Honors Biology

Science Institute Scientific Journal Writing

Mrs. Speirs

TITLE PAGE: minimally includes the title of the paper, the name of the author and the date

ABSTRACT / INTRODUCTION: a brief synopsis of your study, describing the topic; a brief background description of the topic you are investigating, the basic experiment (with no details), the general results and the most important conclusions. This includes defining your topic by referring to the primary literature to describe similar research; significant problems in the area under study; and/or concepts that directly lead to your research. Also, define the objectives of your research by clearly stating the hypothesis(es) you are testing and any predications that may logically follow.

SCIENTIFIC METHODS / PROCESSES: information needed by another researcher in order to repeat your experiment and find similar results. You must describe what you did and the analyses you performed. DO NOT USE A COOKBOOK FORMAT! Numbering steps is appropriate only if it is written in paragraph form and if it aids in clarity. If tables or figures clarify a procedure, refer to them in the text.

RESULTS: a thorough description, without analysis or explanation, of generalities and trends you observed in your data upon completion of your study as the result of your data analyses. This section is written in paragraph form and may include references to tables and figures. Raw data should not appear in this section, but polished graphs, charts etc are encouraged.

DISCUSSION: conclusions you have drawn about your study. Here you can explain what you think is important about your study in the context of other studies and hypotheses. How do your data compare with other studies? What contributions do your data make in our understanding of the natural world? What were some of the more compelling trends that you observed? Why were they compelling? What is causing these trends? What potentially caused some of the anomalies in your data? Could they have been prevented? Use the primary literature to help make your points.

LITERATURE CITED: an alphabetical (by last name of first author) list of any references (peer-reviewed journals or primary books) that you used to substantiate information in the text. Internet websites and textbooks are acceptable resources. Encyclopedias and dictionaries are absolutely unacceptable. References are typically cited as follows:

In the text:

Last name(s) of author(s) and copyright date; el al. is used after the first author if there are three or more authors

In the 1950s, the growing McDonald's Corporation introduced Americans to the new concept of fast food (Mac and Pounder 1955). Soon the fast food industry flourished, with the introduction of pizza, subs and chicken wings to fast food menus (Cheese el al. 1990).

In the Literature Cited section:

Book examvle:

Cheese, EX, FL Subway and BW Three. 1990. The Dominos Effect. New York: Speedy Publications, pp, 340-362.

Journal Example:

Mac, B, and Q Pounder. 1955. The impact of special sauce on a traditional American meal. Journal ofMeat 380:85-91. (NOTE: the last set of numbers is the journal volume:pages of article)

Tables and Figures

Tables not included in the text follow the Literature Cited section in the order they are referenced within the text. Each table should appear on a separate page having a descriptive title including the table number (as they are numbered sequentially in order of reference) and any specifications in its contents detailed below the table. Figures follow the tables, again in the order of reference, filling one page and having appropriate labels.

FINAL NOTES

Proofread - grammatical and spelling errors and typos are unacceptable.

Do be creative in your approach writing as a scientist in the midst of a discovery.

Make sure your paper is neat and organized, both in structure and in thought.

Please let others read it, even if they are not "science" people. They should be able to understand the basic concepts if you have written the paper clearly and simply enough.