Guidelines for Graduate Study

Publications

There are many guidelines to preparing for and delivering a publication. Although I have summarized some of the key points on this page, these are not absolutes.

Manual of Style

Chicago Manual of Style is the College of Environmental Science & Forestry adopted format. There are other reference guidelines for citing net resources.

1. Reporting experimental results:

1.1. Science is a powerful group activity, providing many opportunities for correcting errors. Researchers formulate their ideas from data analysis, then describe these ideas at seminars and meetings pertaining to their particular fields. It is through presentations like these that the researcher has an opportunity to interact with others in the field and to see how well their work stands up to peer scrutiny. The researcher then decides whether more experiments are needed or whether it is time to publish the results.

1.2. Publishing a scientific paper is the next step in the reporting process. Hundreds of professional societies throughout the world publish journals containing articles that describe original research. Work so published is then permanently available to the scientific community. Monitoring current developments and searching literature for pertinent information are ongoing aspects of any scientist's work. Most scientists subscribe to several journals and use abstracting services to find pertinent reports in their filed.

2. Major sections of the research paper with traditional headings

2.1. Abstract or Executive Summary

2.1.1.1.State the topic area and motivation for the work

2.1.1.2.State the science question

2.1.1.3.State the experimental design, test, and methods

2.1.1.4.State the findings

2.1.1.5.State the conclusion

2.1.2. In summary, make this engaging to draw in readers

2.2. Introduction

2.2.1. General Topic Area

2.2.2. Specific Problems of Interest or Motivation for the Work

2.2.3. Description of the Ensuing Organization of the Paper

2.3. Literature Review

2.3.1. What is Known and What is Unknown: Critical Gaps

2.3.2. How Current Research Builds Upon Previous Work

2.4. Research Objectives

2.4.1. Imposed Constraints or Limitations

2.4.2. Target Application or User Group

2.5. Methods of Achieving Objectives

2.5.1. Experimental Methods and Tools

2.5.2. Algorithm Solution Techniques

2.6. Results

2.6.1. Quantitative Tables and Figures

2.6.2. Qualitative Material

2.7. Discussion and Interpretation

2.7.1. Additional Tables and/or Figures

2.7.2. Significance of Results

2.8. Conclusions or Summary

2.8.1. Review

2.8.2. Future Work

2.8.3. Applications

2.9. Other Material

2.9.1. Acknowledgements

2.9.2. References

2.9.3. Appendices