How to write a scientific paper

 abstract

1-2 sentences on context and aims (why/ context & aim)

short description of what has been done (how/ method)

main results and major consequences (what/ result & conclusion)

Example:

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introduction

1. describe the background and context of the work, i.e., what has been done before. Give enough credit to the work of others.

2. why the present work need to be done. why it is important.

3. what is new in the method or results.

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Methods

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Results

General rule 

1. in the results section, you only describe the results, but do not interpret them very much

2. in the discussion section provide the interpretation and the comparison with the literature, without repeating all the results.

3. use figures to show the main results if possible

a) captions should be short, but self-explaining. since often figures are looked at before the text is read. if symbols or abbreviations are used, then they mush have been defined in an earlier figure caption.

b) captions should only clarify what is plotted and not try to interpret the figure. interpret the figures in the main text.

c) should give all the information needed to understand the figure.

table

must have a title

describe the different columns of the table. i.e. as footnote to table or main text.

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discussion/conclusions

discuss, compare with previous work and put into perspective.

limitations, potential sources of error, and possible improvements are also discussed here.

List your conclusions at the end.

it may be appropriate to repeat the MAIN results, but definitely not all of them

Reference

if you are using unpublished data or results of another researcher, then cite him/her in the text as, e.g., "M. Monroe (private communication)".

No private communications or un-submitted papers into the reference list.

papers that have been submitted, but not yet accepted for publication are cited as "submitted", those that have been accepted as "in press".

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Appendices

material that may be of interest for a few readers, but not for most (e.g., lengthy tables, derivations of equations) can be put into an appendix or into multiple appendices.

An appendix must be referred to in the main paper. e.g. " The derivation of Eq. (15) is given in Appendix B."

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You can't properly explain things to your readers unless you have properly understand them yourself.

An additional hour spent with improving and clarifying your explanations and arguments may well save you many hours revising your paper after a negative reference report.

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shows, display, exhibits, illustrates, highlights, reveals, uncovers, can be seen from Fig., can be deduced from Fig., in Fig., we plot, sketch, draw,  Fig. is a plot pf, ... is a sketch of ...

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impact factor: how often articles in the journal are cited on average in the first 2 years after publication

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posters

Title (BIG) + authors +affiliation

abstract

a very short methods and materials section

main results

conclusion (short)

few references (no references is o.k.)

Reference:

How to Write a Research Paper, Sami K. Solanki

https://www.mps.mpg.de/phd/how-to-write-a-scientific-paper-pdf-2011.pdf