Types of Scientific Publications

Scientific publications are of different types. “Scientific paper” is the term used to denote an original research work. Primary publication is the full report (full paper) on an original research work published in peer – reviewed journals.   Review paper, conference report and meeting abstract are also other forms of scientific publications.

Review paper- A review paper summarize, analyse and evaluate the information that has been already published in various journals. Even though these articles are meant for critical review of scientific information published till date on a particular topic, new ideas, new theories and even new paradigms can evolve from a good quality review paper.  

Conference Report- Conference report is the publication in a book or journal which has been published as a part of the proceedings of a national/ international conference, congress etc. Such publications do not qualify as primary publications. They usually contain review papers, discussing recent work by a particular scientist or work in a particular laboratory. Some are in the form of preliminary reports. Such reports also do not qualify as primary publication. Essential experiments has to be conducted and proper mature conclusion has to be arrived with such preliminary works and then it has to be published in a peer reviewed journal to make it valid. Means, original work published as conference report has to be published in an archival journal to be valid as a primary publication.

Meeting abstract – Meeting abstract can be of different types like those published as part of national /international seminars, meetings etc. They are very much similar to conference report, but often contain an original research information. Such abstracts will be summarizing the details of the original research work in one or two paragraphs. These are also not valid as primary publication. Nowadays, extended abstracts are also published in many seminars. Extended abstracts provide much details about the original research work, but differ from full paper in that they lack the experimental details.   Extended abstracts is also not valid as primary publication. 

References

1.  James Hartely, 2008. Academic writing and publishing-A practical handbook (ISBN 0-203- 92798-2), Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York

2.   Robert A Day and Barbara Gastel, 2012. How to write and publish a scientific paper (ISBN 978-1-107-67074-7), Cambridge University press, UK.