Monday, September 30, 2013

WRITING A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ARTICLE




 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

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 Biological 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 potential 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 retaining 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 four 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 loco motor 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 the 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 FIGURES

1. If you present your data in a table or figure, include a title describing what's in the table ("Enzyme activity at various temperatures", not "My results".) For figure, 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 AC, Mauve BE (1994). Queer place for qwerty: gene isolation from the platypus. Science 275: 1213-1214.

Magenta ST, Sepia X, Turquoise U (1995). Wombat genetics. In: Widiculous Wombats, Violet, Q., ed. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 123-145.

Scarlet SL (1990). Isolation of qwerty gene from S. cerevisae. Journal of Unusual Results 36: 26-31.

Martins AC (1999). Isolation of qwerty gene from S. cerevisae. Journal of Unusual Results 36(2): 26-31.

SOROTAN LITERATUR (LITERATURE REVIEW)




Seseorang penulis bahan atau artikel akademik perlu mempunyai kemahiran untuk membuat sorotan literatur (literature review) supaya beliau dapat menghubungkitkan idea beliau dengan idea orang lain melalui pembacaan daripada pelbagai sumber maklumat. Penulis bukanlah menceduk seratus peratus maklumat daripada bahan yang dirujuk, tetapi menggunakan idea daripada bahan tersebut dan membincangkannya bersama-sama dengan idea pemulis dan juga idea-idea lain daripada pelbagai bahan rujukan yang telah dibaca.


Berikut dipaparkan sedikit maklumat mengenai sorotam literatur:
 


Maksud Sorotan Literatur

Sesuatu bidang atau disiplin ilmu wujud seperti bidang pendidikan didokong oleh badan pengetahuan. Badan pengetahuan terdiri daripada rangkaian teori yang berkat dengan bidang berkenaan. Teori-teori pada sesuatu bidang diperoleh dan dikumpul melalui penyelidikan. Penyelidik peru mengkai perkembangan bidang ilmu dimana masalah yang ingin dikaji itu tergolong. Kajian terhadap perkembangan bidang ilmu ini dikenai sebagai sorotan literatur.

Fungsi Sorotan Literatur

Terdapat tujuh fungsi sorotan literatur;

  1. Sorotan literatur meningkatkan pemahaman penyelidik tentang teori-teori terkini dalam bidang di mana masalah dikaji. Pemahaman teori memberi perspektif terhadap penyelidikan yang dilakukan. Perspektif yang betul membolekan kajian terhadap masalah dilakukan secara objektif, teratur dan rasional, sebagaimana keperluan saintifik dalam proses penyelidikan. Walaupun terdapat teori yang diperoleh daripada pengetahuan bidang umum, teori khusus yang terdapat dalam sesuatu disiplin ilmu lebih berguna.
  2. Sorotan literatur membantu menjelaskan latar belakang masalah yang dikaji penyelidik akan mengetahui di mana dan bila beliau perlu memulakan kajian. Penyelidik juga akan mengetahui di mana dan bagaimana beliau perlu menyempurnakan kajian. Sekiranya penyelidik A telah mengkaji sesuatu masalah setakat X sahaja, maka kita perlu meneruskan penyelidikan A itu sehingga ke tahap Y. Usaha ini akan memastikan kesinambungan dan peningkatan teori bagi memperkukuhkan sesuatu bidang ilmu.
  3. Sorotan literatur mendedahkan penyelidik kepada kaedah dan teknik bagi mendapatkan jawapan dan penyelesaian masalah kajian. Penyelidik boleh mempelajari kaedah dan teknik yang digunakan oleh penyelidik lain bagi menyelesaikan masalah dan membentuk teori.
  4. Sorotan literatur membantu penyelidik mengelakkan diri daripada mengulangi kelemahan dan kesilapan yang telah dilakukan oleh penyelidik sebelumnya. Penyelidik boleh mempelajari kelemahan yang berlaku dan mengambil iktibar supaya tidak berulang.
  5. Sorotan literatur membantu penyelidik mentafsir dapatan kajian yang akan diperoleh. Penyelidik boleh mempelajari bagaimana penyelidik lain mentafsir dapatan penyelidikan dan membentuk teori. Pengetahuan seperti ini membiasakan penyelidik untuk membuat tafsiran dengan betul dan tepat kepada dapatan yang akan diperolehi.
  6. Sorotan literatur membantu penyelidik meningkatkan kewibawaannya dalam disiplin ilmu yang dikaji. Keupayaan, kebolehan dan pengetahuan penyelidik dalam bidang yang dikaji membolehkan beliau menerima pengiktirafan profesional daripada rakan penyelidik.
  7. Sorotan literatur membantu meningkatkan keyakinan dan motivasi penyelidik. Penguasaan teori dalam bidang yang dikaji membolehkan penyelidik yakin dengan keupayaan diri dan seterusnya memberi dorongan kepada diri sendiri untuk melakukan penyelidikan sehingga sempurna dengan cekal dan tabah.
  Sumber Literatur

  1. Jurnal
  2. Kamus dan glosari
  3. Ensiklopedia
  4. Abstrak dan indeks

Kaedah Membuat Sorotan

  1. Internet bagi melayari laman web
  2. Penggunaan abstrak jurnal dan indeks
  3. Penggunaan pengimbas bibliografi
  4. Penggunaan kamus perkara dan ensiklopedia
  5. Penggunaan katalog perkara
  6. Penggunaan sesebuah buku atau makalah yang diketahui

Mencatat Maklumat Sorotan Literatur

  1. Masalah atau isu yang menjadi asas kajian sumber
  2. Idea, gagasan dan teori berkaitan yang digunakan oleh sumber
  3. Idea, gagasan dan teori atau rangka kerja sumber
  4. Kekuatan dan kelemahan rekabentuk kajian sumber dari segi kaedah, instrumen, persampelan, pengumpulan data, analisis data, dapatan dan tafsiran dapatan kajian