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For Authors

Structure of an Academic Article

An academic article has a clear structure and, as a rule, consists of the following parts:

1.  UDC index
2. Author information
3. Title (heading) (10–12 words)
4. Abstract
5. Keywords (4–8 words)
6. Contact information
7. Introduction
8. Literature review
9. Main body (methods, results)
10. Conclusions and prospects for further research
11. References (at least 10)
12. Author information in Russian
13. Title in Russian
14. Abstract in Russian
15. Keywords in Russian

Below are some important aspects of and requirements for these constituent elements.

Title

The main requirements for an article title are brevity and clarity. The maximum length of a title is 10–12 words. A title should:

—  be informative,
—  be expressive,
—  attract readers’ attention,
—  be written in good academic language,
—  reflect the content (key subject) of the article and make it clear for the reader what issues are discussed there,
—  contain some of the keywords reflecting the essence of the article (preferable, at the beginning of the title).

Only standard abbreviations are allowed in the title.

Abstract

An abstract is an independent from the article source of information. It is written after the article has been finished. It describes the main subject, problem, object, aims of the study and its results. An abstract should indicate what comprises the novelty of this paper compared to other works on the topic. The recommended volume is 200–250 words.

An abstract performs the following functions:

—  Allows one to determine the main content of the paper and its relevance in order to decide whether one should read the entire article;
—  Provides information about the article and eliminates the need to read its full text if the article is of little interest to the reader;
—  Is used in information systems, including automated ones, for document and information retrieval.

Abstracts should be written according to international standards and include the following:

1. introduction to the topic;
2. purpose of the study;
3. description of the scholarly and practical significance of the work;
4. description of the methodology;
5. key results and conclusions of the study;
6. importance of the study (what contribution this work has made to the relevant field of knowledge);
7. practical importance of the results of the study.

An abstract should neither repeat the text of the article (you should not copy sentences from the article) nor the title. It should not contain numbers or tables or refer to footnotes.

An abstract presents the essential facts of the study; it should only contain the material mentioned in the article.

The subject, topic, and purpose of the study are indicated if they are not clear from the title of the article. It can be useful to describe the method or methodology of the study if they present some novelty or interest in terms of this work.

The results of the study should be described highly accurately and informatively. Key theoretical and experimental results, actual data, discovered relationships and regularities are presented. Preference should be given to new results, important discoveries and conclusions refuting the existing theories, as well as to data of practical importance.

Conclusions can be accompanied by recommendations, estimates, suggestions and hypotheses described in the article.

The information contained in the title of the article should not be repeated in the abstract.

The authors should use syntactic constructions typical of the academic language and avoid complex grammatical constructions. An abstract should be concise and clear, without excessive opening words or general statements.

Keywords

Keywords include words and phrases expressing the main semantic content of an article, serving as a guide for the reader and used in searching for articles in electronic databases. Thus, to make the search easier, words in general use should be avoided. Keywords, between 4 and 8, are placed after the abstract. One keyword should stand for one concept, for example: ethnicity, hemodynamics, standard deviation.

Introduction

An introduction is intended to provide background information on the topic of the article and explain the purpose of the research. First of all, the author should state the general topic of the study. Further, the theoretical and practical significance of the work is stated and the most authoritative and accessible to the reader publications on the topic are described. In the introduction, the author also identifies problems which had not been solved in previous studies and which this article is intended to solve.

An introduction must clearly state:

— the aim and object of the author’s research. A study should have a certain idea, a central statement which it dwells upon. To formulate an aim, one has to answer the question: “What do I want to create as a result of the research?” This result can be a new methodology, classification, algorithm, structure, a new version of the existing technology, a learner’s guide, etc. The purpose is usually formulated with the help of the following verbs: reveal, identify, form, prove, verify, determine, etc. The object is the material of the study.

— the relevance and novelty. The relevance of the topic is the degree of its importance today under current circumstances. It is the ability of the results to be used to solve quite significant theoretical and practical problems. Novelty is what distinguishes the result of this work from the results obtained by other authors.

— initial hypotheses, if they exist.

It is in this part of the paper that the reader is introduced to the structure of the article, if necessary.

Having written an introduction, the author should check it for the following key points:

— Are the aims, object and initial hypotheses, if any, clearly formulated?
— Are there any contradictions?
— Are the relevance and novelty of the study indicated?

Literature review

Literature review is the theoretical core of the research. Its purpose is to study and evaluate the existing works on the topic. It is preferable not simply to enumerate previous studies, but make a critical review and a summary of their key standpoints.

Main body

Methodology

This section describes the order in which the research was performed and justifies the choice of the methods used. It should enable the reader to assess the correctness of this choice, as well as the reliability and validity of the results obtained. The idea is that any other scholar with sufficient skills should be able to reproduce the research, based on the methods stated. Referring to literary sources without describing the essence of the method is possible only if it is a standard method.

Results

This part of the article presents the author’s systematized analytical material. The results of the research should be described in sufficient detail so that the reader can trace its stages and assess the validity of the author’s conclusions. This is the largest part of an academic article, its main section, aiming to prove the working hypothesis (hypothesis) by means of analysis, generalization and explanation of the data. The results are, if necessary, illustrated by tables, diagrams and drawings that represent the original material or evidence in a contracted form. It is important that the illustrated information does not duplicate the text. The authors are encouraged to compare the results presented in the article with earlier works in this field both by the author him/herself and by other scholars. Such a comparison will further underline the novelty of the study and make it more unbiased.

Depending on the level of knowledge – theoretical or empirical – there are singled out theoretical and empirical articles. Theoretical articles include the results of studies performed with the help of such methods of cognition as abstraction, synthesis, analysis, induction, deduction, formalization, idealization, and modelling. If an article is of theoretical nature, in most cases it follows this pattern: first, the author introduces key points and ideas that will later be analysed, and then conclusions will be made. Empirical articles, while using a number of theoretical methods, are mainly based on practical methods of measurement, observation, experiment, etc.

The results of the study should be summarized, but at the same time contain enough information to evaluate the conclusions made. It should also be clear why exactly this data was chosen for the analysis.

Conclusions

INDEXED IN:      

OTHER NArFU JOURNALS: 

Journal of Medical and Biological
Research

Forest Journal 
 

Arctic and North