<p>This is my first time entering the Siemen's competition, and I was wondering if there is a specific format I should be following for the research paper...
Are there a few old papers online that I could look at?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Are you a rising senior? I remember seeing your profile a little while ago, and I think that you're a rising junior? In that case you can't enter Siemens unless you have a team member. </p>
<p>And to answer your question, look at the format of professional papers. Ask your mentor, perhaps. If you don't have one then look at some pdfs in research journals. Generally the format is:
Abstract
Introduction/Review of Literature
Presentation of Question/Variable(s)
Hypothesis
Procedure
Data
Statistical Analysis
Conclusion/Discussion
Bibliography</p>
<p>Good memory! Yes, I am a rising junior. This is my project, my idea, etc... but I have two team members so I'll be able to enter Siemen's. And the team members actually are helping... I just tell them what to do. But I guess the distinction is made because I'm the official "captain."</p>
<p>This format is on Siemen's website:</p>
<h1>Purpose</h1>
<h1>Rationale</h1>
<h1>Pertinent scientific literature: *</h1>
<h1>Prior work *</h1>
<h1>Methodology</h1>
<h1>Results **</h1>
<h1>Discussion **</h1>
<h1>Conclusions</h1>
<h1>References</h1>
<p>I've read research papers (from journals) before, and they don't seem to follow the above guidelines. But regardless, I have a couple questions:</p>
<p>For "Pertinent scientific literature and Prior work," there is absolutely no prior work on our subject. Like nothing on google. At all. Is there another way to find articles? And if we don't find anything, should we just not include these? Or say "Nothing found..."? And what's the difference between these categories?</p>
<p>For "Results and Discussion," what exactly is the difference?</p>
<p>THANKS!</p>
<p>there's actually a pretty large distinction between results and discussion. arguably these are the two most important parts of the paper. in results, you just put your raw numbers or data. in the discussion you actually discuss the significance of those numbers and how they pertain to your purpose/rationale.</p>
<p>aaaand i find it pretty hard to believe that there's NO prior work at all. are you doing some kind of engineering project? maybe if you could give the general area of your project, i might be a little more helpful about this...</p>
<p>also, if you follow the format of the papers from the journals you've read (scientific journals like Science or Nature, right?), then your paper should contain those elements even if it's not specifically blocked like the siemens guidelines. </p>
<p>good luck! (oh and btw, it's siemens without the apostrophe :))</p>
<p>Thanks!
Yes it is an engineering project. It has to do with aerospace engineering, but I'd prefer not to go into details on the project publicly. So I PMed you :)</p>
<p>But for results and discussion, should we describe the raw data? Or list it? Or both? Because if we list the 500,000 data points, I think we may go a bit over the 17(?) page limit ;)</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>Yeah condense it in that case. Only the main, summarized data. And can you PM me your project too? =P Just wondering, I wanna see how unique this truly is if you cant find anything on google.</p>
<p>with your data, can you make graphs?</p>
<p>Yes, we can make graphs. I guess that's the best way :)</p>
<p>Though Excel is a piece of crap when it comes to making graphs with that many data points (well its not actually that bad but it is SLOWWWW)</p>