Organizing scientific material into a magazine article

a) Writing the introduction

The first step will be to meet with your research director to discuss the content of the Introduction. This should be very explicit to the specific research you will be doing. Much of your time before writing must be spent in reading appropriate papers that are the background to the work you will be doing. Your research director can help you identify these papers. As you spend additional time working on the project, you should continue to read appropriate papers from the literature that will help you understand your work better. You should take responsibility for learning from your research director, or someone else whom is designated, the papers that are most appropriate for you to read in the future. Additionally you should acquire skills in conducting literature searches on your own for relevant papers in the most current literature as they appear by checking the most appropriate journals on a regular basis. You should ask your research director to also identify papers that include the methods you will be using in your study. The Introduction should begin by introducing the reader to the pertinent literature. A common mistake is introducing authors and their areas of study in general terms without mentioning their major findings.

The table below offers guidelines for effective introduction section in scientific reports.

Questions to address:	How to address them:
1.What is the problem?	b) Review relevant research to provide rationale. (What conflict or unanswered question, untested population, untried method in existing research does your experiment address? What findings of others are you challenging or extending?)
	d) Summarize relevant research to provide context, key terms, and concepts so your reader can understand the experiment.
2. Why is it important?	a)Briefly describe your experiment: hypothesis(es), research, question(s); general experimental design or method; justification of method if alternatives exist.
3.What solution (or step toward a solution) do you propose?	c) Describe the problem investigated.

b) Writing the methods

The main purpose of the Materials and Methods section is to provide enough detail for a competent worker to repeat your study and reproduce the results. The scientific method requires that your results be reproducible, and you must provide a basis for repetition of the study by others. Often in field-based studies, there is a need to describe the study area in greater detail than is possible in the Introduction. Usually authors will describe the study region in general terms in the Introduction and then describe the study site and climate in detail in the Materials and Methods section. The sub-headings "Study Site", "General Methods" and "Analysis" may be useful, in that order.

Equipment and materials available off the shelf should be described exactly and sources of materials should be given if there is variation in quality among supplies. Modifications to equipment or equipment constructed specifically for the study should be carefully described in detail. The method used to prepare reagents, fixatives, and stains should be stated exactly, though often reference to standard recipes in other works will suffice.

The usual order of presentation of methods is chronological, however related methods may need to be described together and strict chronological order cannot always be followed. If your methods are new (unpublished), you must provide all of the detail required to repeat the methods. However, if a method has been previously published in a standard journal, only the name of the method and a literature reference need be given.

Be precise in describing measurements and include errors of measurement. Ordinary statistical methods should be used without comment; advanced or unusual methods may require a literature citation.

Show your materials and methods section to a colleague. Ask if they would have difficulty in repeating your study.

The table below offers guidelines for effective methods sections in scientific reports.

Questions to address:	How to address them:
1. How did you study the problem?	c) Describe what materials, subjects, and equipment (chemicals, experimental animals, apparatus, etc.) you used. (These may be subheaded Animals, Reagents, etc.)
2. What did you use? (May be subheaded as Materials)	a) Explain the steps you took in your experiment. (These may be subheaded by experiment, types of assay, etc.)
3. How did you proceed? (May be subheaded as Methods or Procedures)	b) Briefly explain the general type of scientific procedure you used.

c) Writing the results and discussion.

In the Results section you present your findings. Present the data, digested and condensed, with important trends extracted and described. Because the results comprise the new knowledge that you are contributing to the world, it is important that your findings be clearly and simply stated. The Results should be short and sweet, without excessive verbiage.

Do not say:

"It is clearly evident from Fig. 1 that bird species richness increased with habitat complexity".

Say instead

"Bird species richness increased with habitat complexity (Fig. 1)".

However, do not be too concise. The readers cannot be expected to extract important trends from the data unaided. Few will bother. Combine the use of text, tables, figures to condense data and highlight trends. In doing so be sure to refer to the guidelines for preparing tables and figures below.

In the Discussion section you should discuss the results. What biological principles have been established or reinforced? What generalizations can be drawn? How do your findings compare to the findings of others or to expectations based on previous work? Are there any theoretical/practical implications of your work? When you address these questions, it is crucial that your discussion rests firmly on the evidence presented in the Results section. Continually refer to your results (but do not repeat them). Most importantly, do not extend your conclusions beyond those which are directly supported by your results. Speculation has its place, but should not form the bulk of the Discussion section. Be sure to address the objectives of the study in the Discussion section and to discuss the significance of the results. Don't leave the reader thinking "So what?". End the Discussion section with a short summary or conclusion regarding the significance of the work.

Guidelines for effective discussion sections in scientific reports.

Questions to address:	How to address them:
1. What do your observations mean?	a)Suggest the theoretical implications of your results. • Suggest practical applications of your results? • Extend your findings to other situations or other species. • Give the big picture: do your findings help us understand a broader topic?
2. What conclusions can you draw?	c) Summarize the most important findings at the beginning. .
3. How do your results fit into a broader context?	b)For each major result: • Describe the patterns, principles, relationships results show. • Explain how your results relate to expectations and to literature cited in your Introduction. Do they agree, contradict, or are they exceptions to the rule? • Explain plausibly any agreements, contradictions, or exceptions. • Describe what additional research might resolve contradictions or explain exceptions

d) Preparing the reference section.

There are a variety of styles used by journals for referencing information. Citations in the text may be referred to by number or by author name. In the reference section the citations are then arranged numerically or alphabetically.

Whichever system you utilize, the reference itself must include the following:

• all of the authors listed on the publication (or on the chapter if citing a book)

• the title of the paper (or chapter if citing a book)

• the name of the journal (or book)

• editors if a book is cited

• volume number

• complete pagination (first and last page of the work cited)

• year of publication

Exercise 4. Read the tips and complete the table identifying the section they belong to.

Section	Tips
	1. Move from specific to general: your finding(s) --> literature, theory, practice. 2. Don't ignore or bury the major issue. Did the study achieve the goal (resolve the problem, answer the question, support the hypothesis) presented in the Introduction? 3. Make explanations complete. Give evidence for each conclusion. Discuss possible reasons for expected and unexpected findings. 4. What to avoid: Don't overgeneralize. Don't ignore deviations in your data. Avoid speculation that cannot be tested in the foreseeable future.
	1. Provide enough detail for replication. For a journal article, include, for example, genus, species, strain of organisms; their source, living conditions, and care; and sources (manufacturer, location) of chemicals and apparatus. 2. Order procedures chronologically or by type of procedure (subheaded) and chronologically within type. 3. Use past tense to describe what you did. 4. Quantify when possible: concentrations, measurements, amounts (all metric); times (24-hour clock); temperatures (centigrade). What to avoid: 1. Don't include details of common statistical procedures. 2. Don't mix results with procedures.
	1. Move from general to specific: problem in real world/research literature ⇒ your experiment. 2. Engage your reader: answer the questions, "What did you do?" "Why should I care?" 3. Make clear the links between problem and solution, question asked and research design, prior research and your experiment. 4. Be selective, not exhaustive, in choosing studies to cite and amount of detail to include. (In general, the more relevant an article is to your study, the more space it deserves and the later in the Introduction it appears.)