Scientific Papers and Lab Reports: Writing a Lab Report

Originally created for Agricultural Sciences courses, this guide will help you identify the parts of a scientific paper, lab reports, and some citing guidelines.

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Writing a Lab Report

Lab reports are similar to scientific papers and might be the first step you take! There are eight sections to a lab report. Each are described below with tips. Thank you to Jennifer Simms of the Indiana University Bloomington Library, Renee Romero of the University of California, Los Angeles Library, and the book Writing in the Biological Sciences for providing source material!

Want to see a successful lab report? Check out this Sample Lab Report from Penn State University Park.

Title

Titles should be succinct, clear, and complete.

• Good titles summarize the main topic in 10-15 words.
  • Good title: Effect of testosterone and estradiol on the growth and morphology of rat epithelial tumor cells.
  • Not great title: Effects of hormones on tumor cells.

  Materials and Methods

  The Materials and Methods describes the approach you took to conduct your experiment. A trained scientist should be able to repeat your experiment based on the information you provide. This section should include the following elements:

  • materials like drugs, culture media, buffers, gases, or apparatus used
  • subjects like patients, experimental materials, animals, microorganisms, plants
  • design including independent and dependent variables, experimental and control groups
  • procedures - the what, how, and why of your experiment

  Results

  Results presents the results of your experiments. While this section describes experiment results in text, it can include:

  • data in the form of charts, graphs, or tables known as figures
    • Figures must be labeled numerically by type. Ex. Table 1, Table 2; Figure 1, Figure 2

    Abstract

    Abstracts contain the following elements: question/purpose, experimental approach, results, conclusion answer/implication, may contain short background and significance.

    • Typically 50 to 150 words long.
    • A mini version of the report - the highlights.

    Discussion

    The Discussion section is the most important part of the scientific paper. Here, the researcher discloses what works, what did not work, and other analysis of the experiment and its findings. The Discussion section is typically organized as follows:

    • First paragraph:
      • interpretation/answer based on key findings
      • supporting evidence
      • secondary results
      • limitations of the study
      • unexpected findings
      • may include comparisons/constrasts to previous studies and/or hypotheses/models
      • summary
      • significance/implication of the experiment to the scientific field

      Stumped about what to write? Consider the following guiding questions:

      • what do the results indicate?
      • what is the significance of the results?
      • are there gaps in the knowledge?
      • any new questions raised?
      • what are the strengths/weaknesses of my experiment?

      When it doubt, write it out! And ask for help :)