Dengan 'kewajiban' atau dorongan yang dikeluarkan oleh diknas sebelumnya agar setiap lulusan tingkat pendidikan tinggi untuk mengeluarkan publikasi ilmiah, maka setiap pelaku pendidikan setingkat mahasiswa harus mampu untuk mengulik apa yang telah diteliti dan dikerjakannya untuk menjadi suatu bahan komunikasi ilmiah singkat untuk masyarakat luas. Oleh karena itu, beberapa saran ini mungkin dapat membantu dan membuka pencerahan untuk kawan yang sedang bergaul erat dengan makhluk bernama 'publikasi'. Selamat mencoba!
HOW to write SCIENTIFIC PAPER
From http://classweb.gmu.edu/biologyresources/writingguide/ScientificPaper.htm
A well-written scientific paper explains the scientist's motivation for doing an experiment/research, the experimental design and execution, and the meaning of the results. Scientific papers are written in a style that is exceedingly clear and concise. Their purpose is to inform an audience of other scientists about an important issue and to document the particular approach they used to investigate that issue. Please do not think that good English is not critical in science writing. In fact, scientists try to be so concise that their English should be better than that of workers in other disciplines! If English is not your first language, then proofreading by a native-speaker might be helpful. If you have read scientific papers, you will have noticed that a standard format is frequently used. This format allows a researcher to present information clearly and concisely.
GENERAL ORGANIZATION
The following sections should be included in your report (see Examples):
(1) Abstract (2) Introduction (3) Methods (4) Results (5) Discussion (6) Literature Cited
Other sections can be included as necessary. It is important to understand the differences between sections and to put information in the appropriate location. Reading scientific papers (such as the articles you will use as your references for the Introduction and Discussion) will give you good ideas and guidance as well. After all, these are peer-reviewed and published scientific papers, and they can serve as useful models for your own writing. Remember to pay attention to issues of plagiarism, however. One useful way to avoid making errors in this regard is to read a section from your source, then restate in writing what you remember of the main points. You would then cite the source of that information in the text.
ABSTRACT
An abstract is a short summary of your completed research. If done well, it makes the reader want to learn more about your research.
These are the basic components of an abstract in any discipline:
1) Motivation/problem statement: Why do we care about the problem? What practical, scientific, theoretical or artistic gap is your research filling?
2) Methods/procedure/approach: What did you actually do to get your results? (e.g. analyzed 3 novels, completed a series of 5 oil paintings, interviewed 17 students)
3) Results/findings/product: As a result of completing the above procedure, what did you learn/invent/create?
4) Conclusion/implications: What are the larger implications of your findings, especially for the problem/gap identified in step 1?
INTRODUCTION
This section discusses the results and conclusions of previously published studies, to help explain why the current study is of scientific interest.
The Introduction is organized to move from general information to specific information. This background must be summarized succinctly, but it should not be itemized. Take care not to go too far afield in providing background information; limit the introduction to studies that relate directly to the present study. Emphasize your specific contribution to the topic.
The last sentences of the introduction should be a statement of objectives and a statement of hypotheses. This will be a good transition to the next section, Methods, in which you will explainhow you proceeded to meet your objectives and test your hypotheses.
For example, you might write the following: "Our objective was to determine if the relationship between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria is species-specific. We hypothesized that legumes would grow best when infected by the same Rhizobium species that it occurs with in the field."
It is important to cite sources in the introduction section of your paper as evidence of the claims you are making. There are ways of citing sources in the text so that the reader can find the full reference in the literature cited section at the end of the paper, yet the flow of the reading is not badly interrupted. Below are some examples of how this can be done:
Note that articles by one or two authors are always cited in the text using their last names. However, if there are more than two authors, the last name of the 1st author is given followed by the abbreviation et al. which is Latin for "and others". Make sure you give a full citation
METHODS
This section provides all the methodological details necessary for another scientist to duplicate your work.
It should be a narrative of the steps you took in your experiment or study, not a list of instructions such as you might find in a cookbook.
You should assume that the other scientist has the same basic skills that you have, but does not know the specific details of your experiment. For example, it is unnecessary to write:
"We poured N-free fertilizer solution into a graduated cylinder until the bottom of the meniscus was at the 30 ml line. We poured the fertilizer onto the top of the soil in a pot and then repeated this procedure 24 times."
Rather, you would assume that the scientist knows how to measure and add liquids to pots and write: "We added 30 ml of N-free fertilizer to each of 24 pots."
An important part of writing a scientific paper is deciding what bits of information needs to be given in detail. Do not quote or cite your laboratory manual!
In the last paragraph, provide a brief description of statistical tests you used (statistics are methods!). Be sure not to include extraneous information, though, as scientists know all about null hypotheses and when to reject them.
RESULTS
This section presents the results of the experiment but does not attempt to interpret their meaning. As with the Methods section, the trick to writing a good Results section is knowing what information to include or exclude. You will not present the raw data that you collected, but rather you will summarize the data with text, tables and/or figures. Use the text of the paper to state the results of your study, then refer the reader to a table or figure where they can see the data for themselves. For example you may write:
"Nitrogen fertilizer significantly increased soy bean total biomass (p=0.05) regardless of the presence or absence of Rhizobium (Table 1)."
The sentence above is well written because: (i) the result of adding nitrogen is stated concisely, (ii) the word significantly is accompanied by the statistical probability level (p=0.05), (iii) the scientific name Rhizobium is italicized, and (iv) the reader is referred to a table where the data to support the statement can be found. Note that the measurement (total biomass, in this case) is mentioned. You must explicitly state the measure you are using.
Do not include the same data in both a table and a figure. It is best to present the data in a table unless there is visual information that can be gained by using a figure. For example, a figure is useful for reporting a regression analysis (line graph), or comparing the several treatment levels (bar graph with error bars). Each table and figure has several lines of text in the legend (or caption) that explain the information that is being presented; this is, they are made to stand alone. A table's legend appears above it, while the legend for a figure appears below the figure.
If your table includes the results of a statistical analysis, be sure to provide the information necessary for the reader to properly evaluate the analysis (probability levels, degrees of freedom, sample size, etc.).
Additional tips on the Results section:
- Number tables and figures separately beginning with 1 (i.e. Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, etc.).
- Do not attempt to evaluate the results in this section. Report only what you found; hold all discussion of the significance of the results for the Discussion section.
- It is not necessary to describe every step of your statistical analyses. Scientists understand all about null hypotheses, rejection rules, and so forth and do not need to be reminded of them. Just say something like, "Honeybees did not use the flowers in proportion to their availability (X2 = 7.9, p<0.05, d.f.= 4, chi-square test)." Likewise, cite tables and figures without describing in detail how the data were manipulated. Explanations of this sort should appear in a legend or caption written on the same page as the figure or table.
- You must refer in the text to each figure or table you include in your paper.
- Tables generally should report summary-level data, such as means ± standard deviations, rather than all your raw data. A long list of all your individual observations will mean much less than a few concise, easy-to-read tables or figures that bring out the main findings of your study.
- Only use a figure (graph) when the data lend themselves to a good visual representation. Avoid using figures that show too many variables or trends at once, because they can be hard to understand.
DISCUSSION
In this section, you are free to explain what the results mean or why they differ from what other workers have found. You should interpret your results in light of other published results, by adding additional information from sources you cited in the Introduction section as well as by introducing new sources. Make sure you provide accurate citations. Relate your discussion back to the objectives and questions you raised in the Introductionsection. However, do not simply re-state the objectives. Make statements that synthesize all the evidence (including previous work and the current work). Do not make statements that are too broad: it is unlikely, for example, that through oneRhizobium-legume experiment, you will discover that there is no symbiosis between the two organisms. Limit your conclusions to those that your data can actually support, such as "We did not find a significant effect of Rhizobium inoculate on soybean biomass in this experiment." You can then proceed to speculate on why this occurred and whether you expected this to occur, based on other workers' findings. Suggest future directions for research, new methods, explanations for deviations from previously published results, etc.
If necessary, note problems with the methods and explain anomalies in the data. Do not simply list the problems but provide thoughtful discussion about the implications of the errors in terms of your conclusions.
How to Cite Sources in the Discussion Section
It is important to cite sources in the discussion section of your paper as evidence of the claims you are making. There are ways of citing sources in the text so that the reader can find the full reference in the literature cited section at the end of the paper, yet the flow of the reading is not badly interrupted. Below are some example of how this can be done:
"Smith (1983) found that N-fixing plants could be infected by several different species ofRhizobium."
"Walnut trees are known to be allelopathic (Smith 1949, Bond et al. 1955, Jones and Green 1963)."
"Although the presence of Rhizobium normally increases the growth of legumes (Nguyen 1987), the opposite effect has been observed (Washington 1999)."
Note that articles by one or two authors are always cited in the text using their last names. However, if there are more than two authors, the last name of the 1st author is given followed by the abbreviation et al. which is Latin for "and others".
The second citation (above) shows that it is acceptable, and encouraged, to cite more than one source for a particular statement. This gives the statement more validity in its context and suggests that your research was thorough. Note also that the three sources are ordered by publication date, so that the earliest citation comes first.
Semoga semua terbantu dengan informasi seperti ini. Selamat mencoba (sekali lagi). Publikasi ilmiah adalah hal yang menarik dan bukan untuk ditakuti karena dia adalah dirimu sendiri.
