Scientific Papers and Lab Reports: Writing a Scientific Paper

Image attribution: "Infographic Science Writing Tips" by Elsevier is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Scientific papers typically have 5 sections:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Materials & Methods
4. Results
5. Discussion

The infographic explains each section as well as some writing tips. Check out the 10 Tips for Scientific Writing below for more!

1. Be concise in your writing.
2. Watch your tenses. 
   1. Use present tense for your introduction and establishing your knowledge of scientific literature related to your topic. Ex. "Using qualitative data, apply the....."
   2. Use past tense to describe the materials/methods used, the results, and describing your process. Ex. "I used Fibbonaci sequencing to...."
3. Clearly state objectives.
4. Write so that someone could duplicate your methods.
5. Tables, figures, and data should stand alone.
6. Include an acknowledgement section. Thank your helpers!
7. Include key references to avoid plagiarism and give credit where credit is due.
8. Don't criticize previous works. Ideas/methods/ethics change in the Sciences all the time.
9. The word "data" is plural. Ex. "Our data are conclusive".
10. Explain the importance of your work. Remember: you are contributing to this scholarly field!

Check out more descriptions and example language to get some ideas.