The presentation of the data in the scientific article should be logically thought through and included in the appropriate sections. The most common scientific article structure is IMRAD. IMRAD includes Introducton, Methods, Results and Discussion. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that such additional sections as “Literature Review”, “Theoretical Review”, “Recommendations” can be included in the article. The sections “Results” and “Discussion” can be either combined into one or presented as different sections. In addition, the obligatory elements of the article are an abstract, keywords, conclusions and a list of references.
In accordance with the structure of IMRAD, you should initially study general information, starting from the research topic. This approach will form the introduction of the forthcoming study. The introduction should reveal as accurately as possible the specifics of the topic, basic terminology, important aspects that will help form interest in the chosen topic. Detailing the information in the introduction will allow excluding general information materials in the Results section. The introduction should reveal the relevance of the work, which is the basis of high-ranking scientific articles. Setting objectives, research goals can also be presented in the introduction or highlighted in the additional paragraph “problem statement”.
The research methodology (the Materials and Methods section) can be formulated only after the goal and objectives of the research have been determined. The methodology must reflect the sequence of the study, the methods used, materials, and formulas. For example, in an article on chemistry, in addition to the sequence of the study, one should indicate the reagents and equipment that made it possible to implement the experimental part of the study. In the article on pedagogy the methods used, methods for collecting data (questionnaires, sociological surveys), calculations of the effectiveness of knowledge, etc should be indicated. The methodology should provide the statistical research methods that have influenced the provision of the calculated data.
The Results section reflects the basis of the study, which should present the identified achievements of the author in the research area. The section should present only basic information, the sequence of obtaining it was previously described in the methodology. Figures, tables help to improve perception of information, but duplication of information in figures and tables should be avoided.
The Discussion section is aimed at revealing the novelty of the research. In this section it is necessary to compare scientific articles in the chosen direction with the main study. The section should justify the similarities and differences in the works. The general conclusion from the section should reflect the novelty of the presented scientific work.
The section “Conclusions” includes brief results of the work, excluding formulas, figures, tables. The conclusions should avoid detailing the information presented, the main results should be presented briefly and informatively.
The abstract is an integral part of the article and can be written only after the Results section. This is due to the fact that the abstract plays the role of the business card of the article, which contributes to the formation of an idea of the work. It is the title, abstract, keywords, author’s data and list of references that are taken into account during the indexing of articles in international databases (Scopus, Web of Science) and help understand the specifics of the research. The abstract should include the relevance of the chosen topic; the purpose of the research and the methods that contributed to its achievement; main findings; the significance of the research and possible prospects.
Key words should be short and descriptive to form an idea of the work. Keywords should include phrases that more accurately reflect the research topic, occur more than once in the text and do not duplicate the main research topic.
The list of references is the final, but no less important element of a scientific article. The list of references should contain relevant sources of literature that reflect not only the topic of the article, but also correspond to modern aspects in a separately selected industry. Based on this, more than 80% of sources should be published in the last 5 years, which will eliminate the loss of relevance of the literature used. When writing an article, the main focus should be on materials indexed in Scopus and WoS, which will increase the chances of the article for publication.
In accordance with the technical requirements of the journals, it may be recommended to include additional data that will be specified in the requirements for authors. For example, the obligatory indication of the hypothesis in the work; division of sections into additional paragraphs; designated frames in volume (on average, an article is 4000 – 6500 words); the number of literature sources used, etc.