1.Understand article structure
Open most scientific journals and you'll find that the papers follow a certain format.The paper is generally divided into several parts, each of which plays a different role in the article.We first understand the standard format of the paper and then look at what changes can be made under the standard format.
A paper begins with a short summary.Abstracts generally give a brief background to the topic, accurately recounts the main findings of the paper, and links its results to other research in the field.We will find that the whole article also works according to this logic.
The summary is followed by the introduction.Many magazines are not listed separately.The introduction will provide some background information so that readers can understand that the new findings of this article are at the forefront of the field.The general introduction begins with a background in a particular area, then goes in a particular direction, and introduces some of these findings and results that are directly related to the author's article.If it is to test a hypothesis, the author will explain why this hypothesis is so, introduce some of the previous results that support it, and make predictions about the results of that hypothesis.Many articles end their introduction with one or more of the main conclusions of the article so that the reader can know the answers to the questions raised in the article.Like articles in the journal NATURE that describe competitive detail, the introduction section talks about the author's strong interest in a particular field or expands the context.
Most of the introduction goes straight to the Materials and Methods section.This part is mainly to inform the reader of the materials and experimental methods used in the experiment.In principle, the materials and methods must be described in detail so that other researchers can repeat the experiment.In fact, the description of this part is highly condensed, and many of the materials and methods are drunk from the author's previous articles.
The third part of the article is the conclusion.This section deals with experiments and results.In general, the logic of the result part follows the introduction.That is to say, the questions raised in the introduction are the beginning of the concludingIn addition, the structure of this part varies from author to author.In some articles, the author only gives the results without further discussion, and the discussion of the results is placed in the later discussion.If the results of the previous experiment do not affect the reader's understanding of the later experiment, such a structure is reasonable.In other articles, this section provides experimental results and discussions, and may bring in other results in order to logically lead to subsequent experiments.
The fourth part of the article is discussion.This part functions a lot.The first is to interpret the experimental data, that is, analyze the data to show the data.Any restrictions on data analysis will clarify, and implementation and speculation will draw the line.The second is to link the paper's new findings to other discoveries in the field.The main purpose of this paper is to show the contribution of knowledge in the field or to correct the fallacies of previous work in the field.As mentioned earlier, some authors will put some discussion of the results in the conclusion section in order to explain why the next experiment should be carried out smoothly.You may feel that in this case, the discussion should be in the introduction section, but for the most part, it's hard to grasp the importance of the discussion if you don't give the conclusion of the experiment.
Finally, there is usually a thank-you section for the paper, and the author is here to thank others for their contributions to the paper.This is followed by references, listing the articles referenced and other work cited in the paper.
The paper also contains some charts.The data mentioned in the article will be presented in chart form.There is a legend in the chart, which is to clarify the details of a particular experiment.If an experimental flow is mentioned only once, the details of the experiment are usually described in the materials and methods, and the legend in the chart refers to the materials and methods.If an experimental flow is repeated repeatedly in the paper, the materials and methods will only be outlined, and the details will be given in the legend of the diagram.
thesis structure transformation
Most of the papers in scientific journals are written in the format described above.Sometimes, however, the concluding and discussing sections are synthesized in order to make the reader understand the whole experimental process with the interpretation of the preceding data.As mentioned earlier, papers in some journals put the material and methodology sections behind the discussion.
In order to meet the requirements of brevity, the author can only compress the paper, generally omitting the logical connection of the article.Moreover, the author compressed or omitted the background, making it difficult for laypeople to understand the article without it, so that non-professional readers can only understand what the author says with the help of a review or previously relevant paper.Finally, in order to save space, the author can only put important details in the legend of the chart.
2. Reading scientific papers
While we all tend to follow our scientific research papers the way we read other articles, organizing the way we read them saves a lot of time.Usually, to understand the significance of the author's research work, we will read the abstract first.
An extreme habit of reading scientific papers is to read through the topics and abstracts and think about what you know about them.There are many advantages to doing so.
First, make sure you have enough background to read this article.If not, you'd better read a few reviews or textbooks to supplement your background knowledge.
Second, it will help you remember the subject.Finally, the most important thing is to allow your reader to incorporate new information on this topic into your previous knowledge.
If you are familiar with the field, you can scan the introduction or skip it.As mentioned earlier, the logical order of most articles is from the introduction to the conclusion.So we read in this order, that is, we can skip the material and method parts and wait until we need this part before returning to read it.A reader who is familiar with the field and is interested in a new discovery in the article jumps directly to the relevant section of the conclusion and reads the analysis of the discovery in the discussion.If the article is well organized, it will be easy to read.
Difficulties in reading scientific papers
Reading scientific papers can be difficult, especially if you are not familiar with the field.As mentioned earlier, no matter how well the paper is written, it is necessary to prepare before reading it.However, while there will be many difficulties in front of the reader, most of them are caused by the author.
The main problem with the difficulty of reading scientific papers is that most of them are poorly written.Some scientists write poorly, and some scientists are reluctant to write and spend time and energy trying to ensure that the logic of the article is clear.And the authors are so familiar with what they're writing that it's hard for them to see things from the reader's point of view, even though it's really like a mountain to chew on.
Poor writing brings a lot of problems to the reader.The first problem is that the article is illogical.The article simply talks about the experiment, without saying why the experiment was done or what kind of idea it was meant to test.Second, there is a series of technical terms in the paper.Third, the author's path is unclear, and there is no distinction between primary and secondary.Primary and secondary problems are equally divided on the logical line.But then the reader can't understand.A good article should be to put secondary issues in the legend of the chart or to show that it is a side issue that is not very relevant to the topic, so that the reader will not be confused.
Another problem with reading scientific papers is that readers are always obsessed with experimentation.From time to time, the author refers to the previous article, and this reference chain can be long.This chain will be connected to articles describing many experimental methods, and the reader will not be able to identify which method is referenced by the author.Or perhaps the chain unfortunately leads to a short article describing the experiment as super concentrated, completely unclear how.What's more, the author is not good at writing experimental methods at all, readers can only in the cloud, how to do the experiment is strange.
Another problem with scientific papers is the indiscriminate treatment of experiments by authors.But if they have a preference for a particular experiment, it is narrow-minded for other possible experiments, which are not confirmed or even mentioned in the discussion section.Another problem is that many authors can't tell the difference between fact and conjecture, especially in the discussion section.This makes it difficult for the reader to understand how important it is to discuss the facts.