Scientific papers are important sources of scientific and technological information for scientific and technological development and modernization, and historical documents for recording human scientific and technological progress.
What is a scientific paper? What's the difference between it and general scientific articles? How to write a scientific paper? These are all questions of interest to readers. Therefore, the format of writing scientific papers (quoted from the course of editing scientific journals) is continuously published by using the column of "readers" to further improve the overall level of scientific papers.
What is a scientific paper?
(1) Basic Features of Scientific Papers
What is a scientific paper? At present, there is no completely unified understanding, but as the object of sci-tech periodicals, we can think that:
In the process of understanding and transforming the objective world, through material argumentation that is enough to repeat its experiments (or has the potential of some similar practices) and convince others, first things and their true meanings are revealed, and narrative documents published in formal scientific journals or other forms officially recognized by academic circles can be collectively called scientific papers. Therefore, a complete scientific paper should be scientific, creative, logical and effective.
(1) scientificity-This is the methodological feature of scientific papers, which is different from all literary, aesthetic and theological articles. It not only describes the propositions related to the field of science and technology, but more importantly, the contents discussed have scientific credibility. Scientific papers cannot choose materials or draw conclusions at will according to subjective assumptions or personal likes and dislikes, but must be based on fully reliable experimental data or phenomenon observation. The so-called "reliability" means that the whole experimental process can be checked and verified;
(2) initiative-this is the soul of scientific papers, which is different from other documents. It requires the phenomena, attributes, characteristics and laws that things follow when they move, or the application of these laws must be unprecedented, groundbreaking or partially groundbreaking, and must be discovered, invented, created and advanced rather than repeating, imitating or explaining the work of predecessors;
③ Logic-this is the structural feature of the article. It requires clear context, rigorous structure, complete premise, correct calculus, standardized symbols, fluent characters, exquisite charts, reasonable reasoning, and self-contained. The topics involved in the article, no matter how big or small, should have their own premises or assumptions, argument materials and inferences. Through reasoning, analysis and promotion to the height of academic theory, there should be no conclusions made out of nothing or piles of chaotic data and strings of original phenomena;
(4) Effectiveness-means the way the article is published. At present, only through peer experts' evaluation of relevant majors, and through the defense at an academic evaluation meeting, the case is filed for justice; Or scientific papers published in regular scientific journals are recognized as complete and effective. At this time, no matter what language the paper is published in, it shows that the facts and their true meanings revealed by the paper have been easily applied by others and become an integral part of the treasure house of human knowledge.
⑵ Classification of scientific papers
It is not easy to classify scientific papers strictly, because they are analyzed from different angles. There will be different classification results. For example, it can be divided into subject matter content, publication form and narrative purpose. The problem itself is not the main purpose of the current discussion. For authors and editors of sci-tech periodicals, it is more important to grasp the key points of articles and the characteristics of different types of articles when writing, revising and editing papers. Therefore, scientific papers can be temporarily classified as follows:
(1) demonstration type-a document that discusses and proves the proposition of basic science. For example, the establishment and demonstration of axioms, theorems, principles, principles or hypotheses in basic disciplines such as logarithm, physics, chemistry, heaven, earth and biology and many other applied disciplines, and the discussion of their applicable scope and conditions.
(2) scientific and technological report-in the national standard GB77 13-87, it is said that scientific and technological report is the result or progress of a scientific and technological research or the result of a technological research experiment and evaluation; Or discuss the current situation and development of a scientific and technological problem.
Narrative is a special case (such as clinical reports in many medical fields).
Many articles on the feasibility demonstration of professional technology, engineering scheme and research plan can also be included in this type.
Such an article should usually provide enough information about the research project. The accuracy and completeness of original data, including positive and negative results and experiences, often make it the basis and basis for further research. Scientific and technological report papers account for the majority of modern scientific and technological documents;
(3) Discovery and invention-a document describing the background, phenomenon, essence, characteristics, movement and change law of the discovered things or events and the utilization of this discovery prospect by human beings;
A document describing the efficacy, performance, characteristics, principles and conditions of use of the invented equipment, system, tools, materials, processes, formula forms or methods;
④ Computational type —— Propose or discuss the numerical calculation methods of different types of mathematical and physical equations (including different boundary values and initial conditions), other series or numerical operations, computer-aided design, and the application principle, data structure, operation method, convergence, stability and accuracy analysis of computers in different fields. It is usually the basis for further development of computer software.
⑤ Summary-This is a special scientific paper. The main difference from general scientific papers is that it does not require originality in the research content. Although a good review article often contains some new materials and new ideas that have not been published before, it requires the author to put forward the publishing evolution law and trend of related professional topics in a specific period on the basis of comprehensive analysis and evaluation of existing materials.
The title of the summary article is generally general, and the length is allowed to be slightly longer. There are usually two kinds of writing methods: one is to collect literature, supplemented by comments, and objectively comment less. The annual review of some active disciplines belongs to this category; The other focuses on comments. Through review, observation and prospect, this paper puts forward logical and enlightening views and suggestions. This kind of article is highly demanding and authoritative. It often plays a guiding role in the further development of the topic under discussion.
⑥ Other types.
2. Writing format of scientific papers
(1) Chapter, Article, Article and Article Number
According to the national standard "Part 1 Unit: Rules for Drafting and Expressing Standards, Part 1 Basic Provisions for Standard Compilation", the division, numbering and arrangement of chapters, articles and articles of scientific and technological papers should be written in Arabic numerals at different levels, that is, the number of the first-level title is 1, 2, …; The number of secondary professional titles is 1. 1, 1.2, …, 2. 1, 2.2, …; The number of the third-level title is1.1.1.1.1.2, …, and so on. See GB/T 1. 1-93 and GB77 13-87 for details.
The numbering method of this chapter stipulated by national standards has obvious advantages for authors, editors and readers.
(2) Title
Title is an important part of scientific papers. It requires the most concise and appropriate phrases to reflect the specific content of the article, clearly tell readers the theme of the paper, and make it make the finishing point and stimulate readers' interest. Generally speaking, the title should include the main keywords of the article. In short, the wording of the title is very important, which is directly related to the reader's attitude towards the article, so we must consider every word. The title is like a label, so it is forbidden to describe the content of the paper point by point with lengthy complete sentences with subject-predicate-object structure to ensure "conciseness"; The requirement of "appropriateness" should be reflected in pertinence, conspicuity and readability. Of course, we should also avoid the so-called brevity and lack of retrievability that are too general or grandstanding, so that the name is not true or can not reflect the theme characteristics of each article.
Titles should be short, not long, and many internationally renowned journals restrict the use of headlines. For Chinese sci-tech periodicals, the title of papers shall not exceed 20 Chinese characters, and the title of foreign languages shall not exceed 10 notional words. When short titles are used but the meaning is incomplete, or when a series of work is reported in a separate article, subheadings can be used to supplement the lower content of the paper.
The title should try to avoid using unfamiliar chemical structural formulas, mathematical formulas, symbols, abbreviations, abbreviations and commodity names.
(3) the author
Author's signature is an important part of scientific papers. The author refers to the person who has made great contributions to the conception of the theme of the paper, the implementation of specific research work, writing and writing. Who can be responsible for defending the main content of the paper is the legal sovereign and responsible person of the paper. The number of signatories should not be too large. Those who have consulted some of the contents of the paper, given some help or participated in the routine work should not sign their names as authors, but they can indicate which part of the specific work they have participated in, or thank them for their contributions and work by thanking them at the end of the paper.
Co-authors of papers should be ranked according to their contribution to the paper. The author's full name should be given. Scientific articles generally use the author's real name, not the changeable pen name. At the same time, it should also give the unit where the author completed the research work or the work unit or mailing address where the author is located, so that readers can contact the author when necessary.
(4) Abstract
It is a necessary additional part of modern scientific papers, and only extremely short articles can be omitted. Readers should not only master the vast ocean of information as much as possible, but also face their limited energy, which is an effective means to solve contradictions.
According to the definition of GB6447-86, an abstract is a short article that concisely and accurately describes the important contents of a document, with the purpose of providing a summary of the contents of the document without comments or supplementary explanations.
There are two basic ways to write an abstract: a report summary-a concise summary (also known as an introduction), indicating the subject scope and content outline of the document; Indicative summary-concise summary, indicating the theme of the document and the nature and level of achievements. In between is the report/indicative summary-the report summary is used to express the part of the document with high information value, while the indicative summary is used to express the rest of the summary. General scientific papers should be written as report summaries as far as possible, while comprehensive, informative or critical articles can be written as indicative or report/indicative summaries.
Abstract can be compiled by the author of the original document, the abstract staff or the periodical editor.
Abstract should be concise, and its detail depends on the content of the document. Chinese abstracts generally do not exceed 400 words, and purely indicative abstracts can be shorter and should be controlled at about 200 words (GB6447-86 stipulates that 400 words is generally appropriate for reporting abstracts and report/indicative abstracts; Generally speaking, the indicative abstract is about 200 words. GB77 13-87 stipulates that Chinese abstracts should generally not exceed 200~300 words; Foreign language abstracts should not exceed 250 real words. In case of special needs, the number of words can be slightly more). Foreign language abstracts should not exceed 250 real words. For documents written in languages other than English, Russian, German, Japanese and French, the abstracts may be appropriately detailed. Dissertations and other documents have certain particularity, and can be written as variant abstracts for review, which is not limited by the number of words. Writing should be objective and true and should not be mixed with the author's subjective opinions, explanations and comments. If a document is found to have errors in principle, it can be marked with "Picker's Notes".
It should be self-evident and have the same amount of information as a document, that is, you can get the necessary information without reading the full text of the document. Therefore, the abstract is a complete essay that can be quoted.
When writing an abstract, you should pay attention to:
(1) Exclude the content that has become common sense in this subject field;
(2) Don't simply repeat the information already expressed in the title of the article;
(3) The structure is rigorous, the meaning is exact, the expression is concise, and it is done in one go. Generally, it is not segmented or strives for fewer paragraphs; Avoid making empty comments and draw ambiguous conclusions. Articles that are inconclusive can be briefly discussed in the abstract.
④ Use the third person instead of "this article", "author" and "we" as the subject of the summary statement;
⑤ Standardized terminology should be adopted. If it has not been standardized, the principle is to use disposable literature. If there is no suitable Chinese translation of the new term, you can use the original text or the translation name with brackets to represent the original text;
⑥ Don't use charts, tables or chemical structures, and abbreviations, abbreviations and codes that are difficult for neighboring professional readers to clearly understand. If it is really necessary, it must be stated when the abstract first appears;
⑦ The chapter number, drawing number, table number, formula number and reference contribution number listed in the literature shall not be used;
(8) Necessary commodity names shall be marked with scientific names.
Of course, legal units of measurement should be used and standard words and punctuation should be written correctly.
See GB6447-86 for the compilation requirements of abstract.
International exchange journals should also give abstracts written in international languages (usually English).
The abstract can be given one by one with the original document, or the whole issue can be given together on the abstract page. The latter is the general trend of international development, because it is convenient for periodical retrieval systems or collection units to use, and periodicals with conditions should be given priority. The abstract page is not included in the continuous page number of the whole issue.
5] Keywords
In order to facilitate readers to retrieve documents from a vast number of books and periodicals, especially to meet the needs of computer automatic retrieval, GB3 179/T-92 stipulates that all modern sci-tech journals should give 3-8 keywords at the back of the abstracts of academic papers. Keyword indexing should be based on GB3860-83 "Rules for Subject Indexing of Documents". On the basis of reading the titles, prefaces, conclusions and charts of the literature, especially on the basis of reading the literature, we should analyze the themes of the literature one by one, and then choose keywords that can reflect the characteristics and contents of the literature and have strong versatility. First of all, we should choose the standardized words (called descriptive words or subject words) included in the vocabulary such as Chinese Thesaurus and MeSH. For those new nouns and terms that reflect new technologies and disciplines but have not been entered into the thesaurus, they can also be marked with nonstandard free words, which can be used as a reference for the compilation unit of the confession list when revising the thesaurus. One thing to emphasize is: don't write keywords as "comprehensive" phrases in order to emphasize the comprehensiveness of the document theme.
6. Introduction
Introduction (preface, preface, overview) is often used as the beginning of a paper, which mainly answers the question of "why". This paper briefly introduces the background of the topic, the history and present situation of previous studies in related fields (sometimes called literature review), and the author's intention and analysis basis, including the pursuit goal, research scope and the choice of theoretical and technical schemes. The introduction should be concise and to the point, and should not be equated with the abstract, or become the annotation of the abstract. Introduction: Don't elaborate on the familiar knowledge of peers, including the basic theories, experimental methods and the derivation of basic equations already mentioned in textbooks; Unless it is a dissertation, in order to reflect the author's research and so on, more detailed literature review paragraphs are allowed. If more technical terms or abbreviations are used in the text, it is best to define the description in the introduction first.
Once the text
The text is the core part of a scientific paper, which mainly answers the question of "how to learn". The text should fully explain the viewpoint, principle, method and the whole process of achieving the expected goal, highlight the word "new" and reflect the originality of stationery. According to the need, the paper can be deeply layered, analyzed layer by layer, and set layered titles by layer.
The text usually occupies most of the length of the paper. Its specific presentation methods are often very different due to different disciplines and different types of articles, so it is impossible to make unified regulations far-fetched. Generally, it should include materials, methods, results, discussions and conclusions.
Experiment and observation, data processing and analysis, and conclusions of experimental research results are the most important parts of the text, which should be highly valued. We should respect the facts, and we should not mix subjective factors or speculate in the selection of materials, and we should not ignore incidental phenomena and data.
Writing scientific papers does not need flowery words, but requires clear thinking, strict logic, concise and accurate language, vivid and smooth; The content should be objective, scientific and complete, and try to speak with facts and data; Anything that can be explained in simple language should be expressed in language. If it is difficult to make it clear in words or complicated, use tables or pictures (use color pictures if necessary). A table or chart should be self-evident, that is, the information given by itself can explain the problem to be expressed. The citation of data should be rigorous and accurate, to prevent misquoting or re-quoting, and to avoid repeating the same set of data with charts. The citation of materials should indicate the source.
Physical quantities and unit symbols should adopt the provisions of legal units of measurement in People's Republic of China (PRC), and adopt standardized units and text symbols; When choosing non-standard units or symbols as a last resort, we should consider the customs of the industry, or use legal units and symbols for labeling and conversion.
Considering the difficulty of plate making and publishing cost. Try not to fold the illustrations, use less color and use more black and white pictures. Charts should be carefully designed and selected, and those that are dispensable or express similar meanings should be deleted. The chart should be given together with the text, arranged after the first mentioned paragraph, and should be arranged in the same visual layout.
Textbook-style writing method is the first taboo in writing scientific papers. Avoid re-describing and demonstrating the existing knowledge, and try to use the method of marking references; For some mathematical auxiliary means used, we should avoid paying too much attention to detailed mathematical derivation, and if necessary, we can adopt the form of appendix for readers to choose.
Existential conclusion
The conclusion (or discussion) is the final summary of the whole article. Although most authors of scientific papers end with conclusions and convey their main intentions to readers through conclusions, this is not a necessary part of the paper.
The conclusion should not be a simple repetition of the summary of each paragraph in the article, but mainly an answer to "what did you study?" It should be based on the phenomena, data and analysis obtained from experiments or investigations in this paper, so as to point out completely, accurately and concisely:
(1) The principle and universality revealed by the investigation or experimental results of the research object;
(2) Whether there are any exceptions found in the research or problems that are difficult to explain and solve in this paper;
(3) Similarities and differences with previously published research work (including others or the author himself);
④ The theoretical and practical significance and value of this paper;
⑤ Suggestions for further research on this subject.
Thank you.
Acknowledgement is usually divided into separate paragraphs and placed at the end of the article, but it is not a necessary part of the paper. Give guidance or suggestions on the topic selection, conception or writing of the paper, make some contributions to the investigation or experiment, or give technical, information, material or financial help to the unit, group or individual, and express gratitude. Generally speaking, there is no need to thank special labor.
⑽ References
Reference is an important part of modern scientific papers, but if you don't refer to it when writing a paper, you don't have to write it. It reflects the scientific basis of the manuscript and the author's respect for other people's research results, and provides readers with the sources of relevant materials cited in the paper, or provides detailed words of relevant contents mentioned in the paper but not developed in order to save space and facilitate narration. Any editing method that does not attach importance to references or even uses "omitting references after the text" is wrong.
References included should be limited to publications read by the author personally and cited in the paper, or other relevant files, including patents and other documents. Personal letters, internal handouts and unpublished works are generally not suitable as references, but footnotes or notes in the text can be used to illustrate the reference basis. There have been many ways to describe the references at home and abroad, but since ISO formulated the international standard, there has been a gradual consistent trend. At present, China's Technical Committee for Standardization of Literature Work has formulated its own national standard-GB 7714-87 "Rules for the Description of References after Articles", which clearly stipulates that China's sci-tech periodicals adopt the internationally accepted "sequential coding system" and "author-"to record one by one according to the order of references cited in the paper, according to the order of author, title and publication; The latter is first concentrated by language type (in the order of Chinese, Japanese, English, Russian, etc.), and then arranged in the order of surname strokes or initials written by the citation. When citing multiple documents of the same author, they are given in order of publication year.
The description form of the references at the back of the article is still complicated. Please refer to the provisions of GB77 14-87 at any time for specific implementation.
⑾ Appendix
The appendix is an annex to the paper, not a necessary part. It provides readers with detailed derivation, calculation, proof, instruments, equipment or explanations of some contents in the paper, as well as related data, curves, photos or computer block diagrams, program software and other auxiliary materials without increasing the length of the text and affecting the narrative coherence of the text.
Appendices, like the text, are numbered consecutively.