3.1: Introduction

Introduction to the scientific method

The scientific method is central to the study of biology: it is a process of acquiring and verifying information through experimentation. The general steps of the scientific method are depicted in Figure 3.1.1 below. Typically, a scientist begins their research with a question and then will formulate a hypothesis. The hypothesis is a tentative answer to their question, or an explanation to an observation. For a hypothesis to be useful it must be testable and falsifiable. Good experimental design is essential to the scientific method. A few keys to good experimental design include effective use of controls, reproducibility, a large sample size, and multiple trials. In an experiment, to be able to determine whether changes that occur are due to the investigator’s manipulation, there must be some basis for comparison. A control group is necessary to establish this basis of comparison. In the control group, everything is kept the same as the experimental group except for the independent variable. The experimental group is the group that will receive the experimental treatment. For example, in a drug trial there will be a group that receives the drug (the experimental group) and a group that receives a placebo (the control group). The drug itself is considered the independent variable and any change(s) that occur because of the drug are considered the dependent variable(s). To ensure that only the drug is causing the changes, all other variables must be tightly controlled (such as diet, exercise, smoking, age, etc.). These are referred to as controlled variables.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Scientific Method. The scientific method consists of a series of well-defined steps. If a hypothesis is not supported by experimental data, one can propose a new hypothesis. Figure credit: © Jun 9, 2022 OpenStax Biology 2e. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (opens in new window).

Reporting Scientific Work

Whether scientific research is basic science or applied science, scientists must share their findings in order for other researchers to expand and build upon their discoveries. Collaboration with other scientists—when planning, conducting, and analyzing results—is important for scientific research. For this reason, important aspects of a scientist’s work are communicating with peers and disseminating results to peers. Scientists can share results by presenting them at a scientific meeting or conference, but this approach only reaches those who are present. Instead, most scientists present their results in peer-reviewed manuscripts that are published in scientific journals. A peer-reviewed manuscript is scientific paper of a scientist's research methods, findings and interpretations, which is submitted to a scientific journal for publication. The publisher then forms a committee of reviewers to asses the veracity and merit of the work. Reviewers are qualified individuals that are experts in the same research area. The process of peer review helps to ensure that the research in a scientific paper is original, significant, logical, and thorough. Grant proposals, which are requests for research funding, are also subject to peer review. Scientists publish their work so other scientists can reproduce their experiments and expand on the findings.

A scientific paper is very different from creative writing. Although creativity is required to design experiments, there are fixed guidelines when it comes to presenting scientific results. First, scientific writing must be concise and accurate. A scientific paper needs to be succinct but detailed enough to allow peers to reproduce the experiments.

The scientific paper consists of several specific sections—introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion. There are usually acknowledgment and reference sections as well as an abstract (a summary) at the beginning of the paper. There might be additional sections depending on the type of paper and the journal where it will be published. For example, some review papers require an outline.

The introduction starts with brief, but broad, background information about what is known in the field. A good introduction also gives the rationale of the work. It justifies the work carried out and also briefly mentions the end of the paper, where the researcher will present the hypothesis or research question driving the research. The introduction refers to the published scientific work of others and therefore requires citations following the style of the journal. Using the work or ideas of others without proper citation is plagiarism.

The materials and methods section includes a complete and accurate description of the substances the researchers use, and the method and techniques they use to gather data. The description should be thorough enough to allow another researcher to repeat the experiment and obtain similar results, but it does not have to be verbose. This section will also include information on how the researchers made measurements and the types of calculations and statistical analyses they used to examine raw data. Although the materials and methods section gives an accurate description of the experiments, it does not discuss them.

Some journals require a separate results section followed by a discussion section, but some journals combine both. If the journal does not allow combining both sections, the results section simply narrates the findings without any further interpretation. The researchers present results with tables or graphs, but they do not present duplicate information. In the discussion section, the researchers will interpret the results, describe how variables may be related, and attempt to explain the observations. It is indispensable to conduct an extensive literature search to put the results in the context of previously published scientific research. Therefore, researchers include proper citations in this section as well.

Finally, the conclusion section summarizes the importance of the experimental findings. While the scientific paper almost certainly answers one or more scientific questions that the researchers stated, most research articles will also include a future work statement, which are new questions based from their work. Therefore, a well-done scientific paper allows the researchers and others to continue and expand on the findings.

Review articles do not follow the above format because they do not present original scientific findings, or primary literature. Instead, they summarize and comment on findings that were published as primary literature and typically include extensive reference sections. These articles are particularly useful in learning the most current research on a particular topic and for gaining a perceptive on how different studies may used to answer a larger question.

All work adapted from Openstax Biology2e Ch 1.1

Adapted from © Jun 9, 2022 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.