Sections of a scientific report

• What should a scientific report consist of?

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Method
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • References
• Abstract

  • Short summary including all major elements
  • Aims/hypotheses/procedure/results/conclusion
  • When researching a particular topic, psychologists will read lots of abstracts to identify those studies worthy of further examination.
• Introduction

  • Literature review of general area of research detaining relevant theories, concepts and studies that are related to current study.
• Method

  • Enough detail so that other researchers can replicate.
  • Design, sample, materials, procedure, ethics
• Results

  • Summarise key findings of investigation.
  • features descriptive statistics: tables, graphs, measure of central tendency/dispersion
  • Features of inferential statistics: statistical test chosen, calculated and critical values, level of significance and final outcome.
  • If researcher used qualitative methods results and findings are more likely to involve analysis of themes and categories.
• Discussion

  • Summarise results in verbal form rather than statistical form.
  • Discuss results in context of the evidence
  • Researcher discusses limitations of current research and suggestions of how these could be addressed in future studies.
  • Discuss real-world applications and contributing knowledge to the field.