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Notes 4 PDF

The document provides guidance on the typical sections of a research paper or thesis, including the method/theory, results, discussion, conclusion, future work, graphs, tables, acknowledgements, references, and authorship sections. It describes the key information that should be included in each section, such as using the method/theory section to describe how data was collected and analyzed, using the results section to present findings in a clear manner with statistics, and relating the discussion back to the introduced problem or question. Authorship, originality, and properly citing references are also emphasized.

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42 views4 pages

Notes 4 PDF

The document provides guidance on the typical sections of a research paper or thesis, including the method/theory, results, discussion, conclusion, future work, graphs, tables, acknowledgements, references, and authorship sections. It describes the key information that should be included in each section, such as using the method/theory section to describe how data was collected and analyzed, using the results section to present findings in a clear manner with statistics, and relating the discussion back to the introduced problem or question. Authorship, originality, and properly citing references are also emphasized.

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KareemAdel
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Notes 4-Lecture 6

Papers and Theses (cont.)


Parts of the following notes are from:
Guidelines for writing a research paper for publication (Fisher, Jansen, Johnson, Mikos) 2016.

Method/Theory
• How did you do your study?
• How did you analyze your data?
• It should be detailed enough for a good researcher to be able to replicate the study.
• It explains how data are collected. (for some types of research)
• It should be a straightforward description of the methods used in your study.
• Each method should be described in a separate section.
• If a theoretical or modeling component is utilized, it should also be incorporated in
the initial portion of the Methods.
• Finally, remember to describe the statistical analysis methods that were utilized to
analyze the results, most likely in the final section of the Methods section.

Results & Discussion


Results:
• Results represents research findings in wording, graphs, charts and tables.
• Discussion: comments on the results, comparison between them and comparison
with previously published results.
• It presents the experimental data to the reader.
• The data itself should be presented in tables and figures.
• Introduce each group of tables and figures in a separate paragraph where the overall
trends and data points of particular interest are noted.
• For experimental studies, key statistics such as the number of samples (n), the
index of dispersion (SD, SEM), and the index of central tendency (mean, median or
mode) must be stated.
• Include any statistical analysis that was performed.
• Note that each table and figure in the paper must be referred to in the Results
section.

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Discussion:
• It can be a separate section or can be combined with results or with conclusion.
• It is the most difficult part to write.
• If the work has characterized a phenomenon by studying specific effects, use the
results to describe each effect in separate paragraphs.
• If the work has presented a hypothesis, use the results to construct a logical
argument that supports or rejects your hypothesis.
• If the work has identified main objectives for the work, use the results to address
each of these objectives.
• Begin the Discussion section with a brief paragraph that again gives an overview to
the work.
• Summarize the most important findings and, if applicable, accept or reject the
proposed hypothesis.
• Next, identify the most interesting, significant, remarkable findings that were
presented in the Results section, and contrast these findings in light of other studies
reported in the literature.
• Finally, at the end of the Discussion section, consider the other works in the
literature that address this topic and how this work contributes to the overall field
of study.
Conclusion
• It states what the researcher thinks the data mean
• It should relate directly back to the problem/question stated in the introduction.
• By looking at only the Introduction and Conclusion, a reader should have a good
idea of what the researcher has investigated and discovered even though the
specific details of how the work was done would not be known.
• First introduce the work and then briefly state the major results.
• Then state the major points of the discussion.
• Finally, end with a statement of how this work contributes to the overall field of
study.

Future Work
• Not all thesis have this section, but at your stage of research you will most likely
have future research goals.
• State your goals in a bulleted format.
• You may want to briefly mention how you plan to implement these research goals.
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Graphs
• Clear
• Readable text font
• Do not differentiate between curves by color only (It maybe printed in black and
white)
• Use the same scale when comparing different graphs.
• Should be explained in text. No graphs without a discussion text. Text appears
before the graph.
• In papers, it is a must to have a permission of reprint from the publisher.
• Legends can be included within the graph or in the caption.
• All figures need a caption.
• The caption should identify the figure in bold (i.e., Figure 3), state a brief title to
the figure.

Tables
• Clear
• Readable text font
• Should be explained in text. No table without a discussion text. Text appears
before the table.
• The tables should be headed with a caption and title in bold (i.e., Table 1:
Material Properties), followed by a sentence or two that describes the content and
impact of the data included in the table.
• The table should be formatted so that the data is clearly presented and easily
interpreted by the reviewer, however the table is likely to be reformatted by journal
to conform to its standards.

Acknowledgement
• Provide a brief statement acknowledging the efforts of any participants or
consultants who are not included as authors of the manuscript.
• State all of the funding sources for the work, ensuring that the statement adheres to
the guidelines provided by the funding institution.

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References
• Include all references that have been cited in the text.
• The references should be well considered, so that they contain all key sources in the
field as well as previous studies that support or motivate the present work.
• However, do not include extraneous references in an effort to simply cite particular
authors or journals.
• Do not use reference of reference without reading such reference.
• You may cite previous publications from your own laboratory, but this should be
done judiciously.
• You must use the reference format that is mandated by the journal to which you are
submitting the manuscript.
• Software packages make citing literature particularly easy.

Authorship and Originality


• Plagiarism is unfortunately a major concern among editors and publishers.
• Therefore, be certain of the sources of all data and text.
• If the article is based upon prior work, be sure to reference that prior work properly.
• A research paper can not contain previously published data in any form without a
proper citation.
• Authorship and the order of authorship must be agreed upon by all of the authors
and any other personnel who participated in the work but are
not included as an author.
• It is not permissible to submit a work that is a translation of a previously published
paper.

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