Research articles in the social and hard sciences

Identifying academic conventions in the fields of medicine and education

Sampiere, Collado and Lucio (1998) explain that after the research work finishes and results are ordered, organized and evaluated, findings need to be communicated through a report which will take different forms which may vary from books to audiovisual material like DVDs. “It is then important to define the type of report to be adopted which will rely on (a) the reasons why the research work emerged, (b) the audience the research is directed to, and (c) the context where it will be introduced” (Sampiere, Collado & Lucio, 1998, p. 502).  A medical article and an educational research work have been drawn from scientific journals in different academic fields. Both studies bear distinctive characteristics as regards citation styles and handling of results findings albeit resemblances in report division.

The research article (RA) in the field of medicine is concerned with the benefits of living in farming environments by being exposed to a great variety of microorganisms which have proved to protect children from asthma. While the educational article is a descriptive study about the children's perception of their schools as related to their long-term development. Taking into account the results, discussions and conclusions sections in RAs, these two studies have developed their work through different structures. According to Swales (1990), the diverse parts of a research document may be presented in isolation or integrated together, as in the case of the results and discussions sections. For some authors the former may stand separated from the latter, while for other writers the results section needs to be blended with the discussions one depending on the kind of research.

Considering that the result section introduces the main findings of the research (Swales, 1990), it is possible to recognize the outcomes in both works by analyzing the information that the authors have presented by means of academic conventions. Not only has data information been developed along the text format, but also through tables and figures, since this kind of resources provides the authors with the possibility of presenting a great amount of gathered information in a small space (American Psychological Association, 2007).  In the medical study, the researcher makes reference to the numbered figures and tables that appear on separate pages of the paper, while the tables in the educational field stand between paragraphs. Additionally, both research articles make use of past tenses for the collected data explanation, so as to clearly inform the audience about their findings.

It should be noticed that DeMarie (2010) has included tables in order to supplement information. Still, the author has centered but not italicized headings. Yet, general notes “[which] refer to some aspect of the entire table” and specific notes are used to clarify meaning of “a particular column or row” (APA, 2007, p. 82).  The medicine article also misses to italicize table headings neither it locates them flush right but centered. As far as figures are referred to, both convey with APA requirements in reference to titles in lower and uppercase form as well as figure and number italicized. Especially noteworthy is the use of graphs to establish comparison of variables between the children on farms: Control group and the children on rural areas: Reference group (Ege, Mayer, Normand, Genuneit, Cookson, Phil, Fahrlander, Heederik, Piarroux & Mutius, 2011).

Regarding format, not only the discussion but also the conclusion sections are hold together in Ege et al. (2011) where the authors analyze the outcomes in the light of their findings. Similarly to the educational article, the study in the field of medicine has covered the analysis of data gathered in the results section. Furthermore, these studies seem to answer the hypotheses made (Sampiere, Fernandez-Collado & Lucio, 1998).  DeMarie (2010) outlines the findings as presented in the research questions. Ege et al. (2011) employ the same mechanism in order to discard the notion that microbial exposure on farms is related to childhood asthma. However, the latter has made use of an unnecessary expression for signaling the concluding paragraph which is not commonly employed in serious academic writing (APA, 2007).

DeMarie (2010) incorporates a discussion section, further enhanced by a recommendation section and a concluding paragraph. Except for the fact that these three are written in isolation, it would be in accordance with Sampiere, Collado and Lucio’s proposal (2008). However, the author appears to have chosen a clear-cut division so that the audience is able to trace the line of thought pursued. The discussion part clearly states the key issues found in the study as well as a comparative analysis of the groups analyzed. It can be noticed the use of process-paragraphs and past tenses.  Further still, the author recommends applying auto-photography, interviews and picture selection as methods of information gathering so that the researcher may get a fairly complete picture of what a school is like through children’s eyes (DeMarie, 2010).  A conclusion is then reached, and the author appears to acknowledge some enlightening results on the understanding children might have of their schools from a “bottom-up perspective” (Katz, 1993; as cited in DeMarie, 2010, Conclusion section, para. 1).

Using an author-date citation style, authors should list all works cited in the text alphabetically at the end of the article. Bearing in mind APA (2010) recommendations for reference list citations, rules for documenting sources must not be ignored, such as autho(s), date of publication, title of the source, place of publication, publisher and any other relevant data. However, the educational study uses a modified editorial style based on the fourth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, since it differs from the APA style principally in the use of authors' names as they appear in the cited articles rather than the use of only first initials. By the same token, the medical article does not cope with APA style requirements for dealing with reference lists, since authors entries have not been order alphabetically, but numerically regarding the order in which each source has been cited in the body of the paper. It can be noticed, yet, that reference entries are double-spaced, and authors are named if the number does not exceed six. Otherwise, the three first are named followed by et al.

Although writers are free to choose between presenting isolated and blend results, discussions as well as conclusions sections due to their own purposes, it is important to accept that linguistic characteristics for research articles presentations should be considered as necessary features regarding academic conventions. For that reason, it could be possible to believe that researchers should be capable of performing academic writing skills when dealing with research studies. Identifying a problem, summarizing data, stating and evaluating solutions as well as enhancing the reader’s reflection through convincing arguments seem to be valuable processes for coping with research documentations. All in all, the outlined sections should provide the reader with explanations, assumptions, interpretations, assessment as well as possible alternatives by means of an appropriate use of academic features and patterns for researching investigations.

References

American Psychological Association (2007). Concise rules of APA style. Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual (6^th ed.). Washington, DC. 

Edge, M., Mayer, M., Normand, A.C., Genuneit, J., Cookson, W., Phil, D., & Mutius, E.V. (2011).

Exposure to environmental microorganisms and childhood asthma. The New England Journal of Medicine, 364 (8), 701-709. Retrieved May 2011, from http:// www.nejm.com.org

DeMarie, D. (2001). Successful versus unsuccessful schools through the eyes of children: the use of interviews, autophotography, and picture. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 12 (2). Retrieved May 2011, from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v12n2/demarie.html

Hernández Sampieri, R., Fernández-Collado, C., & Lucio, B.P. (2008). Metodología de la Investigación (4th ed.). México: McGraw-Hill.

Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. (Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press