Bloc course Zoology and Evolution
FS 2013
Scientific Writing:
Proposals and papers
Mathias Kölliker
The Research Proposal
Its functions in science
1) Careful preparation of a research project
2) Convince your Master-/Ph.D.-advisor of your
research project (your ideas, hypotheses and
methods)
3) Acquire research money (e.g., Swiss National
Science Foundation, European Research
Council, private research foundations)
Proposal Writing
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Title
Investigators (names and affiliation)
1. Project summary
2. Introduction
3. Research Plan
– Methods
– Project schedule
– Outlook / Importance of proposed research
• 4. References
Proposal Writing
Title
Should be concise and informative, sound interesting and
adequately represent the content of the project
• avoid being too vague or overly detailed
• use catchy/funny formulations only if it generates interest and does not come at a cost
in terms of information
• use abbreviations only if they are generally known (e.g., DNA)
Investigators / Authors
Your and your collaborators’ names and affiliations
(e.g., University of Basel, Zoological Institute, Evolutionary Biology)
(e.g., University of Basel, Zoological Institute, Bloc course Zoology and Evolution (2012)
Proposal Writing
1. Abstract/Summary
A short version of the main text of the proposal. Best written
after main proposal is complete.
2. Introduction
• Brief overview over the research field. What is the general
interest in this area of research?
• Explanation of relevant work previously done, pointing out
inadequacies and lack of information / understanding,
formulate open research questions
• Explanation of how the research you propose can advance
knowledge beyond the current state
Proposal Writing
• A precise statement of the research question that you plan
to address
• A statement of the specific hypothesis that you want to test
• Introduction should be fully referenced to the relevant
literature in the field
• A good proposal - introduction can be used in large parts as
the introduction of the paper written after the work has
been done
Proposal Writing
3. Research plan
3.1 Methods
• If not treated in the Introduction, a presentation of the
experimental system (i.e., species, species group),
focus on information relevant for proposed research
• A detailed description and justification of the experimental
design used to test the hypothesis
• A detailed description and justification of the measurements
taken in the experiment
• Description of material, planned sample size
Proposal Writing
• The predictions for the outcomes of the planned experiment
that would allow you to reject/accept your hypothesis
• Description of planned statistical analysis: what kind of
statistical tests / models will you use; also, what kind of
software (this is not necessary for general statistical
analysis, but for specialized applications)
Proposal Writing
• The “Material and Methods” section may change substantially
between proposal and paper writing (e.g. due to pilot
studies and preliminary experiments). Nevertheless, this
section in a proposal should be specific and precise.
Your aim in a proposal is to convince the advisor/funding
agency that you have good knowledge and ideas
(introduction), but also that you know what you are doing
and how you want to do it (method). For the paper
written after the research project was carried out, the
methods that were actually used in the experiment have
to be reported (→ “Laborjournal”)
Proposal Writing
3.2 Research schedule
• A timetable for the course of the project. It should make clear
how the proposed project can be finished within the
time-limits set by the project
3.3 Outlook/importance of project
• A brief summary to repeat the importance of the research
question, of your hypothesis, and how your project can
contribute to an improved understanding of a certain
research question
The Bloc-Course Proposal
ca. 1’500 words
Structure as described
Language: English
Reference to and discussion of relevant literature as
described later in the “scientific paper” part
Hand in proposal by
Friday, 15.03.2013, 17:00 (print version, two copies and by e-mail)
to your project supervisor
The Scientific Paper
Its functions in science
1) Dissemination of research results. Only by
publication, research becomes visible to the
rest of the scientific community and the public
2) It is the major „return on investment“ in
science (for the scientist personally, but also
for funding agencies). Economically speaking,
papers can be thought of one major „product“
in science
Paper Writing
See also „A guide to writing in the biological sciences“, part of your scripts
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
Title: Concise, informative, maybe original or
catchy (but only if not at cost of being
informative)
Good examples:
-„Inbreeding depression of sexually selected
traits and attractiveness in the zebra finch“
- „Sister chromosome pairing maintains
heterozygosity in parthenogenetic lizards“
Bad examples:
„The role of pleiotropy vs signaller-reciever
gene epistasis in life history trade-offs:
dissecting the genomic architecture of
organismal design in social systems“
„Food stealing in birds: brains or brawn?“
„The effect of EGTs on CBS in the ARC“
(invented)
Paper Writing
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
Abstract: A short version of the whole paper.
Introduces the research topic and research
question. Describes the tested
hypotheses/predictions and the main
experimental design. Summarizes the
critical results and concludes with the main
implications of the results in a broader
context. 150 – max. 250 words.
The abstract „sells“ the paper. It is read first
and readers usually decide based on it if
they read the whole paper. Also, abstracts
are freely available online.
Paper Writing
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Introduction: Introduces the topic of the
reported research. Summary of previous
research, open questions. Should introduce
the field broadly, but not too broadly. If a paper
starts with a sentence like „The house sparrow
eats 100mg of seeds every day...“, this is too
narrow in focus. But not every paper in biology
has to start with „As Darwin already
considered...“, or „The earth has an
atmosphere enabling life ...“). There must be
good reasons for being so broad. Finding the
correct level of scientific depth is an important
choice to be made for good scientific writing.
Acknowledgements
References
Paper Writing
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
Detailed description of experimental system,
materials (including supplier information),
methods and sample sizes. Information on
when and where the study was performed.
The provided information in this section
should allow other scientists to repeat your
experiment.
Last paragraph describes the statistical
tests/methods/software used to analyse the
data. Statistics software (incl. Version)
always has to be reported, not only for
special applications (contrary to proposal).
Paper Writing
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
The section where the results are presented. It
consists of fluent text describing the results,
including reference to tables and Figures that
are presented for illustration of results of main
importance. No Interpretation or discussion of
results in this section. Statistical information
can be provided in the text in brakets, or
presented in tables, but redundancy has to be
avoided.
Example for a sentence in result section:
„Nitrogen fertilizer significantly increased soy
bean total biomass (t15=2.95, p < 0.01) (Fig. 1).
Paper Writing
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
Interpretation of results and discussion in
terms of the context outlined in the
introduction. Was your hypothesis supported?
And if not, why? Explain how your findings
coincide with other, similiar, studies, or why
they may deviate from them. What are the
implications of the results for the broader
field? Discussion section should be directly
linked to results and introduction, and be fully
referenced. Example: „It was previously
shown that nitrogen fertilizer increases
soybean biomass (Meier and Müller, 2003),
but our study demonstrates that this increase
depends on temperature.“ It is possible (but
not required) to suggest further research to
solve a particular problem, or a new question
emerging from your study.
Paper Writing
Title
Authors and co-authors
Affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
Acknowledgements: this is place to
acknowledge financial support (funding
agencies), help during the experiments,
material support and/or critical input by
colleagues.
References / Cited literature :
Detailed bibliographical information to retrieve
cited work. Alphabetical list of all (and only)
the literature cited in the text. Standard
reference formats defined by journals.
Example: Johnstone, R. A. & Hinde, C. A.
2006. Negotiation over offspring care - how
should parents respond to each other‘s
efforts? Behav. Ecol. 17, 818-827.
Wikipedia is not a scientifically citable
reference
Final emphasis
• No plagiarism
• No „copy-paste“ of text from other papers or the internet!
• Cite relevant work. Use literal quotations only very rarely, and then
keep them short and cite them in quotes as „....“ (Müller 1986)
• Understand (!) relevant papers, put them away and formulate the
aspects important for your study using your own words
• Don‘t write things like „because my supervisor (or so-and-so) said, I
also measured….“. When your name is on a paper, you are
responsible for its content, no matter how you decided to do
something one way or another
• Make sentences short and precise. Concise writing is one of the big
challenges in modern scientific writing
The Bloc-Course Report
Ca. 4’000 words
Structure as described in lecture. See also
accompanying script “A guide to writing in the biological
sciences”
Language: English
Hand in report by
Wednesday, 17.04.13, 17h00 (print version, two copies and by e-mail)
to your project supervisor