how to format a biology research paper

WRITING A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ARTICLE | Format for the paper | Edit your paper! | Useful books | FORMAT FOR THE PAPER Scientific research articles provide a method for scientists to communicate with other scientists about the results of their research. A standard format is used for these articles, in which the author presents the research in an orderly, logical manner. This doesn't necessarily reflect the order in which you did or thought about the work.  This format is: | Title | Authors | Introduction | Materials and Methods | Results (with Tables and Figures ) | Discussion | Acknowledgments | Literature Cited | TITLE Make your title specific enough to describe the contents of the paper, but not so technical that only specialists will understand. The title should be appropriate for the intended audience. The title usually describes the subject matter of the article: Effect of Smoking on Academic Performance" Sometimes a title that summarizes the results is more effective: Students Who Smoke Get Lower Grades" AUTHORS 1. The person who did the work and wrote the paper is generally listed as the first author of a research paper. 2. For published articles, other people who made substantial contributions to the work are also listed as authors. Ask your mentor's permission before including his/her name as co-author. ABSTRACT 1. An abstract, or summary, is published together with a research article, giving the reader a "preview" of what's to come. Such abstracts may also be published separately in bibliographical sources, such as Biologic al Abstracts. They allow other scientists to quickly scan the large scientific literature, and decide which articles they want to read in depth. The abstract should be a little less technical than the article itself; you don't want to dissuade your potent ial audience from reading your paper. 2. Your abstract should be one paragraph, of 100-250 words, which summarizes the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the paper. 3. It is not easy to include all this information in just a few words. Start by writing a summary that includes whatever you think is important, and then gradually prune it down to size by removing unnecessary words, while still retaini ng the necessary concepts. 3. Don't use abbreviations or citations in the abstract. It should be able to stand alone without any footnotes. INTRODUCTION What question did you ask in your experiment? Why is it interesting? The introduction summarizes the relevant literature so that the reader will understand why you were interested in the question you asked. One to fo ur paragraphs should be enough. End with a sentence explaining the specific question you asked in this experiment. MATERIALS AND METHODS 1. How did you answer this question? There should be enough information here to allow another scientist to repeat your experiment. Look at other papers that have been published in your field to get some idea of what is included in this section. 2. If you had a complicated protocol, it may helpful to include a diagram, table or flowchart to explain the methods you used. 3. Do not put results in this section. You may, however, include preliminary results that were used to design the main experiment that you are reporting on. ("In a preliminary study, I observed the owls for one week, and found that 73 % of their locomotor activity occurred during the night, and so I conducted all subsequent experiments between 11 pm and 6 am.") 4. Mention relevant ethical considerations. If you used human subjects, did they consent to participate. If you used animals, what measures did you take to minimize pain? RESULTS 1. This is where you present the results you've gotten. Use graphs and tables if appropriate, but also summarize your main findings in the text. Do NOT discuss the results or speculate as to why something happened; t hat goes in th e Discussion. 2. You don't necessarily have to include all the data you've gotten during the semester. This isn't a diary. 3. Use appropriate methods of showing data. Don't try to manipulate the data to make it look like you did more than you actually did. "The drug cured 1/3 of the infected mice, another 1/3 were not affected, and the third mouse got away." TABLES AND GRAPHS 1. If you present your data in a table or graph, include a title describing what's in the table ("Enzyme activity at various temperatures", not "My results".) For graphs, you should also label the x and y axes. 2. Don't use a table or graph just to be "fancy". If you can summarize the information in one sentence, then a table or graph is not necessary. DISCUSSION 1. Highlight the most significant results, but don't just repeat what you've written in the Results section. How do these results relate to the original question? Do the data support your hypothesis? Are your results consistent with what other investigators have reported? If your results were unexpected, try to explain why. Is there another way to interpret your results? What further research would be necessary to answer the questions raised by your results? How do y our results fit into the big picture? 2. End with a one-sentence summary of your conclusion, emphasizing why it is relevant. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This section is optional. You can thank those who either helped with the experiments, or made other important contributions, such as discussing the protocol, commenting on the manuscript, or buying you pizza. REFERENCES (LITERATURE CITED) There are several possible ways to organize this section. Here is one commonly used way: 1. In the text, cite the literature in the appropriate places: Scarlet (1990) thought that the gene was present only in yeast, but it has since been identified in the platypus (Indigo and Mauve, 1994) and wombat (Magenta, et al., 1995). 2. In the References section list citations in alphabetical order. Indigo, A. C., and Mauve, B. E. 1994. Queer place for qwerty: gene isolation from the platypus. Science 275, 1213-1214. Magenta, S. T., Sepia, X., and Turquoise, U. 1995. Wombat genetics. In: Widiculous Wombats, Violet, Q., ed. New York: Columbia University Press. p 123-145. Scarlet, S.L. 1990. Isolation of qwerty gene from S. cerevisae. Journal of Unusual Results 36, 26-31.   EDIT YOUR PAPER!!! "In my writing, I average about ten pages a day. Unfortunately, they're all the same page." Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Writing A major part of any writing assignment consists of re-writing. Write accurately Scientific writing must be accurate. Although writing instructors may tell you not to use the same word twice in a sentence, it's okay for scientific writing, which must be accurate. (A student who tried not to repeat the word "hamster" produced this confusing sentence: "When I put the hamster in a cage with the other animals, the little mammals began to play.") Make sure you say what you mean. Instead of: The rats were injected with the drug. (sounds like a syringe was filled with drug and ground-up rats and both were injected together) Write: I injected the drug into the rat.

• Be careful with commonly confused words:

Temperature has an effect on the reaction. Temperature affects the reaction.

I used solutions in various concentrations. (The solutions were 5 mg/ml, 10 mg/ml, and 15 mg/ml) I used solutions in varying concentrations. (The concentrations I used changed; sometimes they were 5 mg/ml, other times they were 15 mg/ml.)

 Less food (can't count numbers of food) Fewer animals (can count numbers of animals)

A large amount of food (can't count them) A large number of animals (can count them)

The erythrocytes, which are in the blood, contain hemoglobin. The erythrocytes that are in the blood contain hemoglobin. (Wrong. This sentence implies that there are erythrocytes elsewhere that don't contain hemoglobin.)

Write clearly

1. Write at a level that's appropriate for your audience.

"Like a pigeon, something to admire as long as it isn't over your head." Anonymous

 2. Use the active voice. It's clearer and more concise than the passive voice.

 Instead of: An increased appetite was manifested by the rats and an increase in body weight was measured. Write: The rats ate more and gained weight.

 3. Use the first person.

 Instead of: It is thought Write: I think

 Instead of: The samples were analyzed Write: I analyzed the samples

 4. Avoid dangling participles.

 "After incubating at 30 degrees C, we examined the petri plates." (You must've been pretty warm in there.)

  Write succinctly

 1. Use verbs instead of abstract nouns

 Instead of: take into consideration Write: consider

 2. Use strong verbs instead of "to be"

 Instead of: The enzyme was found to be the active agent in catalyzing... Write: The enzyme catalyzed...

 3. Use short words.

Instead of: Write: possess have sufficient enough utilize use demonstrate show assistance help terminate end

4. Use concise terms.

 Instead of: Write: prior to before due to the fact that because in a considerable number of cases often the vast majority of most during the time that when in close proximity to near it has long been known that I'm too lazy to look up the reference

5. Use short sentences. A sentence made of more than 40 words should probably be rewritten as two sentences.

 "The conjunction 'and' commonly serves to indicate that the writer's mind still functions even when no signs of the phenomenon are noticeable." Rudolf Virchow, 1928

Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation

1. Use a spellchecker, but be aware that they don't catch all mistakes.

 "When we consider the animal as a hole,..." Student's paper

 2. Your spellchecker may not recognize scientific terms. For the correct spelling, try Biotech's Life Science Dictionary or one of the technical dictionaries on the reference shelf in the Biology or Health Sciences libraries.

 3. Don't, use, unnecessary, commas.

 4. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

USEFUL BOOKS

Victoria E. McMillan, Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences , Bedford Books, Boston, 1997 The best. On sale for about $18 at Labyrinth Books, 112th Street. On reserve in Biology Library

Jan A. Pechenik, A Short Guide to Writing About Biology , Boston: Little, Brown, 1987

Harrison W. Ambrose, III & Katharine Peckham Ambrose, A Handbook of Biological Investigation , 4th edition, Hunter Textbooks Inc, Winston-Salem, 1987 Particularly useful if you need to use statistics to analyze your data. Copy on Reference shelf in Biology Library.

Robert S. Day, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper , 4th edition, Oryx Press, Phoenix, 1994. Earlier editions also good. A bit more advanced, intended for those writing papers for publication. Fun to read. Several copies available in Columbia libraries.

William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style , 3rd ed. Macmillan, New York, 1987. Several copies available in Columbia libraries.  Strunk's first edition is available on-line.

BIOLOGY JUNCTION

Test And Quizzes for Biology, Pre-AP, Or AP Biology For Teachers And Students

A Step-By-Step Guide on Writing a Biology Research Paper

For many students, writing a biology research paper can seem like a daunting task. They want to come up with the best possible report, but they don’t realize that planning the entire writing process can improve the quality of their work and save them time while writing. In this article, you’ll learn how to find a good topic, outline your paper, use statistical tests, and avoid using hedge words.

Finding a good topic

The first step in writing a well-constructed biology research paper is choosing a topic. There are a variety of topics to choose from within the biological field. Choose one that interests you and captures your attention. A compelling topic motivates you to work hard and produce a high-quality paper.

While choosing a topic, keep in mind that biology research is time-consuming and requires extensive research. For this reason, choosing a topic that piques the interest of the reader is crucial. In addition to this, you should choose a topic that is appropriate for the type of biology paper you need to write. After all, you do not want to bore the reader with an inane paper.

A good biology research paper topic should be well-supported by solid scientific evidence. Select a topic only after thorough research, and be sure to include steps and references from reliable sources. A biological research paper topic can be an interesting journey into the world of nature. You could choose to research the effects of stress on the human body or investigate the biological mechanisms of the human reproductive system.

Outlining your paper

The first step in drafting a biological research paper is to create an outline. This is meant to be a roadmap that helps you understand and visualize the subject. An outline can help you avoid common writing mistakes and shape your paper into a serious piece of work. The next step is to gather information about the subject that will support your main idea.

Once you have a topic, you can start writing your outline. Outlines should include at least one idea, a brief introduction, and a conclusion. The introduction, ideas, and conclusion should be numbered in the order you plan to present your information. The main ideas are generally a collection of facts and figures. For example, in a literature review, these points might be chapters from a book, a series of dates from history, or the methods and results of a scientific paper.

When writing a biological research paper, you should use scholarly sources. While there is a lot of misinformation on the internet, it’s best to stick to  academic essay writing service  to get the most accurate information. Most libraries allow you to select a peer-review filter that will restrict your search results to academic journals. It’s also helpful to be familiar with the differences between scholarly and popular sources.

Using statistical tests

Using statistical tests when writing a biological paper requires that you make certain assumptions about the results you are describing. The most common statistical tests are parametric tests that are based on assumptions about conditions or parameters. About 22% of the papers in our review reported violations of these assumptions, and such violations can lead to inappropriate or invalid conclusions.

Statistical tests are important in biological research because they allow researchers to determine if their data is statistically significant or not. The power of these tests depends on the size of the dataset. Larger datasets produce more significant results. The power of these tests also depends on the assumption of independence between measurements. This is important because the results can be different if there are duplications or different levels of replications.

Hypothesis tests are useful in evaluating experimental data. They identify differences and patterns in data. They are useful tools for structuring biological research.

Avoiding hedge words

Hedge words are phrases or words used to express uncertainty in a scientific paper. They can help writers avoid making inaccurate claims while still being respectful of the reader’s opinion. However, writers must be careful to avoid using too many hedges. 

Listed below are a few guidelines to help you avoid these words:

• Hedge words shift the burden of responsibility from the writer to the reader. 
• Hedge words can be a sign of uncertainty or overstatement. They can also be used to limit the scope of an assertion. They also convey an opinion or hypothesis. When choosing a hedging strategy, be careful not to use words such as “no data” or “unreliable.” These words can convey a degree of uncertainty and imply that the findings cannot be confirmed.

The use of hedge words is common in academic writing. However, they hurt your audience. It is a linguistic strategy that writers use as a way to reassure readers. The goal is to guide readers and make them feel comfortable with the idea that the author does not know all the answers.

Choosing a format

Biological research papers have different formats, and you should choose one that suits the nature of your paper. It should be based on credible and peer-reviewed sources. The best sources to use for biology papers are books, specialized journals, and databases. Avoid personal blogs, social networks, and internet discussions, as these are not suitable for a research paper.

Biology research papers focus on a specific issue and present different arguments in support of a thesis. Traditionally, they are based on peer-reviewed sources, but you can also conduct your independent research and present unique findings. Biology is a complex field of study. The subject matter varies, from the basic structure of living things to the functions of different organs. It also explores the process of evolution and the life span of different species.

Formatting your bibliography

When writing a biological research paper, the format of your bibliography is crucial. It should follow a standardized citation style such as the “Author, Date” scientific style. The format should be arranged alphabetically by author, and you should use numbered references to indicate key sources.

Reference lists must be comprehensive and contain enough information to enable readers to find the sources themselves. Although the format is not as important as completeness, it can help readers quickly identify the authors and sources. Bibliographies are usually reverse-indented to make them easier to find.

In-text citations should include the author’s last name, preferred name, and the page number. Usually, authors do not separate their surname and year of publication. In addition, you should also include the location, which is usually the publisher’s office.

If a work has more than four authors, you should list up to ten in the reference list. The first author’s surname should be used, followed by “et al.” Likewise, you should list more than ten authors in the reference list.

When writing a biological research paper, it is important to ensure that your bibliography is formatted properly. When you write the title, you should use boldface and uppercase letters. The title should also be focused, not too long or too short. It should take one or two lines and all text should be double-spaced. You should also type the author’s name after the title. Don’t forget to indicate the location of your research as well as the date you submitted the paper.

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How to write your first research paper.

Writing a research manuscript is an intimidating process for many novice writers in the sciences. One of the stumbling blocks is the beginning of the process and creating the first draft. This paper presents guidelines on how to initiate the writing process and draft each section of a research manuscript. The paper discusses seven rules that allow the writer to prepare a well-structured and comprehensive manuscript for a publication submission. In addition, the author lists different strategies for successful revision. Each of those strategies represents a step in the revision process and should help the writer improve the quality of the manuscript. The paper could be considered a brief manual for publication.

It is late at night. You have been struggling with your project for a year. You generated an enormous amount of interesting data. Your pipette feels like an extension of your hand, and running western blots has become part of your daily routine, similar to brushing your teeth. Your colleagues think you are ready to write a paper, and your lab mates tease you about your “slow” writing progress. Yet days pass, and you cannot force yourself to sit down to write. You have not written anything for a while (lab reports do not count), and you feel you have lost your stamina. How does the writing process work? How can you fit your writing into a daily schedule packed with experiments? What section should you start with? What distinguishes a good research paper from a bad one? How should you revise your paper? These and many other questions buzz in your head and keep you stressed. As a result, you procrastinate. In this paper, I will discuss the issues related to the writing process of a scientific paper. Specifically, I will focus on the best approaches to start a scientific paper, tips for writing each section, and the best revision strategies.

1. Schedule your writing time in Outlook

Whether you have written 100 papers or you are struggling with your first, starting the process is the most difficult part unless you have a rigid writing schedule. Writing is hard. It is a very difficult process of intense concentration and brain work. As stated in Hayes’ framework for the study of writing: “It is a generative activity requiring motivation, and it is an intellectual activity requiring cognitive processes and memory” [ 1 ]. In his book How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing , Paul Silvia says that for some, “it’s easier to embalm the dead than to write an article about it” [ 2 ]. Just as with any type of hard work, you will not succeed unless you practice regularly. If you have not done physical exercises for a year, only regular workouts can get you into good shape again. The same kind of regular exercises, or I call them “writing sessions,” are required to be a productive author. Choose from 1- to 2-hour blocks in your daily work schedule and consider them as non-cancellable appointments. When figuring out which blocks of time will be set for writing, you should select the time that works best for this type of work. For many people, mornings are more productive. One Yale University graduate student spent a semester writing from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. when her lab was empty. At the end of the semester, she was amazed at how much she accomplished without even interrupting her regular lab hours. In addition, doing the hardest task first thing in the morning contributes to the sense of accomplishment during the rest of the day. This positive feeling spills over into our work and life and has a very positive effect on our overall attitude.

Rule 1: Create regular time blocks for writing as appointments in your calendar and keep these appointments.

2. start with an outline.

Now that you have scheduled time, you need to decide how to start writing. The best strategy is to start with an outline. This will not be an outline that you are used to, with Roman numerals for each section and neat parallel listing of topic sentences and supporting points. This outline will be similar to a template for your paper. Initially, the outline will form a structure for your paper; it will help generate ideas and formulate hypotheses. Following the advice of George M. Whitesides, “. . . start with a blank piece of paper, and write down, in any order, all important ideas that occur to you concerning the paper” [ 3 ]. Use Table 1 as a starting point for your outline. Include your visuals (figures, tables, formulas, equations, and algorithms), and list your findings. These will constitute the first level of your outline, which will eventually expand as you elaborate.

The next stage is to add context and structure. Here you will group all your ideas into sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion ( Table 2 ). This step will help add coherence to your work and sift your ideas.

Now that you have expanded your outline, you are ready for the next step: discussing the ideas for your paper with your colleagues and mentor. Many universities have a writing center where graduate students can schedule individual consultations and receive assistance with their paper drafts. Getting feedback during early stages of your draft can save a lot of time. Talking through ideas allows people to conceptualize and organize thoughts to find their direction without wasting time on unnecessary writing. Outlining is the most effective way of communicating your ideas and exchanging thoughts. Moreover, it is also the best stage to decide to which publication you will submit the paper. Many people come up with three choices and discuss them with their mentors and colleagues. Having a list of journal priorities can help you quickly resubmit your paper if your paper is rejected.

Rule 2: Create a detailed outline and discuss it with your mentor and peers.

3. continue with drafts.

After you get enough feedback and decide on the journal you will submit to, the process of real writing begins. Copy your outline into a separate file and expand on each of the points, adding data and elaborating on the details. When you create the first draft, do not succumb to the temptation of editing. Do not slow down to choose a better word or better phrase; do not halt to improve your sentence structure. Pour your ideas into the paper and leave revision and editing for later. As Paul Silvia explains, “Revising while you generate text is like drinking decaffeinated coffee in the early morning: noble idea, wrong time” [ 2 ].

Many students complain that they are not productive writers because they experience writer’s block. Staring at an empty screen is frustrating, but your screen is not really empty: You have a template of your article, and all you need to do is fill in the blanks. Indeed, writer’s block is a logical fallacy for a scientist ― it is just an excuse to procrastinate. When scientists start writing a research paper, they already have their files with data, lab notes with materials and experimental designs, some visuals, and tables with results. All they need to do is scrutinize these pieces and put them together into a comprehensive paper.

3.1. Starting with Materials and Methods

If you still struggle with starting a paper, then write the Materials and Methods section first. Since you have all your notes, it should not be problematic for you to describe the experimental design and procedures. Your most important goal in this section is to be as explicit as possible by providing enough detail and references. In the end, the purpose of this section is to allow other researchers to evaluate and repeat your work. So do not run into the same problems as the writers of the sentences in (1):

1a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation. 1b. To isolate T cells, lymph nodes were collected.

As you can see, crucial pieces of information are missing: the speed of centrifuging your bacteria, the time, and the temperature in (1a); the source of lymph nodes for collection in (b). The sentences can be improved when information is added, as in (2a) and (2b), respectfully:

2a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation at 3000g for 15 min at 25°C. 2b. To isolate T cells, mediastinal and mesenteric lymph nodes from Balb/c mice were collected at day 7 after immunization with ovabumin.

If your method has previously been published and is well-known, then you should provide only the literature reference, as in (3a). If your method is unpublished, then you need to make sure you provide all essential details, as in (3b).

3a. Stem cells were isolated, according to Johnson [23]. 3b. Stem cells were isolated using biotinylated carbon nanotubes coated with anti-CD34 antibodies.

Furthermore, cohesion and fluency are crucial in this section. One of the malpractices resulting in disrupted fluency is switching from passive voice to active and vice versa within the same paragraph, as shown in (4). This switching misleads and distracts the reader.

4. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness [ 4 ].

The problem with (4) is that the reader has to switch from the point of view of the experiment (passive voice) to the point of view of the experimenter (active voice). This switch causes confusion about the performer of the actions in the first and the third sentences. To improve the coherence and fluency of the paragraph above, you should be consistent in choosing the point of view: first person “we” or passive voice [ 5 ]. Let’s consider two revised examples in (5).

5a. We programmed behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods) as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music. We operationalized the preferred and unpreferred status of the music along a continuum of pleasantness. 5b. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. Ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal were taken as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness.

If you choose the point of view of the experimenter, then you may end up with repetitive “we did this” sentences. For many readers, paragraphs with sentences all beginning with “we” may also sound disruptive. So if you choose active sentences, you need to keep the number of “we” subjects to a minimum and vary the beginnings of the sentences [ 6 ].

Interestingly, recent studies have reported that the Materials and Methods section is the only section in research papers in which passive voice predominantly overrides the use of the active voice [ 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. For example, Martínez shows a significant drop in active voice use in the Methods sections based on the corpus of 1 million words of experimental full text research articles in the biological sciences [ 7 ]. According to the author, the active voice patterned with “we” is used only as a tool to reveal personal responsibility for the procedural decisions in designing and performing experimental work. This means that while all other sections of the research paper use active voice, passive voice is still the most predominant in Materials and Methods sections.

Writing Materials and Methods sections is a meticulous and time consuming task requiring extreme accuracy and clarity. This is why when you complete your draft, you should ask for as much feedback from your colleagues as possible. Numerous readers of this section will help you identify the missing links and improve the technical style of this section.

Rule 3: Be meticulous and accurate in describing the Materials and Methods. Do not change the point of view within one paragraph.

3.2. writing results section.

For many authors, writing the Results section is more intimidating than writing the Materials and Methods section . If people are interested in your paper, they are interested in your results. That is why it is vital to use all your writing skills to objectively present your key findings in an orderly and logical sequence using illustrative materials and text.

Your Results should be organized into different segments or subsections where each one presents the purpose of the experiment, your experimental approach, data including text and visuals (tables, figures, schematics, algorithms, and formulas), and data commentary. For most journals, your data commentary will include a meaningful summary of the data presented in the visuals and an explanation of the most significant findings. This data presentation should not repeat the data in the visuals, but rather highlight the most important points. In the “standard” research paper approach, your Results section should exclude data interpretation, leaving it for the Discussion section. However, interpretations gradually and secretly creep into research papers: “Reducing the data, generalizing from the data, and highlighting scientific cases are all highly interpretive processes. It should be clear by now that we do not let the data speak for themselves in research reports; in summarizing our results, we interpret them for the reader” [ 10 ]. As a result, many journals including the Journal of Experimental Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Investigation use joint Results/Discussion sections, where results are immediately followed by interpretations.

Another important aspect of this section is to create a comprehensive and supported argument or a well-researched case. This means that you should be selective in presenting data and choose only those experimental details that are essential for your reader to understand your findings. You might have conducted an experiment 20 times and collected numerous records, but this does not mean that you should present all those records in your paper. You need to distinguish your results from your data and be able to discard excessive experimental details that could distract and confuse the reader. However, creating a picture or an argument should not be confused with data manipulation or falsification, which is a willful distortion of data and results. If some of your findings contradict your ideas, you have to mention this and find a plausible explanation for the contradiction.

In addition, your text should not include irrelevant and peripheral information, including overview sentences, as in (6).

6. To show our results, we first introduce all components of experimental system and then describe the outcome of infections.

Indeed, wordiness convolutes your sentences and conceals your ideas from readers. One common source of wordiness is unnecessary intensifiers. Adverbial intensifiers such as “clearly,” “essential,” “quite,” “basically,” “rather,” “fairly,” “really,” and “virtually” not only add verbosity to your sentences, but also lower your results’ credibility. They appeal to the reader’s emotions but lower objectivity, as in the common examples in (7):

7a. Table 3 clearly shows that … 7b. It is obvious from figure 4 that …

Another source of wordiness is nominalizations, i.e., nouns derived from verbs and adjectives paired with weak verbs including “be,” “have,” “do,” “make,” “cause,” “provide,” and “get” and constructions such as “there is/are.”

8a. We tested the hypothesis that there is a disruption of membrane asymmetry. 8b. In this paper we provide an argument that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

In the sentences above, the abstract nominalizations “disruption” and “argument” do not contribute to the clarity of the sentences, but rather clutter them with useless vocabulary that distracts from the meaning. To improve your sentences, avoid unnecessary nominalizations and change passive verbs and constructions into active and direct sentences.

9a. We tested the hypothesis that the membrane asymmetry is disrupted. 9b. In this paper we argue that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

Your Results section is the heart of your paper, representing a year or more of your daily research. So lead your reader through your story by writing direct, concise, and clear sentences.

Rule 4: Be clear, concise, and objective in describing your Results.

3.3. now it is time for your introduction.

Now that you are almost half through drafting your research paper, it is time to update your outline. While describing your Methods and Results, many of you diverged from the original outline and re-focused your ideas. So before you move on to create your Introduction, re-read your Methods and Results sections and change your outline to match your research focus. The updated outline will help you review the general picture of your paper, the topic, the main idea, and the purpose, which are all important for writing your introduction.

The best way to structure your introduction is to follow the three-move approach shown in Table 3 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak [ 11 ].

The moves and information from your outline can help to create your Introduction efficiently and without missing steps. These moves are traffic signs that lead the reader through the road of your ideas. Each move plays an important role in your paper and should be presented with deep thought and care. When you establish the territory, you place your research in context and highlight the importance of your research topic. By finding the niche, you outline the scope of your research problem and enter the scientific dialogue. The final move, “occupying the niche,” is where you explain your research in a nutshell and highlight your paper’s significance. The three moves allow your readers to evaluate their interest in your paper and play a significant role in the paper review process, determining your paper reviewers.

Some academic writers assume that the reader “should follow the paper” to find the answers about your methodology and your findings. As a result, many novice writers do not present their experimental approach and the major findings, wrongly believing that the reader will locate the necessary information later while reading the subsequent sections [ 5 ]. However, this “suspense” approach is not appropriate for scientific writing. To interest the reader, scientific authors should be direct and straightforward and present informative one-sentence summaries of the results and the approach.

Another problem is that writers understate the significance of the Introduction. Many new researchers mistakenly think that all their readers understand the importance of the research question and omit this part. However, this assumption is faulty because the purpose of the section is not to evaluate the importance of the research question in general. The goal is to present the importance of your research contribution and your findings. Therefore, you should be explicit and clear in describing the benefit of the paper.

The Introduction should not be long. Indeed, for most journals, this is a very brief section of about 250 to 600 words, but it might be the most difficult section due to its importance.

Rule 5: Interest your reader in the Introduction section by signalling all its elements and stating the novelty of the work.

3.4. discussion of the results.

For many scientists, writing a Discussion section is as scary as starting a paper. Most of the fear comes from the variation in the section. Since every paper has its unique results and findings, the Discussion section differs in its length, shape, and structure. However, some general principles of writing this section still exist. Knowing these rules, or “moves,” can change your attitude about this section and help you create a comprehensive interpretation of your results.

The purpose of the Discussion section is to place your findings in the research context and “to explain the meaning of the findings and why they are important, without appearing arrogant, condescending, or patronizing” [ 11 ]. The structure of the first two moves is almost a mirror reflection of the one in the Introduction. In the Introduction, you zoom in from general to specific and from the background to your research question; in the Discussion section, you zoom out from the summary of your findings to the research context, as shown in Table 4 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak and Hess [ 11 , 12 ].

The biggest challenge for many writers is the opening paragraph of the Discussion section. Following the moves in Table 1 , the best choice is to start with the study’s major findings that provide the answer to the research question in your Introduction. The most common starting phrases are “Our findings demonstrate . . .,” or “In this study, we have shown that . . .,” or “Our results suggest . . .” In some cases, however, reminding the reader about the research question or even providing a brief context and then stating the answer would make more sense. This is important in those cases where the researcher presents a number of findings or where more than one research question was presented. Your summary of the study’s major findings should be followed by your presentation of the importance of these findings. One of the most frequent mistakes of the novice writer is to assume the importance of his findings. Even if the importance is clear to you, it may not be obvious to your reader. Digesting the findings and their importance to your reader is as crucial as stating your research question.

Another useful strategy is to be proactive in the first move by predicting and commenting on the alternative explanations of the results. Addressing potential doubts will save you from painful comments about the wrong interpretation of your results and will present you as a thoughtful and considerate researcher. Moreover, the evaluation of the alternative explanations might help you create a logical step to the next move of the discussion section: the research context.

The goal of the research context move is to show how your findings fit into the general picture of the current research and how you contribute to the existing knowledge on the topic. This is also the place to discuss any discrepancies and unexpected findings that may otherwise distort the general picture of your paper. Moreover, outlining the scope of your research by showing the limitations, weaknesses, and assumptions is essential and adds modesty to your image as a scientist. However, make sure that you do not end your paper with the problems that override your findings. Try to suggest feasible explanations and solutions.

If your submission does not require a separate Conclusion section, then adding another paragraph about the “take-home message” is a must. This should be a general statement reiterating your answer to the research question and adding its scientific implications, practical application, or advice.

Just as in all other sections of your paper, the clear and precise language and concise comprehensive sentences are vital. However, in addition to that, your writing should convey confidence and authority. The easiest way to illustrate your tone is to use the active voice and the first person pronouns. Accompanied by clarity and succinctness, these tools are the best to convince your readers of your point and your ideas.

Rule 6: Present the principles, relationships, and generalizations in a concise and convincing tone.

4. choosing the best working revision strategies.

Now that you have created the first draft, your attitude toward your writing should have improved. Moreover, you should feel more confident that you are able to accomplish your project and submit your paper within a reasonable timeframe. You also have worked out your writing schedule and followed it precisely. Do not stop ― you are only at the midpoint from your destination. Just as the best and most precious diamond is no more than an unattractive stone recognized only by trained professionals, your ideas and your results may go unnoticed if they are not polished and brushed. Despite your attempts to present your ideas in a logical and comprehensive way, first drafts are frequently a mess. Use the advice of Paul Silvia: “Your first drafts should sound like they were hastily translated from Icelandic by a non-native speaker” [ 2 ]. The degree of your success will depend on how you are able to revise and edit your paper.

The revision can be done at the macrostructure and the microstructure levels [ 13 ]. The macrostructure revision includes the revision of the organization, content, and flow. The microstructure level includes individual words, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The best way to approach the macrostructure revision is through the outline of the ideas in your paper. The last time you updated your outline was before writing the Introduction and the Discussion. Now that you have the beginning and the conclusion, you can take a bird’s-eye view of the whole paper. The outline will allow you to see if the ideas of your paper are coherently structured, if your results are logically built, and if the discussion is linked to the research question in the Introduction. You will be able to see if something is missing in any of the sections or if you need to rearrange your information to make your point.

The next step is to revise each of the sections starting from the beginning. Ideally, you should limit yourself to working on small sections of about five pages at a time [ 14 ]. After these short sections, your eyes get used to your writing and your efficiency in spotting problems decreases. When reading for content and organization, you should control your urge to edit your paper for sentence structure and grammar and focus only on the flow of your ideas and logic of your presentation. Experienced researchers tend to make almost three times the number of changes to meaning than novice writers [ 15 , 16 ]. Revising is a difficult but useful skill, which academic writers obtain with years of practice.

In contrast to the macrostructure revision, which is a linear process and is done usually through a detailed outline and by sections, microstructure revision is a non-linear process. While the goal of the macrostructure revision is to analyze your ideas and their logic, the goal of the microstructure editing is to scrutinize the form of your ideas: your paragraphs, sentences, and words. You do not need and are not recommended to follow the order of the paper to perform this type of revision. You can start from the end or from different sections. You can even revise by reading sentences backward, sentence by sentence and word by word.

One of the microstructure revision strategies frequently used during writing center consultations is to read the paper aloud [ 17 ]. You may read aloud to yourself, to a tape recorder, or to a colleague or friend. When reading and listening to your paper, you are more likely to notice the places where the fluency is disrupted and where you stumble because of a very long and unclear sentence or a wrong connector.

Another revision strategy is to learn your common errors and to do a targeted search for them [ 13 ]. All writers have a set of problems that are specific to them, i.e., their writing idiosyncrasies. Remembering these problems is as important for an academic writer as remembering your friends’ birthdays. Create a list of these idiosyncrasies and run a search for these problems using your word processor. If your problem is demonstrative pronouns without summary words, then search for “this/these/those” in your text and check if you used the word appropriately. If you have a problem with intensifiers, then search for “really” or “very” and delete them from the text. The same targeted search can be done to eliminate wordiness. Searching for “there is/are” or “and” can help you avoid the bulky sentences.

The final strategy is working with a hard copy and a pencil. Print a double space copy with font size 14 and re-read your paper in several steps. Try reading your paper line by line with the rest of the text covered with a piece of paper. When you are forced to see only a small portion of your writing, you are less likely to get distracted and are more likely to notice problems. You will end up spotting more unnecessary words, wrongly worded phrases, or unparallel constructions.

After you apply all these strategies, you are ready to share your writing with your friends, colleagues, and a writing advisor in the writing center. Get as much feedback as you can, especially from non-specialists in your field. Patiently listen to what others say to you ― you are not expected to defend your writing or explain what you wanted to say. You may decide what you want to change and how after you receive the feedback and sort it in your head. Even though some researchers make the revision an endless process and can hardly stop after a 14th draft; having from five to seven drafts of your paper is a norm in the sciences. If you can’t stop revising, then set a deadline for yourself and stick to it. Deadlines always help.

Rule 7: Revise your paper at the macrostructure and the microstructure level using different strategies and techniques. Receive feedback and revise again.

5. it is time to submit.

It is late at night again. You are still in your lab finishing revisions and getting ready to submit your paper. You feel happy ― you have finally finished a year’s worth of work. You will submit your paper tomorrow, and regardless of the outcome, you know that you can do it. If one journal does not take your paper, you will take advantage of the feedback and resubmit again. You will have a publication, and this is the most important achievement.

What is even more important is that you have your scheduled writing time that you are going to keep for your future publications, for reading and taking notes, for writing grants, and for reviewing papers. You are not going to lose stamina this time, and you will become a productive scientist. But for now, let’s celebrate the end of the paper.

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Biology: APA style

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Online tutorials and training

APA Style Guide

Citation resources for APA style

• APA 7th Edition Quick Reference Guide How to format reference list entries for journal articles, books, and chapters in a book.
• APA 7th Edition Reference Examples Provides detailed examples for citing common and uncommon sources.
• APA 7th Edition Tutorials and Webinars The Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style covers the basics of the seventh edition APA Style.
• APA 7th Edition Style Bolg Search the APA's blog to find answers to specific questions.
• APA 6th Edition Resources For the transition period between the 6th and 7th editions, APA has archived their 6th edition style blog, FAQs, and other resources.

Formatting style and grammar resources for APA

• Figures All types of visual displays other than tables are considered figures in APA Style. The rules for figures have been revised from the 6th edition.
• Headings Headings identify the content within sections of a paper. The rules for tables have been revised from the 6th edition.

• Other formatting considerations This present information about APA Style as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition.

Citing Images

You must cite the source of an image used in a paper, lab report, presentation or seminar. When citing an image in the body of your paper, cite it in one of two ways:

Credit the source at the end of the image caption:

“Reproduced with permission from (a) H.E. Hoekstra and (c) J.L. Feder.”

“Reproduced from Thakur et al. (2008a) with permission (originally published in Nature, http://www.nature.com).”

Credit images found on the Internet as follows:

Figure 2 .  “Water lily [Nymphaeaceae] blooming in Saint Petersburg’s Botanical Gardens, September 2005,” by A. L. Olsen. Retrieved from the NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure) Digital Image Library website, maintained by the Center for Biological Informatics of the U.S. Geological Survey, http://life.nbii.gov/dml/mediadetail.do?id=2995

How to cite a video in APA format

Sample citation for YouTube video: 

Sample citation for YouTube channel:

JoVE video with no author listed: 

Jove video with author listed:

The date noted should be the date that the video was uploaded.

Acknowledgement

My thanks to Liaison Librarian, Rebecca Hutchinson, for providing so much of the content for this page:  https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/WATPD/home

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Writing an Introduction for a Scientific Paper

Dr. michelle harris, dr. janet batzli, biocore.

This section provides guidelines on how to construct a solid introduction to a scientific paper including background information, study question , biological rationale, hypothesis , and general approach . If the Introduction is done well, there should be no question in the reader’s mind why and on what basis you have posed a specific hypothesis.

Broad Question : based on an initial observation (e.g., “I see a lot of guppies close to the shore. Do guppies like living in shallow water?”). This observation of the natural world may inspire you to investigate background literature or your observation could be based on previous research by others or your own pilot study. Broad questions are not always included in your written text, but are essential for establishing the direction of your research.

Background Information : key issues, concepts, terminology, and definitions needed to understand the biological rationale for the experiment. It often includes a summary of findings from previous, relevant studies. Remember to cite references, be concise, and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design. Concisely summarized background information leads to the identification of specific scientific knowledge gaps that still exist. (e.g., “No studies to date have examined whether guppies do indeed spend more time in shallow water.”)

Testable Question : these questions are much more focused than the initial broad question, are specific to the knowledge gap identified, and can be addressed with data. (e.g., “Do guppies spend different amounts of time in water <1 meter deep as compared to their time in water that is >1 meter deep?”)

Biological Rationale : describes the purpose of your experiment distilling what is known and what is not known that defines the knowledge gap that you are addressing. The “BR” provides the logic for your hypothesis and experimental approach, describing the biological mechanism and assumptions that explain why your hypothesis should be true.

The biological rationale is based on your interpretation of the scientific literature, your personal observations, and the underlying assumptions you are making about how you think the system works. If you have written your biological rationale, your reader should see your hypothesis in your introduction section and say to themselves, “Of course, this hypothesis seems very logical based on the rationale presented.”

• A thorough rationale defines your assumptions about the system that have not been revealed in scientific literature or from previous systematic observation. These assumptions drive the direction of your specific hypothesis or general predictions.
• Defining the rationale is probably the most critical task for a writer, as it tells your reader why your research is biologically meaningful. It may help to think about the rationale as an answer to the questions— how is this investigation related to what we know, what assumptions am I making about what we don’t yet know, AND how will this experiment add to our knowledge? *There may or may not be broader implications for your study; be careful not to overstate these (see note on social justifications below).
• Expect to spend time and mental effort on this. You may have to do considerable digging into the scientific literature to define how your experiment fits into what is already known and why it is relevant to pursue.
• Be open to the possibility that as you work with and think about your data, you may develop a deeper, more accurate understanding of the experimental system. You may find the original rationale needs to be revised to reflect your new, more sophisticated understanding.
• As you progress through Biocore and upper level biology courses, your rationale should become more focused and matched with the level of study e ., cellular, biochemical, or physiological mechanisms that underlie the rationale. Achieving this type of understanding takes effort, but it will lead to better communication of your science.

***Special note on avoiding social justifications: You should not overemphasize the relevance of your experiment and the possible connections to large-scale processes. Be realistic and logical —do not overgeneralize or state grand implications that are not sensible given the structure of your experimental system. Not all science is easily applied to improving the human condition. Performing an investigation just for the sake of adding to our scientific knowledge (“pure or basic science”) is just as important as applied science. In fact, basic science often provides the foundation for applied studies.

Hypothesis / Predictions : specific prediction(s) that you will test during your experiment. For manipulative experiments, the hypothesis should include the independent variable (what you manipulate), the dependent variable(s) (what you measure), the organism or system , the direction of your results, and comparison to be made.

If you are doing a systematic observation , your hypothesis presents a variable or set of variables that you predict are important for helping you characterize the system as a whole, or predict differences between components/areas of the system that help you explain how the system functions or changes over time.

Experimental Approach : Briefly gives the reader a general sense of the experiment, the type of data it will yield, and the kind of conclusions you expect to obtain from the data. Do not confuse the experimental approach with the experimental protocol . The experimental protocol consists of the detailed step-by-step procedures and techniques used during the experiment that are to be reported in the Methods and Materials section.

Some Final Tips on Writing an Introduction

• As you progress through the Biocore sequence, for instance, from organismal level of Biocore 301/302 to the cellular level in Biocore 303/304, we expect the contents of your “Introduction” paragraphs to reflect the level of your coursework and previous writing experience. For example, in Biocore 304 (Cell Biology Lab) biological rationale should draw upon assumptions we are making about cellular and biochemical processes.
• Be Concise yet Specific: Remember to be concise and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design. As you write, keep asking, “Is this necessary information or is this irrelevant detail?” For example, if you are writing a paper claiming that a certain compound is a competitive inhibitor to the enzyme alkaline phosphatase and acts by binding to the active site, you need to explain (briefly) Michaelis-Menton kinetics and the meaning and significance of Km and Vmax. This explanation is not necessary if you are reporting the dependence of enzyme activity on pH because you do not need to measure Km and Vmax to get an estimate of enzyme activity.
• Another example: if you are writing a paper reporting an increase in Daphnia magna heart rate upon exposure to caffeine you need not describe the reproductive cycle of magna unless it is germane to your results and discussion. Be specific and concrete, especially when making introductory or summary statements.

Where Do You Discuss Pilot Studies? Many times it is important to do pilot studies to help you get familiar with your experimental system or to improve your experimental design. If your pilot study influences your biological rationale or hypothesis, you need to describe it in your Introduction. If your pilot study simply informs the logistics or techniques, but does not influence your rationale, then the description of your pilot study belongs in the Materials and Methods section.  

How will introductions be evaluated? The following is part of the rubric we will be using to evaluate your papers.

How to Write a Biology Research Paper: A Comprehensive Guide

In academic circles, mastering the art of writing a biology research paper is imperative. This guide offers you a holistic approach to tackle this challenging task. You'll find detailed insights into planning, structuring, and executing your paper, ensuring that you engage your audience with well-researched, credible data. From the initial steps to the final submission, we'll walk you through each process, dissecting the complex parts to provide a manageable roadmap. We’ll cover topics from starting a biology research paper  to its outline, body, and conclusion, all while keeping your academic goals in focus. So let's dive in!

How to Start a Biology Research Paper

When commencing a biology research paper, your first task is to select a topic that interests both you and your readers. The topic should be relevant to the study of biology and present opportunities for you to showcase your findings. A well-chosen topic will make the research process smoother and help you craft a paper that resonates with your audience. Remember, the success of your paper largely depends on your initial groundwork, so make it count. Check out recent science journals for research publication inspiration.

How to Structure a Biology Research Paper

After picking your topic, the next step is planning the structure of your biology research paper. The structure should comprise of an introduction, body, and conclusion. It's crucial to create an outline before diving into the writing process, as this helps to organize your thoughts and findings. The outline should cover each section of the paper, from the introduction to the conclusion, including the arguments, experimental procedures, and vital information you intend to include.

Understanding the Biology Research Paper Outline

A biology research paper outline serves as your blueprint. It guides you through the writing process, making sure you don't drift off-topic. Your outline should include the thesis statement, the main points for your arguments, the experimental procedures to be followed, and the data you'll collect. It's also the space to decide how you'll present your research findings to your readers in a comprehensible manner. With a well-prepared outline, you'll find that writing your paper becomes significantly easier.

How to End a Biology Research Paper

Concluding a biology research paper effectively involves summarizing your key findings and stating their implications. It's not just about restating what you've already said; it's a final opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your audience. Your conclusion should reiterate your thesis statement and provide a summary of the key points made in the paper's body. It's essential to also discuss the significance of your findings and how they contribute to existing scientific research.

Submitting to Science Journals for Research Publication

After completing your paper, the final step is to submit it to reputable science journals for research publication. Peer-reviewed journals are the gold standard in the scientific community. Your paper will undergo rigorous review, ensuring it meets the academic and scientific criteria of the journal. The process may require revisions, but don't be disheartened. These are steps to ensure that your research is robust, accurate, and worthy of academic recognition.

A Comprehensive Research

The term 'comprehensive research' implies the exhaustive and detailed nature of your study. Make sure your research is thorough and leaves no stone unturned. This will lend credibility and depth to your biology research paper, enhancing its value in academic circles.

Introduction of Biology Research Paper

The introduction sets the tone for your biology research paper. It's where you outline the objective, the research question, and the thesis statement. Make it engaging enough to captivate your readers but academic enough to convey the paper’s significance.

Body of Biology Research Paper

The body is where you present your findings, experimental procedures, and analysis. Structure it logically, using headings and subheadings to guide the reader through your arguments and data. Consistency and clarity are key to keeping your audience engaged.

Conclusion of Biology Research Paper

In your conclusion, make sure to tie all your findings back to your research question and thesis statement. A compelling conclusion will summarize the research, restate the importance of your study, and suggest potential avenues for future research.

Dos and Don'ts

• Do conduct a thorough literature review.
• Do create an exhaustive outline.
• Don't use jargon without explaining it.
• Don't ignore formatting guidelines.

Get Inspired by 10+ Biology Research Paper Examples

By: Dr. David Brown

Reviewed By:

Published on: May 9, 2024

Writing a biology research paper can be an overwhelming and highly complex process. Many students find it hard because there are so many steps to follow, from picking a topic to explaining their findings. 

It's easy to feel lost or unsure about where to start. Especially without good examples to follow, it's easy to get stuck and not know what to do.

But don't worry! There's a helpful option that can make it all easier: Biology Research Paper Examples. 

These are like blueprints that show us how to write a good paper. We'll explore these biology research examples together.

So, let's get started!

On this Page

How To Write A Biology Research Paper Examples

In this section, we'll explore some key elements of a biology research paper and provide examples to illustrate each point. 

By studying these examples, you'll gain a better understanding of how to structure your paper, present your findings, and adhere to scientific conventions. 

So let's begin by examining the different sections of a biology research paper and how examples can help you master each one.

Introduction

This section introduces your research topic, provides background information, and outlines the purpose of your study. It typically ends with a clear statement of your research question or hypothesis.

Here is an example for your better understanding:

Biology Research Paper Introduction Example

Materials and Methods

In this section, you describe the materials, equipment, and procedures used in your study. It should provide enough detail for other researchers to replicate your experiment or study.

To help you grasp the concept better, here's a biology research paper pdf:

Biology Research Paper Materials and Methods Example

Present your findings in this section, using tables, figures, or graphs to illustrate key data points. Describe any trends or patterns observed in the data.

Let's delve into a scientific paper sample pdf to clarify the concept:

Biology Research Paper Results Example

Discussion 

Interpret the results of your study and discuss their significance in the context of existing literature. Address any limitations or potential biases in your research and propose areas for further investigation.

Here's an example to aid your understanding:

Biology Research Paper Discussion Example

Summarize the main findings of your study and emphasize their importance. Reflect on the implications of your research and suggest future directions for research in this area.

To illustrate the point more clearly, consider the following example:

Biology Research Paper Conclusion Example

Here are some more biology research paper examples:

Biology Research Paper Example High School

Biology Term Paper Example

Biology Research Paper Format Example

Interesting Biology Research Articles

Now that we've discussed the process of writing a biology research paper, let's explore some fascinating examples of research articles in the field of biology. 

By examining these examples, you can gain insights into the latest discoveries, innovative methodologies, and pressing issues in the field. 

• Genome-Wide Analysis Identifies Molecular Systems And 149 Genetic Loci Associated With Income (In a study of 286,301 UK Biobank participants, 30 new genetic loci and 120 correlated loci were identified as associated with income, revealing links to neurotransmission and intelligence.)
• Early Co-Authorship With Top Scientists Predicts Success In Academic Careers (Through matched pair analysis across four scientific disciplines, we found that junior researchers collaborating with highly-cited scientists enjoy long-term career advantages, including increased likelihood of future collaborations with top scientists and eventual attainment of high citation rates.)
• Ketamine Can Reduce Harmful Drinking By Pharmacologically Rewriting Drinking Memories (We demonstrate that ketamine administration after the retrieval of maladaptive reward memories (MRMs) effectively disrupts such memories in hazardous drinkers.)
• Sequential Laser Art And Crispr Treatments Eliminate Hiv-1 In A Subset Of Infected Humanized Mice (Sequential long-acting slow-effective release antiviral therapy (LASER ART) and CRISPR-Cas9 demonstrate viral clearance in latent infectious reservoirs in HIV-1 infected humanized mice, with elimination of integrated proviral DNA and absence of detectable virus in blood, lymphoid tissue, bone marrow, and brain.)
• Ideological Differences In The Expanse Of The Moral Circle (Clashes between ideologies may reflect core psychological differences, as liberals tend to express compassion toward universal entities (universalism), while conservatives express compassion toward more well-defined entities (parochialism). 

All in all, remember that biology research paper examples serve as invaluable tools for guiding you through the writing process, from formulating research questions to presenting your findings. 

By incorporating examples into your learning, you can gain a deeper understanding of scientific writing conventions and develop the skills necessary to produce high-quality research papers.

And if you are ready to take your biology research paper to the next level? Visit SharkPapers.com for expert guidance, research paper editing services, and access to a vast library of research paper examples. 

Contact us to hire the best paper writing service online !

Dr. David Brown

Microbiology, Evolutionary Biology, Biotechnology

Dr. David Brown is a PhD holder in Biology from Cambridge University. He has over 9 years of experience in writing and editing research papers on various topics related to biology, such as genetics, ecology, evolution, and biotechnology. He is committed to helping students and researchers discover the wonders and mysteries of life and nature.

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• 04 December 2020
• Correction 09 December 2020

How to write a superb literature review

Andy Tay is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

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Literature reviews are important resources for scientists. They provide historical context for a field while offering opinions on its future trajectory. Creating them can provide inspiration for one’s own research, as well as some practice in writing. But few scientists are trained in how to write a review — or in what constitutes an excellent one. Even picking the appropriate software to use can be an involved decision (see ‘Tools and techniques’). So Nature asked editors and working scientists with well-cited reviews for their tips.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03422-x

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Correction 09 December 2020 : An earlier version of the tables in this article included some incorrect details about the programs Zotero, Endnote and Manubot. These have now been corrected.

Hsing, I.-M., Xu, Y. & Zhao, W. Electroanalysis 19 , 755–768 (2007).

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Ledesma, H. A. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 14 , 645–657 (2019).

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Choi, Y. & Lee, S. Y. Nature Rev. Chem . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-020-00221-w (2020).

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How to Write a Good Biology Research Paper: Step-by-Step Writing Guide with Examples, Outline, and Formatting Tips

By: Tasha Kolesnikova

The biology paper helps the student systematically show theoretical knowledge in the studied discipline and master the primary skills of research work: collect data, analyze, think creatively, formulate conclusions, proposals, and recommendations on research. Here is an excellent opportunity to properly organize research work, formalize its results, and show that you have learned in the field of biology.

What Is Biology?

Introduction, human cloning and genetic researches, behavior and hormones, immune system, use scholarly sources for conducting the research, define a strong thesis statement, create an outline of your paper, science skills required to start biology, animal biology, molecular biology, human biology, evolutionary biology, computational biology.

The work's performance should contribute to the lecture course's in-depth assimilation and the acquisition of skills in solving practical problems. This requires the student to know general and special literature on research, connect theory with practice, make generalizations, and formulate conclusions and proposals.

This work has its specifics; its details must agree with the supervisor on the structure, writing methods, and design. The following algorithm for its implementation will help to rationally organize work on paper, correctly allocate your time, and develop the chosen topic:

• selection of biology topics ;
• search for literature on the topic;
• formulation of goals and objectives of the document;
• choice of object and research methods;
• drawing up a plan, agreeing on it with the head;
• performing research document;
• analysis of research results;
• writing sections and subsections;
• editing the introduction, formulating conclusions and recommendations;
• preparation of the list of references and applications;
• literary and technical design of the document, mistake correction.

Now that you know how to write a lab report and achieve success, let's move on to the next step.

Biology is a science that studies the growth and development of organisms, evolution, patterns of existence, and characteristics and behavior in nature. Because the laws of chemistry and the chemical features of organisms' structure are actively combined with biology, they created a biochemistry. The study of the physical manifestations of muscle contraction movement, the joints' mechanics, determined the link between biology and physics with biophysics.

Biology task:

• Disclosure of the principles of the emergence of life, study and management of life processes, stabilization in nature.
• Introducing the necessary program into the activity of a living cell in conditions of deviation from the norm.
• Reproduction outside a living organism of synthetic processes, principles used in a live system, and introduction into chemical production.
• Environmental protection, preservation of the gene pool of living beings.

General Structure of a Biology Paper

Scientific work in biology is an essential document in studying that should show your awareness of a particular topic. Implementing this project requires time, knowledge, and the ability to search for the necessary information in scientific and electronic libraries.

It is practically impossible to get by with electronic resources when writing a paper. Firstly, there is a tendency on the Internet to commercialize educational resources: very often you need books, you can only download them by paying money. Secondly, large passages from the textbooks you study should not be used in the document; this is considered plagiarism.

First of all, paper is your scientific research with an ideal structure, with examples of distinguished scientists, previously researched this scientific issue, and not a presentation of material from textbooks. When writing your document, you adhere to the structure and requirements. General sections article are:

• Introduction.
• Discussion.

The paper needs to annotate. Typically, this work description consists of simple sentences that summarize the main points. The material contained in the summary is often neutral. It briefly presents the research that conducts in the document. There are only two in summarizations: advisory and reference.

The reference material contains information about the author of the text and the genre of work. The advisory annotation briefly describes the material contained in the text. In the description, a small advertisement for the work is acceptable to arouse the reader's interest. However, exaggeration of the merits of the work is unacceptable. Annotation is built based on the following structure:

• Title of the work.
• Who is the author and supervisor of the work?
• Summary (abstracts).

The abstract is a whole genre, so it is advisable to master writing this type of text. They have standard phrases that are characteristic of annotations. The content text is short; there is nothing superfluous in it. There will be no space for extra details - the author has only 1000-1500 characters of the text at his disposal.

Here's an example of an abstract for a paper on the immune system.

This paper provides a detailed examination of the human immune system, focusing on its cellular and molecular components. The study investigates the roles of key immune players such as T cells, B cells, antibodies, and cytokines, elucidating their coordinated responses. The research explores both adaptive and innate immunity, emphasizing their collaborative efforts in defending against pathogens. Additionally, the paper delves into immunological memory and its relevance to vaccine development. Methodologically, we employ a systematic approach to analyze existing literature, integrating findings to present a holistic view of immune system functionality. The insights gained from this study contribute to advancing therapeutic strategies for infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders.

Introduction is an obligatory structural element of the project, which contains the relevance of the research, objectives, purpose, object, subject of study, scientific hypothesis, analysis of sources and literature, etc. This is the cornerstone of the entire work, which sets the tone for the study and directly affects assessment. The introduction is 1-2 pages long.

In all research papers, the introduction has a uniform structure. Before writing an introduction, it will be useful for you to contact your supervisor for methodological recommendations for writing work in your educational institution. Thanks to the teacher's guidelines, you can get acquainted with introducing and seeing the lab report example .

Returning to the official requirements, the introduction should contain the following data:

• assessment of the state of the problem that the student raises in his research;
• initial data;
• substantiation of the relevance and scientific significance of the study;
• a description of the relationship between the research and existing scientific documents, in which the author raised the problem.

Let's see an example of an introduction for a paper. Note that it's a shortened version that doesn't specify the scientific documents; use it only as a guide for your own.

This study delves into the intricate landscape of the human immune system, aiming to address identified gaps in current research. Our initial data, drawn from a thorough review of scientific literature, forms the basis for a systematic analysis of the system's cellular and molecular components. The relevance and scientific significance of this study are grounded in the crucial role the immune system plays in maintaining human health and combating diseases.

Our research builds upon existing scientific documents that have highlighted the identified problem, establishing a clear connection with prior work. By contextualizing within the existing scientific discourse, we acknowledge previous contributions while presenting new avenues for exploration. This interdisciplinary approach aims to enrich our understanding of the immune system, with implications for therapeutic advancements in infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders.

The section describes the research methodology, including generally accepted general scientific and unique botany methods, described in scientific monographs, methodological literature, and scientific papers collections. The conformity of the ways to the research task determines the representativeness of the obtained results and their further interpretation's objectivity.

This section describes field and laboratory research (botanical, morphological, anatomical, geobotanical, etc.), algorithms for analytical research.

If the work is devoted to the study of flora, this section describes the route method, test sites, transects, catens, ecological series, the technique of making herbariums, etc. It is obligatory to use mathematical modes of processing the obtained results (percentage content, arithmetic mean, the error of the mean, confidence intervals, etc.)

Methodological issues are quite complicated since the concept itself is interpreted in different ways. Many scientific schools do not distinguish between methodology and research methods. In the scientific tradition, the methodology is considered the method of cognition or a principles system based on the research. The choice of a set of cognitive means, methods, and research techniques carried out. The technique is understood as a set of research, including various operations with factual material.

This study unfolds through a methodical exploration of the human immune system, guided by a systematic and comprehensive approach:

System Dynamics Exploration: We construct a systematic framework to dissect the intricacies of the immune system, unraveling the relationships and interactions between its key components. Each element is scrutinized within the context of the broader immune response.

Comparative Contextualization: Our approach involves a comparative analysis with existing scientific documents that have previously addressed the identified problem. This juxtaposition sheds light on the contributions of past researchers and elucidates unexplored avenues.

Interdisciplinary Integration: To enrich our study, we position our research within the broader interdisciplinary context of immunology. Insights from related fields are considered, offering a holistic perspective on the complex dynamics of the immune system.

A logically organized and well-written Results section is critical to a well-written article. The Results section should present the data collected during the study as objectively, logically, and concisely as possible. Highlighting the most important results or organizing them into sections is an excellent way to show that you have covered all the information you need. Correct use of visual elements, i.e., tables and figures, are an effective way to interest your readers.

So, essentially, in the Results section, you should do the following:

• Report only actual results;
• Use tables and figures in the text to orderly highlight key results;
• Make sure that the contents of tables and figures are not repeated in the text.

While there is no fixed formula for writing a Discussion section, you can follow a few simple steps to complete a High Impact Discussion section. We present them below:

• Provide a concise summary of the central theme. A right "Discussion" section expands on specific findings to their broader implications, which can then link to the general background provided in the introduction to maximize the entire article's impact. Therefore, start the "Discussion" by providing essential information that is already known about the research topic. You can then briefly reformulate the research problem so that your Discussion section link to the Introduction.
• Interpret your results. Discuss the meaning of your research's most important results, as clearly as possible, because not all of your readers will deeply understand the topic. Discuss the relationships between the observations: do the results indicate a pattern, and can they be summarized together? But don't try to impose an interpretation on your readers; consider the results objectively. The article may reject if the results are not correctly and logically interpreted. Mention unexpected and insignificant results and do not manipulate data.
• Discuss the value of your research. This is an essential part of the Discussion. The reader should clearly understand why your research is critical. How has the research contributed to improving our understanding of a particular subject? You need to describe your research contribution to existing knowledge and how it can stimulate future research.

What Topics Are There In Biology?

The work's topic is often given by a scientific leader, taking into account the discipline's thematic plan. Their list is posted for review on the information and notice board in paper form and on the website. The student is given the right to choose a research topic from this list and is allowed to propose his topic.

The supervisor, together with the student, determines the topic of the work. The case should be relevant, important for science and practice, specific, exact with the definition of its implementation, should determine the subject of research. Its further change or correction is possible only with the supervisor's permission with sufficient justification for the student's changes. Examples of topics:

• Biology as a Science. Methods of scientific knowledge. Levels of organization of the living.
• Immune system.
• The cell as a biological system (multiple choice).
• Human organism. Fabrics. Organs.
• Behavior and hormones.
• The driving forces of evolution.
• What is cognitive science, and how is it related to biology?
• Human cloning and genetic researches.
• Struggle for existence and its forms.
• Ecology is the science of supraorganism systems - habitats of organisms.

Let's take a look at a few topics so that you know what to write about.

Cloning is a processor technology for producing clones. It is customary to call a clone an organism that is genetically identical or almost identical to another. Identical twins are clones of each other, as both emerged from the same fertilized egg. Plants created by vegetative propagation, such as mustache-propagated strawberry bushes, are also clones. Let's take a look at the most famous genetic study:

How did scientists breed Dolly, the sheep? Dolly was "made" in the following way: they took a cage of the udder of a sheep, and the genetic material of this cell was "planted" in an egg taken from another sheep. In this case, its genetic material from this egg previously remove. Note that after such a transfer, the resulting egg cell had a double set of genes - the same as in the udder cell. This means that the fertilization of such an egg is not required! This egg implants into the third sheep's uterus, which carried and gave birth to a sheep - Dolly.

After Dolly, fish, frogs, rodents (rats and mice), dogs and cats, pigs, horses, and cows clone. More recently, it became known about the cloning of primates - long-tailed macaques. In general, this procedure applies to any organism; it is just that it takes a lot of time to select the optimal conditions in each specific case.

We often hear words like "emotions", "feelings", "experience", "mood", or words like "stress", "passion". The above mental phenomena can group under the name of emotional processes, in which someone distinguishes affects. It will not be an exaggeration to say that many of our behaviors directly depend on hormones' work.

Here are some of the most important hormones that affect human behavior:

• The neurohormone oxytocin is responsible for tenderness, loyalty, and reliability. It has a strong influence on the formation of the maternal instinct in women. The more this hormone, the more the mother loves her child. Bananas and avocados stimulate oxytocin production.
• Thyroxine is an irritability hormone. If there is too much of it, then the person has an agitated, nervous state.
• Dopamine - This hormone helps to adapt to a new environment quickly.
• Adrenaline is a hormone that makes a person dangerous and aggressive.
• Norepinephrine is responsible for your good mood, a positive perception of reality.
• Endorphins inspire a person with a state of calmness and serenity. It is common knowledge that endorphins are "pleasure hormones."

The term "human immune system" is understood as the body system that supports genetic homeostasis at the whole organism's level. The immune system's functioning aims to protect it from bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasites, and cells with signs of foreignness, such as tumor cells or infected with viruses.

The factors of the immune system divide into cellular and humoral. Depending on the origin and functioning characteristics, the structure of nonspecific innate immunity and specific acquired immunity systems are distinguished in the immune system. Lymphocytes, the immune system's primary cells, appear, mature, and function due to specialized formations - the immune system's organs.

The organs of the immune system divide into primary and secondary. The primary (central) organs include the thymus and bone marrow. Both central organs in the immune system are the place for the differentiation of lymphocyte populations. The thymus gland is the site of T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes formed in the bone marrow.

Peripheral or as scientists call them, secondary organs in the immune system connect the spleen, lymph nodes, tonsils, lymphoid tissue associated with the mucous membrane of the intestines, bronchi, and lungs. In the fetus, lymphoid tissue is not yet sufficiently formed, since there is no contact with antigens. Antigenic differentiation of lymphocytes is carried out in the peripheral organs of the immune system.

How To Prepare For Biology Paper Writing: Tips

In preparation for laboratory work, the student uses the recommended textbooks and teaching aids, manuals for performing laboratory work, instructions for measuring equipment, and special instructions on performing individual items of laboratory work. Preparation for laboratory work is carried out by students independently in advance.

In the process of such preparation, the student must:

• master the theoretical material related to this laboratory work;
• study and imagine the content and procedure for performing laboratory work;
• know the principles of operation and rules for working with measuring instruments, measurement methods, design features of a laboratory installation, and safety rules;
• know the answers to the control questions given in the methodological manual, as well as perform the number of preliminary calculations necessary for the assignment;
• prepare the necessary tables and figures.

The essential stage in preparing a scientific article is information retrieval. First, you study the sources, read what other scientists think about your question. And only then do you begin to make your contribution to science. For starters, here are two obvious but essential tips that we would like to give you:

• The studies of young scientists are more relevant than those carried out decades ago.
• Sources in English are more relevant than sources from foreign countries.

The first statement, probably, will not cause objections to anyone. Science is always moving forward; new research comes out, new results appear. And if an article, for example, from 2013, says that “this is unknown to science,” this is not necessarily the case until now. Look for more relevant sources - you might be surprised.

The second statement follows directly from the first. In many science areas, advanced scientific publications are still not published in foreign languages, but in English, since the United States is one of the most advanced research countries. Yet, science is globalizing with giant steps, and the language of modern global science is English.

We could say that libraries and paper books are still cooler than anything else - but unfortunately, they are not. Our world is changing rapidly - and this cannot be ignored. Therefore, of course, information for a scientific article should be looked for on the Internet. There is also a particular search engine that indexes only scientific texts - this is Google Scholar. Sources that index in this system are likely to be scientific, credible, and reliable.

Indeed you are interested in how to write a thesis to surprise the reader. When a thesis is strong, it holds the text like a spine. A strong thesis stretches the structure and pushes out the excess.

To formulate a thesis, it is enough to answer the question: "What do I want to say?" Imagine you have five seconds to get the message across. This will be the thesis. This is not a summary; no need to retell the main arguments.

A strong thesis has two parts: provocation and approval. Provocation does not have to be tough, but it must be subjective. If the thesis cannot challenge, then it is just a fact.

Fact: People are growing up today.

Thesis: There are no special processes that would stop a person's growing up process.

The thesis must be affirmative. You are asking the question bluntly, not asking.

The article's outline is the text's primary thoughts, structured logically, briefly, sequentially, and arranged in a list. The idea is that before writing an article, you have to imagine what exactly you will write and in what order. The list is for: looked at one item, opened it, and moved on to the next. This will preserve logic, structure, and integrity. Plan:

• allows you to save 25% of the time that will be spent on work;
• allows you to make the text coherent and readable;
• gives the author the right focus on the topic of the article and does not deviate from the essence;

An article written without a plan may be unrelated, without a logical structure, and may not answer the main question, which will significantly worsen its impression.

You write down all the points in more detail, like subheadings. It will help you a lot, and then it will be more comfortable and more straightforward; you will keep most of the information in your head.

Biology is taught in school, college, and university, so check out our tips to learn how to improve your biology learning ability:

• Come to the lesson prepared. If you know that laboratory work awaits you in a biology lesson, then carefully study the course of work in the textbook so that later during the process, you will be prepared and not confused. In the future, you will create for yourself the knowledge that will be useful in life.
• Don't chase the missed material. The process of studying sciences is designed so that you cannot learn one paragraph without knowing the previous one's information. If you miss too much information, you will not have time to study the material during laboratory work. Learn everything gradually.
• First, learn the general concept, then proceed to specific topics. For example, if you have the background to talk about the Krebs cycle, then, accordingly, you initially need to know about the structure of animal cells. Knowing this little detail will help you to understand the Krebs cycle more clearly.

Different Biology Specializations

Biology is usually called the science of life, or the science of living nature. Moreover, each specialization focuses on some aspects of this wildlife. Thus, physiology and anatomy bias presuppose a more thorough study of a person, body, development and life characteristics, pathologies, and diseases. Zoologists specialize in animals' anatomical and physiological features, studying their behavior, species, and genetic diversity. Geneticists are interested in the structure of genes, their functions, inheritance, and changes in traits, and are engaged in developing new breeds of animals and plant varieties. Virologists specialize in the study of viruses, pathogenic bacteria, finding solutions to suppress their development.

The biology profession's key feature lies precisely in the fact that it includes many specializations. And for successful work, you will need to make your choice. However, you can start training in a general profile, and in senior courses, you can understand what is closer. And so biology studies such primary specializations:

• Evolutionary;
• Computational.

The science of zoology studies animals. This science examines the main issues of animal biology, demonstrates the diversity and significance of the animal world in nature, and explains the reasons for such diversity and adaptation to various environmental conditions. You will learn the main types and classes of animals. This section pays special attention to familiarization with the diversity and unity of the animal world, vital functions, adaptation to the environments of life and specific habitats, clarification of the kinship of animals of the studied types and their origin.

Other sciences that study animal life:

• Animal taxonomy studies the diversity of animals.
• Entomology studies insects.
• Ornithology studies birds.
• Ichthyology studies fish.
• Animal morphology and anatomy study their external and internal structure.
• Animal physiology studies various vital processes in the body (nutrition, respiration, etc.) and their interaction.
• Ethology is the science of animal behavior, how animals communicate with each other.
• The ecology of animals studies their life's features in nature: interconnections between themselves and other organisms, the conditions of inanimate nature.
• Paleozoology studies extinct animals that lived in earlier geological eras.

If you wonder how nucleic acid molecules (DNA and RNA) encode information about what the genetic code is, perhaps genome editing and or have already invented a cure for aging - this is all studied by molecular biology. The goal of molecular biology is to establish the role and mechanism of macromolecules' functioning based on their structure and properties.

Molecular biology also considers several other issues of fundamental and applied nature. Research on repairing genome damage caused by short-wave radiation, mutagens, etc. is of great interest and importance.

An essential science area is genetic engineering, which develops construction structures in recombinant DNA molecules. Genetic engineering methods made it possible to quickly isolate numerous genes and establish nucleotides' sequences in them. Thus, migratory genetic elements discovered, discontinuity in the structure of eukaryotic genes discovered, and new regulation principles of their activity were established.

Human biology is the science of origin, evolution, geographical dispersal of people, structure, development, reproduction, and life processes. It is a complex science closely related to anatomy, human physiology, hygiene, biochemistry, biophysics, psychology, and ecology.

Human biology is the basis of modern medicine, pedagogy, psychology. The development of human anatomy, physiology, and hygiene helps the medicine develop effective methods of treating disorders of the human body's vital organs and to fight infectious diseases effectively.

Knowledge of one's body's characteristics is a vital necessity of every person and, at the same time, an element of general culture, without which society cannot progressively develop in all directions. Knowledge of the human body's structure and functions allows each person to observe scientifically grounded personal consciousness and public hygiene rules, avoid various diseases, and be healthy, mentally, and physically developed.

Evolutionary biology is a biology branch that involves analyzing the hereditary and evolutionary development of living things on the planet. It appeared as a scientific subject in the second half of the 19th century. Some scientists also refer to this science as developmental biology.

In its research, this science uses a variety of methods borrowed from other sciences. The main methods of evolutionary biology are:

• Paleontological methods.
• Morphological methods.
• Biogeographic methods.
• Molecular genetic methods.

Evolutionary biology allows us to solve specific animal world problems since it explains the reasons for changes in organisms. This allows humanity to intervene in the living world for its benefit.

In modern biology, scientists often have to deal with DNA sequences. These sequences are usually very long, and their manual processing takes a lot of time and effort. Therefore, the idea arises to automate this process.

A bioinformatic analyzes experimental biomedical data develops and applies in practice computational methods to solve problems such as predicting the function of genes and proteins encoded in them, genetic diagnostics of diseases, designing drugs, and constructing models of species' origin, etc.

In connection with the large-scale development of technologies in the field of sciences of living systems, modern scientists annually accumulate vast amounts of data for the processing of which it is necessary to have competent knowledge of computer methods and special algorithms. Because of this, the demand for highly qualified specialists in the field of computational and bioinformatics who can apply the mathematical apparatus to solve biological problems is increasing annually.

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Biology Research at the UMD Libraries

Welcome to the Biology Research Guide!

This guide is designed to help you navigate the many resources offered by the University Libraries. From journal databases to research data management, we are here to aid in your learning and research in Biology. From this page you can:

• Explore library resources that may be helpful to your learning or research.
• Find research information for specific courses in Biology. 
• Learn about important scholarly skills such as research data management and citation managers.

As always, if you have any questions about this guide or about library services in general, please reach out to me, your subject specialist by emailing me from the box on the left, or stopping by my office in the STEM Library.

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The Libraries' online subscription resources can be accessed from computers and devices on campus and off-campus. When using devices off-campus, access is restricted to current UMD students, faculty, and staff. Below are methods for connecting to the Libraries' resources from off-campus locations. 

If you still need help, you can contact the UMD IT Service Desk at 301-405-1500 or  [email protected] . 

Download and install UMD's VPN to connect to online services. You will need to log in manually to access a restricted site. The connection will remain live until you manually disconnect. 

A guide to create proxy links by simply entering in the original URL into a proxy creator box. The output can then be pasted into your browser to gain access to a restricted site.

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Biology News

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• Last Updated: Sep 5, 2024 6:10 PM
• URL: https://lib.guides.umd.edu/bio

Using AgentM to watch for new research papers of interest

I’m getting enough of the pieces of AgentM in place that I’m able to get it to do useful things. I wrote a small program (ok AgentM wrote part of it) that fetches the last days worth of research papers from arxiv.org , filters them to the papers related to topics I care about, and then projects those filtered papers to a uniform markdown format for easy scanning:

It uses gpt-4o-mini so it’s cost effective to run and it took 6 or 7 minutes in total to process 553 papers. Here’s the meat of the code:

I did another pass other the 81 papers it selected as being on topic and had the model select the top 10 papers for the day using another projection:

Automating Knowledge Discovery from Scientific Literature via LLMs: A Dual-Agent Approach with Progressive Ontology Prompting

Read more This paper introduces a novel framework combining large language models (LLMs) with a dual-agent system to enhance knowledge extraction from scientific literature, achieving significant improvements in annotation accuracy.

why The integration of LLMs with a dual-agent system for knowledge extraction is a significant advancement, potentially transforming how scientific literature is analyzed and utilized.

Urban Mobility Assessment Using LLMs

Read more This work proposes an AI-based approach for synthesizing travel surveys using LLMs, addressing privacy concerns and demonstrating effectiveness across various U.S. metropolitan areas.

why The application of LLMs in urban mobility assessment offers a novel solution to privacy issues in travel surveys, with implications for urban planning and policy-making.

Towards Human-Level Understanding of Complex Process Engineering Schematics: A Pedagogical, Introspective Multi-Agent Framework for Open-Domain Question Answering

Read more The paper presents a multi-agent framework for interpreting process diagrams, enhancing data privacy and explainability while achieving superior performance in open-domain question answering tasks.

why This research enhances the understanding of complex engineering schematics, which is crucial for industries relying on process engineering, improving both privacy and explainability.

Classification of Safety Events at Nuclear Sites using Large Language Models

Read more This research develops an LLM-based classifier to categorize safety records at nuclear power stations, aiming to improve the efficiency and accuracy of safety classification processes.

why Improving safety classification at nuclear sites is critical for operational safety and regulatory compliance, making this application of LLMs highly impactful.

Non-instructional Fine-tuning: Enabling Instruction-Following Capabilities in Pre-trained Language Models without Instruction-Following Data

Read more The paper explores a novel approach to fine-tuning LLMs for instruction-following capabilities using non-instructional data, potentially broadening the scope of LLM applications.

why This approach could significantly expand the versatility of LLMs, allowing them to perform tasks without explicit instruction-following data, which is a major step forward in AI development.

Zero-Shot Visual Reasoning by Vision-Language Models: Benchmarking and Analysis

Read more This study benchmarks vision-language models’ zero-shot visual reasoning capabilities, revealing insights into their performance and limitations in complex reasoning tasks.

why Understanding the zero-shot capabilities of vision-language models is crucial for their application in areas requiring complex visual reasoning, such as autonomous vehicles and robotics.

Toward Large Language Models as a Therapeutic Tool: Comparing Prompting Techniques to Improve GPT-Delivered Problem-Solving Therapy

Read more The research assesses the impact of prompt engineering on LLMs delivering psychotherapy, highlighting the potential of AI in addressing mental health needs.

why The potential use of LLMs in psychotherapy could revolutionize mental health care, making therapy more accessible and personalized.

HoneyComb: A Flexible LLM-Based Agent System for Materials Science

Read more This paper introduces HoneyComb, an LLM-based agent system tailored for materials science, significantly improving task performance and accuracy.

why The application of LLMs in materials science could accelerate research and development in this field, leading to faster innovation and discovery.

Sequence to Sequence Reward Modeling: Improving RLHF by Language Feedback

Read more The study proposes a novel reward modeling method that enhances reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) by utilizing language feedback, improving alignment with human preferences.

why Enhancing RLHF with language feedback could improve the alignment of AI systems with human values and preferences, which is essential for ethical AI development.

The creative psychometric item generator: a framework for item generation and validation using large language models

Read more This research develops a framework for generating valid creativity assessments using LLMs, demonstrating their potential in automating creativity testing processes.

why Automating creativity assessments with LLMs could transform educational and psychological testing, making it more efficient and accessible.

This is pretty awesome! I am tempted to write the underlying library in python.

I setup a placeholder GitHub project and would happily add you as a contributor.

That would be awesome!

My git user is icdev2dev. Thanks !

This is what I was thinking about:

I was just chatting with a long time Microsoft colleague (we created the Microsoft Bot Framework together) and he’s excited to create a .NET version of AgentM.

We were discussing that achieving absolute parity across languages isn’t super critical because you really want to lean into the strengths and paradigms of each language. What feels natural to a JavaScript developer isn’t going to feel as natural to a Python developer and it’s definitely not going to feel natural to a .net developer.

The important part is to maintain the spirit of AgentM across languages. To that end I’ll leave it up to you and others to determine what that means for Python.

That’s right.

But as I am thinking more about it, I believe that we shou;d also build in failure tolerance into the framework.

For example, if I have shown a set of sentences (amongst many such sets) to the LLM for the purpose of doing some labeling on sentences,I don’t want to lose that showing if the (distributed) job suddenly fails in between. It should be able to restart for the remaining jobs, complete those and then return the function to the caller.

The semantics of the threads allows for this distibuted jobs to fail and be restarted, I think.

I believe that that might be also what openAI might be pursuing as well (long lived jobs).

Yeah that’s a good suggestion…

@icdev2dev I just finished getting AgentM to convert all of its JS code to Python and it actually didn’t do too bad of a job. It’s easily 80% of the way there.

It got paths to some of the components wrong because it assumed everything was relative and in the same folder but given that it could only see one file at a time I think it did a good job. I told it which libraries I wanted it to use and it followed all of that guidance:

I’ll check the generated code into the python repo shortly.

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