Shape of a scientific paper - What is a scientific paper? - Some preliminaries

How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Shape of a scientific paper
What is a scientific paper?
Some preliminaries

Imagine that a friend visits your laboratory or office. The friend is unfamiliar with your research and wants to know about it. To orient your friend, first you identify your general research area and say why it is important. Then you state the specific focus of your research, summarize how you gathered your data, and say what you found. Finally, you discuss the broader significance of your findings. The friend now has a new understanding—and, if you are lucky, the friend might buy you lunch.

Figure 4.1. (Created with BioRender.com)

Although intended for readers who are more knowledgeable, a scientific paper should take much the same approach: first provide a broad orientation, next focus narrowly on the specific research, and then consider the findings in a wider context. Some have likened this shape for a scientific paper to an hourglass: broad, then narrow, then broad. Keeping this overall structure in mind can aid when writing the individual parts of a paper and integrating them into a coherent whole.