Guidelines for Your Research Paper

We've had a number of comments and questions related to the presentation and the research paper. Because of this, we thought we would give some general guidance on what the paper should contain, though it doesn't necessarily need to be in this format:

• Introduction
  • background on issue
  • what controls how this sytem operates?
  • brief description of relevant prior research
  • *hypothesis to be tested* (how climate does or doesn't impact the system in question)
• Evidence for climate impacts
  • more detailed review of prior research as it relates to climate
• Data used in this new analyses
  • references and data uses in evaluating the climate impacts
• Methods
  • how did you actually analyze the data you had available?
• Results
  • what do my analyses say about the influence of climate variability/climate change on this system?
  • what caveats/disclaimers do I have to make?
  • what uncertainty is associated with your results?
• Conclusions and Policy Recommendations
  • does climate variability play a major role? a minor role?
  • what is the outlook for the future of this system?
  • are there management options which could/should be changed?
  • if so, what are they and how would you modify our existing management framework?
  • are these changes in response to the climate impact or just "smart business" irrespective of climate variability/change?

Additional notes on papers: The outline given above is not a hard and fast rule (as mentioned above). However, it may provide some structure for you as you try and put together what may be your first independent research paper. Note that some 'sections' will likely be shorter than others (use common sense here; don't spend all your time/effort talking about data/methods). Your results and conclusion sections are your opportunity to "show off" what you've learned and how this new information should affect how we think about your system. Finally, spend some time revising (and revising and revising) your paper. Make it as concise and readable as possible so that your work and results shine!