20 THE BIOLOGICAL LITERATURE 



personal preference. Some people like to write up each experiment 

 individually on separate sheets of paper— describing the materials used, 

 the methods, and the results— and then file this unit. Probably a more 

 satisfactory procedure is to write everything into a bound notebook. A 

 description of the reason for doing the experiment, the minute details 

 of materials and methods, complete notes on the results (including even 

 observations that may seem inconsequential), and finally, calculations 

 and discussions can all be included in a few succeeding pages of the 

 notebook. Bound notebooks containing quadrille-ruled paper, that is, 

 paper ruled in squares, are useful because preliminary graphs can be 

 recorded directly with the results. 



Regardless of their form, these original laboratory records are the 

 most important part of the permanent records because it is upon these 

 that the rest of the literature is built. 



Technical papers 



Once a piece of experimental research has reached a reasonable con- 

 clusion, the work is described in a technical "paper." Generally this is 

 a brief report, describing the work in as much detail as ever will appear 

 in the public literature. The organization of the report varies somewhat, 

 but the paper usually includes a statement of the problem, a description 

 of experimental methods, a summary of results, and a section on inter- 

 pretation or conclusions. 



Many serial or periodical publications are devoted almost exclusively 

 to these technical papers. Some, like the American Journal of Botany 

 and the Journal of the American Chemical Society, cover an extremely 

 wide range of subjects. Others are restricted to a single group of organ- 

 isms or even to a single technique. Table 3-1 lists as examples a num- 

 ber of journals which are valuable to the experimental biologists. Some 

 of these are sponsored by organizations, societies, or institutions, and 

 others are produced by commercial publishing firms. 



Since the primary technical report is the most detailed form in which 

 a piece of work will ever be described in the literature, it is imperative 

 that this description be adequate. The report should permit evaluation 

 of the work and should allow repetition by persons in other laboratories. 

 If the length of the report had no limitations it would be easy to include 

 more details than necessary, to take no chances of leaving out something 

 essential. Unfortunately, papers must be short; there simply is not room 



