BISC 111/113:Science Writing Guidelines

From OpenWetWare

Revision as of 07:52, 28 August 2012 by Janet McDonough (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
BISC 111/113: Introductory Organismal Biology


General Instructions for Writing Scientific Papers or Lab Reports

Prior to writing a summary paper for lab experiments, you may discuss the laboratory experiment with your peers or your instructor. However, the final content, organization, and wording of the paper must be of your own design. You may not use figures and graphs or statistical analyses prepared by others and presented to the class in the oral presentations. All data analysis must be your own.

Late papers will be penalized 5% per day.


You might also refer to the Carlton College lab writing guide as an additional source for science writing suggestions (

Lab Paper Format

Methods and Materials
Results: Tables, Figures and separate results text
Acknowledgment (optional)
References (or Literature Cited)



Compare and contrast these potential titles:
"Response of patients to different doses of ice cream"
"Frequent administration of ice cream boosts patients' morale"

As you analyze the titles consider these questions:

  2. Is the take home message clear?


The abstract is a concise summary of: 1) the rationale and goal or hypothesis of your investigation (1-2 sentences), 2) the general methods used (1-2 sentences), and 3) the specific, major findings of your study. The main results make up the major part of the abstract. The abstract should also include a concluding sentence that interprets your results relative to the specific questions addressed. The abstract should be one paragraph and single spaced.


The Introduction gives the reader a sense of "why" you did the research and its importance, its general theme, and how your study fits into existing research. One of the most important aspects of your complete paper should be thematic continuity. Once you identify your theme, carry it throughout the paper, creating a "story" that leads logically to each new piece of information you present in the Results, and interpret in the Discussion. The introduction incorporates references to existing work of other scientists to help the reader understand how your investigation and its /goal/hypothesis fit into this body of work, be sure to cite these references properly.

Background information:
Most of the information in the introduction will be based on outside readings, and other people’s work. These sources must be acknowledged. For example in the plant lab, you may want to include relevant information about the species that were the focus of your study, or, in the population lab, you will likely include information from the literature about population growth and/or the interactions of populations in different environmental conditions.

Paraphrase (do not quote) what you have read and cite at the end of the statement or paragraph.

In-text Citations (within the text):
Be sure you cite the source of all background information in proper “in-text” format. Here are 3 examples of options for citing in your written text:
Albie (2004) found that … In contrast, Hummel and John (2000) reported that ...... Others have found that … (Hold, 2004; VandenBos et al., 2001; Mayer, pers. comm., 2005) .

Note the proper in text citation format for various numbers of authors of publications:
- one author: (Albie, 2004)
- 2 authors (Albee and VanderBos, 2008)
- more than 2 authors (VandenBos et. al, 2001) The first author is the only name reported here, but all authors are listed in the References Cited section of your report.
- You may also include page numbers, particularly for books, (VanderBos et. al, 2001, 781).

The experimental question:
Because the background information is the rationale for your question or hypothesis, the hypothesis should follow logically from that flow of information. The last paragraph of the Introduction should clearly and succinctly state the goal/hypothesis of the experiment you conducted. You might say, “ because…and…it is expected that…”. Try to avoid “the hypothesis is…”.

Do not report your findings or interpret them in the Introduction.


































Image: Sciencewriting_Fig1_Example_fa2011.jpg

Figure 1. Population size (mean ± SE) of adult Tribolium castaneum beetles raised in different flour types. Twenty unsexed beetles were placed in 3 replicate jars containing one gram of flour per individual. The beetles were cultured at 29°C and 50% humidity for 70 days when only adult beetles were counted. ANOVA, F = 107.9, df = 3, 8, p = <0.0001, alpha level = 0.05. 1Tukey levels not sharing the same letter are significantly different.

Example of table representing means +/- SE, Tukey HSD test results and an appropriate caption:

Table 1. Test of the hypothesis that food type affects adult flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) population growth. Twenty unsexed beetles were placed in a jar containing one gram of flour per individual. Three replicates per flour treatment were cultured at 29 °C and 50% humidity for 70 days. ANOVA, F = 107.9, df = 3, 8, p = <0.0001, alpha level = 0.05. 1Tukey levels not sharing the same letter are significantly different.


Example of a Composite Figure: Composite figures show connected information using multiple formats. The figures should agree with the final conclusions illustrated by your data and represented in graphs/tables. In other words, if your numerical data shows that plant A has a relatively high stomatal density, be sure to choose a photo of an epidermal peel for your photomicrograph that shows plant A has a high stomatal density relative to the other species of plants. The following is an example of a composite figure from Klich, M.G. (2001):

Fig. 2. Cleared leaves of E. angustifolia and drawings of transverse sections. (a,b) Lower shade leaves; (c,d) medium half sun-exposed leaves; (e,f) upper sun-leaves. (For a,c,e, bar: 1 cm; for b,d,f, bar: 50 mm).

Note in Fig 2 that each photo or drawing in the figure has a bar with its scale noted in the caption of the figure. The caption also describes the contents of each section of the figure and labels specific pictures/drawings with letters to denote different groups. You may also choose to use arrows with labels to point out specific components of the figure that you think should be highlighted for your reader.


Writing a good Discussion section is the most challenging part of composing a scientific paper. Organize your Discussion around the major points (conclusions) that you want to make from your data. Use your results to support these points without restating them, and try to relate your results to the expectations in the introduction.

The discussion is the appropriate place in the paper to evaluate the significance of your findings. In this section you try to explain what the data mean. Show your reader what your results mean in the context of the whole biological system with which you’re working. Begin this section with a general restatement of your experimental goals as a topic sentence to frame the entire discussion; then summarize your main findings, using specific references to tables and figures in your results section. When organizing the discussion, it is best to follow the pattern of organization that you established in the 'Results’ narrative. You might compare your data to published reports from similar experiments (CITE them).

Look at your data: Do they support your hypothesis? Do they agree or conflict with published research? Mention the results from your experiments that support or conflict with your hypothesis or related studies, and offer plausible explanations. The Discussion is where you "make your case", much as a lawyer might do in a trial, based on the evidence you have presented. Considering the overall goal of our plant labs, your "case" might consider: How do these plant species illustrate evolutionary adaptation to environment?

An excellent way to organize your Discussion, as well as your Results and Introduction sections, is to lead off each paragraph with a topic sentence, a sentence that summarizes the main point, or “take-home message”, of the paragraph. This is a straightforward statement that basically condenses all that is to follow in the paragraph. Then, the rest of the information in each paragraph flows in illustration of those main points.

As an example – this is a topic sentence appropriate for a Discussion section paragraph: "The positive effect of the treatment was especially pronounced in the two groups receiving the highest doses. This is perhaps due to?... (Describe possible reasons that explain positive effects in these groups, including those findings and reasons suggested by previous studies).”

The bolded sentence is the topic sentence here. It is the "take-home" message of the paragraph. Try to do this for all paragraphs you write, especially in the Introduction, Results, and Discussion.

Start the Discussion with the most important finding of your research and its interpretation. Don’t dwell on difficulties encountered in the study. Another useful rule of thumb to help you compose your Discussion is to answer the question: “What are three principal findings I can discuss here?” Of course, there may be more or fewer than three, but the point is to focus on the main results and their implications.

Possible experimental or human errors should be mentioned in the discussion, but they should not be the focus of your Discussion. You should suggest further studies that you think should be conducted on this topic, additional questions that could be posed, or ways to modify the present study.

Emphasize the “take-home’ messages of the paper in a concluding paragraph. Your conclusion should summarize the principal findings, interpretations, and implications of your work.


This is an optional section in which you could mention people (and funding agencies if your research was supported by a grant) who were particularly important to the completion and success of the research.

Literature Cited

Only references actually cited in the paper are included in the Reference section at the end of the paper. This should not be a bibliography of “interesting” sources.

List the references in alphabetical order by first author, or title if an anonymous document. In addition to books and the lab manual, scientific studies or reviews in peer- reviewed journals provide excellent information. Be careful when using information from the Internet since it is unscreened and could be biased or unreliable. Avoid including or citing a “.com” web address.

Nearly every journal has different requirements for listing sources consulted in the writing of a research paper. The important point is to follow consistently the format required.

For the BISC 111 reports we will use the American Psychological Association (APA) Citation Style. A clear and complete APA style guide can be found at:

For additional information refer to the Wellesley College library’s suggestions for citing electronic sources found in the Style Manual section of the WC library web site:

General notes on references • Single-space references.
• Use sentence-case for titles.
• Spell journal names out completely (no abbreviations).
• Include all authors.
• Arrange the items on your reference list alphabetically by (first) author, interfiling books, articles, etc.
• Use only the initials of the authors' first (and middle) names; never use first or middle names.
• Underline or italicize all genus and species names.
• Magazine (not scientific journal) articles: include the month (and day) as shown under Newspapers.

Personal tools