CHAPTER 



\7 



The Manuscript 



You have just completed a research project. It is not really finished, of 

 course, because the questions you have answered have only pointed out 

 new questions, but you have solved the problem that you set out to 

 investigate. It is only natural to feel a little proud because you have 

 learned something about a little fragment of the universe that no one 

 knew before. Science will be better off if you share your findings. 



Experiments have been performed, measurements have yielded num- 

 bers, computations have been completed, and considerable thought has 

 been given to interpretations. The next step is to prepare the material for 

 publication. The preparation of the manuscript must follow the rules of 

 the editor of the journal, so probably the first step is to decide in which 

 journal your results should be reported. There are several thousand 

 journals to chose from, but you know by now that only a selected few 

 pertain to the specialized field in which you have been working. Among 

 these, select on the basis of circulation, time required for publication, 

 and the likelihood that the desired audience will be reached. Some 

 scientific periodicals are sponsored by societies and accept papers only 

 from members. The editor (or the editorial board) has prepared a set of 

 rules, and every issue carries these rules or a note telling in which issue 

 the rules were published. Only after taking these preliminary steps is it 

 wise to proceed to prepare the report. 



Organization of the paper 



The scientific paper more-or-less naturally falls into several main sec- 

 tions, although there are frequent modifications of these. Usually there is 



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