Before starting to write
A research paper(Article) is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research. Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic, engage with a variety of sources, and make an original contribution to the debate. The paper must be readable, which is not only easy to understand but also require a minimum effort by the reader. Therefore,
the paper should contain a clear and logical structure using short sentences.
Before you start to write your paper, you should spend some time thinking about the article’s contents. At this stage, you should write down ideas based on data set produced by your experiments, and create a general outline for the paper.
You should consider such questions as “What is the message of the paper?”, “What is the new result of the contribution that you want to describe?”, and “What do you want to convince people of?”. Also, it is necessary to search articles one more time that were published just as you submit your paper because it will show that you are aware of the current work going on in your field. As you get ready to write, try to summarize these initial ideas into concrete bullets that will eventually become paragraphs.
Also, you should check what style guide to use. Style guides regulate your paper’s typography, grammar, citation, and bibliography. Different fields use different styles in their research studies. In scientific and engineering studies,
the most prominent style guides are ACS (American Chemical Association) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). The paper is generally on 8½ × 11-inch white paper with 1-inch margins on the top, bottom, and sides. In general, the font is 12 point ‘Times New Roman’, and lines are double-spaced.
Writing a paper
A paper that describes a particular study clearly states the question, methodology, findings, and other relevant information. In formulating, the outline is important to know that most engineering or science journal articles have a well-accepted general format.
The main sections of a research paper include Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods (Experimental Procedure), Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements and References.
1. Title
First of all, a title represents what the paper is about, and the main purpose of the paper. The title generally consists of 8-12 words and the abbreviation is barely used in the title. The good title describes the whole paper in little proper key words. You use a colon (:) for subtitle next to the title. After completing to write the entire paper, you should confirm that the title properly represents the paper. If it is not, the title should be revised to a better one.
2. Abstract
The Abstract is a mini version of the paper. It means that the abstract is a detailed summary of your study. It should include a broad overview of the paper, your research question, the significance of the study, methods of research, and findings. It is generally just one paragraph, and probably the most important part of a paper. It is because 1) a potential publisher to make a quick decision on whether the paper is relevant to the journal without having to read the whole paper. 2) a reader to identify quickly what the paper is about, to judge how relevant it is to their interests, and so to decide whether they should read the whole paper or not.
3. Introduction
The Introduction section tells the reader what problem your study is attempting to solve. You can address the study’s significance and originality here as well. Also, you can introduce the historical data or define previous theories that provide context for your study. In other words, the introduction should contain the importance of the research topic, a brief review of the background, limitations of the previous theories, the purpose of the paper, and the outline of the paper. When you write abbreviations, the abbreviations should be defined in the place that you write at first. If you define the abbreviation in the abstract, you should write the full nomenclature in the introduction again. It means that you should think the introduction is individual from the abstract. When adding the already-published theory as a reference, the data should be objectively cited in the paper. It is because the reference is significant to acknowledge the other’s contribution to the field of study and to inform the previous background paper to readers. Also, when you cite the sentence from background papers, you should paraphrase the sentence to escape the Similarity Searches. However, it is general to cite the summary of the whole paper for reference.
4. Materials and Methods
In the Materials and Methods section (or Experimental Procedure), you should describe the experimental design, including the exact technical specifications and quantities and source or method of preparation. You should provide enough details so that the experiment can be repeated. The terminology is always correct. The materials used for the research should include the company information and the catalog number (or the model name). The materials represent as ‘Description (Product name; Company name, City/Town, State, Country)’ or ‘Product name (Company name, City/Town, State, Country).’
5. Results
The Results section describes your finding and supplies the data using an objective perspective. You should select the main results from the raw data, and present the principles, relationships, and generations shown by the Results. You give an overall description of the experiments providing the “big picture”, without repeating the experimental details of the Materials and Methods. The figures and tables are suitable materials to describe the data easy to recognize. When you add the figures, you should consider the font size and description of the figures. The size of fonts and ticks is big enough to recognize the descriptions when the article is printed on paper. You describe the brief explanations (aka. Figure legend) below the figure with a figure number and a title of the figure. The figure title must be relevant to the entire figure. In the case of the Table, the title and table number are left-aligned. The period (.) is located between table number and title, and not placed at the end of the title. If you want to explain the specific part in the table, you use the superscript small letter of the alphabet in the table and footnote. You should make the single space between numbers and units, except the percent unit (%).
6. Discussion
In the Discussion section, you should objectively and critically interpret the results and answer the research questions that you suggested in the introduction section. Discussion can be included in the Result section or not. You can show how your results and interpretations agree or contrast with the literature. Also, you can point out any limitations, exceptions, or any lack of correlation, define unsettled points, and discuss any theoretical or practical applications.
7. Conclusion
Not all types of scientific papers have a Conclusion section and the conclusions may be better located in the Discussion. The Conclusion is not just a summary, so you should not repeat what you said in the Introduction and Abstract. It contains a three-four lines summary of the paper, the significance of what you found, and how it might impact current knowledge of the field, including possible applications. Also, you can suggest the limitations of your work and directions for future work. It differs from the Abstract as it gives more emphasis and gives no background details. The Conclusion is the last thing that the readers read, so it must be clear and concise.
8. References
The last section is References which is located at the end of the paper. Most reference is inserted into the paper using the Endnote program. You should cite the essential references. Also, the alignment should be confirmed whether alphabetical order or citation order because the reference order format is different from the journals. Except for the main sections, you should include sources of funds, people who gave significant technical help, and people who gave ideas, suggestions, and interpretations in the Acknowledgement section. Also, you might have to state the conflict of interest including any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organizations.
After writing
After you write the paper properly and submit it to the journal, it is in the peer-review process. In the process, the reviewer judges your paper with criteria such as grammatical errors, description, and objectivity. The major criterion is originality which evaluates how the paper is novel enough and academically interesting. Also, the reviewers confirm the relevance of the content according to the sections. Therefore, you should remind the evaluation criteria when writing the draft. Especially, you should be aware of the excess grammatical errors and typing mistakes. They are the main factors impeding the reviewing process and causing the paper to reject. To avoid these mistakes, you can utilize proofreading companies such as Editage, Enago, and Harrisco.
As mentioned before, the paper must be readable and logical. To do so, each paragraph is well structured. In general, the first sentence of the paragraph should introduce the main topic, and the following sentence should be a logical extension of the first sentence. You can use the varying length of the sentences, but generally, keep them short to avoid ambiguity. Most ambiguous sentences consist of long convoluted complex sentences and words in the wrong order. The semi-colons make the sentence complex so you should avoid semi-colons and begin a new sentence, instead. Lastly, you should provide examples or support for what you say and for your finding. It helps to concrete your paragraph and make the sentence more logical.
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