III. Conference presentations

 

Presenting at conferences is an important part of entering academic society, and grad students are usually encouraged to present their PhD work at least once to a major conference. When a significant research result is achieved in the lab, it is natural to present the work at conferences and to publish the work in a peer-reviewed journal. We attend conferences to keep abreast of the latest trends, transformative results and techniques in our field.

Scientific research articles provide a method for scientists to communicate with other scientists about the results of their research. A standard format is used for these articles, in which the author presents the research in an orderly, logical manner.

Title

1. Make your title specific enough to describe the contents of the paper, but not so technical that only specialists will understand. The title should be appropriate for the intended audience.

2. The title usually describes the subject matter of the article.

3. Sometimes a title that summarizes the results is more effective.

Authors

1. The person who did the work and wrote the paper is generally listed as the first author of a research paper.

2. For published articles, other people who made substantial contributions to the work are also listed as authors. Ask your mentor's permission before including his/her name as co-author.

Abstract

1. An abstract, or summary, is published together with a research article, giving the reader a "preview" of what's to come.

2. Your abstract should be one paragraph, of 100-250 words, which summarizes the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the paper.

3. Don't use abbreviations or citations in the abstract. It should be able to stand alone without any footnotes.

Introduction

What question did you ask in your experiment? Why is it interesting? The introduction summarizes the relevant literature so that the reader will understand why you were interested in the question you asked. One to four paragraphs should be enough.

Materials and methods

1. How did you answer this question? There should be enough information here to allow another scientist to repeat your experiment.

2. If you had a complicated protocol, it may helpful to include a diagram, table or flowchart to explain the methods you used.

3. Mention relevant ethical considerations. If you used human subjects, did they consent to participate? If you used animals, what measures did you take to minimize pain?

Results

1. This is where you present the results you've gotten. Use graphs and tables if appropriate, but also summarize your main findings in the text. Do not discuss the results or speculate as to why something happened; that goes in the Discussion.

2. You don't necessarily have to include all the data you've gotten during the semester. This isn't a diary.

Tables and graphs

If you present your data in a table or graph, include a title describing what's in the table. For graphs, you should also label the x and y axes.

Discussion

Highlight the most significant results, but don't just repeat what you've written in the Results section. How do these results relate to the original question? Do the data support your hypothesis? Are your results consistent with what other investigators have reported? If your results were unexpected, try to explain why. Is there another way to interpret your results? What further research would be necessary to answer the questions raised by your results? How do your results fit into the big picture?

References (literature cited)

There are several possible ways to organize this section. Here is one commonly used way:

1. In the text, cite the literature in the appropriate places.

2. In the References section list citations in the alphabetical order.