CHAPTER 4
What Is a Scientific Paper?
Without publication, science is dead.
—Gerard Piel
DEFINITION OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER
A scientific paper is a written and published report describing original
research results. That short definition must be qualified, however, by noting
that a scientific paper must be written in a certain way, as defined by
tradition, editorial practice, scientific ethics, and the interplay of printing and
publishing procedures.
To properly define "scientific paper," we must define the mechanism
that creates a scientific paper, namely, valid (i.e., primary)
publication. Abstracts, theses, conference reports, and many other types
of literature are published, but such publications do not normally meet the
test of valid publication. Further, even if a scientific paper meets all the other
tests (discussed in this chapter), it is not validly published if it is published in
the wrong place. That is, a relatively poor research report, but one that meets
the tests, is validly published if accepted and published in the right place (a
primary journal or other primary publication);
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What Is a Scientific Paper? 19
a superbly prepared research report is not validly published if published in
the wrong place. Most of the government literature and conference literature,
as well as institutional bulletins and other ephemeral publications, do not
qualify as primary literature.
Many people have struggled with the definition of primary publication
(valid publication), from which is derived the definition of a scientific paper.
The Council of Biology Editors (CBE), now the Council of Science Editors
(CSE), arrived at the following definition (Council of Biology Editors, 1968):
An acceptable primary scientific publication must be the first disclosure
containing sufficient information to enable peers (1) to assess observations,
(2) to repeat experiments, and (3) to evaluate intellectual processes;
moreove