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Scientific Research and Communication — Organization of a Scientific Paper

Developing Communication Competencies for STEM Students

Framing the Research Process in Writing

Most scientific research articles that are presenting the results of original research will follow the following order to present their findings.
This order can be summarized by the acronym IMRAD, which stands for:
Introduction:  What was the question the research attempted to investigate? 
Methods:  How did the researchers try to answer the question? What was the process followed?
Results:  What did the researchers find?
And
Discussion:  What do the results mean?

Now that you are aware of this acronym, it should be noted that the official organization of a paper will follow the sections below:

Organization of a scientific paper diagram

Original Scientific Research Papers

When you write about your research, you should be clear and succinct, while writing in the active voice.  Some other questions to consider are expressed by the image below.  This figure is extracted from the open access paper linked below.

 

                                                    Graphic explaining the elements of a research paper introduction