biological research paper format

This document originally came from the Journal of Mammalogy courtesy of Dr. Ronald Barry, a former editor of the journal.

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Formatting guide

This guide describes how to prepare contributions for submission. We recommend you read this in full if you have not previously submitted a contribution to Nature . We also recommend that, before submission, you familiarize yourself with Nature ’s style and content by reading the journal, either in print or online, particularly if you have not submitted to the journal recently.

Formats for Nature contributions

Articles are the main format for original research contributions to Nature . In addition, Nature publishes other submitted material as detailed below.

Articles are original reports whose conclusions represent a substantial advance in understanding of an important problem and have immediate, far-reaching implications. In print, physical sciences papers do not normally exceed 6 pages on average, and biological, clinical and social-sciences papers do not normally exceed 8 pages on average. However, the final print length is at the editor’s discretion.

Articles start with a fully referenced summary paragraph, ideally of no more than 200 words, which is separate from the main text and avoids numbers, abbreviations, acronyms or measurements unless essential. It is aimed at readers outside the discipline. This summary paragraph should be structured as follows: 2-3 sentences of basic-level introduction to the field; a brief account of the background and rationale of the work; a statement of the main conclusions (introduced by the phrase 'Here we show' or its equivalent); and finally, 2-3 sentences putting the main findings into general context so it is clear how the results described in the paper have moved the field forwards. Please refer to our annotated example   to see how the summary paragraph should be constructed.

The typical length of a 6-page article with 4 modest display items (figures and tables) is 2500 words (summary paragraph plus body text). The typical length of an 8-page article with 5-6 modest display items is 4300 words. A ‘modest’ display item is one that, with its legend, occupies about a quarter of a page (equivalent to ~270 words). If a composite figure (with several panels) needs to occupy at least half a page in order for all the elements to be visible, the text length may need to be reduced accordingly to accommodate such figures. Keep in mind that essential but technical details can be moved into the Methods or Supplementary Information.

As a guideline, articles typically have no more than 50 references. (There is no such constraint on any additional references associated with Methods or Supplementary Information.)

Sections are separated with subheadings to aid navigation. Subheadings may be up to 40 characters (including spaces).

Word counts refer to the text of the paper. Title, author list, acknowledgements and references are not included in total word counts.

Matters Arising and Corrections

Matters Arising are exceptionally interesting or important comments and clarifications on original research papers or other peer-reviewed material published within the past 18 months in Nature . They are published online but not in print.

For further details of and instructions for how to submit such comments on peer-reviewed material published in Nature — or to notify editors of the potential need for a correction — please consult our Matters Arising page.

Other contributions to Nature

Please access the other submitted material pages for further details on any of the contribution types below:

News and Comment

Correspondence

Books & Arts

News & Views

Insights, Reviews and Perspectives

Technology Features

The editorial process

See this section for an explanation of Nature 's editorial criteria for publication, refereeing policy and how editors handle papers after submission. Submission to a Nature journal is taken by the journal to mean that all the listed authors have agreed to all of the contents. See authorship policy for more details.

Presubmission enquiries

If you wish to enquire whether your Article might be suitable for consideration by Nature , please use our online presubmission enquiry service . All presubmission enquiries must include a cover paragraph to the editor stating the interest to a broad scientific readership, a fully referenced summary paragraph, and a reference list.

Readability

Nature is an international journal covering all the sciences. Contributions should therefore be written clearly and simply so that they are accessible to readers in other disciplines and to readers for whom English is not their first language. Thus, technical jargon should be avoided as far as possible and clearly explained where its use is unavoidable. Abbreviations, particularly those that are not standard, should also be kept to a minimum. The background, rationale and main conclusions of the study should be clearly explained. Titles and abstracts in particular should be written in language that will be readily intelligible to any scientist. Essential but specialized terms should be explained concisely but not didactically.

For gene, protein and other specialized names authors can use their preferred terminology so long as it is in current use by the community, but they must give all known names for the entity at first use in the paper. Nature prefers authors to use internationally agreed nomenclature. Papers containing new or revised formal taxonomic nomenclature for animals, whether living or extinct, are accepted conditional on the provision of LSIDs (Life Science Identifiers) by means of registration of such nomenclature with ZooBank, the proposed online registration system for the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).

Even though no paper will be rejected because of poor language, non–native English speakers occasionally receive feedback from editors and reviewers regarding language and grammar usage in their manuscripts. You may wish to consider asking colleagues to read your manuscript and/or to use a professional editing service such as those provided by our affiliates Nature Research Editing Service or American Journal Experts . You can also get a fast, free grammar check of your manuscript that takes into account all aspects of readability in English. Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in Nature .

Nature 's editors provide detailed advice about the expected print length when asking for the final version of the manuscript. Nature 's editors often suggest revised titles and rewrite the summary paragraphs of Articles so the conclusions are clear to a broad readership.

After acceptance, Nature 's subeditors (copyeditors) ensure that the text and figures are readable and clear to those outside the field, and edit papers into Nature 's house style. They pay particular attention to summary paragraphs, overall clarity, figures, figure legends and titles.

Proofs are sent before publication; authors are welcome to discuss proposed changes with Nature 's subeditors, but Nature reserves the right to make the final decision about matters of style and the size of figures.

A useful set of articles providing general advice about writing and submitting scientific papers can be found on the SciDev.Net website.

Format of Articles

Contributions should be double-spaced and written in English (spellings as in the Oxford English Dictionary ).

Contributions should be organized in the sequence: title, authors, affiliations (plus present addresses), bold first paragraph, main text, main references, tables, figure legends, methods (including separate data and code availability statements), methods references, acknowledgements, author contributions, competing interest declaration, additional information (containing supplementary information line (if any) and corresponding author line), extended data figure/table legends. In order to facilitate the review process, for initial submissions we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single file (Microsoft Word or PDF, up to 30 MB in size). The figures may be inserted within the text at the appropriate positions or grouped at the end, and each figure legend should be presented together with its figure. Also, please include line numbers within the text.

Titles do not exceed two lines in print. This equates to 75 characters (including spaces). Titles do not normally include numbers, acronyms, abbreviations or punctuation. They should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about.

An uninterrupted page of text contains about 1250 words.

A typical 6-page Article contains about 2,500 words of text and, additionally, 4 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

A typical 8-page Article contains about 4300 words of text and, additionally, 5-6 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

Authors of contributions that significantly exceed the limits stated here (or as specified by the editor) will have to shorten their papers before acceptance, inevitably delaying publication.

Nature requires authors to specify the contribution made by their co-authors in the end notes of the paper (see section 5.5). If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the address list. If more than three co-authors are equal in status, this should be indicated in the author contributions statement. Present addresses appear immediately below the author list (below the footnote rule at the bottom of the first page) and may be identified by a dagger symbol; all other essential author-related explanation is placed in the acknowledgements.

Our preferred format for text is Microsoft Word, with the style tags removed.

TeX/LaTeX: If you have prepared your paper using TeX/LaTeX, we will need to convert this to Word after acceptance, before your paper can be typeset. All textual material of the paper (including references, tables, figure captions, online methods, etc.) should be included as a single .tex file.

We prefer the use of a ‘standard’ font, preferably 12-point Times New Roman. For mathematical symbols, Greek letters and other special characters, use normal text or Symbol font. Word Equation Editor/MathType should be used only for formulae that cannot be produced using normal text or Symbol font.

The ‘Methods’ section is in the main text file, following the figure legends. This Methods section will appear in the PDF and in the full-text (HTML) version of the paper online, but will not appear in the printed issue. The Methods section should be written as concisely as possible but should contain all elements necessary to allow interpretation and replication of the results. As a guideline, the Methods section does not typically exceed 3,000 words. To increase reproducibility, authors are encouraged to deposit a detailed description of protocols used in their study in a protocol sharing platform of their choice. Springer Nature’s protocols.io is a free and open service designed to help researchers share experimental know-how. Protocols deposited by the authors in www.protocols.io will be linked to the online Methods section upon publication

Detailed descriptions of methods already published should be avoided; a reference number can be provided to save space, with any new addition or variation stated.

The Methods section should be subdivided by short bold headings referring to methods used and we encourage the inclusion of specific subsections for statistics, reagents and animal models. If further references are included in this section their numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the rest of the paper and they are listed after the Methods section.

Please provide separate Data Availability and Code Availability statements after the main text statements and before the Extended Data legends; detailed guidance can be found in our data availability and data citations policy . Certain data types must be deposited in an appropriate public structured data depository (details are available here ), and the accession number(s) provided in the manuscript. Full access is required at the time of publication. Should full access to data be required for peer review, authors must provide it.

The Methods section cannot contain figures or tables (essential display items should be included in the Extended Data or exceptionally in the Supplementary Information).

References are each numbered, ordered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, Methods, Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends.

When cited in the text, reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets unless they are likely to be confused with a superscript number.

Do not use linked fields (produced by EndNote and similar programs). Please use the one-click button provided by EndNote to remove EndNote codes before saving your file.

As a guideline, Articles allow up to 50 references in the main text if needed and within the average page budget. Only one publication can be listed for each number. Additional references for Methods or Supplementary Information are not included in this count.

Only articles that have been published or accepted by a named publication, or that have been uploaded to a recognized preprint server (for example, arXiv, bioRxiv), should be in the reference list; papers in preparation should be mentioned in the text with a list of authors (or initials if any of the authors are co-authors of the present contribution).

Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, preprints on recognized servers, papers in press, and research datasets that have been assigned a digital object identifier may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details and acknowledgements may not. (An exception is the highlighted references which we ask authors of Reviews, Perspectives and Insights articles to provide.)

All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are more than five, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by ‘et al.’.

Please follow the style below in the published edition of Nature in preparing reference lists.

Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names.

Titles of all cited articles are required. Titles of articles cited in reference lists should be in upright, not italic text; the first word of the title is capitalized, the title written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop. Book titles are italic with all main words capitalized. Journal titles are italic and abbreviated according to common usage. Volume numbers are bold. The publisher and city of publication are required for books cited. (Refer to published papers in Nature for details.)

Research datasets may be cited in the reference list if they have been assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) and include authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier (DOI expressed as a URL). Example: Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014).

Recognized preprints may be cited in the reference list. Example: Babichev, S. A., Ries, J. & Lvovsky, A. I. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. Preprint at http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0208066 (2002).

References to web-only journals should give authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by URL in full - or DOI if known - and the year of publication in parentheses.

References to websites should give authors if known, title of cited page, URL in full, and year of posting in parentheses.

End notes are brief and follow the Methods (or Methods References, if any).

Acknowledgements should be brief, and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, inessential words, or effusive comments. A person can be thanked for assistance, not “excellent” assistance, or for comments, not “insightful” comments, for example. Acknowledgements can contain grant and contribution numbers.

Author Contributions: Authors are required to include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author. The statement can be up to several sentences long, describing the tasks of individual authors referred to by their initials. See the authorship policy page for further explanation and examples.

Competing interests  statement.

Additional Information: Authors should include a set of statements at the end of the paper, in the following order:

Papers containing Supplementary Information contain the statement: “Supplementary Information is available for this paper.”

A sentence reading "Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to XX.” Nature expects this identified author to respond to readers’ enquiries and requests for materials, and to coordinate the handling of any other matters arising from the published contribution, including corrections complaints. The author named as corresponding author is not necessarily the senior author, and publication of this author’s name does not imply seniority. Authors may include more than one e-mail address if essential, in which event Nature will communicate with the first-listed address for any post-publication matters, and expect that author to coordinate with the other co-authors.

Peer review information includes the names of reviewers who agree to be cited and is completed by Nature staff during proofing.

A sentence reading “Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.”

Life sciences and behavioural & social sciences reporting guidelines

To improve the transparency of reporting and the reproducibility of published results, authors of life sciences and behavioural & social sciences Articles must provide a completed Reporting Summary that will be made available to editors and reviewers during manuscript assessment. The Reporting Summary will be published with all accepted manuscripts.

Please note: because of the advanced features used in these forms, you must use Adobe Reader to open the documents and fill them out.

Guidance and resources related to the use and reporting of statistics are available here .

Tables should each be presented on a separate page, portrait (not landscape) orientation, and upright on the page, not sideways.

Tables have a short, one-line title in bold text. Tables should be as small as possible. Bear in mind the size of a Nature page as a limiting factor when compiling a table.

Symbols and abbreviations are defined immediately below the table, followed by essential descriptive material as briefly as possible, all in double-spaced text.

Standard table formats are available for submissions of cryo-EM , NMR and X-ray crystallography data . Authors providing these data must use these standard tables and include them as Extended Data.

Figure legends

For initial submissions, we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single Word doc or PDF file, and for each figure legend to be presented together with its figure. However, when preparing the final paper to be accepted, we require figure legends to be listed one after the other, as part of the text document, separate from the figure files, and after the main reference list.

Each figure legend should begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel and the symbols used. If the paper contains a Methods section, legends should not contain any details of methods. Legends should be fewer than 300 words each.

All error bars and statistics must be defined in the figure legend, as discussed above.

Nature requires figures in electronic format. Please ensure that all digital images comply with the Nature journals’ policy on image integrity .

Figures should be as small and simple as is compatible with clarity. The goal is for figures to be comprehensible to readers in other or related disciplines, and to assist their understanding of the paper. Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Avoid unnecessary complexity, colouring and excessive detail.

Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details are visible. For guidance, Nature ’s standard figure sizes are 90 mm (single column) and 180 mm (double column) and the full depth of the page is 170 mm.

Amino-acid sequences should be printed in Courier (or other monospaced) font using the one-letter code in lines of 50 or 100 characters.

Authors describing chemical structures should use the Nature Research Chemical Structures style guide .

Some brief guidance for figure preparation:

Lettering in figures (labelling of axes and so on) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop.

Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000). Unusual units or abbreviations are defined in the legend.

Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors.

Layering type directly over shaded or textured areas and using reversed type (white lettering on a coloured background) should be avoided where possible.

Where possible, text, including keys to symbols, should be provided in the legend rather than on the figure itself.

Figure quality

At initial submission, figures should be at good enough quality to be assessed by referees, preferably incorporated into the manuscript text in a single Word doc or PDF, although figures can be supplied separately as JPEGs if authors are unable to include them with the text. Authors are advised to follow the initial and revised submissions guidelines with respect to sizing, resolution and labelling.

Please note that print-publication quality figures are large and it is not helpful to upload them at the submission stage. Authors will be asked for high-quality figures when they are asked to submit the final version of their article for publication.At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Third party rights

Nature discourages the use or adaptation of previously published display items (for example, figures, tables, images, videos or text boxes). However, we recognize that to illustrate some concepts the use of published data is required and the reuse of previously published display items may be necessary. Please note that in these instances we might not be able to obtain the necessary rights for some images to be reused (as is, or adapted versions) in our articles. In such cases, we will contact you to discuss the sourcing of alternative material.

Figure costs

In order to help cover some of the additional cost of four-colour reproduction, Nature Portfolio charges our authors a fee for the printing of their colour figures. Please contact our offices for exact pricing and details. Inability to pay this charge will not prevent publication of colour figures judged essential by the editors, but this must be agreed with the editor prior to acceptance.

Production-quality figures

When a manuscript is accepted in principle for publication, the editor will ask for high-resolution figures. Do not submit publication-quality figures until asked to do so by an editor. At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Extended Data

Extended Data figures and tables are online-only (appearing in the online PDF and full-text HTML version of the paper), peer-reviewed display items that provide essential background to the Article but are not included in the printed version of the paper due to space constraints or being of interest only to a few specialists. A maximum of ten Extended Data display items (figures and tables) is typically permitted. See Composition of a Nature research paper .

Extended Data tables should be formatted along similar lines to tables appearing in print (see section 5.7) but the main body (excluding title and legend, which should be included at the end of the Word file) should be submitted separately as an image rather than as an editable format in Word, as Extended Data tables are not edited by Nature’s subediting department. Small tables may also be included as sub-panels within Extended Data figures. See Extended Data Formatting Guide .

Extended Data figures should be prepared along slightly different guidelines compared to figures appearing in print, and may be multi-panelled as long as they fit to size rules (see Extended Data Formatting Guide ). Extended Data figures are not edited or styled by Nature’s art department; for this reason, authors are requested to follow Nature style as closely as possible when preparing these figures. The legends for Extended Data figures should be prepared as for print figures and should be listed one after the other at the end of the Word file.

If space allows, Nature encourages authors to include a simple schematic, as a panel in an Extended Data figure, that summarizes the main finding of the paper, where appropriate (for example, to assist understanding of complex detail in cell, structural and molecular biology disciplines).

If a manuscript has Extended Data figures or tables, authors are asked to refer to discrete items at an appropriate place in the main text (for example, Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 1).

If further references are included in the Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends, the numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the main paper (or from the last reference number in the additional Methods section if present) and the list should be added to the end of the list accompanying the additional Methods section, if present, or added below the Extended Data legends if no additional Methods section is present.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (SI) is online-only, peer-reviewed material that is essential background to the Article (for example, large data sets, methods, calculations), but which is too large or impractical, or of interest only to a few specialists, to justify inclusion in the printed version of the paper. See the Supplementary Information page for further details.

Supplementary Information should not contain figures (any figures additional to those appearing in print should be formatted as Extended Data figures). Tables may be included in Supplementary Information, but only if they are unsuitable for formatting as Extended Data tables (for example, tables containing large data sets or raw data that are best suited to Excel files).

If a manuscript has accompanying SI, either at submission or in response to an editor’s letter that requests it, authors are asked to refer to discrete items of the SI (for example, videos, tables) at an appropriate point in the main manuscript.

Chemical structures and characterization of chemical materials

For guidelines describing Nature ’s standards for experimental methods and the characterization of new compounds, please see the information sheet on the characterization of chemical materials .

We aim to produce chemical structures in a consistent format throughout our articles. Please use the Nature Portfolio Chemical Structures Guide and ChemDraw template to ensure that you prepare your figures in a format that will require minimal changes by our art and production teams. Submit final files at 100% as .cdx files.

Registered Reports

Registered Reports are empirical articles testing confirmatory hypotheses in which the methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and peer reviewed prior to research being conducted. For further details about Registered Reports and instructions for how to submit such articles to Nature please consult our Registered Reports page.

All contributions should be submitted online , unless otherwise instructed by the editors. Please be sure to read the information on what to include in your cover letter as well as several important content-related issues when putting a submission together.

Before submitting, all contributors must agree to all of Nature's publication policies .

Nature authors must make data and materials publicly available upon publication. This includes deposition of data into the relevant databases and arranging for them to be publicly released by the online publication date (not after). A description of our initiative to improve the transparency and the reproducibility of published results is available here . A full description of Nature’s publication policies is at the Nature Portfolio Authors and Referees website .

Other Nature Research journals

An account of the relationship between all the Nature journals is provided at the Nature family page . 

Quick links

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BIOLOGY JUNCTION

Test And Quizzes for Biology, Pre-AP, Or AP Biology For Teachers And Students

A Step-By-Step Guide on Writing a Biology Research Paper

For many students, writing a biology research paper can seem like a daunting task. They want to come up with the best possible report, but they don’t realize that planning the entire writing process can improve the quality of their work and save them time while writing. In this article, you’ll learn how to find a good topic, outline your paper, use statistical tests, and avoid using hedge words.

Finding a good topic

The first step in writing a well-constructed biology research paper is choosing a topic. There are a variety of topics to choose from within the biological field. Choose one that interests you and captures your attention. A compelling topic motivates you to work hard and produce a high-quality paper.

While choosing a topic, keep in mind that biology research is time-consuming and requires extensive research. For this reason, choosing a topic that piques the interest of the reader is crucial. In addition to this, you should choose a topic that is appropriate for the type of biology paper you need to write. After all, you do not want to bore the reader with an inane paper.

A good biology research paper topic should be well-supported by solid scientific evidence. Select a topic only after thorough research, and be sure to include steps and references from reliable sources. A biological research paper topic can be an interesting journey into the world of nature. You could choose to research the effects of stress on the human body or investigate the biological mechanisms of the human reproductive system.

Outlining your paper

The first step in drafting a biological research paper is to create an outline. This is meant to be a roadmap that helps you understand and visualize the subject. An outline can help you avoid common writing mistakes and shape your paper into a serious piece of work. The next step is to gather information about the subject that will support your main idea.

Once you have a topic, you can start writing your outline. Outlines should include at least one idea, a brief introduction, and a conclusion. The introduction, ideas, and conclusion should be numbered in the order you plan to present your information. The main ideas are generally a collection of facts and figures. For example, in a literature review, these points might be chapters from a book, a series of dates from history, or the methods and results of a scientific paper.

When writing a biological research paper, you should use scholarly sources. While there is a lot of misinformation on the internet, it’s best to stick to  academic essay writing service  to get the most accurate information. Most libraries allow you to select a peer-review filter that will restrict your search results to academic journals. It’s also helpful to be familiar with the differences between scholarly and popular sources.

Using statistical tests

Using statistical tests when writing a biological paper requires that you make certain assumptions about the results you are describing. The most common statistical tests are parametric tests that are based on assumptions about conditions or parameters. About 22% of the papers in our review reported violations of these assumptions, and such violations can lead to inappropriate or invalid conclusions.

Statistical tests are important in biological research because they allow researchers to determine if their data is statistically significant or not. The power of these tests depends on the size of the dataset. Larger datasets produce more significant results. The power of these tests also depends on the assumption of independence between measurements. This is important because the results can be different if there are duplications or different levels of replications.

Hypothesis tests are useful in evaluating experimental data. They identify differences and patterns in data. They are useful tools for structuring biological research.

Avoiding hedge words

Hedge words are phrases or words used to express uncertainty in a scientific paper. They can help writers avoid making inaccurate claims while still being respectful of the reader’s opinion. However, writers must be careful to avoid using too many hedges. 

Listed below are a few guidelines to help you avoid these words:

• Hedge words shift the burden of responsibility from the writer to the reader. 
• Hedge words can be a sign of uncertainty or overstatement. They can also be used to limit the scope of an assertion. They also convey an opinion or hypothesis. When choosing a hedging strategy, be careful not to use words such as “no data” or “unreliable.” These words can convey a degree of uncertainty and imply that the findings cannot be confirmed.

The use of hedge words is common in academic writing. However, they hurt your audience. It is a linguistic strategy that writers use as a way to reassure readers. The goal is to guide readers and make them feel comfortable with the idea that the author does not know all the answers.

Choosing a format

Biological research papers have different formats, and you should choose one that suits the nature of your paper. It should be based on credible and peer-reviewed sources. The best sources to use for biology papers are books, specialized journals, and databases. Avoid personal blogs, social networks, and internet discussions, as these are not suitable for a research paper.

Biology research papers focus on a specific issue and present different arguments in support of a thesis. Traditionally, they are based on peer-reviewed sources, but you can also conduct your independent research and present unique findings. Biology is a complex field of study. The subject matter varies, from the basic structure of living things to the functions of different organs. It also explores the process of evolution and the life span of different species.

Formatting your bibliography

When writing a biological research paper, the format of your bibliography is crucial. It should follow a standardized citation style such as the “Author, Date” scientific style. The format should be arranged alphabetically by author, and you should use numbered references to indicate key sources.

Reference lists must be comprehensive and contain enough information to enable readers to find the sources themselves. Although the format is not as important as completeness, it can help readers quickly identify the authors and sources. Bibliographies are usually reverse-indented to make them easier to find.

In-text citations should include the author’s last name, preferred name, and the page number. Usually, authors do not separate their surname and year of publication. In addition, you should also include the location, which is usually the publisher’s office.

If a work has more than four authors, you should list up to ten in the reference list. The first author’s surname should be used, followed by “et al.” Likewise, you should list more than ten authors in the reference list.

When writing a biological research paper, it is important to ensure that your bibliography is formatted properly. When you write the title, you should use boldface and uppercase letters. The title should also be focused, not too long or too short. It should take one or two lines and all text should be double-spaced. You should also type the author’s name after the title. Don’t forget to indicate the location of your research as well as the date you submitted the paper.

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Biology Research: Getting Started: Writing & Citing

• Grant Proposals
• Research Design/Methods
• Finding Articles
• Writing & Citing
• Research Tips
• Background Information

Writing/Publishing

Links to Writing and Style Guides

• APA Style and Grammar Guidelines This comprehensive site from the American Psychological Association offers advice on topics that include paper formatting, in-text citations, references, and bias-free language.
• Ecological Society of America Style format for the journals Ecology, Ecological Applications, Ecological Monographs

Other Resources

• Conducting and Writing a Literature Review How to find and put together background information on your topic
• Guidelines for Effective Professional and Academic Writing A concise guide from the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
• How to Write Scientific Reports A comprehensive guide from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's Writing Center
• Materials and Methods An example of how to write up what was done and how it was done in your research.
• Poster and Presentation Resources Advice on presenting academic research and an extensive list of poster resources
• Writing in the Disciplines: Biology Examples of citing your sources from the University of Richmond Writing Center, from Bates College Department of Biology.

Selected Literature Review Books

Health and Sciences Librarian

Literature Review Tutorial

• Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students What is a literature review? What purpose does it serve in research? What should you expect when writing one? This tutorial from North Carolina State University answers these questions.

Creating Your Bibliography

• RefWorks Bibliographic management tools, such as RefWorks, allow you to organize and manage citations for your bibliography, and work with Microsoft Word to allow insertion of citations as you write a paper.
• RefWorks Information See the RefWorks for Biology page for more information.
• << Previous: Finding Articles
• Next: RefWorks >>
• Last Updated: Feb 1, 2024 1:56 PM
• URL: https://libguides.jsu.edu/bioresearch

WRITING A BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH PAPER

An introduction to structure and style.

Wade B. Worthen Biology Dept . Furman University

This document is designed to help you write a successful research paper in the biological sciences. The first section summarizes the structural and stylistic requirements for research papers submitted in biology courses. Most specifically, this includes Research and Analysis (BGY 222) and Research in Biology (502). However, your professors may expect this format in other courses, as well. Ask about the structure of research papers and lab reports when the assignment is made so you can get started on the right track.

I. Structuring an Experimental Report

There are several quality texts available that should be used as structural and stylistic guides. Use them! One book, McMillan's Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences , is often a required text for Research and Analysis. It highlights the structure of both primary and secondary research papers. There are excellent examples describing common mistakes. Another manual is Strunk and White's Elements of Style . Remember all those little points about English grammar that you learned in eighth grade and forgot by ninth? Well, they are all in Elements of Style . Remember this: the quality of the writing reflects the quality of the research! Clear, direct prose that communicates your ideas in a logical manner is rewarded. The greatest experiment in the world is worthless unless the reader understands what was done.

Here is an outline of the proper structure of an experimental research paper. Although the sections should be presented in this order, they are not written in this order. Suggestions for writing sequence follow later.

A. Title. The title should be informative, specific and short (13 word max., usually). These objectives are difficult to satisfy concurrently. Typically, titles include: 1) the species studied (common and/or Latin names as space permits), 2) the variables addressed, and 3) the site, if it is important. Obviously, the space constraints will occasionally force you to exclude one of these parameters. Here are some examples: 1. Phenotypic and demographic variability among patches of Maianthemum canadense ( Desf .) in central New Jersey, and the use of self-incompatibility for clone discrimination. Long! 23 words, but includes all three parameters. This is difficult to shorten, because two different questions were addressed in one study. 2. Fish predation on Notonecta ( Hemiptera ): relationship between prey risk and habitat utilization. Nice length (12 words), but site has been omitted. Good description of the problem and mention of the organism (genus, in this case). 3. Foraging behavior of a western reef heron in North America. 4. Foraging behavior and food of grey herons Ardea cinerea on the Ythan estuary. These include all three aspects within the standard space constraint. However, in order to fit the site into the title, the topic is rather general (foraging behavior). The title should reflect the thrust of the paper. If site is important (maybe there are geographical differences in foraging behavior in these species), it should be included. If the study is a broad-based analysis of several foraging behaviors, then it is more appropriate to say 'foraging behavior' than to list every variable studied. Site is typically NOT included in laboratory investigations, as the purpose of the lab is to standardize (and thus exclude) the effect of environmental variables…. So hopefully, one lab is as good as another.   Good titles are hard to write, and they take more time than you might think.

B. Abstract. This is a concise summary of the paper. Ideally, it should be short ( 500 word maximum ), and should include at least one sentence describing each of these topics :

• objectives and introduction (background)
• conclusions and discussion (relevance)

Again, the space limitations may force you to be selective. In addition, the methods and result may be difficult to describe completely in single sentences, and may require a larger fraction of the space budget. Certainly, the results are the most important part of the abstract; they represent the 'meat' of the experiment and cannot be slighted. However, you must also include a conclusion sentence; what did the results mean? If published, the abstract will appear in citation sources such as Biological Abstracts and Science Citation Index. It is the first thing someone will read, and it must be descriptive and interesting! The abstract demands clear, direct writing. When readers finish the abstract, they should be so intrigued by the experiment that they decide to read the entire paper. What search strategy do you use when search for articles? You enter keywords and then scan the list of article titles that appear. Like a fish at bait, you 'nibble' at an interesting one by reading the abstract. Here is where the author 'sets the hook'. If it's interesting, you read the article. If it is not, the author has lost you and you start to nibble on other titles again. Abstracts are also very difficult to write; it will take more time to write than any other paragraph in the whole paper.

C. Introduction. The introduction serves two functions. First, it provides the reader with the background information relevant to your experiment. Second, it presents the objectives of your study. These two functions are directly related; the background information that you provide should justify your experiment. After reading the background, the reader should understand why your question is significant. To write a good introduction, think of a funnel. Start with a broad background statement that provides some common ground for readers with different levels of expertise. Then, develop the information in the field that is important to your topic, focusing in on the objectives of your study. Try and maintain the flow from broad to specific.

Perhaps your paper is on foraging strategies of insectivorous birds. You might start off with a general statement on foraging strategy, and then highlight some of the relevant theories applied to animals, in general. Then you might focus on the particular developments and applications of avian foraging behavior. Finally, you could specify the energetic constraints imposed on insectivorous birds, and discuss this material. This section should conclude with some indication about the gap in our knowledge in this area. You then present your objectives, showing how your study attempts to fill this gap. At this point, the reader knows how your study relates to the field and understands why your question needs to be addressed.

There are space constraints on the introduction, too. This space constraint may alter your presentation. You may not be able to start out as broadly as you had intended, or the transition from background to objectives may need to be more direct. Remember: the introduction must demonstrate a logical progression to your objectives. This demands logical transitions. The topics in your introduction must be linked effectively so the reader can follow your argument. Excess information or tangential paragraphs will throw your reader off the track. Don't use the introduction as an information dump to show the reader how much you found on a topic. Show the reader you understand the relevant issues in a field and know how your study complements this information. Typically, the final paragraph of the introduction contains your “purpose statement”. It describes the relationship you are testing, and it may even give a very brief (one sentence) synopsis of what was found. So, the introduction “funnels down” from general theory, to specific theory or examples relevant to your model system, to a presentation of conflicting opinions or gaps in our understanding, to the purpose of your experiment (which should address the conflict or fill the gap). In some cases, your introduction may need to be long to place your study in perspective. In this situation, you would want to present your objectives early so the reader can relate your background information to your question. Finally, unlike papers in the Humanities, do not begin your introduction with a quote or hyperbole. Indeed, avoid using direct quotations!   In science, paraphrase the point of the author and cite them parenthetically at the end of the sentence.

D. Methods. This should be the easiest section to write; you simply state what you did. It is written in the past tense; don't write a series of instructions, write a description of the experiment you conducted. In the course of the methods section, you should specify your experimental design, describing the levels of your independent variables and the variables you chose to measure (dependent variables). You should also justify why you performed these methods. Why did you choose these dependent variables to address your question? Why did you choose these levels of your independent variables for manipulation? Be sure to include the equipment that you used (manufacturer and model number, if unusual), and define the environment where the test was performed (temp, light, etc.). In a field study, a brief description of the field sites usually appears first in the methods. Finally, you should specify the statistical tests (and software packages) you used to analyze the data, and any transformations performed.

E. Results. You may think the results should be easy, too; this is simply the information that your experiment produced. However, interesting results sections are very difficult to write. You usually have several specific statements that you want to make (the new 'facts' that you have found), but you also have statistical analyses to present and figures and tables describing your results. First, analyze your data. Which independent variables had significant effects on your dependent variables? Make your figures and tables describe these patterns (see part VI). Digest these patterns; interpret your results before you start to write. After completing your analyses, you will have to decide on an ORDER in which to present them.   This is not necessarily the order in which the tests were done.   You are trying to make a logical argument; presenting your results in the most logical order will greatly assist the efficacy of the argument. When you know what your results mean, you can try to explain them to the reader. Read it back to yourself, out loud. If you stumble over grammar or can't understand it yourself, the reader won't have a chance! When you are ready to begin, start out with a declarative statement: "Hours in sunlight had a significant effect on plant growth." Now, call the reader's attention to the table or figure that shows this effect to be statistically significant: "Hours in sunlight... (Table 1) ." Table 1 might be the Analysis of Variance you performed, which documents that the hours of sunlight had a statistically significant impact on plant growth at the p=0.0025 level. As such, you might include the test and the alpha level parenthetically (optional): "Hours in sunlight... (ANOVA p=0.0025; Table 1)." Now, describe the pattern, and tell the reader where this information is presented: "On average, plants in the 'long exposure' treatment grew significantly more than the plants in the 'medium exposure' or 'short exposure' treatment ( Bonferroni t-test, p= 0.05; Figure 1)." Figure 1 might be a bar chart comparing growth of plants in the three light exposure treatments. The appropriate mean comparison test documents that the means are significantly different at the p=0.05 level. Next, present a conclusion statement for the paragraph. "Evidently, plant growth was stimulated by increased exposure to sunlight". So, here is your first paragraph: "Hours in sunlight had a significant effect on plant growth (ANOVA, p = 0.0025, Table 1). On average, plant in the 'long exposure' treatment grew significantly more than the plants in the 'medium exposure' or 'short exposure' treatment; ( Bonferroni t-test, p= 0.05; Figure 1). Evidently, plant growth was stimulated by increased exposure to sunlight."

Important Don'ts!!

1. Don't begin a statement with:

• The ANOVA showed that .."
• The Chi-square test showed that..."
• The t-test showed that..."

Statistical tests don't show anything. They just crunch numbers in a particular way. It is up to the experimenter   - YOU - to interpret the result of a statistical test. For instance, a Chi-square test may indicate that a particular set of data would only occur by chance 5% of the time (p = 0.05). This information has no intrinsic meaning; some experimenters may interpret this pattern as significantly deviant from random chance while others, using a more stringent criterion (p = 0.01) may not. Make a declarative statement and refer to the statistical analysis that supports this interpretation.

            2. Don't present a long list of significant results without interpretation:

  "Hours in sunlight significantly affected growth (Table 1). Soil moisture significantly affected plant growth (Table 2). Soil nitrogen also had a significant effect on plant growth (Table 3)." You should develop each point completely before moving on to another point. After you say that an independent variable has an effect on a dependent variable, describe the effect; how did the levels of the independent variable differ? What does this mean? Show the reader the significance of the result.

            3. Number your tables and figures after you write your results section!

The first table that is referred to in the results section is, by definition, 'Table 1'. Likewise, the first figure referred to, even if it is after table 1, is called 'Figure 1'. You may not present the results in the sequence in which they were analyzed. Recognize that the logical development of your results may demand a different sequence, and the table and figure numbering should complement this new order.

The results section is where you 'present your case'. The logical flow is critical; you must convince your reader that your argument is sound. If the readers are confused by your results, or do not follow your interpretation, they will not believe you. They will not accept that your conclusions are correct and important, and they will not recognize the relevance of your experiment.

F. Discussion. The discussion is where you explain your results and interpret them in light of other work in the field. Usually, the discussion takes the shape of an inverted funnel. Start by presenting the essential conclusions of your specific study. (This leads directly from your results section, and provides a natural transition.) Then, apply your conclusions to the body of background information you relayed in your introduction. You may broaden your focus as you proceed. Remember the background information you presented in your introduction? That was the information you felt was relevant to your experiment. Now, discuss how your new findings relate to this background information. Are the major hypotheses in the field support by your research, or contradicted? The discussion and the introduction should reflect one another to some degree, with the discussion bringing your paper “full-circle”, integrating your results with the literature you described in the introduction.

The discussion also may include suggestions for future research, or disclaimers and explanations of methodological errors made during the course of the experiment.   These are not REQUIRED elements, however.   Many of you wrote lab reports for classes, where these were required elements of the report.   Here, they may be appropriate but may not be necessary.   In any case, if they are included, they must be well integrated.   They should not just sit there at the end of the discussion.   Rather, they should be integrated into the body of the discussion, so that your discussion can end on a positive note   - like the major conclusion of your study, or the new question that it raises.   Don’t end on a negative about a shortcoming of your experiment.

G. Acknowledgments. Thank the people who helped you research the question, design or conduct the experiment, and review drafts. Also acknowledge any funding support, and the source (check a few acknowledgement sections for examples).

H. Literature Cited. This section contains bibliographical information on the references that were cited in the body of the paper. It is not a bibliography; only list the references that were actually cited in the body of the text. YOU SHOULD USE THE COUNCIL OF SCIENCE EDITORS “NAME/YEAR” CITATION FORMAT .   If you are submitting the manuscript for publication in a journal that uses a different format, and you wish to prepare your paper in that format, include the citation format instructions from the journal in your submission to the committee.

II. Citing References in the Body of the Text

A. Citing an article by a single author: Research papers in the sciences use a simple format for alluding to work done by previous investigators. When you present information that you found in a published document, you cite the author and year of publication parenthetically, immediately after the information. For instance, suppose I was writing a paper on the effects of resource patchiness on community structure, and I read an article by J. Weins titled "Population responses to patchy environments" published in Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics in 1976. In this article, Weins states that foraging patch scale is determined by the perception of the organism searching for the resource, and is not an inherent quality of the resource. In my introduction, I might write: "However, the relevant spatial scales of predictability and ephemerality are defined by the perceptual and dispersal capabilities of the foraging organism ( Weins 1976)." (Note: the use of present tense implies a fact which must be supported by a citation or your data.) Cite only the author of the immediate information. If you are citing a chapter authored by Burgdorff in a text edited by Crane, cite: ( Burgdorff 1983).

B. Citing a direct quotation: You must cite all information that was published elsewhere and is not original to your paper. Preferably, you paraphrase the information and present the citation at the end of the sentence (as above). Sometimes, however, the phrasing of the original information is particularly eloquent. Or, sometimes you want to stress the authority of the source. In these cases, you want to quote the information exactly. You must enclose the quoted material in quotation marks: As Price (1984) stated, "it is noteworthy that so many of the hypotheses involve resources as the basis for understanding community organization, and that competition is not invoked as a major organizing influence"(p. 476). Use quotations sparingly! Sequences of direct quotations are difficult to read because the style keeps changing. It also suggests that you don't understand the topic well enough to interpret the information in your own words. This is especially true of conceptual material; when you quote something that is not particularly eloquent or authoritative, it suggests that you could not understand it well enough to paraphrase.

C. Citing a series of articles at once: Often, there are several citations that relate to a particular statement; simply list these in chronological order, separated by a semi-colon: "These resources often support diverse insect communities (Elton 1966; Heed 1968; Beaver 1977; Schoenly and Reed 1987), yet they are packaged into discrete units that are typically perceived as patchy and unpredictable (Lacy 1984)." Also, notice that the citations only accompany the clause that applies to them. Lacy (1984) did not suggest that these resources support unusually diverse communities so he is not cited after that clause. Obviously, citations can become cumbersome and can influence the structure of your sentence. If a long list of references comes between two clauses (as above), you might consider breaking the sentence in half. However, lots of short, single clause sentences are monotonous to read because they don't flow. Reading and rereading your drafts will help you recognize rough spots. Obviously, this can't be done overnight. You must give yourself ample time to write and rewrite your paper. A rough job will be noticed.

D. Citing several citations by the same author: If you have several citations and some are by the same author, group the citations by author, separating authors by semi-colons: ( Jaenike 1978a, 1978b, 1986; Lacy 1979).

Notice that Jaenike's complete list goes first, even though his citations are chronologically split by Lacy's article. Also, if you refer to two citations by the same author in the same year, refer to the first citation cited as 'a' and the second one 'b'. Do not use the 'a' and 'b' designations that other authors used; those were dependent upon their order of use.

E. Citing multi-authored works: If the citation has only two authors, present both their surnames followed by the publication date: ( Schoenly and Reed 1987). If there are more than two authors, cite the first author's name followed by the words 'et al.' and the year. The book Insects on Plants by D. R. Strong, J. H. Lawton and R. Southwood is cited in the text as: (Strong et al. 1976).

F. Citing unauthored pamphlets, etc.: Some government and corporate publications are unauthored . Cite these as 'anonymous', followed by the date of publication: (Anon. 1952).

G. Citing sources for equipment: If you are using an unusual piece of equipment or material from an exotic source, you can cite the source directly so that others trying to replicate your experiment can get the same material: "I counted the drosophilids and dusted the flies collected on each plot with a different color of micro-ionized fluorescent dust (USR Optonix , Inc., Hackettstown, NJ)."

H. Citing unpublished material: Suppose you want to cite a manuscript that has not been published. You would cite (Author, unpublished).

I. Citing personal communications: Suppose you want to cite an interpretation that someone else made regarding your data. You would cite (Author, personal communication). This situation may arise regarding a professor's lecture notes or a chat you had about your research. Be sure to get permission before citing the information.

III. Listing Citations in the Literature Cited Section

The complete citations of published work are presented in alphabetical order (by surname of first authors) in the Literature Cited section. Unpublished manuscripts (unless they are in press) and personal communications are not listed. The Literature Cited section follows your acknowledgments, and always begins on a new page. Consult this website for style: The Writer’s Handbook, University of Wisconsin – Madison .

IV. Tables and Figures

You should choose your tables and figures carefully; they will form the backbone of your results section and should present your results in a way that clearly describes the patterns in your data. Don't include figures and tables that are extraneous to your report. Every table and figure must be referred to somewhere in your paper. Also, only use tables and figures to summarize the patterns in large sets of data; do not include tables of raw data. If you are only comparing two responses, a descriptive sentence in the results section might be sufficient. Don't be redundant! Use either a table or a figure to summarize a particular pattern, do not use both. Tables and figures should be appended to the back of the report, after the Literature Cited section. Each table and figure should be presented on a different page. Table legends appear at the top of the table; figure legends are commonly presented on a separate page that precedes the figures. Also, do not use multiple colors on tables or figures; shades of black and white, with hatching or stippling, is best; some readers are colorblind and may not perceive the differences in colored bars.   In addition, most journals will charge extra for color figures – so only use color when necessary, like in photographs of fluorescing tags.

Each table and figure must have a descriptive legend. The legend should be complete; the table/figure should be comprehensible without reference to the paper.

As such, you need to include:

• The independent and dependent variables and the method of manipulation.
• The species, site and date.
• An explanation of the symbols used to denote statistical significance between groups, and the name of the test used to determine significance. Such as: Means connected by a line are not significantly different (t-test, df = 1, p < 0.01).

Table 2. ANOVA measuring the effects of patch, pollination treatment (pollen added vs. natural) and raceme density (high vs. low) on two measures of fruit set in seven patches of Maianthemum canadense in central New Jersey: 1) the percentage of flowering ramets that bore fruit; and 2) the mean number of fruits/ infructescence . Percentage data were transformed with an arcsin square- root transformation before analysis ( Sokal and Rohlf 1981).

Table 1. The effect of replicate and plot density on mycophagous flies captured on experimental plots. ANOVA results for species richness and number of individuals (both log transformed; **** = p < 0.0001). Density means are significantly different; Bonferroni t-test, p < 0.05).

Figure 1. Fruit set in pollen added (solid bars) and naturally pollinated control quadrats (open bars) in seven patches of Maianthemum canadense in central New Jersey. The results of one-way ANOVA's are also presented (* = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01; *** = p < 0.001).

B. Figure Presentation

The type of variable that you measure may dictate the appropriate type of figure, especially if you are presenting a frequency distribution. For discontinuous data (where only certain values were possible, such as counts, states, attributes), a bar chart is appropriate. In this chart, the bars do not touch. For continuous data (measurements), histograms are appropriate (where the bars touch). If you are presenting means, margins of error (standard deviation, standard error, or confidence intervals) should be presented around each mean.

V. Suggested Writing Sequence

After you have done a thorough literature review, analyzed your data and drawn your figures, you can start to write.

Start with your methods; this is the easiest section to write and it will get you into writing and thinking about the project. You will feel good that you have started the paper and have not left the whole thing for the last minute.

After you analyze your data, make your figures, and draw conclusions, then write your results section. Again, have everything straight in your mind before you start to write! It may take a couple tries to get your points in a sequence that flows.

Now that you know what you found, you can write the introduction or discussion. By delaying this step until after your results section is done, you know which results were important and you can stress the relevant background information accordingly.

Some people like to write the discussion immediately after they write the results; this keeps their results fresh in their mind as they develop links with the background information. However, it is probably a good idea to have an outline of the introduction at this stage. This forces you to integrate the background material and really digest it, so the arguments you make in the discussion are logical and relate to the points you raised in the introduction. Remember, in the introduction you presented the background information that justified your question; in the discussion, you need to show how your results fit into that body of work you introduced as relevent .

Well, the body of the text is finished! You might want to do the Literature Cited section next. Although there is no particular logic to this, when literature cited sections are left until the end they tend to be done in a sloppy fashion with typo's and omissions. It is very important that the Literature Cited section be correct; it must contain all the citations and each must be presented in the appropriate format. This is busy work, but it must be done correctly so the reader can find your sources. If it is left until the end, you may make lots of typo's as you rush to finish. Notice on the GRADING RUBRIC that correct citation format counts quite a bit!

Tackle the abstract and the title next. These take time (especially the abstract) and should not be rushed.

Finally, after all the work is done, acknowledge the help that others have provided.

One final comment about papers. Drafts are a necessary step! Poor writing detracts from the quality of the presentation, and reflects upon the quality of the experiment. If time is pressing, get your methods and an outline to your introduction written before your results are produced. After you write the results section, write an introduction. When you are all done, set it aside for at least one day. Re-read your paper, sentence by sentence, as if you were reading it for the first time. Read it out loud ; then you will really know how it sounds. Be hard on yourself; any improvements that you make at this stage will directly enhance the quality of your paper and your grade.

Formatting: Use double spacing (or 1.5) , 12 pt. new times roman, and one inch margins. Page numbering in upper right is preferred.

VI. Commonly Misused Words

The following list of commonly misused words was initially prepared by the Iowa Experiment Station Publications at Iowa State University, and was modified by the editors of the Journal of Mammalogy .

BIO181 - General Biology

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Writing a Biology Research Paper

• Biology Research Paper Format - California State University A biological research paper is a form of communication in which the investigator succinctly presents and interprets data collected in an investigation. Writing such papers is similar to writing in other scientific disciplines except that the format will differ as will the criteria for grading. For individual biology courses, students should use this document as a guide as well as refer to course guidelines for individual course assignments.
• 5 Steps To Succeed In Writing a Biology Research Paper If you’ve been assigned a biology research paper, there is hope: Our guide to the five key steps to writing a biology research paper will have you ready and able to produce a top-quality essay in no time.
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APA 6 Style

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When Should I Cite?

Any time your work contains or refers to someone else's ideas, words, images, media, or sounds  you need to include a citation.

1. In-text citations should be inserted at the point of use in your assignment and indicate that the information you just presented came from a source other than your own brain or common knowledge.

2. A Works Cited or References section should be included at the end of your assignment.

3. In Works Cited / References , list all the works you referred to with in-text citations in the body of your assignment.

4. There are many citation styles, each with it's own precise formatting. The most popular at Clark are MLA and APA .

 According to the  APA as of March 2017 , any of the following formats for digital object identifiers (doi) are correct APA style:

• https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014
• http://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014
• doi:10.1037/arc0000014

Guides from Clark College Libraries and other sources:

• Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) APA Guide A great resource!
• APA 6 Style Blog Official companion to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. It's run by a group of experts who work with APA Style every day.
• Navigating Copyright for Reproduced Images From the APA Style Blog

APA 6 Handouts

• Clark Libraries APA 6 Quick Guide This is the green, 2-page handout that lists lots of examples for citing sources in APA 6 format.
• APA 6 Title Page & Headers, Using Microsoft Word
• Creating an APA title page and headers for Microsoft Word for Mac
• APA 6 Citation, Reference Page Hints
• APA 6 Citation - Where, How and FAQs
• APA 6 Citation - Tips for In-Text Citations

Formatting Title Page and Headers in APA 6

Here is a short step-by-step video of the directions below.

• Open a Word document
• Click on "Insert"
• Choose "Header"
• Choose first option “Blank"
• Check “Different First Page”
• In upper left corner type:  Running head: YOUR TITLE IN ALL CAPS
• Tab over to right margin
• Click on “Page Number”
• Click on “Current Position”
• Choose first option “Plain Number”
• Highlight your text and page number and make sure that both are Times New Roman, size 12
• Close Header and Footer
• Select double spacing and centered in paragraph area. In the top third of the page type: paper title, your name, and institution name. Example:

My Research Paper  Student A. Body Clark College     

• Highlight your text and make sure it is Times New Roman, size 12
• Now enter (return) down to the end of the page until you reach the second page of your document
• Choose first option “Blank”
• In upper left corner type:  YOUR TITLE IN ALL CAPS  (Note: No running head here!)
• Tab over to right margin.
• You’re done – your title page and headers for your APA paper are set up. To change the information on the template, go to Insert, Header and Edit Header.
• Creating an APA 6 title page and headers for Microsoft Word for Mac Steps for creating an APA title page and APA page headers for Word for Mac (2011-2017).

When in Doubt - ASK!

If you have any questions about citations or plagiarism that are not answered on these pages, be sure to ask for clarification from:

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Cite Sources - APA - Books

Citations for Graphs and Images

If you include a graph, table, chart, or image that is not your own in the body of your text or on a presentation slide, use the following citation underneath it:

Figure 1. Description, if needed. Adapted from "Title of Article or Webpage," by Author(s), Year, Title of Journal or Website , Volume, page number, retrieved from URL. Copyright Year by Copyright Holder.

See here and here for specific examples. Also see pages 150-167 of the APA Manual and this APA Style Blog post .

You should also include a full reference citation at the end of your paper or presentation.

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Writing an Introduction for a Scientific Paper

Dr. michelle harris, dr. janet batzli, biocore.

This section provides guidelines on how to construct a solid introduction to a scientific paper including background information, study question , biological rationale, hypothesis , and general approach . If the Introduction is done well, there should be no question in the reader’s mind why and on what basis you have posed a specific hypothesis.

Broad Question : based on an initial observation (e.g., “I see a lot of guppies close to the shore. Do guppies like living in shallow water?”). This observation of the natural world may inspire you to investigate background literature or your observation could be based on previous research by others or your own pilot study. Broad questions are not always included in your written text, but are essential for establishing the direction of your research.

Background Information : key issues, concepts, terminology, and definitions needed to understand the biological rationale for the experiment. It often includes a summary of findings from previous, relevant studies. Remember to cite references, be concise, and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design. Concisely summarized background information leads to the identification of specific scientific knowledge gaps that still exist. (e.g., “No studies to date have examined whether guppies do indeed spend more time in shallow water.”)

Testable Question : these questions are much more focused than the initial broad question, are specific to the knowledge gap identified, and can be addressed with data. (e.g., “Do guppies spend different amounts of time in water <1 meter deep as compared to their time in water that is >1 meter deep?”)

Biological Rationale : describes the purpose of your experiment distilling what is known and what is not known that defines the knowledge gap that you are addressing. The “BR” provides the logic for your hypothesis and experimental approach, describing the biological mechanism and assumptions that explain why your hypothesis should be true.

The biological rationale is based on your interpretation of the scientific literature, your personal observations, and the underlying assumptions you are making about how you think the system works. If you have written your biological rationale, your reader should see your hypothesis in your introduction section and say to themselves, “Of course, this hypothesis seems very logical based on the rationale presented.”

• A thorough rationale defines your assumptions about the system that have not been revealed in scientific literature or from previous systematic observation. These assumptions drive the direction of your specific hypothesis or general predictions.
• Defining the rationale is probably the most critical task for a writer, as it tells your reader why your research is biologically meaningful. It may help to think about the rationale as an answer to the questions— how is this investigation related to what we know, what assumptions am I making about what we don’t yet know, AND how will this experiment add to our knowledge? *There may or may not be broader implications for your study; be careful not to overstate these (see note on social justifications below).
• Expect to spend time and mental effort on this. You may have to do considerable digging into the scientific literature to define how your experiment fits into what is already known and why it is relevant to pursue.
• Be open to the possibility that as you work with and think about your data, you may develop a deeper, more accurate understanding of the experimental system. You may find the original rationale needs to be revised to reflect your new, more sophisticated understanding.
• As you progress through Biocore and upper level biology courses, your rationale should become more focused and matched with the level of study e ., cellular, biochemical, or physiological mechanisms that underlie the rationale. Achieving this type of understanding takes effort, but it will lead to better communication of your science.

***Special note on avoiding social justifications: You should not overemphasize the relevance of your experiment and the possible connections to large-scale processes. Be realistic and logical —do not overgeneralize or state grand implications that are not sensible given the structure of your experimental system. Not all science is easily applied to improving the human condition. Performing an investigation just for the sake of adding to our scientific knowledge (“pure or basic science”) is just as important as applied science. In fact, basic science often provides the foundation for applied studies.

Hypothesis / Predictions : specific prediction(s) that you will test during your experiment. For manipulative experiments, the hypothesis should include the independent variable (what you manipulate), the dependent variable(s) (what you measure), the organism or system , the direction of your results, and comparison to be made.

If you are doing a systematic observation , your hypothesis presents a variable or set of variables that you predict are important for helping you characterize the system as a whole, or predict differences between components/areas of the system that help you explain how the system functions or changes over time.

Experimental Approach : Briefly gives the reader a general sense of the experiment, the type of data it will yield, and the kind of conclusions you expect to obtain from the data. Do not confuse the experimental approach with the experimental protocol . The experimental protocol consists of the detailed step-by-step procedures and techniques used during the experiment that are to be reported in the Methods and Materials section.

Some Final Tips on Writing an Introduction

• As you progress through the Biocore sequence, for instance, from organismal level of Biocore 301/302 to the cellular level in Biocore 303/304, we expect the contents of your “Introduction” paragraphs to reflect the level of your coursework and previous writing experience. For example, in Biocore 304 (Cell Biology Lab) biological rationale should draw upon assumptions we are making about cellular and biochemical processes.
• Be Concise yet Specific: Remember to be concise and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design. As you write, keep asking, “Is this necessary information or is this irrelevant detail?” For example, if you are writing a paper claiming that a certain compound is a competitive inhibitor to the enzyme alkaline phosphatase and acts by binding to the active site, you need to explain (briefly) Michaelis-Menton kinetics and the meaning and significance of Km and Vmax. This explanation is not necessary if you are reporting the dependence of enzyme activity on pH because you do not need to measure Km and Vmax to get an estimate of enzyme activity.
• Another example: if you are writing a paper reporting an increase in Daphnia magna heart rate upon exposure to caffeine you need not describe the reproductive cycle of magna unless it is germane to your results and discussion. Be specific and concrete, especially when making introductory or summary statements.

Where Do You Discuss Pilot Studies? Many times it is important to do pilot studies to help you get familiar with your experimental system or to improve your experimental design. If your pilot study influences your biological rationale or hypothesis, you need to describe it in your Introduction. If your pilot study simply informs the logistics or techniques, but does not influence your rationale, then the description of your pilot study belongs in the Materials and Methods section.  

How will introductions be evaluated? The following is part of the rubric we will be using to evaluate your papers.

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Credit images found on the Internet as follows:

Figure 2 .  “Water lily [Nymphaeaceae] blooming in Saint Petersburg’s Botanical Gardens, September 2005,” by A. L. Olsen. Retrieved from the NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure) Digital Image Library website, maintained by the Center for Biological Informatics of the U.S. Geological Survey, http://life.nbii.gov/dml/mediadetail.do?id=2995

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Focus: Education — Career Advice

How to write your first research paper.

Writing a research manuscript is an intimidating process for many novice writers in the sciences. One of the stumbling blocks is the beginning of the process and creating the first draft. This paper presents guidelines on how to initiate the writing process and draft each section of a research manuscript. The paper discusses seven rules that allow the writer to prepare a well-structured and comprehensive manuscript for a publication submission. In addition, the author lists different strategies for successful revision. Each of those strategies represents a step in the revision process and should help the writer improve the quality of the manuscript. The paper could be considered a brief manual for publication.

It is late at night. You have been struggling with your project for a year. You generated an enormous amount of interesting data. Your pipette feels like an extension of your hand, and running western blots has become part of your daily routine, similar to brushing your teeth. Your colleagues think you are ready to write a paper, and your lab mates tease you about your “slow” writing progress. Yet days pass, and you cannot force yourself to sit down to write. You have not written anything for a while (lab reports do not count), and you feel you have lost your stamina. How does the writing process work? How can you fit your writing into a daily schedule packed with experiments? What section should you start with? What distinguishes a good research paper from a bad one? How should you revise your paper? These and many other questions buzz in your head and keep you stressed. As a result, you procrastinate. In this paper, I will discuss the issues related to the writing process of a scientific paper. Specifically, I will focus on the best approaches to start a scientific paper, tips for writing each section, and the best revision strategies.

1. Schedule your writing time in Outlook

Whether you have written 100 papers or you are struggling with your first, starting the process is the most difficult part unless you have a rigid writing schedule. Writing is hard. It is a very difficult process of intense concentration and brain work. As stated in Hayes’ framework for the study of writing: “It is a generative activity requiring motivation, and it is an intellectual activity requiring cognitive processes and memory” [ 1 ]. In his book How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing , Paul Silvia says that for some, “it’s easier to embalm the dead than to write an article about it” [ 2 ]. Just as with any type of hard work, you will not succeed unless you practice regularly. If you have not done physical exercises for a year, only regular workouts can get you into good shape again. The same kind of regular exercises, or I call them “writing sessions,” are required to be a productive author. Choose from 1- to 2-hour blocks in your daily work schedule and consider them as non-cancellable appointments. When figuring out which blocks of time will be set for writing, you should select the time that works best for this type of work. For many people, mornings are more productive. One Yale University graduate student spent a semester writing from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. when her lab was empty. At the end of the semester, she was amazed at how much she accomplished without even interrupting her regular lab hours. In addition, doing the hardest task first thing in the morning contributes to the sense of accomplishment during the rest of the day. This positive feeling spills over into our work and life and has a very positive effect on our overall attitude.

Rule 1: Create regular time blocks for writing as appointments in your calendar and keep these appointments.

2. start with an outline.

Now that you have scheduled time, you need to decide how to start writing. The best strategy is to start with an outline. This will not be an outline that you are used to, with Roman numerals for each section and neat parallel listing of topic sentences and supporting points. This outline will be similar to a template for your paper. Initially, the outline will form a structure for your paper; it will help generate ideas and formulate hypotheses. Following the advice of George M. Whitesides, “. . . start with a blank piece of paper, and write down, in any order, all important ideas that occur to you concerning the paper” [ 3 ]. Use Table 1 as a starting point for your outline. Include your visuals (figures, tables, formulas, equations, and algorithms), and list your findings. These will constitute the first level of your outline, which will eventually expand as you elaborate.

The next stage is to add context and structure. Here you will group all your ideas into sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion ( Table 2 ). This step will help add coherence to your work and sift your ideas.

Now that you have expanded your outline, you are ready for the next step: discussing the ideas for your paper with your colleagues and mentor. Many universities have a writing center where graduate students can schedule individual consultations and receive assistance with their paper drafts. Getting feedback during early stages of your draft can save a lot of time. Talking through ideas allows people to conceptualize and organize thoughts to find their direction without wasting time on unnecessary writing. Outlining is the most effective way of communicating your ideas and exchanging thoughts. Moreover, it is also the best stage to decide to which publication you will submit the paper. Many people come up with three choices and discuss them with their mentors and colleagues. Having a list of journal priorities can help you quickly resubmit your paper if your paper is rejected.

Rule 2: Create a detailed outline and discuss it with your mentor and peers.

3. continue with drafts.

After you get enough feedback and decide on the journal you will submit to, the process of real writing begins. Copy your outline into a separate file and expand on each of the points, adding data and elaborating on the details. When you create the first draft, do not succumb to the temptation of editing. Do not slow down to choose a better word or better phrase; do not halt to improve your sentence structure. Pour your ideas into the paper and leave revision and editing for later. As Paul Silvia explains, “Revising while you generate text is like drinking decaffeinated coffee in the early morning: noble idea, wrong time” [ 2 ].

Many students complain that they are not productive writers because they experience writer’s block. Staring at an empty screen is frustrating, but your screen is not really empty: You have a template of your article, and all you need to do is fill in the blanks. Indeed, writer’s block is a logical fallacy for a scientist ― it is just an excuse to procrastinate. When scientists start writing a research paper, they already have their files with data, lab notes with materials and experimental designs, some visuals, and tables with results. All they need to do is scrutinize these pieces and put them together into a comprehensive paper.

3.1. Starting with Materials and Methods

If you still struggle with starting a paper, then write the Materials and Methods section first. Since you have all your notes, it should not be problematic for you to describe the experimental design and procedures. Your most important goal in this section is to be as explicit as possible by providing enough detail and references. In the end, the purpose of this section is to allow other researchers to evaluate and repeat your work. So do not run into the same problems as the writers of the sentences in (1):

1a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation. 1b. To isolate T cells, lymph nodes were collected.

As you can see, crucial pieces of information are missing: the speed of centrifuging your bacteria, the time, and the temperature in (1a); the source of lymph nodes for collection in (b). The sentences can be improved when information is added, as in (2a) and (2b), respectfully:

2a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation at 3000g for 15 min at 25°C. 2b. To isolate T cells, mediastinal and mesenteric lymph nodes from Balb/c mice were collected at day 7 after immunization with ovabumin.

If your method has previously been published and is well-known, then you should provide only the literature reference, as in (3a). If your method is unpublished, then you need to make sure you provide all essential details, as in (3b).

3a. Stem cells were isolated, according to Johnson [23]. 3b. Stem cells were isolated using biotinylated carbon nanotubes coated with anti-CD34 antibodies.

Furthermore, cohesion and fluency are crucial in this section. One of the malpractices resulting in disrupted fluency is switching from passive voice to active and vice versa within the same paragraph, as shown in (4). This switching misleads and distracts the reader.

4. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness [ 4 ].

The problem with (4) is that the reader has to switch from the point of view of the experiment (passive voice) to the point of view of the experimenter (active voice). This switch causes confusion about the performer of the actions in the first and the third sentences. To improve the coherence and fluency of the paragraph above, you should be consistent in choosing the point of view: first person “we” or passive voice [ 5 ]. Let’s consider two revised examples in (5).

5a. We programmed behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods) as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music. We operationalized the preferred and unpreferred status of the music along a continuum of pleasantness. 5b. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. Ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal were taken as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness.

If you choose the point of view of the experimenter, then you may end up with repetitive “we did this” sentences. For many readers, paragraphs with sentences all beginning with “we” may also sound disruptive. So if you choose active sentences, you need to keep the number of “we” subjects to a minimum and vary the beginnings of the sentences [ 6 ].

Interestingly, recent studies have reported that the Materials and Methods section is the only section in research papers in which passive voice predominantly overrides the use of the active voice [ 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. For example, Martínez shows a significant drop in active voice use in the Methods sections based on the corpus of 1 million words of experimental full text research articles in the biological sciences [ 7 ]. According to the author, the active voice patterned with “we” is used only as a tool to reveal personal responsibility for the procedural decisions in designing and performing experimental work. This means that while all other sections of the research paper use active voice, passive voice is still the most predominant in Materials and Methods sections.

Writing Materials and Methods sections is a meticulous and time consuming task requiring extreme accuracy and clarity. This is why when you complete your draft, you should ask for as much feedback from your colleagues as possible. Numerous readers of this section will help you identify the missing links and improve the technical style of this section.

Rule 3: Be meticulous and accurate in describing the Materials and Methods. Do not change the point of view within one paragraph.

3.2. writing results section.

For many authors, writing the Results section is more intimidating than writing the Materials and Methods section . If people are interested in your paper, they are interested in your results. That is why it is vital to use all your writing skills to objectively present your key findings in an orderly and logical sequence using illustrative materials and text.

Your Results should be organized into different segments or subsections where each one presents the purpose of the experiment, your experimental approach, data including text and visuals (tables, figures, schematics, algorithms, and formulas), and data commentary. For most journals, your data commentary will include a meaningful summary of the data presented in the visuals and an explanation of the most significant findings. This data presentation should not repeat the data in the visuals, but rather highlight the most important points. In the “standard” research paper approach, your Results section should exclude data interpretation, leaving it for the Discussion section. However, interpretations gradually and secretly creep into research papers: “Reducing the data, generalizing from the data, and highlighting scientific cases are all highly interpretive processes. It should be clear by now that we do not let the data speak for themselves in research reports; in summarizing our results, we interpret them for the reader” [ 10 ]. As a result, many journals including the Journal of Experimental Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Investigation use joint Results/Discussion sections, where results are immediately followed by interpretations.

Another important aspect of this section is to create a comprehensive and supported argument or a well-researched case. This means that you should be selective in presenting data and choose only those experimental details that are essential for your reader to understand your findings. You might have conducted an experiment 20 times and collected numerous records, but this does not mean that you should present all those records in your paper. You need to distinguish your results from your data and be able to discard excessive experimental details that could distract and confuse the reader. However, creating a picture or an argument should not be confused with data manipulation or falsification, which is a willful distortion of data and results. If some of your findings contradict your ideas, you have to mention this and find a plausible explanation for the contradiction.

In addition, your text should not include irrelevant and peripheral information, including overview sentences, as in (6).

6. To show our results, we first introduce all components of experimental system and then describe the outcome of infections.

Indeed, wordiness convolutes your sentences and conceals your ideas from readers. One common source of wordiness is unnecessary intensifiers. Adverbial intensifiers such as “clearly,” “essential,” “quite,” “basically,” “rather,” “fairly,” “really,” and “virtually” not only add verbosity to your sentences, but also lower your results’ credibility. They appeal to the reader’s emotions but lower objectivity, as in the common examples in (7):

7a. Table 3 clearly shows that … 7b. It is obvious from figure 4 that …

Another source of wordiness is nominalizations, i.e., nouns derived from verbs and adjectives paired with weak verbs including “be,” “have,” “do,” “make,” “cause,” “provide,” and “get” and constructions such as “there is/are.”

8a. We tested the hypothesis that there is a disruption of membrane asymmetry. 8b. In this paper we provide an argument that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

In the sentences above, the abstract nominalizations “disruption” and “argument” do not contribute to the clarity of the sentences, but rather clutter them with useless vocabulary that distracts from the meaning. To improve your sentences, avoid unnecessary nominalizations and change passive verbs and constructions into active and direct sentences.

9a. We tested the hypothesis that the membrane asymmetry is disrupted. 9b. In this paper we argue that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

Your Results section is the heart of your paper, representing a year or more of your daily research. So lead your reader through your story by writing direct, concise, and clear sentences.

Rule 4: Be clear, concise, and objective in describing your Results.

3.3. now it is time for your introduction.

Now that you are almost half through drafting your research paper, it is time to update your outline. While describing your Methods and Results, many of you diverged from the original outline and re-focused your ideas. So before you move on to create your Introduction, re-read your Methods and Results sections and change your outline to match your research focus. The updated outline will help you review the general picture of your paper, the topic, the main idea, and the purpose, which are all important for writing your introduction.

The best way to structure your introduction is to follow the three-move approach shown in Table 3 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak [ 11 ].

The moves and information from your outline can help to create your Introduction efficiently and without missing steps. These moves are traffic signs that lead the reader through the road of your ideas. Each move plays an important role in your paper and should be presented with deep thought and care. When you establish the territory, you place your research in context and highlight the importance of your research topic. By finding the niche, you outline the scope of your research problem and enter the scientific dialogue. The final move, “occupying the niche,” is where you explain your research in a nutshell and highlight your paper’s significance. The three moves allow your readers to evaluate their interest in your paper and play a significant role in the paper review process, determining your paper reviewers.

Some academic writers assume that the reader “should follow the paper” to find the answers about your methodology and your findings. As a result, many novice writers do not present their experimental approach and the major findings, wrongly believing that the reader will locate the necessary information later while reading the subsequent sections [ 5 ]. However, this “suspense” approach is not appropriate for scientific writing. To interest the reader, scientific authors should be direct and straightforward and present informative one-sentence summaries of the results and the approach.

Another problem is that writers understate the significance of the Introduction. Many new researchers mistakenly think that all their readers understand the importance of the research question and omit this part. However, this assumption is faulty because the purpose of the section is not to evaluate the importance of the research question in general. The goal is to present the importance of your research contribution and your findings. Therefore, you should be explicit and clear in describing the benefit of the paper.

The Introduction should not be long. Indeed, for most journals, this is a very brief section of about 250 to 600 words, but it might be the most difficult section due to its importance.

Rule 5: Interest your reader in the Introduction section by signalling all its elements and stating the novelty of the work.

3.4. discussion of the results.

For many scientists, writing a Discussion section is as scary as starting a paper. Most of the fear comes from the variation in the section. Since every paper has its unique results and findings, the Discussion section differs in its length, shape, and structure. However, some general principles of writing this section still exist. Knowing these rules, or “moves,” can change your attitude about this section and help you create a comprehensive interpretation of your results.

The purpose of the Discussion section is to place your findings in the research context and “to explain the meaning of the findings and why they are important, without appearing arrogant, condescending, or patronizing” [ 11 ]. The structure of the first two moves is almost a mirror reflection of the one in the Introduction. In the Introduction, you zoom in from general to specific and from the background to your research question; in the Discussion section, you zoom out from the summary of your findings to the research context, as shown in Table 4 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak and Hess [ 11 , 12 ].

The biggest challenge for many writers is the opening paragraph of the Discussion section. Following the moves in Table 1 , the best choice is to start with the study’s major findings that provide the answer to the research question in your Introduction. The most common starting phrases are “Our findings demonstrate . . .,” or “In this study, we have shown that . . .,” or “Our results suggest . . .” In some cases, however, reminding the reader about the research question or even providing a brief context and then stating the answer would make more sense. This is important in those cases where the researcher presents a number of findings or where more than one research question was presented. Your summary of the study’s major findings should be followed by your presentation of the importance of these findings. One of the most frequent mistakes of the novice writer is to assume the importance of his findings. Even if the importance is clear to you, it may not be obvious to your reader. Digesting the findings and their importance to your reader is as crucial as stating your research question.

Another useful strategy is to be proactive in the first move by predicting and commenting on the alternative explanations of the results. Addressing potential doubts will save you from painful comments about the wrong interpretation of your results and will present you as a thoughtful and considerate researcher. Moreover, the evaluation of the alternative explanations might help you create a logical step to the next move of the discussion section: the research context.

The goal of the research context move is to show how your findings fit into the general picture of the current research and how you contribute to the existing knowledge on the topic. This is also the place to discuss any discrepancies and unexpected findings that may otherwise distort the general picture of your paper. Moreover, outlining the scope of your research by showing the limitations, weaknesses, and assumptions is essential and adds modesty to your image as a scientist. However, make sure that you do not end your paper with the problems that override your findings. Try to suggest feasible explanations and solutions.

If your submission does not require a separate Conclusion section, then adding another paragraph about the “take-home message” is a must. This should be a general statement reiterating your answer to the research question and adding its scientific implications, practical application, or advice.

Just as in all other sections of your paper, the clear and precise language and concise comprehensive sentences are vital. However, in addition to that, your writing should convey confidence and authority. The easiest way to illustrate your tone is to use the active voice and the first person pronouns. Accompanied by clarity and succinctness, these tools are the best to convince your readers of your point and your ideas.

Rule 6: Present the principles, relationships, and generalizations in a concise and convincing tone.

4. choosing the best working revision strategies.

Now that you have created the first draft, your attitude toward your writing should have improved. Moreover, you should feel more confident that you are able to accomplish your project and submit your paper within a reasonable timeframe. You also have worked out your writing schedule and followed it precisely. Do not stop ― you are only at the midpoint from your destination. Just as the best and most precious diamond is no more than an unattractive stone recognized only by trained professionals, your ideas and your results may go unnoticed if they are not polished and brushed. Despite your attempts to present your ideas in a logical and comprehensive way, first drafts are frequently a mess. Use the advice of Paul Silvia: “Your first drafts should sound like they were hastily translated from Icelandic by a non-native speaker” [ 2 ]. The degree of your success will depend on how you are able to revise and edit your paper.

The revision can be done at the macrostructure and the microstructure levels [ 13 ]. The macrostructure revision includes the revision of the organization, content, and flow. The microstructure level includes individual words, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The best way to approach the macrostructure revision is through the outline of the ideas in your paper. The last time you updated your outline was before writing the Introduction and the Discussion. Now that you have the beginning and the conclusion, you can take a bird’s-eye view of the whole paper. The outline will allow you to see if the ideas of your paper are coherently structured, if your results are logically built, and if the discussion is linked to the research question in the Introduction. You will be able to see if something is missing in any of the sections or if you need to rearrange your information to make your point.

The next step is to revise each of the sections starting from the beginning. Ideally, you should limit yourself to working on small sections of about five pages at a time [ 14 ]. After these short sections, your eyes get used to your writing and your efficiency in spotting problems decreases. When reading for content and organization, you should control your urge to edit your paper for sentence structure and grammar and focus only on the flow of your ideas and logic of your presentation. Experienced researchers tend to make almost three times the number of changes to meaning than novice writers [ 15 , 16 ]. Revising is a difficult but useful skill, which academic writers obtain with years of practice.

In contrast to the macrostructure revision, which is a linear process and is done usually through a detailed outline and by sections, microstructure revision is a non-linear process. While the goal of the macrostructure revision is to analyze your ideas and their logic, the goal of the microstructure editing is to scrutinize the form of your ideas: your paragraphs, sentences, and words. You do not need and are not recommended to follow the order of the paper to perform this type of revision. You can start from the end or from different sections. You can even revise by reading sentences backward, sentence by sentence and word by word.

One of the microstructure revision strategies frequently used during writing center consultations is to read the paper aloud [ 17 ]. You may read aloud to yourself, to a tape recorder, or to a colleague or friend. When reading and listening to your paper, you are more likely to notice the places where the fluency is disrupted and where you stumble because of a very long and unclear sentence or a wrong connector.

Another revision strategy is to learn your common errors and to do a targeted search for them [ 13 ]. All writers have a set of problems that are specific to them, i.e., their writing idiosyncrasies. Remembering these problems is as important for an academic writer as remembering your friends’ birthdays. Create a list of these idiosyncrasies and run a search for these problems using your word processor. If your problem is demonstrative pronouns without summary words, then search for “this/these/those” in your text and check if you used the word appropriately. If you have a problem with intensifiers, then search for “really” or “very” and delete them from the text. The same targeted search can be done to eliminate wordiness. Searching for “there is/are” or “and” can help you avoid the bulky sentences.

The final strategy is working with a hard copy and a pencil. Print a double space copy with font size 14 and re-read your paper in several steps. Try reading your paper line by line with the rest of the text covered with a piece of paper. When you are forced to see only a small portion of your writing, you are less likely to get distracted and are more likely to notice problems. You will end up spotting more unnecessary words, wrongly worded phrases, or unparallel constructions.

After you apply all these strategies, you are ready to share your writing with your friends, colleagues, and a writing advisor in the writing center. Get as much feedback as you can, especially from non-specialists in your field. Patiently listen to what others say to you ― you are not expected to defend your writing or explain what you wanted to say. You may decide what you want to change and how after you receive the feedback and sort it in your head. Even though some researchers make the revision an endless process and can hardly stop after a 14th draft; having from five to seven drafts of your paper is a norm in the sciences. If you can’t stop revising, then set a deadline for yourself and stick to it. Deadlines always help.

Rule 7: Revise your paper at the macrostructure and the microstructure level using different strategies and techniques. Receive feedback and revise again.

5. it is time to submit.

It is late at night again. You are still in your lab finishing revisions and getting ready to submit your paper. You feel happy ― you have finally finished a year’s worth of work. You will submit your paper tomorrow, and regardless of the outcome, you know that you can do it. If one journal does not take your paper, you will take advantage of the feedback and resubmit again. You will have a publication, and this is the most important achievement.

What is even more important is that you have your scheduled writing time that you are going to keep for your future publications, for reading and taking notes, for writing grants, and for reviewing papers. You are not going to lose stamina this time, and you will become a productive scientist. But for now, let’s celebrate the end of the paper.

• Hayes JR. In: The Science of Writing: Theories, Methods, Individual Differences, and Applications. Levy CM, Ransdell SE, editors. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1996. A new framework for understanding cognition and affect in writing; pp. 1–28. [ Google Scholar ]
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• Soto D, Funes MJ, Guzmán-García A, Warbrick T, Rotshtein T, Humphreys GW. Pleasant music overcomes the loss of awareness in patients with visual neglect. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009; 106 (14):6011–6016. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
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Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to format your references using the Biological Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biological Research . For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors .

• Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

• Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

• Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Biological Research .

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

• Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

• News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

• In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets :

• About the journal

• Other styles
• Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology
• Contraception and Reproductive Medicine

• Research Guides

BIO 3800: Biological Research

• Literature Review
• Biological Research
• Writing A Scientific Paper
• Effective Presentations
• How to Prepare an Annotation
• Ethics in Research
• RefWorks & Zotero This link opens in a new window

Need Assistance?

Find your librarian, schedule a research appointment, today's hours : , what is a literature review.

A literature review ought to be a clear, concise synthesis of relevant information. A literature review should introduce the study it precedes and show how that study fits into topically related studies that already exist. Structurally, a literature review ought to be something like a funnel: start by addressing the topic broadly and gradually narrow as the review progresses.

from Literature Reviews by CU Writing Center

Why review the literature?

Reference to prior literature is a defining feature of academic and research writing. Why review the literature?

• To help you understand a research topic
• To establish the importance of a topic
• To help develop your own ideas
• To make sure you are not simply replicating research that others have already successfully completed
• To demonstrate knowledge and show how your current work is situated within, builds on, or departs from earlier publications

from Literature Review Basics from University of La Verne

Literature Review Writing Tips

Synthesize your findings . Your findings are your evaluation of the literature reviewed: what you consider the strengths and weakness of the studies reviewed; the comparison you did between studies; research trends and gaps in the research that you found while researching your topic, etc...

Across the articles that you read, pay attention to what are the:

• Common/contested findings
• Important trends
• Influential theories

Lectures & Slides

• Literature Reviews | CU Writing Center
• Writing a Literature Review | CU Writing Center
• Revising a Literature Review | CU Writing Center

How-To Guides

• Literature Reviews | Purdue OWL A how-to guide from Purdue OWL
• Literature Reviews | University of North Carolina
• Literature Reviews (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide | University of Connecticut
• Literature Reviews | Florida A & M
• Conduct a Literature Review | SUNY
• Literature Review Basics | University of LaVerne

Organizing a Literature Review

Your literature review should have the following components:

• Introduction : Provide an overview of your topic, including the major problems and issues that have been studied.
• Thematic : You may have noticed specific themes emerge as you did your reading; if so, this may be a good way to organize your literature review. 
• Chronological : To use the example above, you may have observed that the way principals deal with behavioral problems has changed over time. If that's the case, perhaps you want to give a historical overview of the literature.
• Methodological : There are a number of different types of methodologies used in research.
• Conclusion/Discussion : Summarize what you've found in your review of literature, and identify areas in need of further research. Make sure to mention any gaps in the literature - things you think should have been researched, but were not.

Sample Literature Reviews

• Sample Literature Reviews | University of West Florida
• Sample APA Papers: Literature Review | Purdue OWL

Other Libguides

• Literature Reviews | Webster University
• Write a Literature Review | UC Santa Cruz
• Literature Reviews | California State University

A literature review may exist as:

• part of a larger whole like a section of a journal article or dissertation, or chapter of a book
• a self-contained entity, like an entire journal article 
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• Last Updated: Jan 24, 2024 8:29 AM
• URL: https://libguides.cedarville.edu/bio3800

University of Denver

University libraries, research guides, a guide to biology research.

• Journal articles
• Books & media
• Stats, theses, & other formats
• Newspapers & magazines
• Get full text of a specific article
• Request sources not at DU Libraries
• Search databases effectively
• Evaluate your sources
• Confirm an article is peer-reviewed
• Cite sources properly

Why do I need to cite my sources?

When should i cite a source, how do i cite a source, quick tools for auto-formatting your citations:, understand the generic format of a citation:.

Imagine research as a conversation -- scholars are trading ideas back and forth and building on the findings of earlier work. Citing your sources is an important part of contributing to this conversation -- it allows readers to understand how your work fits into the overall conversation.

Citing your sources in a standard style also helps readers tell at a glance what type of source you used (book vs. journal article, etc), and it helps readers find and reference the sources you used.

What is Plagiarism?

The  DU Honor Code  defines plagiarism as "including any representation of another's work or ideas as one's own in academic and educational submissions."

At DU, plagiarism is seen as a form of academic misconduct and can result in severe consequences. These explanations of the most common  types of plagiarism  from Bowdoin College can help you learn to detect plagiarism in your own and other's work.

The text above is a direct quote from the Northern Arizona University e-Learning Center's  Academic Integrity @ NAU tutorial. The e-Learning Center was paraphrasing Princeton University's guidelines.

What is Plagiarism Detection Software?

DU uses a plagiarism detection software called VeriCite . When a student turns in a paper through Canvas, VeriCite checks the internet and many databases to see if anything has been copied from another person’s work.

Common Citation Styles:

• The ACS Style Guide (American Chemical Society) This link takes you directly to Chapter 14, which explains how to format references in ACS Style. Click on the link for the Table of Contents to read the entire Style Guide, which describes how to write, review, submit, and edit scholarly & scientific manuscripts.
• CSE (Council of Science Editors) Style An overview by the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The library has multiple print copies of the 8th edition of the CSE manual: "Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers" (2014).

Online Style Guides:

• Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab)
• Citing Information (UNC Libraries)
• The Writer's Handbook (UW Madison Writing Center)

Want to use a program that not only creates your bibliography automatically, but can also store and organize citations and PDFs?

• Check out ReadCube Papers -- DU provides all students, faculty, and staff with free accounts.
• Check out Zotero -- a great free option from the makers of the Firefox browser.

Just need to format a few citations right now? Try these quick tools:

• ZoteroBib Create a quick bibliography by pasting in a page URL or article information such as the DOI.
• Google Scholar Citation Generator Look up an citation in Google Scholar, then look for the quote icon below the citation. This link provides examples of the citation in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.
• CItation Generator Build citations in APA, Chicago, or MLA style.

Whichever program you choose, remember to proofread the citations it generates for you!

If you understand the general anatomy of a citation, it's easier to create your own citations -- plus, you can tell at a glance what kind of source was cited. Here's the anatomy of two sources formatted in the CSE (Council of Science Editors) style:

• << Previous: Confirm an article is peer-reviewed
• Last Updated: Mar 8, 2024 2:04 PM
• URL: https://libguides.du.edu/biology

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES MAJOR

Senior thesis examples.

Graduating seniors in Biological Sciences have the option of submitting a senior thesis for consideration for Honors and Research Prizes .  Below are some examples of particularly outstanding theses from recent years (pdf):

Sledd Thesis

• Search by keyword
• Search by citation

Page 1 of 13

Molecular hydrogen promotes retinal vascular regeneration and attenuates neovascularization and neuroglial dysfunction in oxygen-induced retinopathy mice

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a proliferative retinal vascular disease occurring in the retina of premature infants and is the main cause of childhood blindness. Nowadays anti-VEGF and retinal photocoagu...

• View Full Text

Retraction Note: Tridax procumbens flavonoids promote osteoblast differentiation and bone formation

Exercise reduces physical alterations in a rat model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has serious physical consequences for children such as behavioral disabilities, growth disorders, neuromuscular problems, impaired motor coordination, and decreased muscle tone....

Loss of protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor delta PTPRD increases the number of cortical neurons, impairs synaptic function and induces autistic-like behaviors in adult mice

The brain cortex is responsible for many higher-level cognitive functions. Disruptions during cortical development have long-lasting consequences on brain function and are associated with the etiology of brain...

Inhibition of astroglial hemichannels prevents synaptic transmission decline during spreading depression

Spreading depression (SD) is an intriguing phenomenon characterized by massive slow brain depolarizations that affect neurons and glial cells. This phenomenon is repetitive and produces a metabolic overload th...

Correction: Conformational characterization of the mammalian-expressed SARS-CoV-2 recombinant receptor binding domain, a COVID-19 vaccine

The original article was published in Biological Research 2023 56 :22

The current insights of mitochondrial hormesis in the occurrence and treatment of bone and cartilage degeneration

It is widely acknowledged that aging, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cellular phenotypic abnormalities are intricately associated with the degeneration of bone and cartilage. Consequently, gaining a comprehens...

The crucial role of HFM1 in regulating FUS ubiquitination and localization for oocyte meiosis prophase I progression in mice

Helicase for meiosis 1 (HFM1), a putative DNA helicase expressed in germ-line cells, has been reported to be closely associated with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). However, the underlying molecular mec...

Distinct properties of putative trophoblast stem cells established from somatic cell nuclear-transferred pig blastocysts

Genetically modified pigs are considered ideal models for studying human diseases and potential sources for xenotransplantation research. However, the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique utilized to...

Electroacupuncture attenuates neuropathic pain via suppressing BIP-IRE-1α-mediated endoplasmic reticulum stress in the anterior cingulate cortex

Studies have suggested that endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) is involved in neurological dysfunction and that electroacupuncture (EA) attenuates neuropathic pain (NP) via undefined pathways. However, the rol...

Effect of Cannabis sativa L. extracts, phytocannabinoids and their acetylated derivates on the SHSY-5Y neuroblastoma cells’ viability and caspases 3/7 activation

There is a need for novel treatments for neuroblastoma, despite the emergence of new biological and immune treatments, since refractory pediatric neuroblastoma is still a medical challenge. Phyto cannabinoids ...

The hepatoprotective effect of 4-phenyltetrahydroquinolines on carbon tetrachloride induced hepatotoxicity in rats through autophagy inhibition

The liver serves as a metabolic hub within the human body, playing a crucial role in various essential functions, such as detoxification, nutrient metabolism, and hormone regulation. Therefore, protecting the ...

Connexin channels and hemichannels are modulated differently by charge reversal at residues forming the intracellular pocket

Members of the β-subfamily of connexins contain an intracellular pocket surrounded by amino acid residues from the four transmembrane helices. The presence of this pocket has not previously been investigated i...

IDH1 mutation produces R-2-hydroxyglutarate (R-2HG) and induces mir-182-5p expression to regulate cell cycle and tumor formation in glioma

Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 ( IDH1 and IDH2 ), are present in most gliomas. IDH1 mutation is an important prognostic marker in glioma. However, its regulatory mechanism in glioma remains incomplet...

Therapeutic potential of oleic acid supplementation in myotonic dystrophy muscle cell models

We recently reported that upregulation of Musashi 2 (MSI2) protein in the rare neuromuscular disease myotonic dystrophy type 1 contributes to the hyperactivation of the muscle catabolic processes autophagy and...

Dorsal root ganglion-derived exosomes deteriorate neuropathic pain by activating microglia via the microRNA-16-5p/HECTD1/HSP90 axis

The activated microglia have been reported as pillar factors in neuropathic pain (NP) pathology, but the molecules driving pain-inducible microglial activation require further exploration. In this study, we in...

MicroRNA-721 regulates gluconeogenesis via KDM2A-mediated epigenetic modulation in diet-induced insulin resistance in C57BL/6J mice

Aberrant gluconeogenesis is considered among primary drivers of hyperglycemia under insulin resistant conditions, with multiple studies pointing towards epigenetic dysregulation. Here we examine the role of mi...

Combined transcriptomics and proteomics unveil the impact of vitamin C in modulating specific protein abundance in the mouse liver

Vitamin C (ascorbate) is a water-soluble antioxidant and an important cofactor for various biosynthetic and regulatory enzymes. Mice can synthesize vitamin C thanks to the key enzyme gulonolactone oxidase (Gul...

Novel role of LLGL2 silencing in autophagy: reversing epithelial-mesenchymal transition in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a major urological disease that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in men. LLGL2 is the mammalian homolog of Lgl. It acts as a tumor suppressor in breast and hepati...

Rapid development and mass production of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing chicken egg yolk antibodies with protective efficacy in hamsters

Despite the record speed of developing vaccines and therapeutics against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is not a given that such success can be secured in future pandemics. In addition, COVID-19 vaccination and appl...

High-fat diet, microbiome-gut-brain axis signaling, and anxiety-like behavior in male rats

Obesity, associated with the intake of a high-fat diet (HFD), and anxiety are common among those living in modern urban societies. Recent studies suggest a role of microbiome-gut-brain axis signaling, includin...

General regulatory factors exert differential effects on nucleosome sliding activity of the ISW1a complex

Chromatin dynamics is deeply involved in processes that require access to DNA, such as transcriptional regulation. Among the factors involved in chromatin dynamics at gene regulatory regions are general regula...

Establishment of primary prostate epithelial and tumorigenic cell lines using a non-viral immortalization approach

Research on prostate cancer is mostly performed using cell lines derived from metastatic disease, not reflecting stages of tumor initiation or early progression. Establishment of cancer cell lines derived from...

The effect of diabetes mellitus on differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into insulin-producing cells

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global epidemic with increasing incidences. DM is a metabolic disease associated with chronic hyperglycemia. Aside from conventional treatments, there is no clinically approved cure...

Control of astrocytic Ca 2+ signaling by nitric oxide-dependent S-nitrosylation of Ca 2+ homeostasis modulator 1 channels

Astrocytes Ca 2+ signaling play a central role in the modulation of neuronal function. Activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR) by glutamate released during an increase in synaptic activity triggers ...

Increased levels and activation of the IL-17 receptor in microglia contribute to enhanced neuroinflammation in cerebellum of hyperammonemic rats

Patients with liver cirrhosis may show minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) with mild cognitive impairment and motor incoordination. Rats with chronic hyperammonemia reproduce these alterations. Motor incoordi...

Identification and expression analysis of two steamer-like retrotransposons in the Chilean blue mussel ( Mytilus chilensis )

Disseminated neoplasia (DN) is a proliferative cell disorder of the circulatory system of bivalve mollusks. The disease is transmitted between individuals and can also be induced by external chemical agents su...

Noncoding RNAs in skeletal development and disorders

Protein-encoding genes only constitute less than 2% of total human genomic sequences, and 98% of genetic information was previously referred to as “junk DNA”. Meanwhile, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) consist of app...

Cx43 hemichannels and panx1 channels contribute to ethanol-induced astrocyte dysfunction and damage

Alcohol, a widely abused drug, significantly diminishes life quality, causing chronic diseases and psychiatric issues, with severe health, societal, and economic repercussions. Previously, we demonstrated that...

Galectins in epithelial-mesenchymal transition: roles and mechanisms contributing to tissue repair, fibrosis and cancer metastasis

Galectins are soluble glycan-binding proteins that interact with a wide range of glycoproteins and glycolipids and modulate a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological processes. The expression and subc...

Glutaminolysis regulates endometrial fibrosis in intrauterine adhesion via modulating mitochondrial function

Endometrial fibrosis, a significant characteristic of intrauterine adhesion (IUA), is caused by the excessive differentiation and activation of endometrial stromal cells (ESCs). Glutaminolysis is the metabolic...

The long-chain flavodoxin FldX1 improves the biodegradation of 4-hydroxyphenylacetate and 3-hydroxyphenylacetate and counteracts the oxidative stress associated to aromatic catabolism in Paraburkholderia xenovorans

Bacterial aromatic degradation may cause oxidative stress. The long-chain flavodoxin FldX1 of Paraburkholderia xenovorans LB400 counteracts reactive oxygen species (ROS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the...

MicroRNA-148b secreted by bovine oviductal extracellular vesicles enhance embryo quality through BPM/TGF-beta pathway

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their cargoes, including MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication. We previously demonstrated the upregulation of bta-mir-148b in EVs from oviductal...

YME1L-mediated mitophagy protects renal tubular cells against cellular senescence under diabetic conditions

The senescence of renal tubular epithelial cells (RTECs) is crucial in the progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Accumulating evidence suggests a close association between insufficient mitophagy and RT...

Effects of latroeggtoxin-VI on dopamine and α-synuclein in PC12 cells and the implications for Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by death of dopaminergic neurons leading to dopamine deficiency, excessive α-synuclein facilitating Lewy body formation, etc. Latroeggtoxin-VI (LETX-VI), a proteinaceo...

Glial-restricted progenitor cells: a cure for diseased brain?

The central nervous system (CNS) is home to neuronal and glial cells. Traditionally, glia was disregarded as just the structural support across the brain and spinal cord, in striking contrast to neurons, alway...

Carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent ST23 Klebsiella pneumoniae with a highly transmissible dual-carbapenemase plasmid in Chile

The convergence of hypervirulence and carbapenem resistance in the bacterial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae represents a critical global health concern. Hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKp) strains, frequently from...

Endometrial mesenchymal stromal/stem cells improve regeneration of injured endometrium in mice

The monthly regeneration of human endometrial tissue is maintained by the presence of human endometrial mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (eMSC), a cell population co-expressing the perivascular markers CD140b an...

Embryo development is impaired by sperm mitochondrial-derived ROS

Basal energetic metabolism in sperm, particularly oxidative phosphorylation, is known to condition not only their oocyte fertilising ability, but also the subsequent embryo development. While the molecular pat...

Fibroblasts inhibit osteogenesis by regulating nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling of YAP in mesenchymal stem cells and secreting DKK1

Fibrous scars frequently form at the sites of bone nonunion when attempts to repair bone fractures have failed. However, the detailed mechanism by which fibroblasts, which are the main components of fibrous sc...

MSC-derived exosomes protect auditory hair cells from neomycin-induced damage via autophagy regulation

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) poses a major threat to both physical and mental health; however, there is still a lack of effective drugs to treat the disease. Recently, novel biological therapies, such as ...

Alpha-synuclein dynamics bridge Type-I Interferon response and SARS-CoV-2 replication in peripheral cells

Increasing evidence suggests a double-faceted role of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) following infection by a variety of viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Although α-syn accumulation is known to contribute to cell toxic...

Lactadherin immunoblockade in small extracellular vesicles inhibits sEV-mediated increase of pro-metastatic capacities

Tumor-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) can promote tumorigenic and metastatic capacities in less aggressive recipient cells mainly through the biomolecules in their cargo. However, despite recent ad...

Integration of ATAC-seq and RNA-seq identifies MX1-mediated AP-1 transcriptional regulation as a therapeutic target for Down syndrome

Growing evidence has suggested that Type I Interferon (I-IFN) plays a potential role in the pathogenesis of Down Syndrome (DS). This work investigates the underlying function of MX1, an effector gene of I-IFN,...

The novel roles of YULINK in the migration, proliferation and glycolysis of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells: implications for pulmonary arterial hypertension

Abnormal remodeling of the pulmonary vasculature, characterized by the proliferation and migration of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) along with dysregulated glycolysis, is a pathognomonic feat...

Electroacupuncture promotes neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus and improves pattern separation in an early Alzheimer's disease mouse model

Impaired pattern separation occurs in the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) neurogenesis participates in pattern separation. Here, we investigated whether spatial memo...

Role of SYVN1 in the control of airway remodeling in asthma protection by promoting SIRT2 ubiquitination and degradation

Asthma is a heterogenous disease that characterized by airway remodeling. SYVN1 (Synoviolin 1) acts as an E3 ligase to mediate the suppression of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress through ubiquitination and de...

Advances towards the use of gastrointestinal tumor patient-derived organoids as a therapeutic decision-making tool

In December 2022 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed the requirement that drugs in development must undergo animal testing before clinical evaluation, a declaration that now demands the establish...

Melatonin alleviates pyroptosis by regulating the SIRT3/FOXO3α/ROS axis and interacting with apoptosis in Atherosclerosis progression

Atherosclerosis (AS), a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD), is steadily rising with the aging of the global population. Pyroptosis and apoptosis, both caspase-mediated cell death mechanism...

Autologous non-invasively derived stem cells mitochondria transfer shows therapeutic advantages in human embryo quality rescue

The decline in the quantity and quality of mitochondria are closely associated with infertility, particularly in advanced maternal age. Transferring autologous mitochondria into the oocytes of infertile female...

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Biological Research

ISSN: 0717-6287

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