An article summarizing the results of a research study is trying to both explain the study as well as the reason the study was conducted. The specific structure of a scientific scholarly article may vary slightly between disciplines and journals, but the overall format is basically the same.
The sections of a scholarly article can be thought to answer the questions posed below:
Paper Section |
What It Means |
|---|---|
| Abstract | What did I do in a nutshell? |
| Introduction | What is the problem? |
| Literature Review (might be part of the introduction or a separate section) | How have others worked on this problem? |
| Materials and/or Methods | How did I solve the problem? |
| Results or Findings | What did I find out? |
| Discussion and/or Conclusions | What does it mean? |
| Acknowledgments (when applicable) | Who helped me out? |
| Works Cited/References/Bibliography | Whose work did I refer to? |
| Appendices (when applicable) | Extra Information |
Table adapted from How to Write a Paper in Scientific Journal Style and Format (Bates College).
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