Nepal Agric. Res. J., Vol. 6, 2005 131 Guide for Scientific Paper Writing Bal K Joshi Biotechnology Unit-NARC, Khumaltar A. HOW TO WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER Style In all sections of the paper, present tense should be used to report background that is already established. For example, The cell membrane is the barrier which separates the inside of the cell from the outside. Use future tense for work that you will do. For example, We will test the hypothesis that some anti-microbial agents can permeate the cell membrane during division to inhibit growth. Always use past tense to describe results of a specific experiment, especially your own. For example, Application of the antibiotic Chloramphenicol restricted growth of E. coli. Article Title • Your title should be specific in describing the experiment you performed. • It should be an informative summary of the paper. Select the words in a title carefully for clarity and accuracy. • Long titles are unappealing to readers. However, shorter titles may not be sufficiently specific, and therefore not as informative. • All important aspects of the paper should figure in the title. • A title should be a label, not a sentence. • Pay attention to the association of words. Faulty word order may allow different interpretations – possibly changing your meaning – and may introduce grammatical error. • If you use series titles, submit all series. • Consider more than one title, and ask colleagues which one is a better description of your paper. Authors and Addresses • Consider following information: o Who did the work o Where they did it o Where they are now o Their relative involvement o To whom correspondence should be addressed • Give full name of each author, use initials only for middle names. • Degrees and titles are not required. • Give the institutional address for each author following the journal style. • If the author has moved away from where the research was carried out, give their present address as footnote. • Include the corresponding address of the corresponding author (email compulsorily, phone, postal address). • No one should be given authorship unless they were significantly involved in the creation of the paper (conception, design, data collection, analysis and manuscript writing). For example, do not include heads of departments simply because they are the senior member of staff. • Every attributed author must see and approve the final draft of the paper before you submit it to a journal. However, journals may have different policy if each author should be responsible for the full content or not. • Reviewers may discriminate against a paper with too many authors (they may not believe this number of people truly wrote the article), and may also discriminate against a paper with only one author (since the research has not been verified by a collaborator). Abstract • The Abstract is a summary of the study, with the primary emphasis on results and conclusions. • Very briefly present the question(s) asked, the experimental design, a summary of observations, and list conclusions. • Be very succinct - the abstract should be a single paragraph, no more than one page. It should stand on its own; therefore, do not refer to any other part of the report, such as a figure or table. • Avoid long sections of introductory or explanatory material. • As a summary of work done, it is written in past tense. Summarize the information given in all sections of the paper (eg introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion).