FORMATTING A PAPER ABOUT A BIOLOGICAL TOPIC

GENERAL ISSUES

A review (in other words, most term papers) usually does not have separate sections for methods and results, because it usually considers several different studies.

Instead, a good review organizes information in a hierarchy of topics (like an outline).   Methods (procedures, species, locations) are described when needed to understand results.

Your review should compare the strengths and weaknesses of the various studies you discuss, relate them to other topics (such as those discussed in class), evaluate the conclusions reached by the various studies, and draw conclusions about what we now know and what we still need to investigate.

 

SPECIFICS

Scientific papers focus on data, so include relevant data in your paper ... tables, figures, illustrations that provide the evidence for your major points.

Be sure to provide citations for all statements or passages that are not common knowledge.

If you rely on a secondary source (a paper that cites results from another paper you have not read), then cite the paper you read with a note of the original source ... for instance, "(Jones 1926 as cited by Smith 1998)".
Notice some general rules for citations in all biological papers ...
  • in the text, a citation includes only the author's name(s) and the year of the publication in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence (or passage) ... for instance, "Amazonian birds respond to songs that are never produced (Luther and Wiley 2009)".
  • at the end of the paper, a list provides full information about all the references that you have read
  • each item in this list include authors, year, title, journal, volume, and pages (book chapters are a bit different but almost any scientific paper includes an example you can follow).
  • do not include any references you have not read yourself.   All citations in the text should refer to references in your list at the end.

The format of your paper should follow the format of a biological journal.   Journals differ slightly in the format they use, so pick one of the ones you have read and follow its format.

Scientific papers rarely (almost never) include direct quotations.   Instead explain what you have read in your own words.

 

BOTTOM LINE

But most important find some topic that interests you and explain the issues, evidence, and state of our knowledge to your reader!