Components of Manuscript/ Research Paper (Part III)- Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement & References

 

1.   Results

Results forms the core or data of the manuscript. This section has two components. Initially the overall description of experiments have to be provided without repeating the minor details of experiments as explained in Materials & Methods part. Second part is the presentation of findings or data of the analysis in past tense. In this part, first the   main findings of the study in order, relating them in turn to the hypotheses and methods used are presented.  Followed by stating the subsidiary findings, relating them in turn to the hypotheses and methods used. Negative results should be also stated.

If one or only a few determinations are to be presented, it can be included in the descriptive part of results. If repetitive determinations are made, data have to be tabulated and presented as graphs and tables. Figures could be added if required to explain the results. Do not verbose in citing graphs, figures and tables. For eg: “It is clearly shown in Table 1 that Penicillin could inhibit the growth of N.gonorrhoea”- Wrong usage.

“Penicillin inhibited the growth of N.gonorrhoea (Table 1)”- Correct usage.

Statistical analysis of results have to be also performed.

Result section should be short and without verbiage. Results should be stated clearly and simply because this part includes the new knowledge you are contributing to the world. Results should be presented with crystal clarity because the stand or fall of the whole paper is decided on the basis of result section.

2.             Discussion 

Discussion part is the hardest section to write. Discussion sections are long and verbose.

   ·       Restate the findings and accomplishments. State principles, relationships and generalisations shown by the results.

·       Evaluate how the results agree with the previous findings – do

they contradict, qualify, agree or go beyond them?

·       Offer an interpretation/explanation of these results and ward off

counter-claims.

·       List potential limitations to the study.

·       State the theoretical implications as well as potential applications and recommend further research.

3.             Conclusion

Summarise the major findings in simple and effective manner. Should be a short brief paragraph. In some journals, it forms the last part of Result & Discussion section. In some, it comes under separate head.

  4.             Acknowledgements

It is courteous to thank sources of financial support (funding agencies), and colleagues and referees for their help during work as well as in improving articles.

·     Financial (recognition of extramural or internal funding);

·     Instrumental/technical (providing access to tools, technologies, facilities, and also furnishing technical expertise, such as statistical analysis);

·     Conceptual (source of inspiration, idea generation, critical insight, intellectual guidance, assistance of referees etc.);

·     Editorial (providing advice on manuscript preparation, submission, bibliographic assistance etc.)

·     Moral (recognising the support of family, friends etc.).

Eg: Portions of this research were funded by a grant from the National

Institutes of Health (MH53291). We would like to thank Greg Hixon, Amy Kaderka and Girish Tembe for their assistance on this project and

Amie Green, Timothy Loving, Mathew Newman, William Swann, and Simine Vazire for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

(Slatcher and Pennebaker, 2006, p. 663)

5.             References

References serve many purposes in a scientific manuscript. References should include details like author name, year of publication, topic of paper, Journal name, volume, issue, page number etc.

They:

• Establish where ideas came from
• Give evidence for claims
• Connect readers to other research
• Provide a context for your work
• Show that there is interest in this field of research

Many different styles of referencing have developed over the years. Journals considerably vary in the style of reference section. Currently there are four main styles.

1.       The APA style. This system is also known as the Harvard or, more colloquially, as the ‘name (date)’ system. This is because an author’s surname in the text is followed by the date of the publication in brackets.

Eg: Zammuner, V. L. (1995). Individual and co-operative computer writing and revising: Who gets the best results? Learning and Instruction, 5(2), 101–24.

 

2.     The Modern Languages Association (MLA) style. In this version the authors’ surnames (with or without the dates) appear in the text and the first author’s surname comes first in the reference list.

 

Eg: Speck, Bruce W., Teresa R. Johnson, Catherine Dice, and Leon B. Heaton. Collaborative Writing: An Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999. 

 

3.      The Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) style. Here, the authors in the text are numbered in order of their appearance in the text, sometimes without their names, and the numbers are enclosed in square brackets. The reference list is then numbered sequentially.

    Eg: [1] V. L. Zammuner, ‘Individual and co-operative computer writing and revising: Who           gets the best results?’ Learning and Instruction, vol. 5, no.2, pp. 101–24, 1995.

 

4.   The Vancouver style- popular in medical journals. the authors are numbered in the text in order of their appearance, and the numbers are enclosed in square brackets. The reference list is numbered sequentially, but the authors are listed surnames first, followed by their initials. Again the dates of publications are given after journal titles, or at the ends of the references for books etc

 

Eg:

1.   Speck BWM, Johnson TR, Dice CP, Heaton LB. Collaborative    writing: an annotated bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.

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.