Notes 3

Papers and Theses

Most of the following notes are from:

Guidelines for writing a research paper for publication (Fisher, Jansen, Johnson, Mikos) 2016.

Thesis
• A thesis is an evidence that the student is capable of conducting independent research and
of reporting its findings.
• Theses are placed in the libraries of universities where they were submitted.
• In general theses are free from page limitation.
The research paper
• A method of presenting technical results to the broader scientific community.
• A method to construct a clearly written document that describes a question and then
logically presents an answer to this question that is based upon theoretical or
experimental results.
• The final stage that reports new knowledge
• Demonstration of an understanding of the state of the art
• A novel contribution
•

A strategy in writing a scientific manuscript

Language:
Simple Straightforward Short sentences Specific

• First: write the Method section, largely derived from your initial research protocol, and
perhaps during the experimental phase of the work itself so that all details are included.
• Second: construct all of the figures and tables that contain the data included in the work,
and then write the Results section.
• Third: reconsider the scientific questions the manuscript will address and then write the
Introduction.
• Fourth: use the Introduction and Results to guide the writing of the Discussion.
• Fifth: Summarize everything in an Abstract, and then condense and refocus the Abstract
into a Conclusion section.

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Title Page
• The title of your manuscript is usually the first introduction readers (and reviewers) have
to your work.
• Therefore, you must select a title that grabs attention, accurately describes the contents of
your manuscript, and makes people want to read further.
• The title should be short and simple, as well as authors and author affiliations.
• Provide approximately 5 key words, as well as a short title (sometimes referred to as a
running title).
• Most electronic search engines use the words found in your title and your list of
keywords to decide whether and when to display your paper to interested readers.
• Finally, provide complete contact information for the corresponding author.

Abstract
• A single paragraph.
• Should be considered as an independent document, so that the abstract does not rely upon
any material in the body of the report and, similarly, the body of the report does not rely
upon any material in the abstract.
• It should clearly state the objective of the work.
• If the work is based upon a hypothesis, which is greatly preferred, the hypothesis should
be stated and followed with statements describing its basis and evaluation.
• The subsequent sentences describe how the investigation was carried out.
• The following sentences describe the results of the experiment/ work.
• The final sentences describe the significance of the results and the impact of this work on
the general field of study.

Introduction
• What was studied before?
• What was not studied before?
• What is the significance of your study?

• Requires a short review of the literature pertaining to the research topic.

• It starts with broad topics and slowly focusing on the work at hand.
• Perhaps three to four paragraphs are needed.
• One approach may be to start with one or two paragraphs that introduce the reader to the
general field of study.
• The subsequent paragraphs then describe how an aspect of this field could be improved.
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 • The final paragraph is critical.
• It clearly states what question will be answered by the present study.
• The hypothesis is then stated.
• Next, briefly describe the approach that was taken to test the hypothesis.
• Finally, a summary sentence may be added stating how the answer of your question will
contribute to the overall field of study.

Literature Review
• What did other publications/ researcher do?
• It summarizes the methods, results and main contributions presented in the papers read by
author during his research.
• It can be arranged historically or in groups.
• It must be up to date.
• Quality of publications and sources of them are important.
•
• Search across multiple databases and information resources. Examples:
• www.ieeexplore.ieee.org
• www.sciencedirect.com
• www.wiley.com
• www.springer.com
• http://www.ekb.eg/ Egyptian Knowledge Bank
• https://scholar.google.com