How to Write a Scientific Paper: A Definitive Guide

A scientific paper requires a certain level of rigor and scrutiny that most other forms of academic writing lack. This was already explained in my previous post: What Is a Scientific Article? However, it would not hurt to quickly go over them here.

What is a scientific paper?

A scientific paper or a scientific article is a form of academic writing that makes an original contribution to scientific research and is published in a peer-reviewed journal. There are several criteria for a scientific report to qualify as a scientific paper. An academic report of a scientific experiment or idea is not a scientific paper.

Writing a good scientific paper is a matter of doing four things well:

1. Choosing an appropriate topic

2. Using a well-prepared template or outline

3. Relying on credible sources

4. Following the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format

Most scientific papers more or less follow a process that begins with the identification of a problem and ends with a “solution” or a keener understanding of what the problem is. Between the identification of the problem and potential solutions, there's a rigorous process that must be followed.

This includes providing background and context of the problem, methods to investigate and test it and describe its wider significance.

As a result, a very rigid structure was developed to write a scientific paper. This is called IMRaD, which stands for Introduction, Methods, Research, and Discussion. How well your paper turns out depends on how successful you are in following this IMRaD process and structure.

Steps to writing your scientific paper

The steps to writing a scientific paper include 1. Choosing a topic based on valid research; 2. Narrowing down the topic; 3. Formulating hypotheses or research statements; 4. Doing a thorough literature review; and 5. Writing a scientific paper is crucial for students and scholars at various stages of their careers or academic lives. For researchers or scientists to remain relevant in their scientific field, get promotions, or even win grant funding, they need to be continually publishing scientific articles or scientific papers.

Scientific papers are necessary for a wide range of fields. And each field has its unique methods of publishing these types of reports. Nonetheless, there are universal principles to universal principles that can be followed to successfully publish scientific articles. And this is what we focus on in this piece.

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7 steps to write a scientific article.

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1. Choose a topic based on valid research 

A scientific paper does not begin with the writing. Instead, it begins with your experimental research and the results. You should first make sure that the research you carry out is valid. Besides that, you should ensure that it contributes something valuable and significant to the conversation.

Here is a quick checklist if questions that you should ask yourself before deciding which experiments or research results qualify to be turned into scientific articles. 

1. Is your research novel?

2. Is your knowledge of the topic updated?

3. Are your findings valid and significant? 

4. Does your work tie in with a current hot topic? 

5. Does your research solve difficult issues or problems? 

Only after ensuring that your research has a positive answer to these questions should you decide to publish. Sometimes valid research results are not enough. Your research has to be relevant in terms of finding solutions to problems, as well as being a “hot topic” that the scientific community is interested in. 

This means you should be up-to-date with the latest research and trends in your field. You achieve this by constantly reading scientific articles from the latest or most recent issues of the academic journals in your discipline. 

2. Do preliminary research to narrow down the topic

You should find at least one or two model papers. These are papers that properly cover the topic and that can be used as a template or that can give you ideas on how to go about formulating your own topic. It would be ideal to first find the target journal that you would like to publish your paper in.

You should then familiarize yourself with the type of papers they publish and the current hot topic that they report on. Besides this, you should familiarize yourself with the Author Guidelines section of the journal. This will give you a good idea of both the journal's scope and the academic style that they expect from a paper. 

3. Formulate your hypothesis or research statement

Depending on the type of scientific paper that you are writing, you should formulate a hypothesis, thesis, or research statement. Hypotheses and research statements are typical of papers meant for journal publication. It’s as if you are working your way backward from a hypothesis. After all, the experiment has been completed.

The point of writing a scientific article is to ensure that you leave a proper record showing how you acquired your results and why it is valid. Therefore, you should ensure that your hypothesis can be proven or disproven by the results that you have. 

4. Do a thorough review of the literature

Before you start writing, you should search for and read reputable sources for information. Your initial reading should point you in the direction of the appropriate literature. Databases such as Google Scholar are quite useful in finding the appropriate literature.

As much as possible, rely on current and high-quality sources. This would mean peer-reviewed papers and books written by experts in the field. When sorting through the literature, make sure to take note of salient trends, controversies, and consensus.

This is crucial because a thorough search of the literature would lead to revealing the research gap. The research gap refers to what may be missing in the literature and how your research may fill in that gap. This can help make your study more relevant and increase the chances of your work being accepted for publication.

5. Write a detailed outline of the article

An outline will provide a roadmap to how your scientific paper will turn out. Often, the final paper does not always look like the initial roadmap. But it will serve as a guide to ensure that you complete your paper on time.

A detailed draft would be based on the readings you did so far and the results of the experiment that you have carried out so far. You can include ideas from the notes you take as you read as bullet points in the various sections of your draft.

6. Write each section of the scientific paper

Now is the time to put pen to paper. Focus on turning your ideas into complete sentences. Don't worry about making it perfect. The priority should be establishing a flow of continuous ideas. The parts of the manuscript usually follow a chronological order of IMRaD:

1. Introduction

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

In addition, you need to write other parts of the paper such as the Abstract and Acknowledgements. It doesn't necessarily have to be the case that each section be written chronologically in the order they follow. For example, it is usually recommended the abstract be written last. This is because you need to have a whole overview of the manuscript to write an effective abstract.

More importantly, you should make time to write. You should set up a schedule to write regularly throughout the week. It is not advisable to try writing a whole manuscript in one go. This would make it seem like an insurmountable task.

7. Revise the paper

After writing the whole paper, you should go back and revise the whole article from the beginning. In this stage, you should look for the proper use of punctuation. This would be proofreading.

You can do this your own if you are proficient. If you don't have faith in your ability you can ask for help from a friend or even a professional editor. Grammar or punctuation tools such as Grammarly and PerfectIt can also be used, but with caution.

Professional editing and proofreading services are particularly helpful if you are not a native English speaker or even you lack confidence win your writing skills or ability.

More than that, you should look to shore up gaps in your logic or argument. Entire parts of the paper should be rewritten if your logic is too weak. In the following sections, we give a brief preview of each component of the IMRaD structure. Then, we move on to detailed descriptions with examples. Read on to learn more.

Final thoughts on writing your scientific paper

Writing a scientific paper is a major accomplishment, and it’s one of the most difficult tasks associated with academic writing. It represents something of a hero’s journey if we are allowed to be dramatic. As a researcher, you’re supposed to recognize and identify a problem. Investigate or approach at a unique angle using rigorous methodology.

The results that you discover should be properly explained and you should contextualize them to make people understand their importance and significance. A scientific paper, be it a final report for a university course, a thesis, or a paper meant for publication in a journal represents either the discovery or synthesis of new knowledge or at least a novel perspective.

It is a major undertaking that should be carried out painstakingly and with discipline. It is not simply a matter of putting pen to paper. It requires extensive research and training yourself in the discipline of scholarship. Scholarship can be likened to professional sports. In the same way that elite athletes have to practice for hours at a time every day, so should a scholar.

How EminentEdit Can help

At EminentEdit, we understand fully the process of writing a research paper. We have editors who have published papers on their own in peer-reviewed journals, editors who serve as reviewers in peer-reviewed journals, and editors and proofreaders who have edited several million words of scientific papers.

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EminentEdit provides editing and proofreading services that are: Fast Affordable Reliable More importantly, we are adaptable to your specific needs.

Get in touch with one of our representatives for help in editing your manuscript Contact Us We know what you want to say. We help you say it better.

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Many of these edited papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals. So, we know what it takes to get a paper published, and our editing services do just that. This includes:

• Developmental editing to make sure your proposal can be transformed into a scientific article worth publishing

• Substantive editing to improve the quality of your writing on a sentence level

• Proofreading to make sure your writing is grammatically correct with proper spelling and punctuation

• Style guide accuracy to make sure your paper is formatted according to the standards of your target journal

So feel free to get in touch through our contact page here: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT. Good luck with your research writing!

References

American Psychological Association, A. (2013). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. APA

Day, R. A. & B., Gastel. (2022). How to write and publish a scientific paper. ABC-CLIO.

The University of Chicago. (2017). The Chicago Manual of Style, Seventeenth Edition. University of Chicago Press.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, July 28). How to Write a Scientific Paper: A Definitive Guide. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/how-to-write-a-scientific-paper-a-definitive-guide