3.1 How to process ideas and write a scientific paper?

Read the text paying attention to an outline as a thinking aid for processing ideas. Memorize the structure and section content of a scientific article.

If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough

Albert Einstein

Experimental researching needs publishing in journals. To start writing down your ideas for a paper you should make an outline including all the main headings and subheadings in the most logical order. Typically an outline looks like a "to do" list or a "table of contents" of the text you are going to write, and arranges your ideas as building blocks in various combinations. Little by little, your ideas can become clearer and more detailed reflecting your most recent thoughts on the subject. The structure should contain some permanent parts, notably, introduction with describing the motivation, the problem and the previous work; your approach with the conceptual framework and methodology including data gathering and data processing; and finally comes the conclusion. Remember, that you must not lose a view of the whole, but flexibility is the core principle and you can change the order of ideas, and add or leave out things. Keep in mind that the outline structure is not a rigid form that you have to adhere to. The essence of an outline is that it is much shorter than a paper because you will avoid material that is of little relevance to your scientific topic, vague formulations, repetitions and cross-references. The outline paragraphs are not long because they are the list of key ideas written in "telegraph style", and do not form full sentences. It is a guide that will help to remind you of the most important things you have to cover in your paper. This guide will make your view of the issue clearer, and you will edit your ideas. Writing the actual text of your paper will become much easier because your ideas and the arrangement of headings will be in a direct and logical order. So an outline could be a tool not only for writing, but for thinking as well.

An organizational structure and the main headings of most scientific papers are standard for many scientific fields, and submitting a paper to a journal the author should refer to the instructions. Typically, scientific papers involving the results of a study or experiments follow the standard format and are divided into some appropriate sections provided with headings. Having written the appropriate outline you may start writing your paper keeping in mind its logical structure, which includes a title, an abstract, an introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgement and literature. Each section contains a specific type of information.

Developing a title the author should use key words so that the paper could be indexed. Well-written titles may describe the conducted study, performed experiments or obtained results. The contents should be described very clearly and precisely, so that readers can decide whether to read it or not. Such wasted words as “studies on”, “an investigation of” as well as abbreviations and contractions that are acceptable in less formal writing should be avoided.

Typically, an abstract is the most read section of a scientific paper because it contains a statement of the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of a study, and is included in databases.

An introduction briefly describes the theoretical background of the investigated problem and indicates why it is important. This section states a specific research question, presents key terms, poses concepts and hypothesis to be tested and summarizes relevant research so that readers can understand the conducted experiment, the method and its justification, and find out rationale to them.

Methods Section briefly explains the scientific procedure used in the research describing both specific techniques and the overall experimental strategy used by the author. Keep in mind that the methods section may not often be read in detail. According to discipline it may have subheadings as ‘Materials’ when describing subject material or equipment used in the experiment, or as ‘Methods’ (Procedures) when explaining the stages of the trial for obtaining a result. For a journal article the author should include enough detail, and quantify amounts (all metric), concentrations, measurements, temperatures (centigrade) and times (24-hour clock). Not all the deviations in obtained data must be ignored. As a science report explains exactly what happened during an experiment the author must provide details to support his claims. He must order procedures chronically providing them with subheadings, and use past tense and concise statement to explain what happened. Try to avoid passive verb forms and write, “When I increased the pressure area by 10%...”, but in such sentences as “It is shown in Table 1 that …” passive verb forms are appropriate. Only relevant information should be used without any common statistical procedures. Avoid any contractions because science writing is formal and concise.

The Results Section reports main results supported by selected data and contains tables and graphs. It very briefly describes the experiment as all the details and their interpretation are given in the Methods section. Multiple results must be ordered logically that is from most to least important or from simple to complex, and must not be mixed with procedures. The author should select citations and amount of detail from chosen studies and relevant papers. Moving from general to specific, he makes clear the research design, the links between the problem and solution as well as between the prior research and conducted experiment. Typically, readers do not readily accept the results but carefully analyze the raw data and figures in tables for drawing their own conclusions. Therefore, the author must use his opinions rather appropriately. Reporting the results of the conducted experiment the author should avoid asserting his opinion about what should have happened or why something did or did not happen, but must always back up his statements with supporting facts. Certainly, the author may state his opinion about why something happened in a response paper.

The Discussion Section is the final part in the paper where the author may anticipate and address any possible objections to his results. This section describes what the research suggests, how it relates to other studies, and focuses on the major issue. The author explains how his results relate to expectations and to literature he has cited in the Introduction, and shows whether they agree, contradict or may be exceptions to the rule. In case of exceptions, the author suggests some additional research that might resolve contradictions or explain these exceptions. All the explanations must be complete. He draws conclusions and summarizes the most important findings; explain the observations by describing the patterns, principles and relationships that are supported by the obtained results. The section must plausibly explain the agreements, contradictions, or exceptions. Each conclusion must be supported by evidence suggesting the theoretical implications and practical applications of the author’s results. Moving from specific to general, that is from the findings to literature, and then to theory and to practice, the author proves that his study has achieved the goal because the hypothesis has been supported and the problem has been resolved.

The discussion section is also a place where the author can extend his findings to other situations, and discuss possible reasons for expected and unexpected findings suggesting areas of improvement for future research. However, the author should be careful about speculations that cannot be tested, and the suggestions should be justified.

The acknowledgments express gratitude and appreciation to people or institutions for contributing to the work.

The literature cited section provides the selected sources cited throughout the paper and generates a list of background reading on the topic under study because it offers information on the range of other studies cited.

Exercise 3.1.1

Can you briefly discuss the following questions?

1. What is an outline for preparing a scientific paper?

2. Does the author cite only his own previous studies?

3. What sections must the scientific paper contain?

4. Are there any references listed in footnotes or bibliographies in the scientific papers?

Exercise 3.1.2

Give the detailed answers to the following questions paying attention to grammar (tense-aspect-voice). Rely on the word combinations in brackets.

1. In what field of research are you involved as a part of an advanced university degree? (My present research interests are related to … And I take particular /special interest in …).

2. Have you already published any papers? Where and when did you publish them?

3. What is the purpose of your papers?

4. What are the titles of your published papers?

5. What are you going to prove in the course of your research?

6. Is there much or little material published on the subject of your investigation?

7. What do you give much attention to in your published papers?

8. Are there any shortcomings in your papers, do you think? What are they?

9. How many parts does your paper consist of?

10. How did you begin (finish) your paper? What do you treat in your introductory part? What do you say in conclusion?

11. What is the object of your investigation? (My investigation continued nearly three years/ I tried to find out the cause of / to solve a scientific problem … )

12. What is the subject of your research?

13. What is the subject of your thesis and what is its aim? How is the subject matter of your thesis arranged? (The subject matter of my thesis appears in its title and is arranged in the following way. The aim of my thesis is to investigate this particular problem/to present the basic ideas of…, to analyze the character of … I am engaged in one of the aspects of the broad object of…).

14. What areas of technology does your research deal with?

Exercise 3.1.3

1. Read the text about a scholarly journal and complement it with your own experience in publishing articles by making up a dialogue with your partner. Work in-group of two. The following questions may help you enter into conversation.

1. How does the author submit a paper for publication?

2. Where can the author choose the journal of his interest in which he would like to publish his paper?

3. Can the author visit journal homepages and browse them by title or by subject?

4. What is a Journal Impact Factor (IF)?

5. How is IF calculated?

6. Where can the author find a detailed description (font size, title page requirements, abstract length, etc.) on manuscript guidelines for paper submission?

7. How are submissions peer-reviewed?

8. Can the author know all the details pertaining to the article submission from the journal’s ‘Instructions for Authors’ webpage?

9. What is the foremost priority for the assigned reviewers?

10. Does a reviewer focus on the content quality, study novelty, technical accuracy and excellent presentation of the data in a manuscript?

11. Is there any page limit for writing manuscripts?

12. Are there any publication limits for number of pages in manuscripts?

13. Are colour images free of cost?

2. Read the text and compare the characteristics that distinguish between scholarly journals, popular magazines and trade publications. Answer the questions, and if in doubt, ask your instructor or a librarian for assistance.

What is a scholarly journal?

Three main categories of information resources include newspapers, magazines and journals. Papers written for these resources have different characteristics though all of them contain news. Reporters who write for newspapers and magazines may or may not be experts in the certain field, and consequently, articles may contain unreliable information. Moreover, articles published in journals and written by “experts”, such as academics and professionals, may also have some ideas that are “out there!”

Typically, a scholarly journal is a professional, refereed, or peer-reviewed one. Articles in these journals are written by experts and undergo a "peer review" process before they are published. Each article reaches reasonable conclusions and becomes scientifically valid. A primary difference between other types of periodicals and scholarly journals is that papers accepted for publication meet the discipline's standards of expertise. The editors send manuscripts out to several recognized scholars (the author's peers) in the same field to evaluate them and to get their opinion on the quality of the scholarship, to consider a paper relevance to the field, as well as its appropriateness for the journal. Peer review certifies a widely accepted indicator of quality scholarship in a discipline. As each publication must represent the best scholarship currently available, the experts may recommend a manuscript for publication or decide whether the submitted paper should be rejected or revised. The paper may succeed or fail on its own merit, as in most cases, the author is unknown to the reviewers.

Many academic journals are indexed in the Journal Citation Reports for reflecting their impact factor (IF). IF typically defines the relative importance of any scientific journal within its field. Scientists deem journals with higher impact factors to be more appropriate for publications. IF is calculated by dividing the number of the yearly average quantity of articles published in a journal and the number of citations that particular year in the Journal Citation Reports by the total number of articles published in the two previous years.

Look through the following characteristics of scholarly journals, popular magazines, trade publications, given according to various criteria (underlined words), and tell whether you can recognize peer-reviewed journals.

1. Who is the author of an article or paper submitted to a scholarly journal?

1. An expert (scholar, professor, researcher, etc.) in field covered. The author is always named.

2. A journalist; nonprofessional or layperson. Sometimes the author is not named.

3. A business or industry representative. Sometimes the author is not named.

2. Are there any notes in an article or paper submitted to a scholarly journal?

1. Usually includes notes and/or bibliographic references.

2. There are few or no notes or bibliographic references.

3. What do an article or paper contents in a scholarly journal contain?

1. News and research (methodology, theory) from the field.

2. Current events; general interest.

3. Business or industry information (trends, products, techniques).

4. What are the style peculiarities in a scholarly journal?

1. Written for experts using technical language.

2. Journalistic; written for nonprofessional or layperson.

3. Written for people in the business or industry using technical language.

5. Which audience is interested in scholarly journals?

1. Scholars or researchers in the field.

2. General public.

3. People in the business or industry.

6. Who can write a review for submitted articles or papers in scholarly journals?

1. Usually reviewed by peer scholars (referees) not employed by the journal.

2. Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine.

7. What does a submitted article or paper in scholarly journals look like? Describe its appearance.

1. Plain; mostly print, sometimes with black and white figures, tables, graphs and/or charts.

2. Glossy, with many pictures in color.

8. Is ADS (Adverticement System) used in scholarly journals?

1. Few or none; if any, usually for books or other professional materials.

2. Many, often in color.

3. Some, often in color.

9. What is the frequency of scholarly journals?

1. Usually monthly or quarterly.

2. Usually weekly or monthly

10. Is there a maximum or minimum article length in scholarly journals?

1. Usually several pages long.

2. Usually good many pages.

3. Usually few pages.

11. Are there style requirements for articles in scholarly journals?

1. Abstract is required.

2. Accuracy and consistency.

3. Special fascination.

12. Can you choose the examples of scholarly journals?

1. Journal of Nanomaterials & Molecular Nanotechnology (published by the University of Texas at Dallas).

2. The Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (JEDC) (edited at the University of Amsterdam and published by Elsevier).

3. JITTA: Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (published by the University of Nevada at Las Vegas).

3.2. How to write an abstract?

Abstracts are widely used not only in research papers, but also in thesis, reviews, conference proceedings, journal articles, and other academic documents. Abstracts should be rather concise and contain from 50 to 300 words. They extract key points from each section and condenses them in successive revisions, so the readers can grasp main objectives without specific details or information that is not relevant to the article. The effective abstract does not include references to figures, tables, or sources but states what is the article about, describes methods, summarizes the most important results and states major conclusions and significance.

Read the text to find out how to write each part of a scientific article or paper.

An abstract foregoes the article and introducing your topic, it includes the methods and results. Before you start writing an abstract, write your paper and look at other abstracts in similar publications to have the idea of specific guidelines and style requirements and stick to them. If you do just that, you will write a much more accurate summary because you can summarize what you have already created.

Writing an abstract for a scientific paper, you should consider your audience and write a short summary of the entire text for an overview by the readers who have some understanding of your field. Readers can quickly grasp the main argument and essential points of the research without reading your full paper. Keep the needs of your readers in mind because the abstract should help them searching for information which is relevant to their own interests in today's overabundance of information. Selecting required documents by deciding what to read and what not to read, your readers save their time.

If you want people to find your article easily, use 5 - 10 key phrases and words. Your abstract will be published in a journal, and readers will search for certain queries on online databases looking for terms relevant to your subject.

Abstract is typically a paragraph or two and describes what you do in your scientific experiment. It is typically no more than 10% of the full article length. Your abstract must provide answers for specific questions keeping the following general order - ‘introduction’, ‘body,’ and ‘conclusion.’ Moreover, keep in mind that your abstract, like any other piece of writing, should be revised before being completed.

Typically, scientific documents have specific style for abstracts and follow a set of rules or guidelines. You must comply with a rule and follow these guidelines to the letter.

To determine the style of abstract, you should keep in mind, that there are two primary abstract styles, descriptive and informative. All abstracts accomplish the same goal, and the basic information written in both styles of abstract is the same except the results. The results are included in an informative abstract, so a descriptive abstract is much shorter than an informative one. Informative abstracts give an overview of your research and can be either single paragraph or a whole page long. Descriptive abstracts include the purpose, goal, and methods of the research but leave out the results section. They are best for shorter articles, and contain about 100-200 words.

Other type of abstracts include a critical abstract, which is an evaluative summary of the document describing the strength and weakness of the paper. It accomplishes the same goals as the other types of abstract, but can compare the research with other works in the field by analyzing the research design or methods.

Starting your descriptive writing, identify your purpose to show your readers why your research and your findings are important, and what the purpose of it is. You should write considering the reasons for conducting this study; the tools and methods for conducting your research; and your findings. Do not confuse the problem and your motivation. Explaining the problem that needs better understanding or solving, keep in mind the scope of your study and show whether it is a general problem, or something specific, and do not forget your main claim or argument.

You should not need to explain or define any terms. Do not use up precious writing room for wording ambiguous phrases, but provide helpful explanation of your research. To make sense to the reader avoid being too specific, using long quotations, jargon or other specialized vocabulary such as direct acronyms or abbreviations which may not be understood by general readers in your area; don’t be too explicit including figures and tables, just reference the names of people and focus on the places that your paper discusses. You should also avoid direct quotes from yourself as well as paraphrasing your own sentences from elsewhere in your works. Use completely new real information, vocabulary and phrases to keep your abstract redundancy-free, interesting and encouraging your audience to continue reading your article. To draw your readers in with your abstract do not cite material or reference studies and ideas that are not included in your article. Be careful not to misuse scientific terms and repeat them in your paper unless you have a clear understanding of their meaning. Keep in mind that some words, like "significant result" have very specific meanings in the science world. Make sure to avoid any wording that can take up too much room, cause confusion and ultimately mislead your readers.

Discussing your own research, you must give an overview of how you accomplished your study and explain your methods and approach by describing the evidence you have and giving an overview of the most significant sources. Writing an informative abstract provide the results of your study and describe what is found by you. Show the readers whether your hypothesis or argument is supported by your research and findings.

To finish your summary and give closure to your abstract you should write your conclusion that addresses the significance of your overall research based on your findings, and the importance of your paper. The implications of your work should be described only in an informative abstract. This format of abstract can highlight whether your results are general or very specific.

To do basic revisions and to know whether you have summarized your research well, get feedback from your professor or a colleague in your field. Having someone else read your abstract will also help you to check it over for misprints, style or spelling and grammatical errors. Let your consultants tell you what they understood from your abstract. Having finished the abstract the author must state his name, department and the date of writing.

Exercise 3.2.1

Following the annotation plan and using most appropriate clichés write an annotation for your supervisor’s article.

Table 7 Annotation plan

№	Section information	Clichés	Translation
1.	The title	The article is called / headlined… The title (headline) of the article is…	Статья озаглавлена …
		The article I’m going to give a review of is taken from…	Статья, по которой я собираюсь делать критический обзор, взята из …
		The article under discussion is …	Рассматриваемая статья …
		The headline foreshadows…	Заглавие статьи предсказывает …
2.	The author, publishing house, date of publishing.	The author of the article is… The author’s name is ... The article is written by…	Автором статьи является …
		It was published in … (on the Internet) on March 10, 2012 / in 2010).	Статья опубликована …
3.	The topic (main idea)	The main idea of the article is… The topic of the article is… The article touches upon the issue of… The key issue of the article is…	Основная идея статьи заключается в …
		The article deals (is concerned) with… The article is about… The article under discussion is devoted to the problem…	Содержание статьи связано с …
		The purpose of the article is to give the reader some information on… The aim of the article is to provide the reader with some material on…	Целью статьи является предоставить читателю материалы …
		It is spoken in detail about…	Подробно излагается…
		The author raises the problem of… Reader’s attention is drawn to…	Автор привлекает внимание читателя к …
		First, it is stressed that… At first, it is depicted that… Secondly, it is revealed that…	Во-первых, выделяется то… Во-вторых, обнаруживается…
		The author in the article touches upon the problem of..	Автор статьи затрагивает вопрос
		I’d like to mention briefly that…  I’d like to make some remarks concerning… I’d like to comment on the problem of…	Я хотел бы кратко упомянуть … / сделать некоторые замечания относительно … / дать комментарии по вопросу …
		The author (of the article) writes / Further the author reports / In conclusion the author states (stresses, thinks, notes, considers, believes, analyses, points out, says, describes) that… / draws reader’s attention to...)
		It is reported (shown, stressed) that	Показано (подчеркнуто) …
		Much attention is given to …	Много внимания уделяется …
4.	The contents (facts, names, figures).	The article consists of… The article under discussion may be divided into several logically connected parts, which are…	Статья состоит из нескольких взаимосвязанных разделов, которые …
		The author starts by telling (the reader) that...	В начале статьи автор сообщает о …
		In the introduction the author  points out…	Во введении автор обращает внимание
		At the beginning the author … (describes, depicts, explains, introduces, makes a few critical remarks on, mentions, recalls, touches upon) The paper begins (opens) with a (the)… (the analysis of a summary of, author’s opinion of, author’s recollections of, the characterization of, description of, the enumeration of, introduction of, the mention of, statement)	В начале статьи автор описывает,
		The article contains the following facts…./ describes in details…	Статья содержит следующие факты …. / подробно описывает
		The article contains statistics about…	Статья содержит статистические данные о …
		In conclusion the author… (dwells on, exposes, generalizes, gives a summary of, points out, reveals)	В заключение статьи автор …
		In the concluding paragraphs it is pointed out …	В заключительных параграфах указывается на …
		The main (sufficient) part of the research work contains…	Существенная часть работы содержит …
5.	The author’s attitude to different issues	The author gives full coverage to…	Автор полностью охватывает
		The author outlines…	Автор описывает
		The author starts with the statement of the problem and then logically passes over to its possible solutions.	Автор начинает с постановки задачи, а затем логически переходит к ее возможным решениям.
		The author asserts / suggests /considers / emphasizes / underlines / characterises that…	Автор утверждает / предлагает / считает /подчеркивает / что...
		The author resorts to … to underline…	Автор прибегает к …, чтобы подчеркнуть...
		Let me give an example…	Позвольте мне привести пример...
		I fully agree with / I don’t agree with …	Я полностью согласен с/ Я не согласен с...
6.	The conclusion The author’s opinion	I think / In my opinion  / I found the article (rather) interesting (important, useful) as / because…	Я считаю, что статья довольно интересная, важная, полезная …
		As  far as I am able to judge…	Насколько я могу судить
		According to the article…	В соответствии с содержанием статьи …
		My own attitude to this article is…	Мое личное отношение к...
		From my point of view…	С моей точки зрения...
		In conclusion I’d like to…	В заключении я хотел бы …
		I found the article too hard to understand / rather boring as / because	Я считаю, что статья слишком сложная для восприятия / достаточно скучная, т.к.
		Taking into consideration the fact that …	Принимая во внимание тот факт, что …
		In conclusion, the author says / makes it clear that…/ gives a warning that…  The following conclusions are drawn...	В заключение автор говорит / проясняет, что … / дает предупреждение, что...
		At the end of the story the author sums it all up by saying …	В конце рассказа автор подводит итог всего этого, говоря...
		The author concludes by saying that../ draws a conclusion that / comes to the conclusion that…	В заключение автор говорит, что .. / делает вывод, что / приходит к выводу, что...
		The following conclusions are drawn...	Автор приходит к заключению, что …
		I have found the article dull /  important / interesting /of great value …	Я нахожу статью скучной / важной/ интересной/ имеющую большое значение (ценность)
		Back to our main topic…	Вернемся к нашей основной теме
		To come back to what I was saying…	Чтобы вернуться к тому, что я говорил
		It is hard to predict the course of events in future, but there is some evidence of the improvement of this situation.	Трудно предсказать ход событий в будущем, но есть некоторые свидетельства улучшения.
		Summing up the information it is important to say that … Generalizing the information it is necessary to say that …	Подводя итог, необходимо отметить …
	Expressive means of language	To emphasize … the author uses…	Чтобы акцентировать внимание … автор использует …
		To underline … the author uses… To stress…	Чтобы подчеркнуть … автор использует …
		In addition… / Furthermore…	Кроме того...
		On the one hand…, but on the other hand…	С одной стороны …, но с другой стороны...

Exercise 3.2.2

Brush up your knowledge in English Grammar and using Complex Subject translate the following sentences.

1. Professor N is known to deliver lectures in many European Universities.

2. The conference was reported to be held on June 18.

3. He was thought to visit the office in time.

4. The Head of our laboratory is said to have flown to Japan.

5. His new book is expected to become famous in this field of research.

6. Mr.Pirson was known to be a famous expert in that area.

7. The results were considered to be discussed the next week.

8. Our lab assistant was seen to stop the engine.

9. They were heard to discuss the subject of his report.

10. The obtained data are likely to have been lost.

11. They are certain to succeed at this conference.

12. I guess our partners are unlikely come next month.

13. She is sure to participate in our meeting.

14. Все знают, что Макс тщательно готовит каждый эксперимент. (to prepare)

15. Думали, что Макс тщательно подготовил каждый эксперимент. (to have prepared)

16. Говорят, что эксперименты были подготовлены Максом. (to be prepared)

17. Известно, что эксперименты были подготовлены после того, как Макс пришел в лабораторию. (to have been prepared)

18. Все видели Макса готовящего эксперимент. (to be preparing)

19. Сообщается что Макс готовит эксперименты для сотрудников лаборатории уже много месяцев. (to have been preparing)

Exercise 3.2.3

Brush up your knowledge in English Grammar and using Complex Object translate the following sentences.

1. We have never seen you visit our meetings.

2. We heard him switch on the engine.

3. We heard him switching on the engine.

4. You cannot make me write this report.

5. Never let her treat the results of our experiment.

6. They had the research group do what they asked.

7. Mary wanted Max to explain her the technical guidelines for setting the equipment.

8. The participants of the meeting would like him to make his presentation during the morning session.

9. We considered this article to be one of the most interesting.

10. His scientific supervisor finds the submitted paper to be thoughtful.

11. We believe it to be the best variant to invite Max to our laboratory.

12. Our team knew her to be the worst partner for our project.

13. A researcher discovered it to be impossible to create his model without large-scale surveys.

14. We did not allow unauthorized persons to be admitted to our laboratory.

15. You should have the old equipment repaired.

16. Our colleagues had their tools updated.

17. I want to have my presentation published in your proceedings.

18. Мы хотели, чтобы наши доклады получили отзывы у экспертов.

19. Они отремонтировали все лаборатории в прошлом году.

20. Она не разрешала нам курить в лаборатории и заставляла нас ежедневно убирать помещение.

Part IV. How to write a PhD thesis

The PhD thesis is the important, confident and forceful statement that a candidate for a scientific degree is trying to prove. The first step the author will take is writing a clear and effective thesis proposal that requires much thought and planning. The thesis must provide well-focused information needed to answer the research question and describe facts that confirm the author’s hypothesis. The author should start with describing the research problem, placed in theoretical framework, the hypothesis and the purpose of the study. He should demonstrate a solid grasp of the major sources including a literature review and describe the methodology of the study. Any relevant attachments that include samples of survey instruments, evidence, explanation and the like, should be added to the thesis. The defended thesis will have an impact on the author’s search for grant funding and post-doctoral positions.

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion. Lazarus Long

1. The thesis structure

To get started you should set realistic, achievable objectives to keep your motivation up at the early stages of your research. Your strategies must monitor your progress. Read the text and discuss the following questions:

1. What is a thesis?

2. For whom is it written?

3. How do you exactly get started?

4. How should a thesis be written?

5. How do you manage a three-year research?

‘The investigator should have a robust faith -- and yet not believe.’ Claude Bernard, French physiologist (1813-78)

Any thesis is a huge undertaking based on researching which discovers something hitherto unknown. A thesis concerns a problem in a certain area of research, deals with some specific investigation and requires real experiments. A candidate for a degree should narrow down his research interests trying to be very specific and writing the preliminary outline of a standard three or four-chapter thesis that determines its final structure. A standard describing of a scientific research suggests a due form: the title page, table of contents, introduction, literature review, middle chapters, final or conclusion chapter, references and appendices. A research-based thesis usually contains between 45,000 – 50,000 words, which are logically distributed in the text of the thesis.

The Title page contains the thesis title and the author’s name. It also contains the information that the thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Railway and Track Construction/Siberian State University of Railway Engineering/date.

The Table of contents contains the introduction, the chapter titles and the subheadings of each chapter to find information easily.

The Introduction keeps in short the main idea of the work and claims the author’s original contribution to human knowledge. It tells where the thesis is going and clears up the importance of the topic. A candidate for a degree should state the problem simply and logically and show the way it fits into the discipline. Having chosen a specific scientific topic within his general area of study he must describe exactly what was known about that problem previously. He should start with the theoretical background, mention the assumptions and theories, observe the relevant literature, considering the strengths and weaknesses of results that had already been obtained.

Literature review displays his erudition in the area he has investigated. The author refers to the titles, authors, year, volume and pages of the relevant information and shows where the problem comes from and what is already known about this problem. He describes the methods, which have been tried to solve this problem, and mentions the papers that tackle it. The author should mention very specific details, journals, and dates of publication of key articles or books and key people in the field. He should not omit his supervisor’s papers and other researchers who are like to be his examiners. A candidate for a degree must prove that he has produced a high quality comprehensive analysis of the problem and become the world expert on the narrow topic of his thesis.

Then the author of the thesis clears up the problem in the Middle chapters, describes what he did towards solving this problem and proves scientifically the importance of the obtained results. The adviser and examiners, being experts in the general field of that thesis, will want to know in detail what the author did. It is often helpful to have them read the thesis for making valuable contributions. Middle chapters intend to treat the problem in different aspects, namely theory, materials and methods, proposed models or theory, results, and show statistical analyses.

Actually, the middle chapters include the information published by the author in journal articles. The author describes the methods, resources, techniques or technologies and experimental details relevant to his study at different stages of performing it. He reproduces exactly what was done, and finally a new model or theory based on the research is presented as the result of the work. The author must be aware of current and established theories related to the topic. He should not overburden his thesis with theories that are not relevant to the work but include sufficient theoretical grounds to provide the explanation of his ideas and arguments. It is very important, that his results must be consistent with current theories. It will help a candidate for a degree to prove that his results fit into the existing body of knowledge.

The final or conclusion chapter generalizes the author’s experience from the facts, which he has collected, and gives new insights to solving the problem. Though this chapter should usually be reasonably short and include a summary of conclusions, it must show the practical implications of the work as well as the author’s suggestions for its further development and progress. It is often the case with scientific investigations that more questions than answers are produced in the process of researching, and future workers might advance these new challengers.

References are used to mention all the citations from authoritative sources of information given in the thesis in order to ascertain the ideas, arguments, conceptions, hypothesis under test, etc. If results or observations used in the text are not the author’s own, it is necessary to state where in the scientific literature they are reported. It shows which parts of the thesis are descriptions of previous knowledge, and which parts are the author’s additions to that knowledge.

The author may use a web citation if he can give the URL (`Uniform Resource Locator'), i.e. an address of a particular page where this citation can be found on the World Wide Web. The downloading date must be also given because a web site may have been updated, changed completely or even disappear.

Appendices typically include either important additional materials that are too large to be represented in the thesis divisions or pictures and diagrams of results that are not important enough to keep in the main text.

Exercise 4.1.1

Relying on the information from the text discuss the following questions using suggested ideas or your own experience. Work in groups of two and make up a dialogue to clear up your progress in researching and writing.

1. What is the structure of your thesis? Does your thesis contain references? Are there any illustrations? (Will you kindly look at the table of contents? The thesis includes a short introductory chapter and is profusely illustrated with diagrams, tables and figures.)

2. How many chapters does the thesis, you are working on, consist of? (It consists of three chapters, each chapter contains the recent developments, and a careful account of work done in this field of science as well as the work carried out in our laboratory. The first chapter discusses the brief reference to the twentieth-century background of the problem, describes the achievements and aims of … and contains methodology. I used a special set of methods and principles when studying my subject. The second chapter contains the investigation itself and detailed account of the basic problem … It gives thorough consideration to/an accurate description of … . The third chapter presents a detailed account of the experiment and incorporates the results.).

3. Do the chapters contain any summary? (Each subsection is preceded by a brief theoretical introduction, includes the new data in the field of … and the up-to-date techniques in …, recent discoveries in …, applications of new methods. The second chapter of my thesis is devoted to the experimental technique and deals with the latest models of the apparatus).

4. What subjects are dealt with in the introduction of your thesis?

5. Which part of your thesis contains the theory?

6. Which section of your thesis presents a detailed account of the experimental results?

7. Which section presents a detailed account of the method of your investigation?

8. The subject of your investigation is of great importance, isn’t it?

9. When and how were you introduced to this subject for the first time?

10. Does the thesis contain any original data?

11. What are the final pages of the thesis devoted to? (The last part of my thesis contains references to other workers in this special branch of …).

12. Could we congratulate you on obtaining some original data and results?

Exercise 4.1.2

Researching and writing a thesis is a substantial piece of work. To do it successfully you need to give adequate time not only to thinking about your topic and the approach you intend to adopt, you need design your experiment; analyze the sources you might use, publish your results in journals and edited collections, etc. Organizing your work effectively is a significant part of your scientific activity. Read the text and comment on your personal experience in planning your work.

Research is rather long systematic investigation and deep study of materials and sources in order to discover facts and reach new conclusions. Getting started your personal research you should be ready to create a rather long piece of writing on your particular subject. To make a successful start and give you self-confidence you should organize your research activity, which requires a lot of concentration. Keep in mind that you should be prepared to toil and moil early and late. It is encouraging and helpful to make the timetable that looks like a chart with items that you can check off as you have finished them. Set yourself a deadline and stick to it. Make your individual research plan including the timetable with a list of dates when the first and second drafts of each chapter will be written. Your scientific adviser (research tutor), who directs and oversees your research, will help you in making up your thesis outline containing your thesis title, chapter headings and sub-headings and key words. You should focus your attention on a number of areas, targets and results towards which your efforts should be directed. Organize your information and the references as a filing system making the thesis structure in the logical chapter order. These files will be a reliable back-up for the necessary arrangements, and will organize your research activity helping you in achieving well-deserved success.

Most PhDs admit that they thought about reasons for stopping that arduous toil. It is well known that one PhD student out of four drops out and gives up at the writing stage, but towards the end, you will feel satisfaction based on the achievement. Therefore, it would be a regretful decision to give up or bring to a close after years of tough work on the research. Once you have been successful in your submission and assessment, and if necessary, resubmitted or revised, you will feel elated. Having completed the huge undertaking you may be ready to select the thesis elements for conference presentation and publication.

Exercise 4.1.3

Give the rational explanation to the following remarks and criticism to your work.

1. You have conducted the original research and produced the excellent piece of work. However, your thesis suffers from some inaccuracy concerning your method and measurements.

2. Your investigation gives a detailed description of your experiment. However, the interpretation of the obtained data suffers from some statistical uncertainty.

3. One of the drawbacks of your thesis is the overwhelming details that are not relevant to the subject matter, and at the same time, we have noticed the omission of some factual materials.

4. In general, as far as your thesis is concerned, we have found out several shortcomings that include the inadequate references and the misspelling of some names.