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How To Write A Scientific Paper

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
49 views18 pages

How To Write A Scientific Paper

Uploaded by

cyliamennouchi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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How to write a scientific paper

For Master 1
Introduction

Scientific paper writing is more complex than just writing.


This complexity arises from the fact that paper writing
involves reporting scientific advances.
The process involves several aspects, such as formulating a
hypothesis, proposing an experiment to test it, executing the
experiment, collecting data and analyzing the data to judge
the hypothesis and finally writing a report about the whole
process.
PROCESS

Writing a scientific paper is a process that needs some time for


maturing the contents of the paper.
Understanding the process helps to produce better papers.
Article writing is about new knowledge, as a paper is supposed to
advance the scientific knowledge. This means that imagination plays an
important role in scientific discovery. The ability to imagine new things
relies on divergent thinking,
which implies in being able to associate ideas that normally would not
be associated. This is difficult to admit for people starting in science, as
normally students are educated in such a way that they study a book
chapter; and then they are tested to check if they have learnt the
contents of the chapter.
This is done normally with a set of exercises that test if
the student understood what was taught and if (s)he is
able to use the knowledge from the chapter, which is a
well established knowledge. This kind of thinking is
called convergent thinking
Imagination, or divergent thinking, is an important part
of research .
However, it is not the only important part. In fact to decide
if a product of our imagination is new to us or for a field of
knowledge it is necessary to know the field. For this, it is
necessary to read and compare. Reading is necessary, in
order to:
(1)understand which is new in each paper,
(2) to establish what the contribution of the paper is,
(3) to be able to compare the approaches in each paper,
(4)to gain perspective of the historic evolution of the
knowledge in the field.
Notice that the border between the known and the unknown
is formed by a sequence of recent papers that forms what is
frequently referred as the state of the art.
The state of the art is dynamic and changes over time, due
to new contributions.
The process of imagining something new, and working out
the status of the idea from imagined to known, requires
several validation steps. These steps require time, and in the
beginning the work will be more centered on divergent
thinking, in order to produce a new approach.
Over the time, the ideas will start to become clearer and the
work will be more centered on convergent thinking. The
process involves several aspects, such as
(1)formulating a hypothesis,
(2) proposing an experiment to test it,
(3)executing the experiment,
(4)collecting data,
(5)analyzing the data to judge the hypothesis and
(6) writing a report about the whole process

Normally, people writing their first paper will do that


under the guidance of an advisor.
Selecting and Reading Bibliography
Once the general field is chosen, it is necessary to select and read
papers about the area.
The first question is where to start searching. A good start point is to
ask your advisor, or someone experienced in the area, what are the
main conferences, journals, research groups and scientific societies in
the field.
Another way is to search for keywords in the internet. Google scholar,
for instance, is an excellent resource to do academic searches.
In fact, even by getting a ready list from your advisor, this list should
be seen as a start point to be checked and extended by search in
academic search engines like Google scholar, ACM digital library,
IEEE Xplore, Elsevier Scopus, etc.
Additionally, each paper cites or is cited by other papers; which have
to be investigated as well.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is
the world's largest educational and scientific society,
uniting computing educators, researchers and
professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and
address the field's challenges.
Do not only verify the ideas you have in mind, but look for
sources that contradict your point of view.

The most important thing in reading a comprehensive set of


papers representative of a given field is to classify the
papers.
While developing your research project, have in mind your
goal for publishing the work and the general scope of the
data set, as this will influence the key decision of when to
stop experimenting and start writing.
Once you’ve decided to write up your work, start by
drafting a blueprint of the manuscript that outlines how
your central discovery will be framed. The chronology of
the experiments doesn’t matter.
Create a research paper outline
A research paper outline is essentially a list of the key
topics, arguments and evidence you want to include, divided
into sections with heading so that you know roughly what
the paper will look like before you start writing.

Paragraphs are the basic building blocks of research papers.


Each one should focus on a single claim or idea that helps to
establish the overall argument or purpose of the paper.

Citing sources
It’s also important to keep track of citations at this stage to
avoid accidental plagiarism. Each time you use a source,
make sure to take note of where the information came from.
Write the introduction
The research paper introduction should address three
questions: What, why, and how? After finishing the
introduction, the reader should know what the paper is about,
why it is worth reading, and how you’ll build your arguments.
What? Be specific about the topic of the paper, introduce the
background, and define key terms or concepts.
Why? This is the most important, but also the most difficult,
part of the introduction. Try to provide brief answers to the
following questions: What new material or insight are you
offering? What important issues does your essay help define or
answer?
How? To let the reader know what to expect from the rest of
the paper, the introduction should include a “map” of what will
be discussed, briefly presenting the key elements of the paper
Be aware of paragraphs that seem to cover the same things.
If two paragraphs discuss something similar, they must
approach that topic in different ways. Aim to create smooth
transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and sections.

Write the conclusion

The research paper conclusion is designed to help your


reader out of the paper’s argument, giving them a sense of
finality.
You might also discuss the more general consequences of
the argument, outline what the paper offers to future
students of the topic, and suggest any questions the paper’s
argument raises but cannot or does not try to answer.
Checklist: Research paper
• My introduction presents a clear, focused
research problem and/or thesis statement.
• My paper is logically organized using paragraphs and
(if relevant) section headings.
• Each paragraph is clearly focused on one central idea,
expressed in a clear topic sentence.
• Each paragraph is relevant to my research problem or
thesis statement.
• I have used appropriate transitions to clarify the
connections between sections, paragraphs, and
sentences.
A thesis statement is a sentence or two that states the
main idea of a writing assignment. It also helps to control
the ideas presented within the paper
• My conclusion provides a concise answer to the
research question or emphasizes how the thesis has been
supported.
• My conclusion shows how my research has contributed
to knowledge or understanding of my topic.
• My conclusion does not present any new points or
information essential to my argument.
• I have provided an in-text citation every time I refer to
ideas or information from a source.

An in-text citation is a brief reference (often just an


author's last name and a date or page number) made
within the body of your essay that helps identify an idea's
original source. (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp.
• I have included a reference list at the end of my paper,
consistently formatted according to a specific
citation style.
• I have thoroughly revised my paper and addressed any
feedback from my professor or supervisor.
• I have followed all formatting guidelines (page numbers,
headers, spacing, etc.).

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