A scientific manuscript is intended to communicate new information and to teach new material to a willing audience, Stephen D. Senturia. [MUSIC] >> All journals publish guidelines or instructions to authors annually in one of their issues. In other words, there is often more than one correct way of doing something, depending on your intentions. That is why I advise you to become familiar with details of organization, section headings, methods of data presentation, and ways of citing and listing references by examining recent papers in any well-established scientific journal. A scientific paper must fulfill at least two objectives. First, it must accurately describe the procedures that were followed and the results that were obtained. Second, the paper, your manuscript must place these results in perspective by relating them to the existing state of knowledge and by interpreting their significance for future study. In general, there are three things that all scientific papers should do. First, trace the scientific origins of the research problem. Second, summarize the state of knowledge on the subject. Third, state the critical hypotheses that are tested in the research paper. Fourth, interpret the results of the study in relation to the hypotheses and to the general state of knowledge. Fifth, identify the scientific questions and procedural weaknesses in the procedure that needed to be addressed in the future. And finally, the paper should be concise. The guidelines of some journals will include specific requirements regarding language. And it's essential that your writing style follows these instructions very carefully. The most common specification among many English journals in the use of either English, British English or American English, and even those journals that allow both kinds of variance, will not want to see a mixture of British and American spellings in their paper, in the same paper. Abbreviations are another issue that should be in the focus of your attention when your write your scientific paper. In most cases, journals give very specific instructions about the abbreviations that should be introduced. If the journal to which you are submitting your paper offers such instructions, follow them. But even if the guidelines say virtually nothing about using abbreviations, you should remember effective ways of using abbreviations, which should be observed for at least two important reasons. First, to maintain conventional standards, and second, to ensure that your readers will understand your abbreviations. Standard abbreviations can be found in a number of places, such as the American Psychological Association, APA, AP style and other manuals, and many dictionaries, they also present this information. They show how to use abbreviations and what abbreviations are considered to be standard. Some of the important points with such abbreviations is to use the appropriate format of the abbreviations each and every time. So you have to be consistent with your abbreviations, and do not use different abbreviations to define one of the same thing. And this is a very good example of this. So each time, before you start writing your scientific paper, you should read the instructions to authors thoroughly and follow them. Among questions, these instructions may answer one of the following questions. Does the journal include more than one category of research article? If so, in what category would your article fit? Second, what is the maximum length of your article? Does the journal have a template for articles? If so, how can it be accessed? Does the journal post supplementary material online? And again, if it does, how should this material be provided? Then the next question that can arise, in what format should preferences appear, APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard? Each time you have to check this information with instructions to authors. Next, in what electronic format should the paper be prepared? Should figures and tables be inserted within the text, or should they appear at the end, or be submitted as separate files? Is there online submission system to use? Underline, highlight, note keypoints to remember, then consult the instructions to the authors as you prepare the paper. Follow the instructions from the start, and this will certainly save you a lot of time especially when by some reason the paper is returned to you and you need to review it and to rewrite.