5.2.2. Specific sections of an article:

Title: Should be short, but descriptive.

Authorship: All authors should be listed. Typically the first author did most of the work, and wrote the paper.

Abstract: This is the most read part of your paper, it needs to be self contained and unambiguous, as short as possible. The idea of an abstract is that it is a mini version of the paper. It exposes the hard core of your contri­bution. The style of an abstract is indicative-informative, it gives both gen­eral information about work and gives specific information about principal findings. Abstract is used by search engines for finding your paper, so it must contain key phrases and words at its end.

Elements of a journal abstract:

a. Statement of problem

b. Explanation of approach

c. Principal result

d. Key phrases and words

Introduction: The purpose of an introduction is to supply enough information to allow reader to understand and evaluate results of present study without having to refer to previous publications on topic. It is typi­cally read independent of Abstract.

Elements of introduction:

a. General statement of problem area, defining the nature and scope of the problem investigated

b. Literature review

c. The reason for writing the article

d. Method of investigation

e. Major results and principal conclusions

Methodology: The experimental design should be detailed enough so that competent worker can reproduce your results, which is a cornerstone of science. Products and equipment used should be named, a new protocol, details about samples are to be precisely given.

Results: In this section major findings should be identified. There should be an overall description of experiments and the representative data, rather than all of it. Descriptions should be kept to a minimum, instead ta­bles should be used, but you need not repeat what is shown in them, rather touch on the major points.

Discussion: This is the crucial part of the paper. Essentially, it is a thoughtful interpretation of the results. Its purpose is to show relationships among observed facts, to show factual relationship. There should be a clear reference to how results and interpretations agree with (or contradict) previ­ously published work. Here you present a hypothesis explaining your re­sults, without recapitulating the results section, point out how results sup­port hy­potheses, as well as exceptions. Further on, you discuss theoretical and practical implications of your results, and state conclusions clearly and summarise evidence for each conclusion. You should end with short sum­mary or conclusion regarding significance of work.

Conclusions: Here you need to summarise and discuss the signifi­cance of your results. As this is a similarity with an abstract section, you should note that the conclusion is more complete. Due attention should be paid to the possible critique of both the good and bad sides of your work. Directions for future work that ensue from the work presented are to be in­dicated. It is effective to provide a strong, convincing closing.

Acknowledgements: These should be made to people who made a technical contribution, who contributed ideas, and to your sponsors if you have them.

References: Here you refer to the work of others that supports your work.