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

Need for references
How to write the materials and methods section
Preparing the text

In describing the methods of the investigations, you should give (or direct readers to) sufficient details so that a competent worker could repeat the experiments. If your method is new (unpublished), you must provide all of the needed detail. (Indeed, if the method is a substantial advance, you may find it worthwhile to publish and cite a separate paper about it.) If the method has been published in a journal, however, the literature reference should be given. For a method well known to readers, only the literature reference is needed. For a method with which readers might not be familiar, a few words of description tend to be worth adding, especially if the paper in which the method was described might not be readily accessible.

If several alternative methods are commonly employed, it is useful to identify your method briefly, as well as to cite the reference. For example, it is better to state, “Cells were broken by ultrasonic treatment as previously described (9)” rather than “Cells were broken as previously described (9).”