
Internet sources
Internet sources and electronic media
To cite files available for viewing/downloading via the World Wide Web,
give the author's name (if known), the document date if known, the full
title of the work, the full http address, and the date of visit (Crane,
1997). More information on citing internet sources and electronic media
can be found at Bibliographic
Formats.
At the end of the report you should have a Literature cited section listing the details of your references in alphabetical order by author.
Crane, N. 1997. Bibliographic formats for citing electronic information [On-line]. Available: http://www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles/apa.html [1998, May 13].
Maginniss, L. A., S. S. Tapper, and L. S. Miller. 1983. Effect of chronic cold and submergence on blood oxygen transport in the turtle, Chrysemys picta. Respiration Physiology, 53:15-29.
Starr, C. and R. Taggart. 1995. Biology, the Unity and Diversity of Life. Wadsworth, Belmont.
Tucker, V. A. 1966. Oxygen transport by the circulatory system of the green iguana (Iguana iguana) at different body temperatures. Journal of Experimental Biology, 44:77-92.
If you want additional assistance with your writing, I recommend you
contact the FMU Writing Center.
They have experienced writers who can help you address any of the aspects
encountered in tackling a writing project. Even if you are a good writer
they may be able to help you!
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This page was created by Peter King. Please email any comments to pking@fmarion.edu.
Last edit October 3, 2008.