Scientific Report

5 Key excerpts on "Scientific Report"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Student's Guide to Studying Psychology

  • Thomas M Heffernan(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  6 Empirical research report writing

  DOI: 10.4324/9781315849430-6

  This chapter provides guidelines on empirical research report writing. A completed practical report can be found in Example 6.1. The chapter also provides guidelines for writing your undergraduate psychology project. The final section provides brief guidelines on presenting your research at a conference.

  For most psychology degrees you will be required to run experiments or studies throughout the first two years of the degree and, in your third year, to design your own experiment. Having conducted an experiment (or a non-experimental study) and analysed the data from it, the researcher is normally required to write a report on what the experiment was about; what the procedure was for carrying it out; what was found in the experiment; and a full explanation as to why the things occurred as they did during the experiment. Within the field of psychology, there are clear rules that have been developed for writing empirical reports. Such rules relate mainly to the particular format the empirical report should take, and should be adhered to by the report writer. Following a standard format for empirical report writing makes it easier for other researchers to comprehend the large numbers of research articles they are likely to access during the course of their work. It also allows report writers to get their ideas, procedures, and results across to others.

  Academic written reports differ from essays, or other forms of narratives, in that the report must: (a) convey sufficient detail for the research to be replicated; (b) state clearly what the research was about and what was found in the study, so that it can be judged on its scientific merits. A third aspect to remember about written reports is that they may not be read in the same way as, say, an essay. The reader might well switch from one section of the report to another, in a non-linear fashion. Think of the time saved by reading through a series of abstracts before deciding which reports are most relevant to the topic under study. This is why academic written reports should follow a standard format.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Research Methods in Psychology For Dummies

  • Martin Dempster, Donncha Hanna(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • For Dummies

    (Publisher)

  Find out how to submit your research paper to a scientific journal for publication or apply to present your study at a conference. Check out the free article at www.dummies.com/extras/researchmethodsinpsych . Part V Reporting Research An outline for a research report ✓ ✓ Abstract • Aims • Method • Results • Conclusion ✓ ✓ Introduction • Overview • Literature review • Rationale • Hypotheses ✓ ✓ Method • Design • Participants • Materials • Procedure • Analysis ✓ ✓ Results ✓ ✓ Discussion ✓ ✓ References ✓ ✓ Appendices In this part . . . ✓ ✓ Take advantage of the step-by-step outline for writing the all-important research report. ✓ ✓ Check out how to put together a top-notch research presentation, get tips on designing the poster and slideshow, and find out how to give a professional talk. ✓ ✓ Get pointers on creating a reference section, citing sources and reporting numbers in your research report so you can maximise your marks. Chapter 13 Preparing a Written Report In This Chapter ▶ ▶ Creating the abstract ▶ ▶ Coming up with the introduction ▶ ▶ Determining the method ▶ ▶ Analysing the results ▶ ▶ Preparing the discussion W riting a research report is an essential skill for any psychology student. The report is a way of communicating your findings in a standardised format. In psychology, you tend to format a research report using guidelines produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). (You can find out more about APA style in Chapter 15.) Strict conventions guide the vari-ous sections and content that you include in your report. These sections are the abstract, introduction, method, results and discussion. Following these conventions can actually make your life easier because they separate the task into smaller, more manageable sections, each of which has clear recom-mendations regarding what you should cover.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Laboratory Psychology

  A Beginner's Guide

  • Julia Nunn(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  Finally, and again this is something of personal benefit, writing reports provides you with the opportunity to practise and improve, through feedback, your written communication skills. And although the practice may seem very specific to psychology, and not all of you will move on to do psychological research, the skills of conceptual analysis, organisation, and clear presentation of information will stand you in good stead whatever you go on to do in life. So the fourth function of report writing is that it provides a forum for learning a variety of skills.

  SUMMARY Reasons for writing reports.

  • Communication of findings.
  • Provision of potential for replication, checking, and modification.
  • Clarification of ideas, increasing understanding.
  • Promoting wider reading.
  • Learning scientific written communication skills.

  Format of the report

  Your report will have to be written in a certain format, with specific sections, each with its own heading, describing different elements of the experiment. This format reflects scientific convention in reporting psychological research in journals (see Chapter 9 ), and the sooner you accept it and come to differentiate which elements of the experiment go into which section, the easier you’ll make life for yourself.

  The content of each section is discussed in some detail later in this chapter, but first let’s take a look at the overall organisation of a report. Although there may be minor variations across different courses, the basic format is as follows:

  Title. This should identify what the study is about in a single sentence.

  Abstract. An outline summary of the experiment. A short paragraph summarising everything about the experiment—what was investigated, why, and how; the results, and interpretations of findings.

  Introduction. The reason for conducting the study. Outline of the background to the experiment; description of relevant past research; a statement of the rationale and aim(s); a statement about the expected outcome (experimental hypothesis).

  Method.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  A Research Guide for Health and Clinical Psychology

  • Martin Dempster(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  9.1.1 How should I structure my research report? There is some variation between training programmes in terms of the requirements for the structure and format of a final research report. The main difference is that some programmes will expect the research report to be submitted in the format of a research paper to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and other programmes will expect the research report to be submitted in the format of a lengthier dissertation. Therefore, it is important to check with your supervisor about the specific require-ments for your training programme. My intention here is to provide some guidance about the generic structure of a research report. This guidance should be read in conjunction with any specific guidance provided by your training programme. Research reports are commonly structured using the following head-ings: Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion. The Introduction sec-tion should provide the context and background for the research project. It should be a discussion of previous research in the area or any rel-evant related research which helps us to understand the issue under 172 A research guide for health and clinical psychology examination. The Introduction section should also provide a discussion of any theoretical framework which underpins the research. This section should be written in such a way that it highlights the gap in the previous research that justifies the need for your research and indicates how your research would advance knowledge in the area. The Introduction section normally ends with a statement of the research questions/hypotheses. In principle, the Introduction section could be written before data col-lection begins. In fact, you will have completed a similar section in your research proposal (see Chapter 3), and this will likely form the basis of the Introduction section in your final report.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  No longer available |Learn more

  Research Methods

  • Theresa White, Donald McBurney(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  This audience consists of the peo-ple in the invisible college that we just talked about. It is convenient to con-sider your audience as a discourse community : a group of people who share a common goal, a public means of exchanging information, a body of com-mon knowledge, and a specialized language. In our case, the discourse community consists of psychologists. When we sit down to write our report, we assume that our reader will know certain things about psychology and will expect us to use the style of writing com-mon to psychologists: APA style. Our report won ’ t read like a letter to a friend because it belongs to a different type of writing and is intended for a different discourse community. The Written Report Articles in scientific journals are usually reports of empirical research, review articles, theoretical articles, methodological articles, or case studies. In this section, we discuss the writing of a formal report of an empirical study as it would be submitted to a scientific journal. We follow APA format because it is used by most psychological journals as well as by other publications. Once you are familiar with APA format, you will find that it makes reading and writing professional literature more convenient. A full discussion appears in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010), which you can reference for details and additional information when writing other types of articles. Another way to learn how to prepare a paper for pub-lication is to look through a recent issue of the journal to which you want to submit your paper and study its format.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book