STP Scientific Writing 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In statistical reporting, which must always accompany a mean value?
- The sample size only
- A measure of variability such as SD or SEM (Correct answer)
- The p-value
- The confidence interval alone
Correct answer: A measure of variability such as SD or SEM
A mean reported alone is meaningless without a measure of spread; SD (standard deviation) or SEM (standard error of the mean) must be included.
Question 2: What is the role of the Introduction in a scientific paper?
- Present all study data
- Establish background, identify the knowledge gap, and state the study aim (Correct answer)
- Describe the statistical analysis plan
- Summarize the discussion findings
Correct answer: Establish background, identify the knowledge gap, and state the study aim
The Introduction moves from broad context to a specific gap in knowledge, concluding with the study's objective or hypothesis.
Question 3: Which of the following should NOT appear in a Results section?
- Descriptive statistics
- Interpretation of what the results mean (Correct answer)
- P-values from statistical tests
- Figures and tables
Correct answer: Interpretation of what the results mean
Interpretation and discussion of results belong in the Discussion section; the Results section only presents data objectively.
Question 4: What is 'HARKing' in the context of scientific writing?
- Highlighting Anomalous Results and Key findings
- Hypothesizing After Results are Known (Correct answer)
- Hiding Ambiguous Results from Key reviewers
- Having Adequate Reporting of Key statistics
Correct answer: Hypothesizing After Results are Known
HARKing occurs when researchers present post-hoc hypotheses as if they were pre-specified, inflating false-positive rates and distorting the scientific record.
Question 5: When writing for an international scientific audience, which English variety is acceptable in US-based STP submissions?
- Only British English
- Only American English
- Either, but must be consistent throughout (Correct answer)
- Whichever the first author prefers, mixed is fine
Correct answer: Either, but must be consistent throughout
Either American or British English is acceptable in international science, but a single variety must be used consistently throughout the manuscript.
Question 6: A 95% confidence interval for a treatment effect is 1.2–3.4. What does this mean?
- There is a 95% probability the true effect is between 1.2 and 3.4
- If the study were repeated, 95% of such intervals would contain the true population parameter (Correct answer)
- The result is statistically significant at p < 0.05 only
- The treatment works in 95% of patients
Correct answer: If the study were repeated, 95% of such intervals would contain the true population parameter
A 95% CI means that if the experiment were repeated many times, 95% of the calculated intervals would contain the true population parameter.
Question 7: Which principle guides authorship order convention in most biomedical sciences?
- Alphabetical by last name
- First author contributed most; last author is typically the senior supervisor (Correct answer)
- Random order agreed by all authors
- Order of institutional affiliation seniority
Correct answer: First author contributed most; last author is typically the senior supervisor
Convention places the researcher with the greatest intellectual contribution first and the senior/supervising researcher last; middle authors are ordered by contribution level.
STP Scientific Writing 4
In statistical reporting, which must always accompany a mean value?