224 THE MANUSCRIPT 



an introductory section, a description of experimental methods, a presen- 

 tation of the resuhs, discussion of interpretations, and a Hst of cited 

 hterature. There may be an abstract at the beginning or end. 



Introduction: The introductory statement tells the reader what to ex- 

 pect. It provides a specific statement of the problem and outlines other 

 recent work on the same or similar problems. Several references to the 

 literature probably will be required in order to place this paper in a 

 proper relationship to what is already known. 



'Experimental Methods: Methods should be described in sufficient de- 

 tail to allow others to repeat the work if they choose. What kind of or- 

 ganisms were used and how were they prepared for the experiments? If 

 commercial instruments were used throughout, naming them is enough. 

 If you developed any new techniques, however, these should be described 

 in detail. 



The description of the materials and methods must be a compromise. 

 The journal cannot afford to publish long accounts of the method of 

 holding a pipette, but any detail of technique which would not be obvi- 

 ous to a person experienced in this field must be described. If a previously 

 used method was adopted in the current experiments, a reference to the 

 previous paper can save words or paragraphs. A naked reference, how- 

 ever, may be unsatisfactory. For example, "Oxygen exchange was meas- 

 ured as described previously (with reference) ..." tells the reader 

 nothing, but "Oxygen was determined manometrically (with reference) 

 . . ." may save him a trip to the library. 



Residts: Since most research is now quantitative, the results are ex- 

 pressed in numbers. The results can be presented in tables or graphs, but 

 usually the journal cannot allow the same results in both forms. The text 

 of this section carries a running description of the results to help the 

 reader understand the tables or graphs. 



Discussion: The results mean nothing unless they are related to the 

 problem. The conclusions should answer the questions stated in the intro- 

 duction. Perhaps the conclusions drawn in this paper can be applied 

 to more general situations, and such generalizations can be pointed out. 



Literature Cited: In several of the earlier sections you will have re- 

 ferred to the work of others. It is actually only polite to give credit to 

 them and to tell your reader how he can find their papers. The list of 

 references need not include every paper ever written on the subject, but 

 it should include those papers needed by the reader to place your paper 

 in the proper perspective. 



