Professors and supervisors generally request scientific articles at the university, but they do not always bother to explain what the basic characteristics of a scientific paper are. With this in mind, I tried to summarize the main characteristics of scientific research in what follows. Keep in mind that to do scientific work, you must first have a scientific attitude.
To perform a scientific task that follows the scientific process, it is necessary to verify that your essay includes the following elements.
1. Objectivity. Scientific knowledge is based on facts and seeks to describe and analyze them objectively, regardless of emotional considerations or preconceived ideas. Empirical data are the raw material for theoretical formulations.
2. Theorizing. In addition to describing the facts, science rationalizes the observations. The researcher formulates hypotheses and systems of hypotheses, that is, theories. In other words, the real source of discoveries is not the raw facts, but the theorizing of hypotheses in the form of theories.
3. Analyze. Scientific research addresses well-defined or partial problems, seeking partial solutions. It seeks to unfold an entire complex into its simplest components. Therefore, science begins with partial problems.
4. Specialization. The analysis of partial and delimited problems leads to specialization. Although there is unity in the scientific method, the multiplicity of techniques has resulted in the relative independence of the various sectors.
5. Precision. Science seeks clarity and precision. Clarity and precision are revealed in the formulation of problems and in the definition of concepts.
6. Communicability. The language of science, precise and rigorous, has as its main objective to inform. It is the duty of every scientist to communicate the results of his research to the world of science so that they can be verified, confirmed or refuted (if necessary). This is so important that there are specific rules for scientific discourse.
7. Verifiability. This means that hypotheses and theories must be testable. It is necessary to check if they have a greater or lesser degree of reliability. The proof is empirical and observable. In other words, confirmation of the hypothesis involves conducting experiments.
8. Method. Scientific research is planned to be part of an already accumulated knowledge. Science is subject to its methods but can adapt and refine them.
9. Systematization. The goal of science is to create a system of ideas that are logically related to each other.
10. Generalization. Particular statements are included in broad outlines, allowing for a higher degree of generalization. Particular facts are studied in view of general hypotheses or theories. The scientist who works in his laboratory seeks to reach the universals that his logical reasons discover in the complex structure of the particular facts of nature.
