Why write scientific reports?

It is important to demonstrate your understanding of the science that you have studied and practised by writing about it in a scientific report. The general purpose is to give you practice at writing professional reports for your future career in science, where the ultimate aim is to publish your research findings in order to share them with the wider scientific community.

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What does a scientific report include?

Research findings are typically presented in journals and other professional reports in the IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion). The purpose of each of these sections is to answer the following questions:

Introduction - Why did you do your experiments?

Methods - Which experiments did you do and how did you do them?

Results - What happened when you did them?

Discussion - What do the results mean?

There are also the following additional sections:

A specific title
An abstract or summary
Acknowledgments (to thank those who assisted with your work)
A reference list
Appendices (optional)

Click Next to look at these sections in more detail.

Top Tips Printable Guides

Single page guides covering the essentials elements of a scientific report and scientific writing style.

Click the images to download the PDFs.

Other resources

The Guardian, in association with the Wellcome Trust commissioned a series of articles by prominent scientists about the secrets of good science writing. This page gives links to them all - Secrets of good science writing.
Writing for Science - a guide from the University of Leicester has good examples of passive/active voices and personal/impersonal writing style.

Related books and eBooks available in our university libraries

These are just a selection. Please see the library catalogue for more.

A scientific approach to scientific writing (eBook) by John Blackwell and Jan Martin
Successful scientific writing: a step-by-step guide for biological and medical sciences by Janice Matthews, John Bowen and Robert Matthews
The art of scientific writing: from student reports to professional publications in chemistry and related fields by Hans Ebel, Claus Bliefert and William Russey