On the structure of a scientific article

This spring, I participated in the “Navigation and Motion Control” conference of young scientists, conducted by the St. Petersburg Research Institute Elektropribor. In addition to its core projects, the company works a lot with young scientists: it holds conferences, organizes workshops and seminars on Ladoga, etc. So at the conference a brochure was issued in which recommendations were given on writing scientific articles. In this post I want to publish them. In the beginning I thought of adding my own five kopecks, but then I realized that they were not really needed.

We list the main components of the text of a scientific publication and briefly describe the requirements for them.

Job title. When choosing a name, one should strive to ensure that it fully reflects the main idea, to which the scientific publication itself is devoted. It should also be borne in mind that the number of words in the title should not exceed 10-12. Try to suggest such a name so that it does not have to be changed after the first reading by the reviewer or editor.
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Annotation. Each work should contain an abstract in which two or three sentences (about 50-70 words) contain the main content of the report or article. It should be borne in mind that the abstract is an independent part of the text of a scientific publication, which may exist separately from it. In this regard, do not be afraid to introduce the repetition of those provisions that are set out in the annotation. You need to be afraid of the opposite situation, in which the annotation is not consistent in meaning with the title, content or the final section. This lack is inherent in many works.

Introduction It summarizes the essence of the problem, the existing ways to solve it and the approach to which the proposed work is devoted. It is very important to emphasize the new, which gives it an original character.
The introduction is recommended to end with the phrase: "The proposed work is dedicated to ..." or "This paper is considered." At the same time, one should strive to ensure that this phrase logically follows from the text preceding it. From this kind of concluding phrase it becomes clear to the reader what the proposed work will actually be devoted to.
If after reading the introduction, the reader has a question: What exactly is the proposed work devoted to? - the introduction must be redone.

Formulation of the problem. A very important component of the text is a clear statement of the problem being solved. The typical mistake of many authors is that the statement of the problem is not clearly stated, as if by the way, and you have to get to the heart of the problem by referring to the literature, if any, or by repeatedly reading the text. We note that the latter is forced to do, because of the specifics of its work, only a scientific editor, but not a potential reader. As a result, such a publication does not find a response in the scientific community. Often, the authors do not pay due attention to this issue, believing that the specialist understands everything without any explanation. This is a delusion, because in rare cases, the article gets to the reader who deals with the same problem and has the same experience as the author. It is necessary to strive to ensure that the formulation of the problem would be understandable to the widest possible circle of readers. Do not narrow your audience in advance; it may turn out that in the “neighboring” region there are problems similar in formulation and the proposed methods can be used there. When writing a work, it is not worthwhile to confuse the reader once again when presenting essentially simple things, using special terminology, especially where it is not required. Feel free to blame the author for stating “trivial” things. Even just a task is often an original, noteworthy solution.
In terms of methodology, when a detailed description of a non-trivial task is required, it is advisable to single out a special section called Task Statement, which clearly defines the purpose of the work, formulates the problem and specifies the conditions under which it is intended to be solved. It is recommended to enter such a section not always, but only in cases when a detailed description of the task is really required. As a rule, such a need arises in the presentation of problems that have a difficult mathematical solution. In the same cases where the problem being solved is in principle understandable, its formulation can be given in the introduction.

Subsections. In preparation for the publication of a report or article, it is strongly recommended, in addition to the introduction, to also highlight subsections in them, giving them appropriate headings. The presence of such subsections will not only facilitate the reader’s perception of the material, but will also allow the author himself to more clearly understand and clearly state the results obtained by him.

Conclusion Here it is advisable to list and, if possible, comment on the main results obtained, it is also useful to indicate the directions of the proposed further research. Without fear of repetition, I note once again that upon completion of work it is strongly recommended to check the consistency of the name, annotation, introduction and conclusion. It is from this point that an experienced reviewer or editor usually begins to get familiar with the text. If there is no such coincidence, then the author has not carefully read his text and can safely be given back for revision.