How To Review A Scientific Article?

How To Review A Scientific Article
How to Structure Your Report – If there is a formal report format, remember to follow it. This will often comprise a range of questions followed by comment sections. Try to answer all the questions. They are there because the editor felt that they are important.

Give positive feedback first. Authors are more likely to read your review if you do so. But don’t overdo it if you will be recommending rejection Briefly summarize what the paper is about and what the findings are Try to put the findings of the paper into the context of the existing literature and current knowledge Indicate the significance of the work and if it is novel or mainly confirmatory Indicate the work’s strengths, its quality and completeness State any major flaws or weaknesses and note any special considerations. For example, if previously held theories are being overlooked

Major Issues

Are there any major flaws? State what they are and what the severity of their impact is on the paper Has similar work already been published without the authors acknowledging this? Are the authors presenting findings that challenge current thinking? Is the evidence they present strong enough to prove their case? Have they cited all the relevant work that would contradict their thinking and addressed it appropriately? If major revisions are required, try to indicate clearly what they are Are there any major presentational problems? Are figures & tables, language and manuscript structure all clear enough for you to accurately assess the work? Are there any ethical issues? If you are unsure it may be better to disclose these in the confidential comments section

Minor Issues

Are there places where meaning is ambiguous? How can this be corrected? Are the correct references cited? If not, which should be cited instead/also? Are citations excessive, limited, or biased? Are there any factual, numerical or unit errors? If so, what are they? Are all tables and figures appropriate, sufficient, and correctly labelled? If not, say which are not

What are the 7 steps of the scientific method *?

The scientific method defined – The scientific method is a procedure that’s been used in science since the 17th century. It consists of systematic observation, experimenting, measuring, testing, formulating, and modifying a hypothesis.

What is an example of an observation in the scientific method?

Scientific observations can occur in a lab setting or the natural world. For example, watching an apple fall from a tree could be an observation. Noticing that fish only come to a particular part of the river in the early morning is also an observation. Smelling garbage decomposing is another example of observation.

What are the 4 criteria for a good scientific research?

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines research as systematic and creative actions taken to increase knowledge about humans, culture, and society and to apply it in new areas of interest. Scientific research is the research performed by applying systematic and constructed scientific methods to obtain, analyze, and interpret data.

Scientific research is the neutral, systematic, planned, and multiple-step process that uses previously discovered facts to advance knowledge that does not exist in the literature. It can be classified as observational or experimental with respect to data collection techniques, descriptive or analytical with respect to causality, and prospective, retrospective, or cross-sectional with respect to time ( 1 ).

All scientific investigations start with a specific research question and the formulation of a hypothesis to answer this question. Hypothesis should be clear, specific, and directly aim to answer the research question. A strong and testable hypothesis is the fundamental part of the scientific research.

The next step is testing the hypothesis using scientific method to approve or disapprove it.
Scientific method should be neutral, objective, rational, and as a result, should be able to approve or disapprove the hypothesis.
The research plan should include the procedure to obtain data and evaluate the variables.

It should ensure that analyzable data are obtained. It should also include plans on the statistical analysis to be performed. The number of subjects and controls needed to get valid statistical results should be calculated, and data should be obtained in appropriate numbers and methods.

The researcher should be continuously observing and recording all data obtained.
Data should be analyzed with the most appropriate statistical methods and be rearranged to make more sense if needed.
Unfortunately, results obtained via analyses are not always sufficiently clear.
Multiple reevaluations of data, review of the literature, and interpretation of results in light of previous research are required.

Only after the completion of these stages can a research be written and presented to the scientific society. A well-conducted and precisely written research should always be open to scientific criticism. It should also be kept in mind that research should be in line with ethical rules all through its stages.

Actually, psychiatric research has been developing rapidly, possibly even more than any other medical field, thus reflecting the utilization of new research methods and advanced treatment technologies. Nevertheless, basic research principles and ethical considerations keep their importance. Ethics are standards used to differentiate acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Adhering to ethical standards in scientific research is noteworthy because of many different reasons. First, these standards promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote truth and minimize error.

In addition, ethical standards promote values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. Many ethical standards in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data-sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration.

Many ethical standards such as policies on research misconduct and conflicts of interest are necessary to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to the public. Last but not the least, ethical standards of research promote a variety of other important moral and social values, such as social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law, and public health and safety ( 2 ).

In conclusion, for the good of science and humanity, research has the inevitable responsibility of precisely transferring the knowledge to new generations ( 3 ).
In medical research, all clinical investigations are obliged to comply with some ethical principles.
These principles could be summarized as respect to humans, respect to the society, benefit, harmlessness, autonomy, and justice.

Respect to humans indicates that all humans have the right to refuse to participate in an investigation or to withdraw their consent any time without any repercussions. Respect to society indicates that clinical research should seek answers to scientific questions using scientific methods and should benefit the society.

Benefit indicates that research outcomes are supposed to provide solutions to a health problem. Harmlessness describes all necessary precautions that are taken to protect volunteers from potential harm. Autonomy indicates that participating in research is voluntary and with freewill. Justice indicates that subject selection is based on justice and special care is taken for special groups that could be easily traumatized ( 4 ).

In psychiatric studies, if the patient is not capable of giving consent, the relatives have the right to consent on behalf of the patient. This is based on the idea of providing benefit to the patient with discovery of new treatment methods via research.

However, the relatives’ consent rights are under debate from an ethical point of view. On the other hand, research on those patients aim to directly get new knowledge about them, and it looks like an inevitable necessity. The only precaution that could be taken to overcome this ambivalence has been the scrupulous audit of the Research Ethic Committees.

Still, there are many examples that show that this method is not always able to prevent patient abuse ( 5 ). Therefore, it is difficult to claim autonomy when psychiatric patients are studied, and psychiatric patients are considered among patients to require special care.

What questions should you ask about a scientific article?

Ten simple rules for reading a scientific paper Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America Find articles by Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America Find articles by Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America Find articles by Scott Markel, Editor © 2020 Carey et al This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

There is no problem that a library card can’t solve” according to author Eleanor Brown,
This advice is sound, probably for both life and science, but even the best tool (like the library) is most effective when accompanied by instructions and a basic understanding of how and when to use it.
For many budding scientists, the first day in a new lab setting often involves a stack of papers, an email full of links to pertinent articles, or some promise of a richer understanding so long as one reads enough of the scientific literature.

However, the purpose and approach to reading a scientific article is unlike that of reading a news story, novel, or even a textbook and can initially seem unapproachable. Having good habits for reading scientific literature is key to setting oneself up for success, identifying new research questions, and filling in the gaps in one’s current understanding; developing these good habits is the first crucial step.

Advice typically centers around two main tips: read actively and read often. However, active reading, or reading with an intent to understand, is both a learned skill and a level of effort. Although there is no one best way to do this, we present 10 simple rules, relevant to novices and seasoned scientists alike, to teach our strategy for active reading based on our experience as readers and as mentors of undergraduate and graduate researchers, medical students, fellows, and early career faculty.

Rules 1–5 are big picture recommendations. Rules 6–8 relate to philosophy of reading. Rules 9–10 guide the “now what?” questions one should ask after reading and how to integrate what was learned into one’s own science. What you want to get out of an article should influence your approach to reading it.


Examples	Intention	Priorities
1	You are new to reading scientific papers.1	For each panel of each figure, focus particularly on the questions outlined in Rule 3.
2	You are entering a new field and want to learn what is important in that field.	Focus on the beginning (motivation presented in the introduction) and the end (next steps presented in the conclusion).
3	You receive automated alerts to notify you of the latest publication from a particular author whose work inspires you; you are hoping to work with them for the next phase of your research career and want to know what they are involved in.	Skim the entire work, thinking about how it fits into the author’s broader publication history.
4	You receive automated alerts to notify you of the latest publication containing a set of keywords because you want to be aware of new ways a technique is being applied or the new developments in a particular topic or research area.	Focus on what was done in the methods and the motivation for the approach taken; this is often presented in the introduction.
5	You were asked to review an article prior to publication to evaluate the quality of work or to present in a journal club.2	Same as example 1. Also, do the data support the interpretations? What alternative explanations exist? Are the data presented in a logical way so that many researchers would be able to understand? If the research is about a controversial topic, do the author(s) appropriately present the conflict and avoid letting their own biases influence the interpretation?

In written communication, the reader and the writer are equally important. Both influence the final outcome: in this case, your scientific understanding! After identifying your goal, think about the author’s goal for sharing this project. This will help you interpret the data and understand the author’s interpretation of the data.

However, this requires some understanding of who the author(s) are (e.g., what are their scientific interests?), the scientific field in which they work (e.g., what techniques are available in this field?), and how this paper fits into the author’s research (e.g., is this work building on an author’s longstanding project or controversial idea?).

This information may be hard to glean without experience and a history of reading. But don’t let this be a discouragement to starting the process; it is by the act of reading that this experience is gained! A good step toward understanding the goal of the author(s) is to ask yourself: What kind of article is this? Journals publish different types of articles, including methods, review, commentary, resources, and research articles as well as other types that are specific to a particular journal or groups of journals.

These article types have different formatting requirements and expectations for content.
Nowing the article type will help guide your evaluation of the information presented.
Is the article a methods paper, presenting a new technique? Is the article a review article, intended to summarize a field or problem? Is it a commentary, intended to take a stand on a controversy or give a big picture perspective on a problem? Is it a resource article, presenting a new tool or data set for others to use? Is it a research article, written to present new data and the authors’ interpretation of those data? The type of paper, and its intended purpose, will get you on your way to understanding the author’s goal.

When reading, ask yourself: (1) What do the author(s) want to know (motivation)? (2) What did they do (approach/methods)? (3) Why was it done that way (context within the field)? (4) What do the results show (figures and data tables)? (5) How did the author(s) interpret the results (interpretation/discussion)? (6) What should be done next? (Regarding this last question, the author(s) may provide some suggestions in the discussion, but the key is to ask yourself what you think should come next.) Each of these questions can and should be asked about the complete work as well as each table, figure, or experiment within the paper.

Early on, it can take a long time to read one article front to back, and this can be intimidating.
Break down your understanding of each section of the work with these questions to make the effort more manageable.
Scientists write original research papers primarily to present new data that may change or reinforce the collective knowledge of a field.

Therefore, the most important parts of this type of scientific paper are the data. Some people like to scrutinize the figures and tables (including legends) before reading any of the “main text”: because all of the important information should be obtained through the data.

Others prefer to read through the results section while sequentially examining the figures and tables as they are addressed in the text. There is no correct or incorrect approach: Try both to see what works best for you. The key is making sure that one understands the presented data and how it was obtained.

For each figure, work to understand each x- and y-axes, color scheme, statistical approach (if one was used), and why the particular plotting approach was used. For each table, identify what experimental groups and variables are presented. Identify what is shown and how the data were collected.

This is typically summarized in the legend or caption but often requires digging deeper into the methods: Do not be afraid to refer back to the methods section frequently to ensure a full understanding of how the presented data were obtained. Again, ask the questions in Rule 3 for each figure or panel and conclude with articulating the “take home” message.

Just like the overall intent of the article (discussed in Rule 2), the intent of each section within a research article can guide your interpretation. Some sections are intended to be written as objective descriptions of the data (i.e., the Results section), whereas other sections are intended to present the author’s interpretation of the data.

Remember though that even “objective” sections are written by and, therefore, influenced by the authors interpretations. Check out to understand the intent of each section of a research article. When reading a specific paper, you can also refer to the journal’s website to understand the formatting intentions.

The “For Authors” section of a website will have some nitty gritty information that is less relevant for the reader (like word counts) but will also summarize what the journal editors expect in each section. This will help to familiarize you with the goal of each article section.


Section	Content
Title	The “take home” message of the entire project, according to the authors.
Author list	These people made significant scientific contributions to the project. Fields differ in the standard practice for ordering authors. For example, as a general rule for biomedical sciences, the first author led the project’s implementation, and the last author was the primary supervisor to the project.
Abstract	A brief overview of the research question, approach, results, and interpretation. This is the road map or elevator pitch for an article.
Introduction	Several paragraphs (or less) to present the research question and why it is important. A newcomer to the field should get a crash course in the field from this section.
Methods	What was done? How was it done? Ideally, one should be able to recreate a project by reading the methods. In reality, the methods are often overly condensed. Sometimes greater detail is provided within a “Supplemental” section available online (see below).
Results	What was found? Paragraphs often begin with a statement like this: “To do X, we used approach Y to measure Z.” The results should be objective observations.
Figures, tables, legends, and captions	The data are presented in figures and tables. Legends and captions provide necessary information like abbreviations, summaries of methods, and clarifications.
Discussion	What do the results mean and how do they relate to previous findings in the literature? This is the perspective of the author(s) on the results and their ideas on what might be appropriate next steps. Often it may describe some (often not all!) strengths and limitations of the study: Pay attention to this self-reflection of the author(s) and consider whether you agree or would add to their ideas.
Conclusion	A brief summary of the implications of the results.
References	A list of previously published papers, datasets, or databases that were essential for the implementation of this project or interpretation of data. This section may be a valuable resource listing important papers within the field that are worth reading as well.
Supplemental material	Any additional methods, results, or information necessary to support the results or interpretations presented in the discussion.
Supplemental data	Essential datasets that are too large or cumbersome to include in the paper. Especially for papers that include “big data” (like sequencing or modeling results), this is often where the real, raw data is presented.

Published papers are not truths etched in stone. Published papers in high impact journals are not truths etched in stone. Published papers by bigwigs in the field are not truths etched in stone. Published papers that seem to agree with your own hypothesis or data are not etched in stone.

Published papers that seem to refute your hypothesis or data are not etched in stone.
Science is a never-ending work in progress, and it is essential that the reader pushes back against the author’s interpretation to test the strength of their conclusions.
Everyone has their own perspective and may interpret the same data in different ways.

Mistakes are sometimes published, but more often these apparent errors are due to other factors such as limitations of a methodology and other limits to generalizability (selection bias, unaddressed, or unappreciated confounders). When reading a paper, it is important to consider if these factors are pertinent.

Critical thinking is a tough skill to learn but ultimately boils down to evaluating data while minimizing biases. Ask yourself: Are there other, equally likely, explanations for what is observed? In addition to paying close attention to potential biases of the study or author(s), a reader should also be alert to one’s own preceding perspective (and biases).

Take time to ask oneself: Do I find this paper compelling because it affirms something I already think (or wish) is true? Or am I discounting their findings because it differs from what I expect or from my own work? The phenomenon of a self-fulfilling prophecy, or expectancy, is well studied in the psychology literature and is why many studies are conducted in a “blinded” manner,

It refers to the idea that a person may assume something to be true and their resultant behavior aligns to make it true. In other words, as humans and scientists, we often find exactly what we are looking for. A scientist may only test their hypotheses and fail to evaluate alternative hypotheses; perhaps, a scientist may not be aware of alternative, less biased ways to test her or his hypothesis that are typically used in different fields.

Individuals with different life, academic, and work experiences may think of several alternative hypotheses, all equally supported by the data. The author(s) are human too. So, whenever possible, give them the benefit of the doubt. An author may write a phrase differently than you would, forcing you to reread the sentence to understand it.

Someone in your field may neglect to cite your paper because of a reference count limit.
A figure panel may be misreferenced as Supplemental Fig 3E when it is obviously Supplemental Fig 4E.
While these things may be frustrating, none are an indication that the quality of work is poor.
Try to avoid letting these minor things influence your evaluation and interpretation of the work.

Similarly, if you intend to share your critique with others, be extra kind. An author (especially the lead author) may invest years of their time into a single paper. Hearing a kindly phrased critique can be difficult but constructive. Hearing a rude, brusque, or mean-spirited critique can be heartbreaking, especially for young scientists or those seeking to establish their place within a field and who may worry that they do not belong.

To truly understand a scientific work, you often will need to look up a term, dig into the supplemental materials, or read one or more of the cited references. This process takes time. Some advisors recommend reading an article three times: The first time, simply read without the pressure of understanding or critiquing the work.

For the second time, aim to understand the paper. For the third read through, take notes. Some people engage with a paper by printing it out and writing all over it. The reader might write question marks in the margins to mark parts (s)he wants to return to, circle unfamiliar terms (and then actually look them up!), highlight or underline important statements, and draw arrows linking figures and the corresponding interpretation in the discussion.

Not everyone needs a paper copy to engage in the reading process but, whatever your version of “printing it out” is, do it. Talking about an article in a journal club or more informal environment forces active reading and participation with the material. Studies show that teaching is one of the best ways to learn and that teachers learn the material even better as the teaching task becomes more complex ; anecdotally, such observations inspired the phrase “to teach is to learn twice.” Beyond formal settings such as journal clubs, lab meetings, and academic classes, discuss papers with your peers, mentors, and colleagues in person or electronically.

Twitter and other social media platforms have become excellent resources for discussing papers with other scientists, the public or your nonscientist friends, or even the paper’s author(s). Describing a paper can be done at multiple levels and your description can contain all of the scientific details, only the big picture summary, or perhaps the implications for the average person in your community.

All of these descriptions will solidify your understanding, while highlighting gaps in your knowledge and informing those around you.
One approach we like to use for communicating how we build on the scientific literature is by starting research presentations with an image depicting a wall of Lego bricks.

Each brick is labeled with the reference for a paper, and the wall highlights the body of literature on which the work is built. We describe the work and conclusions of each paper represented by a labeled brick and discuss each brick and the wall as a whole.

The top brick on the wall is left blank: We aspire to build on this work and label this brick with our own work. We then delve into our own research, discoveries, and the conclusions it inspires. We finish our presentations with the image of the Legos and summarize our presentation on that empty brick.

Whether you are reading an article to understand a new topic area or to move a research project forward, effective learning requires that you integrate knowledge from multiple sources (“click” those Lego bricks together) and build upwards. Leveraging published work will enable you to build a stronger and taller structure.

The first row of bricks is more stable once a second row is assembled on top of it and so on and so forth.
Moreover, the Lego construction will become taller and larger if you build upon the work of others, rather than using only your own bricks.
Build on the article you read by thinking about how it connects to ideas described in other papers and within own work, implementing a technique in your own research, or attempting to challenge or support the hypothesis of the author(s) with a more extensive literature review.

Integrate the techniques and scientific conclusions learned from an article into your own research or perspective in the classroom or research lab. You may find that this process strengthens your understanding, leads you toward new and unexpected interests or research questions, or returns you back to the original article with new questions and critiques of the work.

All of these experiences are part of the “active reading”: process and are signs of a successful reading experience. In summary, practice these rules to learn how to read a scientific article, keeping in mind that this process will get easier (and faster) with experience. We are firm believers that an hour in the library will save a week at the bench; this diligent practice will ultimately make you both a more knowledgeable and productive scientist.

As you develop the skills to read an article, try to also foster good reading and learning habits for yourself (recommendations here: and, respectively) and in others. Good luck and happy reading! Thank you to the mentors, teachers, and students who have shaped our thoughts on reading, learning, and what science is all about.

MAC was supported by the PhRMA Foundation’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of Virginia’s Engineering-in-Medicine seed grant, and KLS was supported by the NIH T32 Global Biothreats Training Program at the University of Virginia (AI055432).
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.1.

Brown E. The Weird Sisters,G.P. Putnam’s Sons; 2011.2. Kirsch I. Response expectancy theory and application: A decennial review, Appl Prev Psychol,1997. March 1; 6 ( 2 ):69–79.3. Karanicolas PJ, Farrokhyar F, Bhandari M. Practical tips for surgical research: blinding: who, what, when, why, how? Can J Surg,2010.

October; 53 ( 5 ):345–8.4. Fiorella L, Mayer RE. The relative benefits of learning by teaching and teaching expectancy, Contemp Educ Psychol,2013. October 1; 38 ( 4 ):281–8.5. Koh AWL, Lee SC, Lim SWH. The learning benefits of teaching: A retrieval practice hypothesis, Appl Cogn Psychol,2018. May 15; 32 ( 3 ):401–10.6.

Méndez M. Ten simple rules for developing good reading habits during graduate school and beyond, PLoS Comput Biol,2018. October; 14 ( 10 ):e1006467 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006467 7. Erren TC, Slanger TE, Groß JV, Bourne PE, Cullen P. Ten simple rules for lifelong learning, according to Hamming,

What are the six 6 essential parts of the research paper?

Major Sections of a Research Paper in APA Style – A complete research paper in APA style that is reporting on experimental research will typically contain a Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References sections.1 Many will also contain Figures and Tables and some will have an Appendix or Appendices.

What is the 5 step order to the scientific method?

The five steps of the scientific method include 1) defining the problem 2) making observations, 3) forming a hypothesis, 4) conducting an experiment and 5) drawing conclusions.

Why is it important to follow the steps of scientific method?

What Is the Scientific Method? Medically Reviewed by on April 27, 2022 The scientific method is a strategy used to try and explain natural science rationally by obtaining and evaluating data. It involves the formulation of hypotheses and application to come up with logical explanations.

When using the scientific method, scientists follow a set of scientific method steps.
The idea of the scientific method began in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Francis Bacon and René Descartes formalized the scientific method.
The two philosophers argued that research shouldn’t be guided by preconceived metaphysical ideas of how reality works.

They supported the use of inductive reasoning to formulate hypotheses and gain a new understanding of reality. The scientific method is a step-by-step problem-solving process. These steps include:

Observation. This involves observing and gathering information from a certain aspect of the natural world.
Asking a question. Here, you form relevant and testable questions based on your observations.
Forming a hypothesis. This involves proposing an explanation of how or why the natural phenomenon is happening. It can be an assumption rather than a fact.
Prediction. This is what you think will happen based on your hypothesis.
Testing the prediction. With testing, you carry out an experiment to test how accurate your prediction is.
Iteration. This involves looking back on the whole process and the results you achieved to make new hypotheses or predictions.

You can apply the scientific method to practical problems that you face in your daily life. Here is an example: Let’s say you put slices of bread in your toaster, you press the button, but nothing happens. Your toaster fails to toast the bread.

Observation
The observation you make from this problem is that your toaster won’t toast.
Asking a question
The question, in this case, is, “Why isn’t my toaster working?”
Forming a hypothesis

The hypothesis should be a potential explanation or answer to the question. It should also be testable in some way and doesn’t necessarily have to be right. So in this case, let’s say your hypothesis is that the power outlet is broken.

Prediction
Based on your hypothesis that the outlet might be broken, you predict that if you switch to another power outlet, your toaster will work and toast your bread.
Testing the prediction

Testing involves experimenting to see if your prediction is right. In this case, you switch power outlets, plug in your toaster, and see if it toasts. If that works and the toaster toasts your bread, then your hypothesis may be correct or “supported.” If the toaster doesn’t work, then your hypothesis may be wrong or “not supported.” Basically, the results of your experiment either support or oppose your hypothesis and prediction.

You should note that just because the test supports your hypothesis, it’s not conclusive proof that the hypothesis is correct.
It just means that it’s likely to be correct.
But if the test results oppose your hypothesis, the hypothesis is most likely to be incorrect.
When testing a prediction, always consider the possibility of a flaw that may cause contradictory results.

If that’s the case, you need to do away with your hypothesis and make a new one. Iteration Here, you reflect on your results and decide on your next step. If the test results supported your hypothesis — your toaster worked — you may decide to do further tests to confirm it or revise it.

Describing how nature works, It’s hard to accurately describe how nature works because there may be limited observations, which can lead to wrong conclusions. In most cases, all you can do is make assumptions. You can use the scientific method to disprove assumptions about the natural world by identifying flaws in the reasoning.
, Since scientists use the scientific method when they perform experiments, you might be able to replicate research if you have the same equipment and follow the same procedures.
, Using the scientific method may help you develop critical thinking in your daily life because you get used to logically finding answers. Without logical reasoning, you might be more likely to have a distorted perspective. Having a distorted perspective can make you draw inaccurate conclusions.

The scientific method is important because:

It’s a standardized approach. The steps used in the scientific method are systematic, so scientists conduct experiments in a standardized manner. This means that their experiments can become more widespread.
It eliminates bias. Bias is the tendency to favor your own point of view over those of others. You can eliminate bias in experiments with the help of a scientific approach because experiments require objectivity. The scientific method requires you to carefully record any experimental detail so that it can be mirrored and publicized. To accomplish this, the results of your experiment should be neutral. The scientific method comes in handy when an organization’s or scientist’s affiliations may lead to bias.
It helps create theories. Theories are general principles obtained from facts that can be used to explain observations and predict future events. When a hypothesis is tested and proven to be right, it is converted into a theory — like Einstein’s theory of relativity.
It can solve problems. With the knowledge of the scientific method, you may be able to develop important problem-solving skills. For example, if you’re trying to solve a problem, you can isolate it by considering or eliminating irrelevant factors using the scientific method. In addition, it can help you in making continuous changes to your solutions and retesting them.
It creates predictive power. A hypothesis that is proven to be correct raises the likelihood of an event occurring. This means that you can use the scientific method to predict whether or not an event will occur again in the future.

What is the usual sequence of steps in the scientific method?

Hence, we conclude that the correct sequence of scientific investigation is observation – hypothesis – experimentation – analysis – conclusion. CTET Notification 2023 has been released. The applications for CTET July 2023 can be submitted between 27th April 2023 to 26th May 2023.