Kin 304 Writing Assignment: Writing the results section of a refereed journal paper

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Kin 304 Writing AssignmentWriting the results
section of a refereed journal paper
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Assignment

• In lab this week we will carry out all the
  analysis necessary for the assignment.
• You must take these results and write them up in
  the form of the Results section of a refereed
  journal article.
• Requirements
• Title page Title, Name, Student number
• Text of the results section
• Tables and Figures each on separate pages after
  text (not in-line with text) with captions (in
  bold font - tables at top, figures at bottom).

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Components of the Results Section

• Report the results without discussion. It is not
  enough just to include figures, you must describe
  the results.
• No need to justify form of analysis this was
  done in the Methods section.
• Use tables and/or charts to illustrate the
  results.
• Do not repeat the same information in both a
  chart and a table Space is at a premium.
• Do not repeat all of a table in the text.

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Components of the Results Section

• Always start with a table describing the sample.
• Include Means, Standard Deviations and sample
  sizes (Standard Errors of Means not necessary).
• Statistical analysis can often be indicated on
  this table.
• Then follow with tables or figures to illustrate
  the hypothesis testing

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Tables

• Tables should be able to stand alone.
• Table captions must give enough detail to stand
  alone. Not just
• Sample Descriptives
• If variable name abbreviations are used, the full
  name must be in a table footnote, or the table
  caption.

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Tables

• It is unnecessary and distracting to report
  digits if they have little scientific relevance.
• Your device can measure blood pressure to within
  0.01 mmHg and your sample mean is 115.73 mmHg.
  How do you report the sample mean?
• As 115.73, as 115.7, or as 116 mmHg?
• Does a resolution smaller than 1 mmHg really
  matter?
• In contrast, a resolution to 0.001 units is
  essential for variables like pH or body density.

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Density converted to Body Fat using Siri
Equation Body Fat ((4.95/Density)-4.5)100
Density gm/ml Body Fat Body Fat
1.030 30.58252427 30.6
1.035 28.26086957 28.3
1.040 25.96153846 26.0
1.045 23.68421053 23.7
1.050 21.42857143 21.4
1.055 19.1943128 19.2
1.060 16.98113208 17.0
1.065 14.78873239 14.8
1.070 12.61682243 12.6
1.075 10.46511628 10.5
1.080 8.333333333 8.3
1.085 6.221198157 6.2
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Reporting the results of a t-test

• Men are significantly (plt0.05) bigger than women
  in skinfold-adjusted forearm girth and grip
  strength

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Means and Standard Deviations of
Skinfold-adjusted Arm Girth and Maximum Right
Hand Grip Strength in Male (N20) and Female
(N23) University Students
Sex Mean S.D. Sig
Skinfold-adjusted Arm Girth Male 25.8 2.0
Female 21.4 1.5
Maximum Right Hand Grip Strength Male 52.3 7.8
Female 35.3 6.9
sig. diff. between male and female means,
independent t-test d.f.41, plt0.05
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• Often no need to report statistical results in a
  table, just include description in the text
• In a two-way Analysis of Variance with VO2max as
  the dependent variable, both Age Group and Sex
  were found to be statistically significant
  factors (Plt0.05)

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Charts

• Charts should be able to stand alone. Captions
  should provide enough detail.
• Do not refer to abbreviations only found in text.
  Either provide key in caption or footnote to
  table.
• Do not bunch up data in one corner of chart.
• Use Black and white only. Distinguish different
  data points for group using different shapes

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• Figure 1 Plot of maximum grip strength versus
  skinfold-adjusted Forearm girth, showing
  correlation coefficients between variables for
  men (?) and women (?) separately and men and
  women combined (? ?)

Figure should be able to stand alone with its
caption. Must be in black and white. But make
sure different symbols can still be distinguished