Scientific Writing

Petri Nokelainen petri.nokelainen@uta.fi

University of Tampere, Finland

What is scientific writing?

• Scientific writing is a process that produces a standard form written report describing original research results for an informed audience.

• The format of a scientific paper has been developed over centuries in the interplay with scientists, journal editors, scientific ethics, and printing and publishing services.

– Title, Abstract, Introduction, Theoretical background,

Methods, Results, Conclusions, Summary, Discussion,

References, Appendixes

What is scientific writing?

• Research results in any scientific work should be original, that is, produced by the author(s) and no one else.

• Scientific paper is written for a reader:

”If the reader is to grasp what the writer means, the writer must understand what the reader needs” (Gopen & Swan, 1990).

• While writing a scientific report, thoughts and arguments are re-arranged and re-considered – the aim is not simply to describe the research process and its outcomes.

What is scientific writing?

• It is essential to connect the findings of current study to existing research body and explain if the two are (or are not) in parallel.

• Research paper should clearly describe the findings and explain what they mean in practice why this study produced such outcomes?

Publishing decision

• Is the report worth publishing?

– Are the results original and do they contribute to the existing knowledge?

– Are the results ready for publication?

• Do conclusions make sense? Is there enough power (in statistical sense)?

• What is the target audience for the publication?

– Initial results: Oral presentation or poster in conference, article in conference proceedings.

– Final results: Article in periodical (journal), chapter in book, dissertation (thesis).

Organizing the writing process

• Starting the process

– Create a working title and initial version of the abstract.

Working title describes exactly what the study is about:

• Motivation in Learning (book title)

• Role of Motivation in the Moral and Religious Judgment of

Mathematically Gifted Adolescents (article or dissertation title)

Working abstract describes the context, hypotheses and conclusions.

• The impact (or importance) of the results and practical recommendations are added later.

– Depending on the publication forum, also possible

keywords should be decided at this point.

• Some journals require the use of provided lists.

Organizing the writing process

Abstract: In this paper we investigate whether the level of motivation among mathematically gifted adolescents is related to their moral and religious judgment. The sample consists of first-year students (N = 20) at a

Finnish private and independent boarding school specializing in mathematics. We formulated the following research questions: (RQ1) Is the level of motivation related to moral judgment? (RQ2) Is the level of motivation related to religious judgment? (RQ3) Does motivation play a moderating role between moral and religious judgment? The results showed that intrinsic goal orientation was related to moral judgment, fear of failure was related to religious judgment , and intrinsic goal orientation played a moderating role between moral and religious judgment.

Keywords: motivation, moral judgment, religious judgment, gifted, adolescents

Organizing the writing process

• Starting the process

– Decide the structure of the manuscript.

– In most cases the structure is given (by your department or the journal).

• Read sample dissertations (good examples!) or published articles from the journal that you have selected.

• Read carefully the guidelines for authors: word count limit (are the references included?), headings in the structure (may differ!), reference style to be used, etc.

Organizing the writing process

1.

Title

2.

Author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s)

3.

Abstract and keywords

4.

Introduction / Goals or aims of the study (periodicals: research questions)

5.

Theoretical framework / literature review (periodicals: research questions)

6.

Research questions (dissertation)

7.

Method

7.1 Sample, participants

7.2 Measures / instruments

7.3 Procedure

7.4 Statistical analyses

8.

Results

9.

Conclusion(s) and/or Summary

10. Discussion

11. Acknowledgements / credits

12. References

13. Appendix(es)

Organizing the writing process

• Starting the process

– Create the structure (headings) in your word processing software.

– Place the key points (alongside with availabe text) into the structure.

• Some researchers use concept mapping, placing the whole article on ”a map” that shows its findings related to the existing research body.

• Some sort of ’argumentation chain’ or ’script’ should be composed at this point: what you are going to state in the end and how did you get there?

• At this point the work load should be divided if there are multiple authors.

Organizing the writing process

• Starting the process

– Check once again the related latest journal publications and read them to be inspired (hopefully) in the writing process.

• My strategy is to download journal articles as PFD’s, save them on the current paper’s work folder (”refs” subfolder), print them out, read and make annotations .

– Prepare the tables and figures and place them into the structure.

• Sometimes the length of manuscript is limited to certain number of pages.

• Be sure to follow the style of the selected publication.

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Conflict of Interest

– “Authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other

relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work.” (Elsevier, 2010.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Authorship of the Paper

– Authorship should be limited to those who have made a

significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.

– Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be

acknowledged or listed as contributors.

– The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. (Elsevier, 2010.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Submission declaration

• Authors are not permitted to publish the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.

• Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

– “Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been

published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration

for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere

including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.” (Elsevier,

2010.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Copyright

• Usually the first author need to sign a publishing agreement and submit it back to the journal.

– Role of the funding source

• Authors should explicitly acknowledge funding sources:

– Authors “are requested to identify who provided financial support for the

conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.” (Elsevier, 2010.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Originality and Plagiarism

• The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

• Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others.

• Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. (Elsevier, 2010.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Fabrication

• Sometimes researchers need to publish but there are no results or even no study - this is called fabrication (faking the results).

• Perhaps the most famous example is the so called ’Sokal affair’

(a.k.a ’Sokal hoax’).

– Alan Sokal (physics professor at New York University) submitted in 1996 an article titled “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative

Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. The submission was an experiment to test the magazine's intellectual rigor. Central idea of the article was that quantum gravity is a social and linguistic construct. The article was published in the journal’s Spring/Summer 1996 "Science Wars" issue. After that, Sokal revealed his plot in Lingua Franca and the debate around his action started

(for details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair ).

– More recent case is the ’Bodganov Affair’ (for details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_Affair ).

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Acknowledgement of Sources

• Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given.

• Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

• Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

• Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services. (Elsevier, 2010.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Language

• American or British English is accepted, but not a mixture of both.

• The term "gender" refers to culture and should be used when referring to men and women as social groups.

• The term "sex" refers to biology and should be used when biological distinctions are emphasized.

• A person in a clinical study should be called a "patient," not a

"case."

• Avoid equating people with their conditions, for example, do not say "schizophrenics," say "people diagnosed with schizophrenia." (Owl Editing, 2009.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Language

• Use the term "sexual orientation," not "sexual preference."

• The phrase "gay men and lesbians" is currently preferred to the term "homosexuals.“

• In racial references, respect current usage. Currently, both the terms "Black" and "African American" are widely accepted, while "Negro" and "Afro-American" are not.

• Do not contrast one group of people with another group called

"normal" people: Write "we compared people with autism to people without autism" not "we contrasted autistics to normals." (Owl Editing, 2009.)

Practices of scientific writing

• Ethics in publishing

– Language

• Do not use pejorative terms like "stroke victim" or "stroke sufferers." Use a more neutral terminology such as "people who have had a stroke."

• Avoid the terms "challenged" and "special" unless the population referred to prefers this terminology (for example, Special

Olympics). As a rule, use the phrase "people with _______"

• In referring to age, be specific about age ranges; avoid openended definitions like "under 16" or "over 65."

• Avoid the term elderly. Older person is preferred.

• Boy and Girl are acceptable referring to high school and younger.

For persons 18 and older use men and women.

(Owl Editing, 2009.)

The writing process

• Text production phase

– First version is usually written quite fast, idea is to get the logic behind the paper documented.

– This does naturally apply only for specific parts of the manuscript, for example, ”Introduction”, ”Discussion” or the first section of the theoretical framework.

• I tend to take long sessions with all the relevant references next to me. I order the printouts in logical order and then start writing through the structure and add ”in text” references along the way. At this point I do not create reference list, that is the last phase.

The writing process

• Text production phase

– Try to think what kind of questions a colleague might ask from you during the writing – your goal is to ”sell” your arguments to him by being convincing.

• Use of scientific ’jargon’ is not a bad thing as long as it follows the general conventions and helps making more sense of your arguments!

– Your goal is to use your own findings and evidence, and also let ’others’ speak (also those who do not agree with you) as objectively as possible by using references.

• Argumentation towards others works may be critical, but it should always be constructive.

The writing process

• Text production phase

– Scientific text is transparent, readers should be able to tell the difference between your original and other researchers thoughts (by using references appropriately).

– Other scholars thoughts and opinions should be honoured in references – do not fit your words into others mouths (even if it is sometimes quite tempting)!

The writing process

• Text production phase

– There are practically two ways of making references: quotation and citation.

– When making a quotation, use inverted commas and indicate the exact page where the quotation is taken from:

• “Longitudinal designs are desperately needed in order to disentangle the precursors of bystander behaviors (such as defending the victims) from their consequences, to disentangle selection from socialization effects in studies of peer clusters, to understand the mechanisms of those effects (e.g., what are the basis for selection; how peer-group socialization effects unfold), and to elaborate how classroom environments contribute to changes in bullying-related attitudes and behaviors over time”

(Salmivalli, 2010, p. 118).

The writing process

• Text production phase

– When making a citation, you use your own words to tell what other researcher thinks about a certain issue:

• According to Salmivalli (2010), there is a desperate need for longitudinal studies on group engagement in bullying.

• Salmivalli (2010) states that longitudinal studies of group engagement in bullying are needed in order to have more precise understanding of the nature and mechanisms of bystanders behavior and socialization effects. According to her, longitudinal designs also allow the elaboration of classroom environments contribution to changes in bullyingrelated attitudes and behaviors over time.

The writing process

• Text production phase

– Quotation does not turn into citation by only changing few words!

– Citations are more recommended than quotations as they allow natural flow of the text (as you are using your own way of saying things).

The writing process

• Text production phase

– After the first writing session(s) there should be a break so that you can take some distance to the text that was produced.

• I try to have at least half a day break to be able to examine the text critically and correct mistakes. After the break it is also easier to see if the text flows naturally from one argument to the next. At this point I look at the coherence of the text, am I staying in the third person etc.

The writing process

• Text production phase

– Table and figure headings should be informative.

– Text should contain references to every table and figure in the manuscript!

The writing process

• Text production phase

– Footnotes are not usually recommended.

– Scientific text needs not to be dull, but it should be grammatically correct following general rules and conventions.

– Use of references (alongside with the reference list) and discussion usually reveal the experience of the writer(s).

• I try to be very careful with the reference list – if there are many mistakes in simple tasks are there even more in more complex parts of the manuscript?

– If possible, communicate with other researchers before submitting the manuscript.

APA -style

• APA –style

– American Psychology Association (APA, 2001).

De facto standard in social sciences.

• Also Harvard style is in wide use.

– An example of reference in APA –style:

• The hypothetical dilemmas can also be seen as being too abstract and removed from the daily experiences of most people (Straughan, 1975).

– Straughan, R. (1975). Hypothetical moral situations. Journal

of Moral Education, 4(3), 183-189.

APA -style

• APA –style

– An example of citation and quotation .

Sanders et al.

(1995) has already been in the text, so we use ”et al.” in following references.

Thoma et al.

(1999) has more than three authors and thus it is referred in a short form in all occasions.

This finding is against Sanders et al. (1995) conclusion that DIT is simply another way of measuring verbal ability , but in parallel with finding that ”DIT scores describe a latent variable that is distinct from verbal ability” (Thoma et al.,

1999, p. 325) .

» Sanders, C. E., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (1995). Does the Defining Issues Test measure psychological phenomena distinct from verbal ability? An examination of Lykken's query. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 69(3), 498-504.

» Thoma, S. J., Rest, J., Narváez, D., & Derryberry, P.

(1999). Does Moral Judgment Development Reduce to

Political Attitudes or Verbal Ability: Evicence Using the

Defining Issues Test. Review of Educational Psychology,

11, 325-342.

APA -style

• APA –style

– An example of periodical in reference list:

Bar-On, R., Tranel, D., Denburg, N. L., & Bechara, A. (2003).

Exploring the neurological substrate of emotional and social intelligence. Brain, 126(3), 1790-1800.

Journal name

Volume

Issue

Pages

APA -style

• APA –style

– An example of book chapter or proceedings:

Boekaerts, M., & Niemivirta, M. (2000). Self-regulation in learning: finding a balance between learning and egoprotective goals. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M.

Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of Self-regulation (pp. 417-450).

San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

APA -style

• APA –style

– An example of book chapter or proceedings:

Article title

Editors

Name of publ.

Pages

Publication place

Publisher

Boekaerts, M., & Niemivirta, M. (2000). Self-regulation in learning: finding a balance between learning and egoprotective goals.

In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M.

Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of Self-regulation ( pp. 417-450 ).

San Diego, CA : Academic Press .

CA refers to California, only used with US states.

p. Reference to a single page pp. Several pages

APA -style

• APA –style

– Book

Wellington, J. (2003). Getting Published. A guide for lecturers and

researchers. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

– Oral presentation:

Nokelainen, P., & Ruohotie, P. (2009, April). Characteristics that

Typify Successful Finnish World Skills Competition Participants.

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American

Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA, USA.

APA -style

• APA –style

– Online resource:

EQ Symposium (2004). About Reuven BarOn’s Involvement in

Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from http://www.cgrowth.com/rb_biolrg.html

APA -style

• Second hand references are allowed but not recommended.

APA -style

– In the 1980’s, Karnes and Brown (1981) made an initial investigation on moral development and the gifted using

Rest’s DIT. Their sample included 233 gifted students (9 –

15 years in age) who were selected for a gifted program.

(Tirri, Nokelainen & Mahkonen, 2009.)

– Karnes, F., & Brown, K. (1981). Moral development and the gifted: An initial investigation. Roper Review, 3, 8-10.

– Tirri, K., Nokelainen, P., & Mahkonen, M. (2009). How Morality and Religiosity Relate to Intelligence: A Case Study of

Mathematically Gifted Adolescents. Journal of Empirical

Theology, 22, 70-87.

APA -style

– In the 1980’s, Karnes and Brown (1981) made an initial investigation on moral development and the gifted using

Rest’s DIT. Their sample included 233 gifted students (9 –

15 years in age) who were selected for a gifted program.

(Tirri, Nokelainen & Mahkonen, 2009.)

A dot inside parenthesis indicates that Karnes & Brown

(1981) is a second hand reference (it is not included in the reference list).

APA -style

– In the 1980’s, Karnes and Brown (1981) made an initial investigation on moral development and the gifted using

Rest’s DIT. Their sample included 233 gifted students (9 –

15 years in age) who were selected for a gifted program

(Tirri, Nokelainen & Mahkonen, 2009) .

If the position of the dot is moved outside the parenthesis, Karnes and Brown becomes first hand reference.

APA -style

– According to Tirri, Nokelainen and Mahkonen (2009),

Karnes and Brown (1981) made an initial investigation on moral development and the gifted using Rest’s DIT. Their sample included 233 gifted students (9 – 15 years in age) who were selected for a gifted program.

This is a better way to indicate a second hand reference. Only first hand references are placed in the reference list.

Test your APA knowledge: What is WRONG with the following reference list?

Cohen, J. (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Second Edition.

Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham R. L. & Black, W. C. (1995). Multivariate data analysis.

Fourth edition. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Howell, David (1997). Statistical Methods for Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Publishing Company.

Nokelainen, P., & Tirri, H. (2007). The Essential Benefits of Using Bayesian Modeling in

Professional Growth Research. In S. Saari & T. Varis (Eds.), Professional Growth, 413-

423). Hämeenlinna, FI: RCVE.

Kerlinger, F. 1986. Foundations of Behavioral Research. Third Edition. New York: CBS College

Publishing.

Tirri, K., and Nokelainen, P. (2008). Identification of multiple intelligences with the Multiple

Intelligence Profiling Questionnaire III. Psychology Science Quarterly, 50(2), 206-221.

Test your APA knowledge: Corrected list

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Second edition.

Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham R. L., & Black, W. C. (1995). Multivariate data analysis.

Fourth edition. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Howell, D. (1997). Statistical Methods for Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing

Company.

Kerlinger, F. (1986). Foundations of Behavioral Research. Third edition. New York: CBS

College Publishing.

Nokelainen, P., & Tirri, H. (2007). The Essential Benefits of Using Bayesian Modeling in

Professional Growth Research. In S. Saari, & T. Varis (Eds.), Professional Growth (pp.

413-423). Hämeenlinna: RCVE.

Tirri, K., & Nokelainen, P. (2008). Identification of multiple intelligences with the Multiple

Intelligence Profiling Questionnaire III. Psychology Science Quarterly, 50(2), 206-221.

Structure of a scientific report

1.

Title

2.

Author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s)

3.

Abstract and keywords

4.

Introduction / Goals or aims of the study (periodicals: research questions)

5.

Theoretical framework / literature review (periodicals: research questions)

6.

Research questions (dissertation)

7.

Method

7.1 Sample, participants

7.2 Measures / instruments

7.3 Procedure

7.4 Statistical analyses

8.

Results

9.

Conclusion(s) and/or Summary

10. Discussion

11. Acknowledgements / credits

12. References

13. Appendix(es)

Writing scientific reports

1. Introduction

• School leadership is currently one of the most widely studied and published areas in social sciences. However, leadership as a social process, affecting both end products and personnel emotions, is seldom studied (Nokelainen & Ruohotie, 2006) . In this sense one interesting direction to look at is Emotional Intelligence (EI) research that has recently become one of the most important constructs in modern psychological research. EI refers to “the competence to identify, express and understand emotions, assimilate emotions in thought, and regulate both positive and negative emotions in one and others” (Matthews, Zeidner &

Roberts, 2002, p. 123) .

Writing scientific reports

2. Theoretical Framework

• The theory as formulated by Salovey and Mayer (1990 ; Mayer &

Salovey, 1997) framed EI within a model of intelligence.

Goleman’s model formulates EI in terms of a theory of performance (1998b). Goleman argues (2001) that an EI-based theory of performance has direct applicability to the domain of work and organizational effectiveness, particularly predicting excellence in jobs of all kinds, from sales to leadership. Goleman,

Boyatzis and McKee further state (2002 , p. 38 ) that EI characteristics are not innate talents, but learned abilities.

Writing scientific reports

2. Theoretical Framework

• Theoretical framework is summarized in Figure 1 . Figure represents self-regulation (Zimmerman, 1998 , 2000) as a system concept (Boekaerts & Niemivirta, 2000) managing leadership behavior through interactive processes between motivation, volition, emotion, attention, metacognition and action control systems. As Markku Hannula (2006) points out, self-regulation should be seen to be much more than mere metacognition.

Figure 1.

Self-regulation as a system concept managing leadership competence through interactive processes between different control systems. (Adapted from

Zimmerman, 2000, p. 15-16.)

Writing scientific reports

2. Theoretical Framework

• Daniel Goleman popularized the term emotional intelligence and claimed that EI was “as powerful and at times more powerful than

IQ” in predicting life success (1995, p. 34). He aimed to show in his studies that emotional and social factors are important (1995,

1998a), but his “views on EI often went far beyond the evidence available” (Brackett et al.

, 2004). A recent study showed that most popular EI and ability measures are only related at r < .22

, i.e. about five per cent of common variance (Brackett & Mayer, 2003).

Brackett, M. A., Lopes, P., Ivcevic, Z., Pizarro, D., Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P.

(2004).

Integrating emotion and cognition: The role of emotional intelligence. In D. Dai, & R. J.

Sternberg (Eds.), Motivation, emotion, and cognition: Integrating perspectives on intellectual functioning (pp. 175-194). Mahawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Writing scientific reports

3. Method

3.1 Sample

• The non-probability sample consists of 124 Finnish teachers from four comprehensive ( n = 84) and two upper secondary (n = 40) schools. All the schools were located in Helsinki, capital of Finland

(about 560 000 inhabitants, 9.3% of total population 5 223 442).

Each respondent was personally invited to complete a paper and pencil version of the questionnaire. Participants were asked to evaluate their attitude towards the statements measuring emotional leadership.

Writing scientific reports

3. Method

3.1 Sample

• The respondents’ age was classified into four categories: (1) 21 to

30 years old (n = 18, 14.5%) ; (2) 31 to 40 years old (n = 25, 20.2%);

(3) 41 to 50 years old (n = 34, 27.4%); (4) over 50 years old (n = 39,

31.5%). Seventy per cent of the respondents were females (n = 87,

70.2%), the rest were males (n = 29, 23.4%).

Writing scientific reports

3. Method

3.2 Instrument

• Emotional Leadership Questionnaire operationalises Goleman and his colleagues (2002) four domains of emotional intelligence characteristics with 51 items: (1) self-awareness, (2) selfmanagement, (3) social awareness and (4) relationship management. Table 1 depicts four EL domains and the eighteen associated characteristics (see Appendix for item level details).

Writing scientific reports

4. Results

• Next, we examine with descriptive statistics how subordinates’ evaluated their superior’s emotional leadership. Table 1 shows that the school principals had quite strong self-awareness ( M = 3.7

– 3.8, SD = 0.8 – 1.0

). This finding is natural, as especially selfconfidence is an important characteristic of a good leader. On the other hand, we suspect that this result is partly a self-fulfilling prophecy as teachers expect to see those atypical Finnish mentality characteristics strongly present in their leaders.

Writing scientific reports

4. Results

Figure 2 . Comparison of disagreement ( SD ) between the three age groups on the IRSSQ dimensions.

Figure 2 . Comparison of disagreement ( SD ) between the three age groups on the IRSSQ dimensions.

Figure 3.

Bayesian network of Finnish school principals Emotional

Leadership competencies.

Figure 3.

Bayesian network of Finnish school principals Emotional

Leadership competencies.

Figure 9. A box-plot showing differences in encouraging leadership between the nine departments

Writing scientific reports

5. Conclusions

• In this paper, we presented a 51 item self-rating Likert-scale

Emotional Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) that operationalises

Goleman’s and his colleagues (2002) four domains of emotional intelligence. Our goal in this paper was to study with an empirical sample the construct validity of the four-domain model (Goleman et al., 2002) of EL. The non-probability sample consisted of 124

Finnish school teachers from six different capital area schools.

Writing scientific reports

6. Discussion

• We asked teacher’s to evaluate their superiors according to our fixed, person-related questions. In the next version of the ELQ, we will add an additional scale measuring the importance of each question in a five-point Likert scale. This allows us to compare personal level EL factors to other measures, for example, the

Multiple Intelligences Profiling Questionnaire (MIPQ), an operationalization of Howard Gardner’s’ MI theory (Tirri, K.,

Komulainen & Tirri, H., 2002).

Writing scientific reports

References (APA style,

http://www.apa.org

)

• Bar-On, R., Tranel, D., Denburg, N. L.

, & Bechara, A. (2003). Exploring the neurological substrate of emotional and social intelligence. Brain, 126(3), 1790-

1800.

• Boekaerts, M.

, & Niemivirta, M. (2000). Self-regulation in learning: finding a balance between learning and ego-protective goals. In M. Boekaerts, P. R.

Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of Self-regulation (pp. 417-450). San

Diego, CA: Academic Press.

• Carmines, E. G.

, & Zeller, R. A. (1979). Reliability and Validity. Beverly Hills, CA:

Sage Publications.

• EQ Symposium (2004). About Reuven BarOn’s Involvement in Emotional

Intelligence. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from http://www.cgrowth.com/rb_biolrg.html

Writing scientific reports

Other reference styles in various social science periodicals:

Journal of Econometrics

• ‘Smith (1992) reported that...’

• ‘This problem has been studied previously (e.g., Smith et al., 1969) …’

For monographs

Hawawini, G. and I. Swary, 1990, Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. banking industry: Evidence from the capital market North-Holland, Amsterdam.

For contributions to collective works

Brunner, K. and A.H. Meltzer, 1990, Money supply, in: B.M. Friedman and F.H.

Hahn, (Eds.), Handbook of monetary economics, Vol. 1. North-Holland,

Amsterdam, pp. 357-396.

For periodicals

Griffiths, W. and G. Judge, 1992, Testing and estimating location vectors when the error covariance matrix is unknown. Journal of Econometrics 54, 121-138.

Writing scientific reports

Other reference styles in various social science periodicals:

Journal of Empirical Theology

• Contributors are requested to limit their references to a maximum of 20. The JET uses the author-date method, i.e. the author’s name and year of publication are inserted, between brackets, in the text at the appropriate point, e.g. (Jones 1966). The complete references should be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper, under author’s name followed by the date of the work in parentheses. Names of journals should be in italics, followed by volume number, part number in parentheses and page numbers, e.g.:

• Brown, D. (1985). “Struggle till daybreak: On the Nature of Authority in Theology” in The

Journal of Religion, 65(1), 15-32.

• Titles of books should be cursive. The title should be followed by publisher name and place, e.g.:

• Peterson, D. (1952). Handbook of Pastoral Theology. London: Row Peterson.

• Footnotes should be kept to the essential minimum.

Writing scientific reports

Other reference styles in various social science periodicals:

Journal of Economic Behavior &

Organization

• All citations in the text should refer to:

- Single Author: the Author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;

- Two Authors: both Authors' names and the year of publication;

- Three or more Authors: first Author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication. Examples: "as demonstrated in Allan (1996a, 1996b, 1999) and Allan and

Jones (1995). Lee et al. (2000) have recently shown“

• Reference to a journal publication:

-Griffiths, W., Judge, G., 1992. Testing and estimating location vectors when the error covariance matrix is unknown. Journal of Econometrics 54, 121-138 (note that journal names are not to be abbreviated).

Writing scientific reports

Other reference styles in various social science periodicals:

Journal of Economic Behavior &

Organization

• Reference to a book:

-Maddala, G.S., 1983. Limited Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

-Reinganum, J., 1989. The timing of innovation: research development and diffusion. In:

Schmalansee, R., Willig, R. (Eds.). Handbook of Industrial Organization, Vol. I.

Amsterdam: North-Holland, 849-908.

Web references :

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

References

American Educational Research Association (2006). Standards for reporting on

empirical social science research in AERA publications. Retrieved September

15, 2009, from http://www.aera.net/publications/Default.aspx?menu_id=32&id=1850

American Educational Research Association (2009). Standards for reporting on humanities-oriented research in AERA publications. Educational Researcher,

38(6), 481-486.

American Psychological Association (2001). The Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association. 5 th edition. Washington, DC: American

Psychological Association.

Elsevier (2010). Publishing Ethics Resource Kit. Retrieved 25 October, 2010 from: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/editorshome.editors/Introduction

Gopen, G., & Swan, J. (1990). The Science of Scientific Writing. American

Scientist, 78(6). Retrieved 25 October, 2010 from: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/the-science-of-scientificwriting/1

References

OECD (2002). Frascati Manual 2002: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys

on Research and Experimental Development. Paris: OECD.

Owl Editing (2009). APA Style Guide, Part 1. Retrieved 25 October, 2010 from: http://www.owled.com/apa1.html

Salmivalli, C. (2010). Bullying and the peer group: A review. Aggression and

Violent Behavior, 15, 112–120.

de Vaus, D. A. (2004). Research Design in Social Research. Third edition.

London: Sage.

Wellington, J. (2003). Getting Published. A guide for lecturers and researchers.

London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Internet sources

Scientific writing guides

• Some thoughts on writing a scientific paper or thesis http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/writing1.html

• Writing Scientific Manuscripts http://www.jyi.org/resources/320/Guide%20to%20Science%20Writing.pdf

• Scientific Writing Booklet http://www.biochem.arizona.edu/marc/Sci-Writing.pdf

Internet sources

Scientific search engines

• Scirus http://www.scirus.com/srsapp

• Scholar Google http://scholar.google.fi

Internet sources

Scientific styles

– APA

• APA (homepage) http://www.apastyle.org

• Capital Community College (how to create a paper ) http://webster.commnet.edu/apa

• Ohio State University (examples of references) http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/apagd.php

Internet sources

Scientific styles

– Harvard

• University of Western Australia http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/help/guides/harvard_citation_style

• Monash University (examples) http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/harvard.html