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How to Write an APA Methods Section | With Examples

Published on February 5, 2021 by Pritha Bhandari . Revised on June 22, 2023.

The methods section of an APA style paper is where you report in detail how you performed your study. Research papers in the social and natural sciences often follow APA style. This article focuses on reporting quantitative research methods .

In your APA methods section, you should report enough information to understand and replicate your study, including detailed information on the sample , measures, and procedures used.

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Table of contents

Structuring an apa methods section.

Participants

Example of an APA methods section

Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an apa methods section.

The main heading of “Methods” should be centered, boldfaced, and capitalized. Subheadings within this section are left-aligned, boldfaced, and in title case. You can also add lower level headings within these subsections, as long as they follow APA heading styles .

To structure your methods section, you can use the subheadings of “Participants,” “Materials,” and “Procedures.” These headings are not mandatory—aim to organize your methods section using subheadings that make sense for your specific study.

Note that not all of these topics will necessarily be relevant for your study. For example, if you didn’t need to consider outlier removal or ways of assigning participants to different conditions, you don’t have to report these steps.

The APA also provides specific reporting guidelines for different types of research design. These tell you exactly what you need to report for longitudinal designs , replication studies, experimental designs , and so on. If your study uses a combination design, consult APA guidelines for mixed methods studies.

Detailed descriptions of procedures that don’t fit into your main text can be placed in supplemental materials (for example, the exact instructions and tasks given to participants, the full analytical strategy including software code, or additional figures and tables).

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Begin the methods section by reporting sample characteristics, sampling procedures, and the sample size.

Participant or subject characteristics

When discussing people who participate in research, descriptive terms like “participants,” “subjects” and “respondents” can be used. For non-human animal research, “subjects” is more appropriate.

Specify all relevant demographic characteristics of your participants. This may include their age, sex, ethnic or racial group, gender identity, education level, and socioeconomic status. Depending on your study topic, other characteristics like educational or immigration status or language preference may also be relevant.

Be sure to report these characteristics as precisely as possible. This helps the reader understand how far your results may be generalized to other people.

The APA guidelines emphasize writing about participants using bias-free language , so it’s necessary to use inclusive and appropriate terms.

Sampling procedures

Outline how the participants were selected and all inclusion and exclusion criteria applied. Appropriately identify the sampling procedure used. For example, you should only label a sample as random  if you had access to every member of the relevant population.

Of all the people invited to participate in your study, note the percentage that actually did (if you have this data). Additionally, report whether participants were self-selected, either by themselves or by their institutions (e.g., schools may submit student data for research purposes).

Identify any compensation (e.g., course credits or money) that was provided to participants, and mention any institutional review board approvals and ethical standards followed.

Sample size and power

Detail the sample size (per condition) and statistical power that you hoped to achieve, as well as any analyses you performed to determine these numbers.

It’s important to show that your study had enough statistical power to find effects if there were any to be found.

Additionally, state whether your final sample differed from the intended sample. Your interpretations of the study outcomes should be based only on your final sample rather than your intended sample.

Write up the tools and techniques that you used to measure relevant variables. Be as thorough as possible for a complete picture of your techniques.

Primary and secondary measures

Define the primary and secondary outcome measures that will help you answer your primary and secondary research questions.

Specify all instruments used in gathering these measurements and the construct that they measure. These instruments may include hardware, software, or tests, scales, and inventories.

• To cite hardware, indicate the model number and manufacturer.
• To cite common software (e.g., Qualtrics), state the full name along with the version number or the website URL .
• To cite tests, scales or inventories, reference its manual or the article it was published in. It’s also helpful to state the number of items and provide one or two example items.

Make sure to report the settings of (e.g., screen resolution) any specialized apparatus used.

For each instrument used, report measures of the following:

• Reliability : how consistently the method measures something, in terms of internal consistency or test-retest reliability.
• Validity : how precisely the method measures something, in terms of construct validity  or criterion validity .

Giving an example item or two for tests, questionnaires , and interviews is also helpful.

Describe any covariates—these are any additional variables that may explain or predict the outcomes.

Quality of measurements

Review all methods you used to assure the quality of your measurements.

These may include:

• training researchers to collect data reliably,
• using multiple people to assess (e.g., observe or code) the data,
• translation and back-translation of research materials,
• using pilot studies to test your materials on unrelated samples.

For data that’s subjectively coded (for example, classifying open-ended responses), report interrater reliability scores. This tells the reader how similarly each response was rated by multiple raters.

Report all of the procedures applied for administering the study, processing the data, and for planned data analyses.

Data collection methods and research design

Data collection methods refers to the general mode of the instruments: surveys, interviews, observations, focus groups, neuroimaging, cognitive tests, and so on. Summarize exactly how you collected the necessary data.

Describe all procedures you applied in administering surveys, tests, physical recordings, or imaging devices, with enough detail so that someone else can replicate your techniques. If your procedures are very complicated and require long descriptions (e.g., in neuroimaging studies), place these details in supplementary materials.

To report research design, note your overall framework for data collection and analysis. State whether you used an experimental, quasi-experimental, descriptive (observational), correlational, and/or longitudinal design. Also note whether a between-subjects or a within-subjects design was used.

For multi-group studies, report the following design and procedural details as well:

• how participants were assigned to different conditions (e.g., randomization),
• instructions given to the participants in each group,
• interventions for each group,
• the setting and length of each session(s).

Describe whether any masking was used to hide the condition assignment (e.g., placebo or medication condition) from participants or research administrators. Using masking in a multi-group study ensures internal validity by reducing research bias . Explain how this masking was applied and whether its effectiveness was assessed.

Participants were randomly assigned to a control or experimental condition. The survey was administered using Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com). To begin, all participants were given the AAI and a demographics questionnaire to complete, followed by an unrelated filler task. In the control condition , participants completed a short general knowledge test immediately after the filler task. In the experimental condition, participants were asked to visualize themselves taking the test for 3 minutes before they actually did. For more details on the exact instructions and tasks given, see supplementary materials.

Data diagnostics

Outline all steps taken to scrutinize or process the data after collection.

This includes the following:

• Procedures for identifying and removing outliers
• Data transformations to normalize distributions
• Compensation strategies for overcoming missing values

To ensure high validity, you should provide enough detail for your reader to understand how and why you processed or transformed your raw data in these specific ways.

Analytic strategies

The methods section is also where you describe your statistical analysis procedures, but not their outcomes. Their outcomes are reported in the results section.

These procedures should be stated for all primary, secondary, and exploratory hypotheses. While primary and secondary hypotheses are based on a theoretical framework or past studies, exploratory hypotheses are guided by the data you’ve just collected.

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This annotated example reports methods for a descriptive correlational survey on the relationship between religiosity and trust in science in the US. Hover over each part for explanation of what is included.

The sample included 879 adults aged between 18 and 28. More than half of the participants were women (56%), and all participants had completed at least 12 years of education. Ethics approval was obtained from the university board before recruitment began. Participants were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; www.mturk.com). We selected for a geographically diverse sample within the Midwest of the US through an initial screening survey. Participants were paid USD $5 upon completion of the study.

A sample size of at least 783 was deemed necessary for detecting a correlation coefficient of ±.1, with a power level of 80% and a significance level of .05, using a sample size calculator (www.sample-size.net/correlation-sample-size/).

The primary outcome measures were the levels of religiosity and trust in science. Religiosity refers to involvement and belief in religious traditions, while trust in science represents confidence in scientists and scientific research outcomes. The secondary outcome measures were gender and parental education levels of participants and whether these characteristics predicted religiosity levels.

Religiosity

Religiosity was measured using the Centrality of Religiosity scale (Huber, 2003). The Likert scale is made up of 15 questions with five subscales of ideology, experience, intellect, public practice, and private practice. An example item is “How often do you experience situations in which you have the feeling that God or something divine intervenes in your life?” Participants were asked to indicate frequency of occurrence by selecting a response ranging from 1 (very often) to 5 (never). The internal consistency of the instrument is .83 (Huber & Huber, 2012).

Trust in Science

Trust in science was assessed using the General Trust in Science index (McCright, Dentzman, Charters & Dietz, 2013). Four Likert scale items were assessed on a scale from 1 (completely distrust) to 5 (completely trust). An example question asks “How much do you distrust or trust scientists to create knowledge that is unbiased and accurate?” Internal consistency was .8.

Potential participants were invited to participate in the survey online using Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com). The survey consisted of multiple choice questions regarding demographic characteristics, the Centrality of Religiosity scale, an unrelated filler anagram task, and finally the General Trust in Science index. The filler task was included to avoid priming or demand characteristics, and an attention check was embedded within the religiosity scale. For full instructions and details of tasks, see supplementary materials.

For this correlational study , we assessed our primary hypothesis of a relationship between religiosity and trust in science using Pearson moment correlation coefficient. The statistical significance of the correlation coefficient was assessed using a t test. To test our secondary hypothesis of parental education levels and gender as predictors of religiosity, multiple linear regression analysis was used.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Measures of central tendency
• Chi square tests
• Confidence interval
• Quartiles & Quantiles

Methodology

• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Thematic analysis
• Cohort study
• Peer review
• Ethnography

Research bias

• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Conformity bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Availability heuristic
• Attrition bias
• Social desirability bias

In your APA methods section , you should report detailed information on the participants, materials, and procedures used.

• Describe all relevant participant or subject characteristics, the sampling procedures used and the sample size and power .
• Define all primary and secondary measures and discuss the quality of measurements.
• Specify the data collection methods, the research design and data analysis strategy, including any steps taken to transform the data and statistical analyses.

You should report methods using the past tense , even if you haven’t completed your study at the time of writing. That’s because the methods section is intended to describe completed actions or research.

In a scientific paper, the methodology always comes after the introduction and before the results , discussion and conclusion . The same basic structure also applies to a thesis, dissertation , or research proposal .

Depending on the length and type of document, you might also include a literature review or theoretical framework before the methodology.

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4 Writing the Materials and Methods (Methodology) Section

The Materials and Methods section briefly describes how you did your research. In other words, what did you do to answer your research question? If there were materials used for the research or materials experimented on you list them in this section. You also describe how you did the research or experiment. The key to a methodology is that another person must be able to replicate your research—follow the steps you take. For example if you used the internet to do a search it is not enough to say you “searched the internet.” A reader would need to know which search engine and what key words you used.

Open this section by describing the overall approach you took or the materials used. Then describe to the readers step-by-step the methods you used including any data analysis performed. See Fig. 2.5 below for an example of materials and methods section.

Writing tips:

• Explain procedures, materials, and equipment used
• Example: “We used an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer to analyze major and trace elements in the mystery mineral samples.”
• Order events chronologically, perhaps with subheadings (Field work, Lab Analysis, Statistical Models)
• Use past tense (you did X, Y, Z)
• Quantify measurements
• Include results in the methods! It’s easy to make this mistake!
• Example: “W e turned on the machine and loaded in our samples, then calibrated the instrument and pushed the start button and waited one hour. . . .”

Technical Writing @ SLCC Copyright © 2020 by Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies at SLCC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write a Methods Section for a Psychology Paper

Tips and Examples of an APA Methods Section

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

Verywell / Brianna Gilmartin 

The methods section of an APA format psychology paper provides the methods and procedures used in a research study or experiment . This part of an APA paper is critical because it allows other researchers to see exactly how you conducted your research.

Method refers to the procedure that was used in a research study. It included a precise description of how the experiments were performed and why particular procedures were selected. While the APA technically refers to this section as the 'method section,' it is also often known as a 'methods section.'

The methods section ensures the experiment's reproducibility and the assessment of alternative methods that might produce different results. It also allows researchers to replicate the experiment and judge the study's validity.

This article discusses how to write a methods section for a psychology paper, including important elements to include and tips that can help.

What to Include in a Method Section

So what exactly do you need to include when writing your method section? You should provide detailed information on the following:

• Research design
• Participants
• Participant behavior

The method section should provide enough information to allow other researchers to replicate your experiment or study.

Components of a Method Section

The method section should utilize subheadings to divide up different subsections. These subsections typically include participants, materials, design, and procedure.

Participants 

In this part of the method section, you should describe the participants in your experiment, including who they were (and any unique features that set them apart from the general population), how many there were, and how they were selected. If you utilized random selection to choose your participants, it should be noted here.

For example: "We randomly selected 100 children from elementary schools near the University of Arizona."

At the very minimum, this part of your method section must convey:

• Basic demographic characteristics of your participants (such as sex, age, ethnicity, or religion)
• The population from which your participants were drawn
• Any restrictions on your pool of participants
• How many participants were assigned to each condition and how they were assigned to each group (i.e., randomly assignment , another selection method, etc.)
• Why participants took part in your research (i.e., the study was advertised at a college or hospital, they received some type of incentive, etc.)

Information about participants helps other researchers understand how your study was performed, how generalizable the result might be, and allows other researchers to replicate the experiment with other populations to see if they might obtain the same results.

In this part of the method section, you should describe the materials, measures, equipment, or stimuli used in the experiment. This may include:

• Testing instruments
• Technical equipment
• Any psychological assessments that were used
• Any special equipment that was used

For example: "Two stories from Sullivan et al.'s (1994) second-order false belief attribution tasks were used to assess children's understanding of second-order beliefs."

For standard equipment such as computers, televisions, and videos, you can simply name the device and not provide further explanation.

Specialized equipment should be given greater detail, especially if it is complex or created for a niche purpose. In some instances, such as if you created a special material or apparatus for your study, you might need to include an illustration of the item in the appendix of your paper.

In this part of your method section, describe the type of design used in the experiment. Specify the variables as well as the levels of these variables. Identify:

• The independent variables
• Dependent variables
• Control variables
• Any extraneous variables that might influence your results.

Also, explain whether your experiment uses a  within-groups  or between-groups design.

For example: "The experiment used a 3x2 between-subjects design. The independent variables were age and understanding of second-order beliefs."

The next part of your method section should detail the procedures used in your experiment. Your procedures should explain:

• What the participants did
• How data was collected
• The order in which steps occurred

For example: "An examiner interviewed children individually at their school in one session that lasted 20 minutes on average. The examiner explained to each child that he or she would be told two short stories and that some questions would be asked after each story. All sessions were videotaped so the data could later be coded."

Keep this subsection concise yet detailed. Explain what you did and how you did it, but do not overwhelm your readers with too much information.

Tips for How to Write a Methods Section

In addition to following the basic structure of an APA method section, there are also certain things you should remember when writing this section of your paper. Consider the following tips when writing this section:

• Use the past tense : Always write the method section in the past tense.
• Be descriptive : Provide enough detail that another researcher could replicate your experiment, but focus on brevity. Avoid unnecessary detail that is not relevant to the outcome of the experiment.
• Use an academic tone : Use formal language and avoid slang or colloquial expressions. Word choice is also important. Refer to the people in your experiment or study as "participants" rather than "subjects."
• Use APA format : Keep a style guide on hand as you write your method section. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the official source for APA style.
• Make connections : Read through each section of your paper for agreement with other sections. If you mention procedures in the method section, these elements should be discussed in the results and discussion sections.
• Proofread : Check your paper for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.. typos, grammar problems, and spelling errors. Although a spell checker is a handy tool, there are some errors only you can catch.

After writing a draft of your method section, be sure to get a second opinion. You can often become too close to your work to see errors or lack of clarity. Take a rough draft of your method section to your university's writing lab for additional assistance.

A Word From Verywell

The method section is one of the most important components of your APA format paper. The goal of your paper should be to clearly detail what you did in your experiment. Provide enough detail that another researcher could replicate your study if they wanted.

Finally, if you are writing your paper for a class or for a specific publication, be sure to keep in mind any specific instructions provided by your instructor or by the journal editor. Your instructor may have certain requirements that you need to follow while writing your method section.

Frequently Asked Questions

While the subsections can vary, the three components that should be included are sections on the participants, the materials, and the procedures.

• Describe who the participants were in the study and how they were selected.
• Define and describe the materials that were used including any equipment, tests, or assessments
• Describe how the data was collected

To write your methods section in APA format, describe your participants, materials, study design, and procedures. Keep this section succinct, and always write in the past tense. The main heading of this section should be labeled "Method" and it should be centered, bolded, and capitalized. Each subheading within this section should be bolded, left-aligned and in title case.

The purpose of the methods section is to describe what you did in your experiment. It should be brief, but include enough detail that someone could replicate your experiment based on this information. Your methods section should detail what you did to answer your research question. Describe how the study was conducted, the study design that was used and why it was chosen, and how you collected the data and analyzed the results.

Erdemir F. How to write a materials and methods section of a scientific article ? Turk J Urol . 2013;39(Suppl 1):10-5. doi:10.5152/tud.2013.047

Kallet RH. How to write the methods section of a research paper . Respir Care . 2004;49(10):1229-32. PMID: 15447808.

American Psychological Association.  Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association  (7th ed.). Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2019.

American Psychological Association. APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards . Published 2020.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Chapter 5:  Materials and Methods

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For hypothesis-testing papers, the function of the Materials and Methods section (often referred to as the Methods section) is to tell the reader what experiments you did to answer the question posed in the Introduction. Similarly, for descriptive studies, the Methods section tells what experiments you did to obtain the message stated in the Introduction. For methods papers, the Methods section has two functions: it describes the new method in complete detail and also tells what experiments you did to test the new method. For all types of paper, the Methods section should include sufficient detail and references to permit a trained scientist to evaluate your work fully or to repeat the experiments exactly as you did them.

Hypothesis-Testing and Descriptive Papers

We saw that the first step in the story line of a hypothesis-testing or a descriptive paper is presented in the Introduction. This first step is either the question being asked or the structure being described. In either case, the second step in the story line is an overview of the experiments you did. This overview of the experiments gives the strategy of the experiments, the plan that connects the methods to each other and to the question or the message.

Where the overview of the experiments is presented depends on the type of research:

Methods Papers

For a Methods paper, the first step in the story line is a statement that you are presenting a new or improved material, method, or apparatus. The second step in the story line has two parts: a complete description of the new method, material, or apparatus; and a description of how this new method, material, or apparatus was tested. These two steps are described in the Methods section.

In this chapter, we will consider only Methods sections for hypothesis-testing papers.

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• How to Write Your Methods

Ensure understanding, reproducibility and replicability

What should you include in your methods section, and how much detail is appropriate?

Why Methods Matter

The methods section was once the most likely part of a paper to be unfairly abbreviated, overly summarized, or even relegated to hard-to-find sections of a publisher’s website. While some journals may responsibly include more detailed elements of methods in supplementary sections, the movement for increased reproducibility and rigor in science has reinstated the importance of the methods section. Methods are now viewed as a key element in establishing the credibility of the research being reported, alongside the open availability of data and results.

A clear methods section impacts editorial evaluation and readers’ understanding, and is also the backbone of transparency and replicability.

For example, the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology project set out in 2013 to replicate experiments from 50 high profile cancer papers, but revised their target to 18 papers once they understood how much methodological detail was not contained in the original papers.

What to include in your methods section

What you include in your methods sections depends on what field you are in and what experiments you are performing. However, the general principle in place at the majority of journals is summarized well by the guidelines at PLOS ONE : “The Materials and Methods section should provide enough detail to allow suitably skilled investigators to fully replicate your study. ” The emphases here are deliberate: the methods should enable readers to understand your paper, and replicate your study. However, there is no need to go into the level of detail that a lay-person would require—the focus is on the reader who is also trained in your field, with the suitable skills and knowledge to attempt a replication.

A constant principle of rigorous science

A methods section that enables other researchers to understand and replicate your results is a constant principle of rigorous, transparent, and Open Science. Aim to be thorough, even if a particular journal doesn’t require the same level of detail . Reproducibility is all of our responsibility. You cannot create any problems by exceeding a minimum standard of information. If a journal still has word-limits—either for the overall article or specific sections—and requires some methodological details to be in a supplemental section, that is OK as long as the extra details are searchable and findable .

Imagine replicating your own work, years in the future

As part of PLOS’ presentation on Reproducibility and Open Publishing (part of UCSF’s Reproducibility Series ) we recommend planning the level of detail in your methods section by imagining you are writing for your future self, replicating your own work. When you consider that you might be at a different institution, with different account logins, applications, resources, and access levels—you can help yourself imagine the level of specificity that you yourself would require to redo the exact experiment. Consider:

• Which details would you need to be reminded of? 
• Which cell line, or antibody, or software, or reagent did you use, and does it have a Research Resource ID (RRID) that you can cite?
• Which version of a questionnaire did you use in your survey? 
• Exactly which visual stimulus did you show participants, and is it publicly available? 
• What participants did you decide to exclude? 
• What process did you adjust, during your work? 

Tip: Be sure to capture any changes to your protocols

You yourself would want to know about any adjustments, if you ever replicate the work, so you can surmise that anyone else would want to as well. Even if a necessary adjustment you made was not ideal, transparency is the key to ensuring this is not regarded as an issue in the future. It is far better to transparently convey any non-optimal methods, or methodological constraints, than to conceal them, which could result in reproducibility or ethical issues downstream.

Visual aids for methods help when reading the whole paper

Consider whether a visual representation of your methods could be appropriate or aid understanding your process. A visual reference readers can easily return to, like a flow-diagram, decision-tree, or checklist, can help readers to better understand the complete article, not just the methods section.

Ethical Considerations

In addition to describing what you did, it is just as important to assure readers that you also followed all relevant ethical guidelines when conducting your research. While ethical standards and reporting guidelines are often presented in a separate section of a paper, ensure that your methods and protocols actually follow these guidelines. Read more about ethics .

Existing standards, checklists, guidelines, partners

While the level of detail contained in a methods section should be guided by the universal principles of rigorous science outlined above, various disciplines, fields, and projects have worked hard to design and develop consistent standards, guidelines, and tools to help with reporting all types of experiment. Below, you’ll find some of the key initiatives. Ensure you read the submission guidelines for the specific journal you are submitting to, in order to discover any further journal- or field-specific policies to follow, or initiatives/tools to utilize.

Tip: Keep your paper moving forward by providing the proper paperwork up front

Be sure to check the journal guidelines and provide the necessary documents with your manuscript submission. Collecting the necessary documentation can greatly slow the first round of peer review, or cause delays when you submit your revision.

Randomized Controlled Trials – CONSORT The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) project covers various initiatives intended to prevent the problems of  inadequate reporting of randomized controlled trials. The primary initiative is an evidence-based minimum set of recommendations for reporting randomized trials known as the CONSORT Statement . 

Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – PRISMA The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses ( PRISMA ) is an evidence-based minimum set of items focusing  on the reporting of  reviews evaluating randomized trials and other types of research.

Research using Animals – ARRIVE The Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments ( ARRIVE ) guidelines encourage maximizing the information reported in research using animals thereby minimizing unnecessary studies. (Original study and proposal , and updated guidelines , in PLOS Biology .) 

Laboratory Protocols Protocols.io has developed a platform specifically for the sharing and updating of laboratory protocols , which are assigned their own DOI and can be linked from methods sections of papers to enhance reproducibility. Contextualize your protocol and improve discovery with an accompanying Lab Protocol article in PLOS ONE .

Consistent reporting of Materials, Design, and Analysis – the MDAR checklist A cross-publisher group of editors and experts have developed, tested, and rolled out a checklist to help establish and harmonize reporting standards in the Life Sciences . The checklist , which is available for use by authors to compile their methods, and editors/reviewers to check methods, establishes a minimum set of requirements in transparent reporting and is adaptable to any discipline within the Life Sciences, by covering a breadth of potentially relevant methodological items and considerations. If you are in the Life Sciences and writing up your methods section, try working through the MDAR checklist and see whether it helps you include all relevant details into your methods, and whether it reminded you of anything you might have missed otherwise.

Summary Writing tips

The main challenge you may find when writing your methods is keeping it readable AND covering all the details needed for reproducibility and replicability. While this is difficult, do not compromise on rigorous standards for credibility!

• Keep in mind future replicability, alongside understanding and readability.
• Follow checklists, and field- and journal-specific guidelines.
• Consider a commitment to rigorous and transparent science a personal responsibility, and not just adhering to journal guidelines.
• Establish whether there are persistent identifiers for any research resources you use that can be specifically cited in your methods section.
• Deposit your laboratory protocols in Protocols.io, establishing a permanent link to them. You can update your protocols later if you improve on them, as can future scientists who follow your protocols.
• Consider visual aids like flow-diagrams, lists, to help with reading other sections of the paper.
• Be specific about all decisions made during the experiments that someone reproducing your work would need to know.

Don’t

• Summarize or abbreviate methods without giving full details in a discoverable supplemental section.
• Presume you will always be able to remember how you performed the experiments, or have access to private or institutional notebooks and resources.
• Attempt to hide constraints or non-optimal decisions you had to make–transparency is the key to ensuring the credibility of your research.
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The contents of the Peer Review Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

The contents of the Writing Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

There’s a lot to consider when deciding where to submit your work. Learn how to choose a journal that will help your study reach its audience, while reflecting your values as a researcher…

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APA Methods Section – How To Write It With Examples

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The APA methods section is a very important part of your academic paper, displaying how you conducted your research by providing a precise description of the methods and procedures you used for the study. This section ensures transparency, allowing other researchers to see exactly how you conducted your experiments. In APA style , the methods section usually includes subsections on participants, materials or measures, and procedures. This article discusses the APA methods section in detail.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 APA Methods Section – In a Nutshell
• 2 Definition: APA Methods Section
• 3 APA Methods Section: Structure
• 4 APA Methods Section: Participants
• 5 APA Methods Section: Materials
• 6 APA Methods Section: Procedure

APA Methods Section – In a Nutshell

• The APA methods section covers the participants, materials, and procedures.
• Under the ‘Participants’ heading of the APA methods section, you should state the relevant demographic characteristics of your participants.
• Accurately reporting the facts of the study can help other researchers determine how much the results can be generalized.

Definition: APA Methods Section

The APA methods section describes the procedures you used to carry out your research and explains why particular processes were selected. It allows other researchers to replicate the study and make their own conclusions on the validity of the experiment.

APA Methods Section: Structure

• The main heading of the APA methods section should be written in bold and should be capitalized. It also has to be centered.
• All subheadings should be aligned to the left and must be boldfaced. You should select subheadings that are suitable for your essay, and the most commonly used include ‘Participants’, ‘Materials’, and ‘Procedure’.

Heading formats:

APA format has certain requirements for reporting different research designs. You should go through these guidelines to determine what you should mention for research using longitudinal designs , replication studies, and experimental designs .

APA Methods Section: Participants

Under this subheading, you will have to report on the sample characteristics, the procedures used to collect samples, and the sample size selected.

Subject or Participant Characteristics

In academic studies, ‘participants’ refers to the people who take part in a study. If animals are used instead of human beings, the researcher can use the term ‘subjects’. In this subheading of the APA methods section, you have to describe the demographic characteristics of the participants, including their age, sex, race, ethnic group, education level, and gender identity. Depending on the nature of the study, other characteristics may be important. Some of these include:

• Education levels
• Language preference
• Immigration status

By describing the characteristics of the participants, readers will be able to determine how much the results can be generalized. Make sure you use bias-free language when writing this part of the APA methods section.

The study included 100 homosexual men and 100 homosexual women aged between 30 and 50 years from the city of London, UK.

Sampling Procedures

When selecting participants for your study, you will have to use certain sampling procedures. If the study could access all members of the population, you can say that you used random sampling methods. This section of the APA methods section should cover the percentage of respondents who participated in the research, and how they were chosen. You also need to state how participants were compensated and the ethical standard followed.

• Transgender male students from London were invited to participate in a study.
• Invites were sent to the students via email, social media posts, and posters in the schools.
• Each participant received $10 for the time spent in the study.
• The research obtained ethical approval before the participants were recruited.

Sample Size and Statistical Power

In this part of the APA methods section, you should give details on the sample size and statistical power you aimed at achieving. You should mention whether the final sample was the same as the intended sample. This section should show whether your research had enough statistical power to find any effects.

• The study aimed at a statistical power of 75% to detect an effect of 10% with an alpha of .05.
• 200 participants were required, and the study fulfilled these conditions.

APA Methods Section: Materials

Readers also need to know the materials you used for the study. This part of the APA methods section will give other researchers a good picture of the methods used to conduct the study.

Primary and secondary measures

Here, you should indicate the instruments used in the study, as well as the constructs they were meant to measure. Some of these are inventories, scales, tests, software, and hardware. Make sure you cover the following aspects:

• Reliability
• The Traumatic Stress Schedule (TSS) was used to measure the exposure to traumatic events.
• This 10-item chart requires participants to report lifelong exposure to traumatic stress.
• For example, they could indicate whether they suffered the traumatic death of a loved one.
• The Davidson Trauma Scale was also used to assess the symptoms of trauma.

Under this subheading of the APA methods section, you should also mention covariates or additional variables that can explain the outcomes.

Quality of measurements

You can mention the strategies you applied to ensure data integrity and reliability. These may include:

• Training the interviewers
• Establishing clear data nominalization procedures
• Rigorous data handling and analysis processes
• Having multiple people assess the data

If the data was subjectively coded, you should indicate the interrater reliability scores in the APA methods section.

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APA Methods Section: Procedure

This part of the APA methods section indicates the methods you used to carry out the research, process the data, and analyze the results.

Research Design and Data Collection Methods

Data collection is the systematic gathering of observations and measurements, and you have to describe all procedures used in this process. You can use supplementary materials to describe long and complicated data collection methods.

When reporting the research design, you should mention the framework of the study. This could be experimental, longitudinal, correlational, or descriptive. Additionally, you should mention whether you used a between-subjects design or within-subjects design .

In this part of the APA methods section, you should also mention whether any masking methods were used to hide condition assignments from the participants.

• Participants are told the research takes an hour covers their personal experiences in school.
• They were assured that the reports would be confidential and were asked to give consent.
• The participants were asked to fill in questionnaires .
• The control group was given an unrelated filler task, after which they filled a questionnaire.
• It was determined the experiences of homosexual and CIS-gendered students varied.

Data diagnostics

This part of the APA method section outlines the steps taken to process the data. It includes:

• Methods of identifying and controlling outliers
• Data transformation procedures
• Methods of compensating for missing values

Analytic strategies

This subheading of the APA methods section describes the analytic strategies used, but you shouldn’t mention the outcomes. The primary and secondary hypotheses use past studies or theoretical frameworks , while exploratory hypotheses focus on the data in the study.

We started by assessing the demographic differences between the two groups. We also performed an independent samples t-test on the test scores .

What are the parts of an APA methods section?

In this section, you should include the study participants, the methods used, and the procedures.

What is included in the APA methods section?

The methods section covers the participants or subject characteristics, the sampling procedures, the sample size, the measures used, the data collection methods, the research design, the data analysis strategy, and the data processing method.

Should I use the Oxford comma when writing the APA methods section?

Yes, the serial comma is required when writing the APA methods section.

Should I use the first person to write the APA methods section?

Yes, the APA language guidelines encourage researchers to use first-person pronouns when writing the methods section.

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Materials and Methods: 7 Writing Tips

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Here are some tips for writing a good Materials and Methods section, which can lead to reproducibility of your results and credibility in the eyes of reviewers and readers.

Updated on January 2, 2011

One critical aspect of publishing research is describing the methods used in enough detail that the experiments can be reproduced by others. Some manuscripts are rejected because there is insufficient detail in the methods section.

In an editorial for the American Journal of Roentgenology , James Provenzale says, “ One of the more common reasons for rejection of a manuscript is that the reviewers cannot fully understand how the study was conducted. ” However, several journals have page limits or page charges, and the Materials and Methods section can take up valuable space.

For more tips on writing the Materials and Methods section of your manuscript, please see our downloadable white paper, Setting the Scene: Best Practices for Writing Materials and Methods .

What are the most important things to include, and how can you be sure that you're being concise AND sufficiently thorough? Here are seven tips for writing a good Materials and Methods section, which can lead to reproducibility of your results and credibility in the eyes of reviewers and readers. This list is not exhaustive; always remember to check the instructions for authors from your target journal for additional requirements or suggestions.

7 Tips for Writing an Effective Materials and Methods Section in Your Research Manuscript:

1. begin writing the materials and methods while you are performing your experiments..

Writing during the research process will prevent you from forgetting important details and save you time when you begin writing the full manuscript. You can also ask co-authors who performed specific experiments to write the corresponding parts of the Methods section.

2. Start with general information that applies to the entire manuscript and then move on to specific experimental details.

Examples of general information that you could begin with are characteristics of the study population, sources and genotypes of bacterial strains, or descriptions of samples or sample sites. Then, you could share more details about your experiment.

3. Match the order in which methods are described to the order of the results that were generated using those methods.

Also, be sure that each method you used is described, even if it is just a quick sentence (e.g., “Toxin assays were performed as described [reference]”). This practice is helpful for transparency, as well as reproducibility.

4. Always include citations for procedures that have been described previously.

If you made any modifications, be sure to list them.

5. Describe statistical tests as fully as possible.

Give as much information about the tests as possible; just mentioning a t -test is not sufficient for the reader to determine if the correct statistical analysis was performed.

6. Avoid discussing the pros and cons of certain methods or results of any kind.

Save evaluations for different methods for the Discussion section of your paper.

7. To save space, be concise, yet thorough, when listing the equipment you used.

You might consider listing all of your equipment purchased from a single company in one sentence. Or, you could create a flowchart figure of the steps in an important procedure.

Before you finish your manuscript, ask yourself the following questions about your Materials and Methods section to ensure that you have included all important information.

1. Is there sufficient detail so that the experiments can be reproduced?

2. Is there excess information that could be removed without affecting the interpretation of the results?

3. Are all the appropriate controls mentioned?

4. Are all appropriate citations included?

5. Is the source of each reagent listed?

Writing the Materials and Methods can be tedious, but a well-written section can enhance your chances of publication and strengthen your conclusions. If you have further questions, download our free white paper on writing the Materials and Methods section or send us an email . Best of luck with your research!

Ben Mudrak, PhD

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Research Paper Writing: 5. Methods / Materials

• 1. Getting Started
• 2. Abstract
• 3. Introduction
• 4. Literature Review
• 5. Methods / Materials
• 6. Results / Analysis
• 7. Discussion
• 8. Conclusion
• 9. Reference

Methods / Materials Overview

These sections of the research paper should be concise. The audience reading the paper will always want to know what materials or methods that were used. The methods and materials may be under subheadings in the section or incorporated together. The main objective for these sections is to provide specialized materials, general procedures, and methods to judge the scientific value of the paper.

What to include in the sections

• Described separately
• Include the chemicals, biological, and any equipment
• Do not include common supplies, such as test tubes, pipette tips, beakers, etc. or standard lab equipment
• Single out sources like a specific type of equipment, enzyme, or a culture
• These should be mentioned in a separate paragraph with its own heading or highlighted in the procedure section if there is one
• Refer to solutions by name and describe
• Describes in detail how the analysis was conducted
• Be brief when presenting methods under the title devoted to a specific technique or groups of procedures
• Simplify and report what the procedure was
• Report the method by name
• Use third person passive voice, and avoid using first person
• Use normal text in these sections
• Avoid informal lists
• Use complete sentences

Example of a Methods Section

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Sixth Ed. 2010

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How to Write a Methods Section for a Research Paper

A common piece of advice for authors preparing their first journal article for publication is to start with the methods section: just list everything that was done and go from there. While that might seem like a very practical approach to a first draft, if you do this without a clear outline and a story in mind, you can easily end up with journal manuscript sections that are not logically related to each other. 

Since the methods section constitutes the core of your paper, no matter when you write it, you need to use it to guide the reader carefully through your story from beginning to end without leaving questions unanswered. Missing or confusing details in this section will likely lead to early rejection of your manuscript or unnecessary back-and-forth with the reviewers until eventual publication. Here, you will find some useful tips on how to make your methods section the logical foundation of your research paper.

Not just a list of experiments and methods

While your introduction section provides the reader with the necessary background to understand your rationale and research question (and, depending on journal format and your personal preference, might already summarize the results), the methods section explains what exactly you did and how you did it. The point of this section is not to list all the boring details just for the sake of completeness. The purpose of the methods sections is to enable the reader to replicate exactly what you did, verify or corroborate your results, or maybe find that there are factors you did not consider or that are more relevant than expected. 

To make this section as easy to read as possible, you must clearly connect it to the information you provide in the introduction section before and the results section after, it needs to have a clear structure (chronologically or according to topics), and you need to present your results according to the same structure or topics later in the manuscript. There are also official guidelines and journal instructions to follow and ethical issues to avoid to ensure that your manuscript can quickly reach the publication stage.

Table of Contents:

• General Methods Structure: What is Your Story? 
• What Methods Should You Report (and Leave Out)? 
• Details Frequently Missing from the Methods Section

More Journal Guidelines to Consider 

• Accurate and Appropriate Language in the Methods

General Methods Section Structure: What Is Your Story? 

You might have conducted a number of experiments, maybe also a pilot before the main study to determine some specific factors or a follow-up experiment to clarify unclear details later in the process. Throwing all of these into your methods section, however, might not help the reader understand how everything is connected and how useful and appropriate your methodological approach is to investigate your specific research question. You therefore need to first come up with a clear outline and decide what to report and how to present that to the reader.

The first (and very important) decision to make is whether you present your experiments chronologically (e.g., Experiment 1, Experiment 2, Experiment 3… ), and guide the reader through every step of the process, or if you organize everything according to subtopics (e.g., Behavioral measures, Structural imaging markers, Functional imaging markers… ). In both cases, you need to use clear subheaders for the different subsections of your methods, and, very importantly, follow the same structure or focus on the same topics/measures in the results section so that the reader can easily follow along (see the two examples below).

If you are in doubt which way of organizing your experiments is better for your study, just ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the reader need to know the timeline of your study? 
• Is it relevant that one experiment was conducted first, because the outcome of this experiment determined the stimuli or factors that went into the next?
• Did the results of your first experiment leave important questions open that you addressed in an additional experiment (that was maybe not planned initially)?
• Is the answer to all of these questions “no”? Then organizing your methods section according to topics of interest might be the more logical choice.

If you think your timeline, protocol, or setup might be confusing or difficult for the reader to grasp, consider adding a graphic, flow diagram, decision tree, or table as a visual aid.

What Methods Should You Report (and Leave Out)?

The answer to this question is quite simple–you need to report everything that another researcher needs to know to be able to replicate your study. Just imagine yourself reading your methods section in the future and trying to set up the same experiments again without prior knowledge. You would probably need to ask questions such as:

• Where did you conduct your experiments (e.g., in what kind of room, under what lighting or temperature conditions, if those are relevant)? 
• What devices did you use? Are there specific settings to report?
• What specific software (and version of that software) did you use?
• How did you find and select your participants?
• How did you assign participants into groups?  
• Did you exclude participants from the analysis? Why and how?
• Where did your reagents or antibodies come from? Can you provide a Research Resource Identifier (RRID) ?
• Did you make your stimuli yourself or did you get them from somewhere?
• Are the stimuli you used available for other researchers?
• What kind of questionnaires did you use? Have they been validated?
• How did you analyze your data? What level of significance did you use?
• Were there any technical issues and did you have to adjust protocols?

Note that for every experimental detail you provide, you need to tell the reader (briefly) why you used this type of stimulus/this group of participants/these specific amounts of reagents. If there is earlier published research reporting the same methods, cite those studies. If you did pilot experiments to determine those details, describe the procedures and the outcomes of these experiments. If you made assumptions about the suitability of something based on the literature and common practice at your institution, then explain that to the reader.

In a nutshell, established methods need to be cited, and new methods need to be clearly described and briefly justified. However, if the fact that you use a new approach or a method that is not traditionally used for the data or phenomenon you study is one of the main points of your study (and maybe already reflected in the title of your article), then you need to explain your rationale for doing so in the introduction already and discuss it in more detail in the discussion section .

Note that you also need to explain your statistical analyses at the end of your methods section. You present the results of these analyses later, in the results section of your paper, but you need to show the reader in the methods section already that your approach is either well-established or valid, even if it is new or unusual. 

When it comes to the question of what details you should leave out, the answer is equally simple ‒ everything that you would not need to replicate your study in the future. If the educational background of your participants is listed in your institutional database but is not relevant to your study outcome, then don’t include that. Other things you should not include in the methods section:

• Background information that you already presented in the introduction section.
• In-depth comparisons of different methods ‒ these belong in the discussion section.
• Results, unless you summarize outcomes of pilot experiments that helped you determine factors for your main experiment.

Also, make sure your subheadings are as clear as possible, suit the structure you chose for your methods section, and are in line with the target journal guidelines. If you studied a disease intervention in human participants, then your methods section could look similar to this:

Since the main point of interest here are your patient-centered outcome variables, you would center your results section on these as well and choose your headers accordingly (e.g., Patient characteristics, Baseline evaluation, Outcome variable 1, Outcome variable 2, Drop-out rate ). 

If, instead, you did a series of visual experiments investigating the perception of faces including a pilot experiment to create the stimuli for your actual study, you would need to structure your methods section in a very different way, maybe like this:

Since here the analysis and outcome of the pilot experiment are already described in the methods section (as the basis for the main experimental setup and procedure), you do not have to mention it again in the results section. Instead, you could choose the two main experiments to structure your results section ( Discrimination and classification, Familiarization and adaptation ), or divide the results into all your test measures and/or potential interactions you described in the methods section (e.g., Discrimination performance, Classification performance, Adaptation aftereffects, Correlation analysis ).

Details Commonly Missing from the Methods Section

Manufacturer information.

For laboratory or technical equipment, you need to provide the model, name of the manufacturer, and company’s location. The usual format for these details is the product name (company name, city, state) for US-based manufacturers and the product name (company name, city/town, country) for companies outside the US.

Sample size and power estimation

Power and sample size estimations are measures for how many patients or participants are needed in a study in order to detect statistical significance and draw meaningful conclusions from the results. Outside of the medical field, studies are sometimes still conducted with a “the more the better” approach in mind, but since many journals now ask for those details, it is better to not skip this important step.

Ethical guidelines and approval

In addition to describing what you did, you also need to assure the editor and reviewers that your methods and protocols followed all relevant ethical standards and guidelines. This includes applying for approval at your local or national ethics committee, providing the name or location of that committee as well as the approval reference number you received, and, if you studied human participants, a statement that participants were informed about all relevant experimental details in advance and signed consent forms before the start of the study. For animal studies, you usually need to provide a statement that all procedures included in your research were in line with the Declaration of Helsinki. Make sure you check the target journal guidelines carefully, as these statements sometimes need to be placed at the end of the main article text rather than in the method section.

Structure & word limitations

While many journals simply follow the usual style guidelines (e.g., APA for the social sciences and psychology, AMA for medical research) and let you choose the headers of your method section according to your preferred structure and focus, some have precise guidelines and strict limitations, for example, on manuscript length and the maximum number of subsections or header levels. Make sure you read the instructions of your target journal carefully and restructure your method section if necessary before submission. If the journal does not give you enough space to include all the details that you deem necessary, then you can usually submit additional details as “supplemental” files and refer to those in the main text where necessary.

Standardized checklists

In addition to ethical guidelines and approval, journals also often ask you to submit one of the official standardized checklists for different study types to ensure all essential details are included in your manuscript. For example, there are checklists for randomized clinical trials, CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) , cohort, case-control, cross‐sectional studies, STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology ), diagnostic accuracy, STARD (STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies) , systematic reviews and meta‐analyses PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses) , and Case reports, CARE (CAse REport) .

Make sure you check if the manuscript uses a single- or double-blind review procedure , and delete all information that might allow a reviewer to guess where the authors are located from the manuscript text if necessary. This means that your method section cannot list the name and location of your institution, the names of researchers who conducted specific tests, or the name of your institutional ethics committee.  

Accurate and Appropriate Language in the Methods Section

Like all sections of your research paper, your method section needs to be written in an academic tone . That means it should be formal, vague expressions and colloquial language need to be avoided, and you need to correctly cite all your sources. If you describe human participants in your method section then you should be especially careful about your choice of words. For example, “participants” sounds more respectful than “subjects,” and patient-first language, that is, “patients with cancer,” is considered more appropriate than “cancer patients” by many journals.

Passive voice is often considered the standard for research papers, but it is completely fine to mix passive and active voice, even in the method section, to make your text as clear and concise as possible. Use the simple past tense to describe what you did, and the present tense when you refer to diagrams or tables. Have a look at this article if you need more general input on which verb tenses to use in a research paper . 

Lastly, make sure you label all the standard tests and questionnaires you use correctly (look up the original publication when in doubt) and spell genes and proteins according to the common databases for the species you studied, such as the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee database for human studies .  

Visit Wordvice AI’s AI Text Editor to receive a free grammar check and English editing services (including manuscript editing , paper editing , and dissertation editing ) before submitting your manuscript to journal editors.

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Materials and methods

The study’s methods are one of the most important parts used to judge the overall quality of the paper. In addition the Methods section should give readers enough information so that they can repeat the experiments. Reviewers should look for potential sources of bias in the way the study was designed and carried out, and for places where more explanation is needed.

The specific types of information in a Methods section will vary from field to field and from study to study. However, some general rules for Methods sections are:

• It should be clear from the Methods section how all of the data in the Results section were obtained.
• The study system should be clearly described. In medicine, for example, researchers need to specify the number of study subjects; how, when, and where the subjects were recruited, and that the study obtained appropriate ‘informed consent’ documents; and what criteria subjects had to meet to be included in the study.
• In most cases, the experiments should include appropriate controls or comparators. The conditions of the controls should be specified.
• The outcomes of the study should be defined, and the outcome measures should be objectively validated.
• The methods used to analyze the data must be statistically sound.
• For qualitative studies, an established qualitative research method (e.g. grounded theory is often used in sociology) must be used as appropriate for the study question.
• If the authors used a technique from a published study, they should include a citation and a summary of the procedure in the text. The method also needs to be appropriate to the present experiment.
• All materials and instruments should be identified, including the supplier’s name and location. For example, “Tests were conducted with a Vulcanizer 2.0 (XYZ Instruments, Mumbai, India).”
• The Methods section should not have information that belongs in another section (such as the Introduction or Results).

You may suggest if additional experiments would greatly improve the quality of the manuscript. Your suggestions should be in line with the study’s aims. Remember that almost any study could be strengthened by further experiments, so only suggest further work if you believe that the manuscript is not publishable without it.

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Methods and Materials: Presenting Your Research Design Clearly

When it comes to scientific research, the "Methods and Materials" section is where the rubber meets the road. It's the place where you outline your research design, detail your methods, and specify the materials you've used. This section is not just a necessary formality; it's the backbone of your research paper.

A well-presented "Methods and Materials" section is crucial for several reasons. First, it ensures transparency and replicability, allowing other researchers to reproduce your experiments accurately. Second, it demonstrates the rigor and validity of your work. Third, it helps readers assess the reliability of your findings. Here, we'll delve into the essential elements of presenting this section clearly and effectively.

Begin with a Clear Subheading

A well-structured research paper is like a road map that guides readers through your study. The "Methods and Materials" section, in particular, is a critical part of this journey. To ensure clarity and facilitate navigation, it's essential to begin this section with a clear subheading.

Organization and Readability : Subheadings are signposts that signal a change in the content. They break up long sections of text into manageable portions, making it easier for readers to follow along. In a lengthy research paper, this division is especially crucial.

Quick Reference : A clear subheading serves as a reference point for readers. They can quickly locate the "Methods and Materials" section, even if they need to flip back and forth between sections.

Expectation Setting : The subheading sets the reader's expectations. It tells them that they are about to delve into the methods and materials used in the study. This contextual information prepares them for the content to come.

Clarity : It adds clarity to your paper's structure. Without a subheading, readers might wonder where the methods section begins. With one, there's no confusion.

Accessibility : Subheadings make your paper accessible to a broader audience. Some readers might be interested only in the methods and materials, and a clear subheading allows them to go directly to that section.

Be Descriptive : Your subheading should clearly indicate that this is the "Methods and Materials" section. For example, "Methods and Materials" or "Materials and Methods" are straightforward choices.

Keep It Concise : Subheadings should be concise but informative. Avoid lengthy or convoluted subheadings that might confuse readers rather than guide them.

Consistency : Ensure consistency in formatting and style. If you use sentence case for your subheading (e.g., "Methods and materials"), maintain this style throughout your paper.

Font and Formatting : Make sure your subheading stands out from the body text. This can be achieved through formatting, such as bold or larger font size.

Placement : Typically, the "Methods and Materials" section comes after the introduction and before the results. Place your subheading accordingly, maintaining the logical flow of your paper.

Review Guidelines : Some journals or academic institutions may have specific formatting guidelines for subheadings. Always check and adhere to these guidelines.

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Describe your research design.

The "Methods and Materials" section of your research paper is a critical juncture where you elucidate how your study was conducted. A pivotal component of this section is describing your research design, which acts as the foundation upon which your entire research endeavor rests.

Why Describe Your Research Design?

Clarity and Transparency : A well-defined research design provides clarity and transparency about the structure of your study. It allows readers to understand the overall framework within which you collected data and drew conclusions.

Replicability : For scientific research to hold value, it must be replicable. Describing your research design in detail enables other researchers to replicate your study to validate your findings or build upon your work.

Credibility : A thorough description of your research design enhances the credibility of your study. It shows that your research was conducted rigorously and systematically, bolstering trust in your results.

Components of Describing Your Research Design:

Research Framework : Begin by outlining the broader research framework in which your study falls. Is it experimental, observational, correlational, or a combination of these? Explain the rationale for choosing this design based on your research questions or objectives.

Research Variables : Specify the independent and dependent variables. Describe how these variables were conceptualized and measured. If your study involves control variables, mention them as well.

Sampling Methods : Detail your sampling methods, including the target population, sample size, and sampling technique. Discuss any inclusion or exclusion criteria applied to select participants or subjects.

Data Collection Procedures : Explain the procedures and methods you employed to collect data. If your research involved surveys, experiments, interviews, observations, or archival data, provide step-by-step explanations of how data were gathered.

Data Analysis Techniques : Describe the statistical or analytical techniques used to analyze the collected data. Mention any software or tools utilized for data analysis and justify their selection.

Ethical Considerations : Address ethical considerations and approvals, especially if your research involved human subjects or animals. Discuss informed consent, confidentiality, and any institutional review board (IRB) approvals obtained.

Tips for Effective Description:

Clarity : Write in clear, concise language. Avoid jargon or overly technical terms that may confuse readers.

Chronological Order : Present your research design in a logical, chronological order, following the sequence in which your study was conducted.

Justification : Provide rationale for your design choices. Explain why you opted for a particular research design, variables, or data collection methods.

Use of Visuals : If applicable, incorporate tables or flowcharts to visually represent your research design. Visual aids can enhance understanding.

Be Comprehensive : Leave no room for ambiguity. The reader should be able to replicate your study based solely on the information provided.

Anticipate Questions : Consider potential questions or doubts a reader might have and address them in your description.

Detail Your Methods

In the labyrinth of scientific research, the "Methods and Materials" section serves as the guiding light that illuminates the path taken during the study. Within this section, the detailed exposition of your research methods is akin to providing readers with a map to navigate your investigative journey.

The Significance of Detailed Methods:

Reproducibility : One of the fundamental principles of scientific research is reproducibility. By meticulously detailing your methods, you enable fellow researchers to replicate your study accurately. This replication can either validate your findings or foster further exploration.

Transparency : Detailed methods enhance the transparency of your research. They offer readers insight into how data was collected, experiments were conducted, and analyses were performed. This transparency bolsters the credibility of your study.

Evaluation : A comprehensive account of your methods allows readers to assess the rigor and validity of your research. They can evaluate whether your methods were appropriate for addressing the research questions or hypotheses.

Elements of Detailed Methods:

Participant Information : Start by providing essential details about the participants or subjects involved in your study. This includes demographics, recruitment methods, and any criteria used for selection.

Procedure : Outline the step-by-step procedure followed during data collection or experimentation. Imagine you are writing a manual for someone who wishes to replicate your study; every detail counts.

Data Collection : Specify the tools, instruments, or equipment used to collect data. Describe how measurements were taken, observations were recorded, or surveys were administered. Include information on the timing and location of data collection.

Variables : Define and operationalize the variables under investigation. Explain how variables were measured or manipulated. If standardized scales or instruments were employed, provide references or details about their reliability and validity.

Data Analysis : Detail the statistical or analytical methods applied to the collected data. Mention any software or algorithms used. If you made any assumptions or transformations during analysis, clarify these.

Control Measures : Discuss any control measures implemented to ensure the internal validity of your study. This might include randomization procedures, counterbalancing, or control groups.

Ethical Considerations : Address ethical considerations, especially if your research involved human participants or animals. Describe informed consent procedures, confidentiality measures, and any ethical approvals obtained.

Tips for Effective Method Description:

Clarity : Write in clear, concise language. Use a logical, chronological sequence to present your methods.

Justification : Explain why you chose specific methods. Provide a rationale for your decisions regarding data collection and analysis.

Visual Aids : Utilize tables, diagrams, or flowcharts if they can enhance understanding or clarify complex procedures.

Anticipate Questions : Anticipate potential questions or concerns readers might have and address them preemptively.

Avoid Ambiguity : Leave no room for ambiguity or assumptions. Ensure that someone unfamiliar with your study could replicate it based solely on your description.

Specify Your Materials

Within the realm of scientific inquiry, the "Methods and Materials" section stands as a testament to precision and clarity. When delving into your research, specifying the materials used is akin to revealing the tools that sculpted your study.

The Importance of Material Specification:

Replicability : Just as clear methods enable reproducibility, specifying materials ensures that fellow researchers can replicate your study with exactitude. Transparent documentation of materials aids in verifying your results and conclusions.

Transparency : Transparency in research is paramount. It builds trust and credibility among readers and reviewers. By specifying your materials, you offer a transparent view of your research process.

Accuracy and Precision : Precision in research is vital. Specifying materials with detail and accuracy enhances the precision of your study. It leaves no room for ambiguity or misinterpretation.

Elements of Material Specification:

Equipment and Instruments : Begin by listing any equipment or instruments used in your study. Provide the name, model, and, if applicable, the manufacturer. For example, if you used a specific brand of microscope, mention it explicitly.

Chemicals and Reagents : If your research involved chemical substances, enumerate them. Include their chemical names, molecular formulas, concentrations, and sources. For biological materials, detail the species, strains, and origins.

Software and Tools : Specify any software programs or digital tools utilized in data analysis, simulations, or modeling. Include version numbers and, if relevant, indicate if any custom code was developed.

Materials for Experiments : Describe any materials used in experiments or procedures. This might include details about the type of soil, plant varieties, or animal breeds. For laboratory experiments, provide information on sample sizes and preparations.

Measurement Devices : If your study required specific measurement devices, such as sensors, meters, or gauges, provide comprehensive details about them, including their specifications and calibration.

Consumables : Don't overlook consumables like lab glassware, pipettes, filters, or culture media. Mention their types, brands, and any specific attributes that are pertinent to your study.

Ethical Considerations : Address ethical considerations related to materials, especially if your research involved human or animal subjects. Detail how you obtained consent, ensured animal welfare, or adhered to ethical guidelines.

Tips for Effective Material Specification:

Clarity : Write material specifications in a clear, concise manner. Use a standardized format to present information consistently.

References : Cite references for materials or instruments whenever applicable. This allows readers to access additional information if needed.

Visual Aids : Incorporate visuals like photographs or diagrams to illustrate complex equipment or materials, especially if they are custom-made or unique.

Anticipate Questions : Anticipate potential questions from readers about the materials and address them preemptively.

Comprehensive : Be comprehensive in your descriptions. Think of it as creating a catalog of materials that anyone can consult for replication.

Maintain Clarity and Conciseness

As you navigate the intricate landscape of academic writing, one guiding principle shines brightly: maintain clarity and conciseness throughout your manuscript. The clarity of your writing is like a beacon that guides readers through the depths of your research, while conciseness ensures that your message remains succinct and impactful.

Why Clarity Matters:

Comprehension : Clear writing ensures that your readers understand your ideas. In the realm of academia, where complex concepts abound, clarity is your greatest ally in conveying intricate thoughts.

Engagement : Clear prose captivates your audience. When your writing is lucid and free from convoluted jargon, readers are more likely to engage with your work.

Credibility : Clarity bolsters your credibility as a researcher. It shows that you've mastered your subject matter and can communicate it effectively.

Tips for Maintaining Clarity:

Simple Language : Use plain language whenever possible. Avoid overly complex vocabulary or technical jargon unless it's essential to your field.

Clear Structure : Organize your writing with a clear structure. Use headings, subheadings, and paragraphs to guide readers. A well-structured paper is easier to follow.

Transitions : Employ transitional words and phrases to connect ideas. This helps readers navigate smoothly from one point to the next.

Active Voice : Prefer the active voice over the passive voice. It makes your writing more direct and engaging. For example, say, "The researchers conducted the experiment" instead of "The experiment was conducted by the researchers."

Avoid Ambiguity : Be precise in your language. Avoid vague or ambiguous statements that can lead to misinterpretation.

Examples and Analogies : Use examples and analogies to clarify complex concepts. Relating your research to everyday experiences can enhance understanding.

Why Conciseness Matters:

Reader's Time : In the fast-paced world of academia, readers appreciate concise writing. It respects their time and allows them to grasp your ideas efficiently.

Focus on Key Points : Conciseness forces you to distill your ideas to their essence. It compels you to focus on the most important points, ensuring that your message is impactful.

Avoiding Redundancy : Concise writing avoids unnecessary repetition or redundancy. It keeps your writing tight and precise.

Tips for Maintaining Conciseness:

Edit Ruthlessly : During the editing process, be ruthless in cutting unnecessary words or phrases. If a word doesn't add value, remove it.

Avoid Wordiness : Watch out for wordy expressions. For instance, say "in spite of" instead of "in spite of the fact that."

Eliminate Redundancy : Check for redundant phrases like "future plans" (plans are inherently for the future) or "new innovation" (innovations are always new).

Be Direct : Get to the point. Avoid lengthy introductions or digressions that don't contribute to your main argument.

Economize Sentences : Combine sentences when possible. Short, crisp sentences can convey your message effectively.

Address Ethical Considerations

In the pursuit of knowledge and the advancement of science, ethical considerations play a pivotal role. Addressing ethical aspects in your research is not just a moral obligation but a fundamental requirement in the academic world. It ensures the well-being of participants, the integrity of your study, and the credibility of your research.

The Importance of Ethical Considerations:

Participant Welfare : Whether your research involves human participants, animals, or even the environment, ethical considerations are essential to safeguard their welfare. This includes ensuring informed consent, minimizing harm, and protecting privacy.

Research Integrity : Ethical conduct is at the core of research integrity. It establishes trust in your findings and methods. When ethical concerns are addressed, readers and reviewers are more likely to accept your research as credible.

Legal Compliance : Adhering to ethical guidelines often translates into legal compliance. Violating ethical standards can lead to legal repercussions and damage your academic and professional reputation.

Key Ethical Considerations:

Informed Consent : If your research involves human participants, ensure they provide informed consent. Explain the study's purpose, risks, benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time. Obtain written consent when necessary.

Animal Welfare : If your research involves animals, follow ethical guidelines for their humane treatment. This includes proper housing, care, and adherence to relevant regulations. Always seek ethical approval from an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee.

Confidentiality : Protect the confidentiality of participants. Ensure that data is anonymized or de-identified to prevent the disclosure of personal information.

Conflict of Interest : Disclose any potential conflicts of interest, whether financial or non-financial, that could influence your research. Transparency is crucial in maintaining research integrity.

Plagiarism and Citation : Properly attribute sources and avoid plagiarism. Cite all relevant works and give credit to others' contributions to your research.

Data Handling : Handle research data responsibly and securely. Ensure data accuracy and integrity. Be transparent about data collection, storage, and sharing practices.

Publication Ethics : When submitting your research for publication, adhere to the ethical guidelines of the target journal. Avoid duplicate submission or publication, and disclose any prior related work.

Ethical Approval and Documentation:

Institutional Review Board (IRB) : Seek ethical approval for research involving human participants from your institution's IRB or ethics committee. Provide all necessary documentation and follow their recommendations.

Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) : If your research involves animals, obtain approval from the IACUC or similar regulatory body. Comply with all ethical and legal requirements.

Informed Consent Forms : Create clear and comprehensive informed consent forms for participants. These should explain the research, potential risks, benefits, and confidentiality measures.

Data Management Plan : Develop a data management plan that outlines how research data will be collected, stored, and shared while maintaining ethical standards.

Authorship and Contributions : Clearly define authorship criteria and contributions within your research team. Acknowledge all contributors appropriately.

Conflict of Interest Declarations : Include conflict of interest declarations in your research paper or thesis, even if you believe there are no conflicts to disclose.

In conclusion, the "Methods and Materials" section is not just a technicality; it's a critical component of your research paper. Presenting your research design, methods, and materials clearly and transparently is essential for the integrity and impact of your work. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your research is not only valid but also accessible to a broader scientific community.

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Materials and Methods Examples and Writing Tips

Abstract | Introduction | Literature Review | Research question | Materials & Methods | Results | Discussion | Conclusion

In this blog, we look at how to write the materials and methods section of a research paper. In most research papers, the materials and methods section follows the literature review section. This is generally the easiest section to write because you are simply reproducing what you did in your experiments. It is always a good idea to start writing your research paper with the materials and methods section.

1. What is the purpose of the materials and methods section?

Materials and methods should describe how you did your research and detail the experimental procedure. One of the most important things to bear in mind while writing the materials and methods section is that it should have enough detail so that other researchers in your field can replicate your experiments and reproduce your results.  You should provide all the steps in a logical order so that your readers can follow your description easily.

2. Materials and Methods Examples

The structure of the methods section will very much depend on your discipline. If you are not sure about the structure, then the best place to start will be to go through the methods section of some previously published papers from your chosen journal. We will look at some examples of materials and methods structure in different disciplines. 

2.1. Materials & methods example #1 (Engineering paper)

If you are writing an engineering sciences research paper in which you are introducing a new method, your materials and methods section would typically include the following information.

You can start with the top-level summary of the method. You can try to answer these questions. Are you proposing a new method? Or,  Are you using a standard method from the literature?  Or, Are you extending a previously published method? If so, is it your previous work? or work published by a different author?

Then you can talk about the reasons for choosing this method. You can quote previous papers that have used this method successfully to support your arguments. Then, you can talk about the actual implementation details of the methods.

Then you can talk about how the methods were validated to confirm that they are suitable for your research. You can also include information about any pilot or preliminary studies you conducted before the full study. Then you can explain how you propose to test and evaluate the methods to prove that they are better than the existing methods. Here, you can talk about metrics and statistical tests you will be using to evaluate your method.

2.2. Materials & methods example #2 (Measurement paper)

If you are writing a paper that deals with measurements, you would typically include the following information in your materials and methods section.

You can start by talking about the experimental setup. You can try to answer these questions. What equipment was used to perform the measurements? What was the make and the model of the equipment?  How many technicians took the measurements?  How experienced were the technicians?

Then you can talk about the parameters that were measured during the experiment. Then you can talk about the actual measurement procedure. How were the samples prepared for the measurements?  How many measurements were taken? Were the measurements repeated for consistency? Was there a time interval between successive measurements?

Then you can talk about measurement conditions and constraints. Were the measurements performed at room temperature or under special conditions? Were there any practical difficulties while performing the measurements, if so, how did you overcome them?

Most importantly, you must list all the calculations in the form of detailed equations and formulas so that readers know exactly how the data was produced.

2.3. Materials & methods example #3 (Survey questionnaire paper)

If you are writing a survey questionnaire paper , you would typically include the following information in your materials and methods section.

You can start by talking about your participants. Who is your target population? What are their demographics? How did you recruit them?  How did participants provide consent for your study? What sampling method did you use to select the participants?

Then you can talk about the survey type. Was it a phone interview? Was it a personal interview? Was it an online survey? Or, Was it a written survey?

Then you can talk about the questionnaire design. How did you choose the questions? How many questions were there? What type of questions were they? Were they open ended questions, or close ended questions, or rating scale questions, or a mixture of different types of questions?

Then you can talk about how the questionnaire was administered. If it is an online survey, how did you get the questionnaire to the participants? Did you email them? Or did you post the survey forms?

If you are doing a personal interview. How did you conduct the interviews? Was it one to one interview, or was it done in batches, or did you use focus groups? How did the participants behave during the interview?

Then you can talk about questionnaire testing. Did you test your questionnaire before the main study? Did you have to make any changes after initial testing?  Did you have to translate the questionnaire into multiple languages? Then finally you can talk about different types of statistical tests you used to analyze the survey responses.

2.4. Materials & methods example #4 (Medical clinical trial paper)

If you are writing a medical research paper , your materials and methods section would typically include the following information.

You can start by providing information about the study design. Was it a randomized trial, or an observational trial? Was it a prospective study, or a retrospective study? Was the study double-blinded, or single-blinded?

Then, you can talk about how the ethical approval was obtained for the study and clarify if the clinical trial was registered. if so, then provide the registration number.

Then, you can talk about how the participants were recruited for the study, and explain the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then, you can talk about how the participants were grouped into control and placebo groups, and explain how the medication was administered.

Then, you can talk about what outcomes were measured. What was the primary outcome? What was the secondary outcome? What was the follow up period? You can try to answer these questions. Then you can finish off with some information about the statistical tests you used to analyze the data.

3. Frequently Asked Questions

One of the common mistakes people make is using vague language in materials and methods. Reviewers won’t like it, and they will reject the paper on the basis that the section is not elaborate enough for other researchers to reproduce your experiments.

Make sure you write the materials and methods section in past tense, since you are reporting something that has already happened.

Acronyms & Abbrevations: Try to use acronyms and abbreviations for long method names. Abbreviations and acronyms are a great way to make your writing concise and save time. Define the acronyms and abbreviations during their first occurrence then use the short form in the rest of the text. The common practice is to put the acronym and abbreviations in parentheses after the full term.

Use different layouts: Another problem you are likely to face is that your methods section can sound like manual if you have too much text in it. In particular, if you are dealing with a very complex procedure, the readers might find it dry and tedious. So try to provide some variety to the layout. Try to use bullet points and numberings instead of long paragraphs to make it easy for the readers to understand the procedure. You can use flow diagrams to illustrate the process rather than describing it.

When you are using a standard method that is well described in literature, the standard practice is to reference the paper rather than repeating the entire procedure. You can also provide a brief summary of the procedure in your own words.

For example, you can say something like this, “The details of the procedure have been reported previously in…”, and reference the previous paper. And then, you can follow it up with a brief summary of the method from the previous paper.

If you are extending a previous method, then you can do something like this. You can say that, “Some minor modifications were made to the method described in…” and reference the previous paper.  And then, you can follow it up with the list of refinements you made to the previous method in order to adapt it to your work.

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How to Write an Effective Materials and Methods Section for Clinical Studies

Affiliations.

• 1 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, NJ.
• 2 Rothman Institute, Philadelphia, PA.
• PMID: 30256241
• DOI: 10.1097/BSD.0000000000000722

The Materials and methods section of a research paper is oftentimes the first and easiest part to write. It details the steps taken to answer a research hypothesis, the success of which determines whether or not the study can be replicated. Arranging the section in chronological order, writing succinctly, and consistently using the third-person passive voice adds clarity and improves readability. Furthermore, utilizing headers, tables, and flow charts to break down difficult and complex experiments into logical subsections makes it easier for the reader to grasp complicated designs.

• Clinical Studies as Topic*
• Peer Review, Research*

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• J Indian Soc Periodontol
• v.26(3); May-Jun 2022

Materials and method: The “Recipe” of a research

Ashish kumar.

Editor, Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology, Professor and Head, Department of Periodontics, Dental College, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Lamphelpat, Imphal-795004, Manipur, India. E-mail: moc.liamffider@79ramukhsihsa

In any research article, the detailed description and process of an experiment is provided in the section termed as “Materials and Method.” The Materials and Method section is also called Method section in few journals. This section describes how the experiment was conducted to arrive at the results. The aim of this section in any research article is to describe the process in detail for “reproducibility” which means that procedure of the experiment and related materials should be adequately described so that the other researchers working on the similar topic/area, should be able to conduct a similar experiment and replicate the results to allow corroboration of the inferences of the research. The reproducibility of the results is crucial for their scientific merit.[ 1 ] This section has been equated to “recipe section” which describes what to use, how much to use and how to use to come to the final product.[ 2 ]

Vital details of the research need to be described in this section. At the beginning of the section, the study design needs a description in terms of well-defined commonly used nomenclature (longitudinal, cross-over study”, “randomised controlled trial”, etc). The mention of the study design in the initial part of materials and method section is important as it helps the readers understand the research based on the merits and limitations of study design. The inclusion of study designs also help in understanding the type of statistical tests that can be appropriately applied in evaluating the data.[ 3 ] Randomisation being a crucial aspect of many clinical studies, has to be defined clearly.

The information about sample size, inclusion and exclusion criteria (sample characteristics) also should find a description in this aspect of the material and method section. An adequate sample size of a study would be able to provide the precision of our estimates and thus have adequate power of study to draw conclusions and justify answers to query being explored in the research.[ 3 ] The information of the sample characteristics is important to accomplish the aims of the experiment (hypothesis). Apart from this, the details of the approval from ethical board and trial registration should be mentioned here.[ 4 ]

The next aspect of Materials and Method should incorporate the description of materials in terms of quantity, precise technical descriptions and the method of preparations, if any. The details of the manufacturers of chemical reagents and equipment should also find a mention here. Generic names should be preferred over trade names. If study has usage of microorganisms or experimental animals, a clear description of such entities in terms of species/strains or genus species is required.[ 5 ]

The description of the method of the experiment should be accurate, concise but complete. The process should be written as a explanation of a process, not as a laboratory manual procedure. If the methods, devices, or techniques which have been used by authors, are in routine usage, and are widely known and published, then such methods do not require detailed description. But the authors should compulsorily mention the original article or references from where the readers can get information about the method in detail to replicate the procedure. If any treatment is being investigated, then exact treatment protocol should be described. Techniques/method which are new or uncommon should be explained fully and any related references should also be mentioned.

The statistical aspects should mention the statistical tests and the statistical computer packages that were used for data analysis. Use of an uncommon statistical test needs an explanation of its usage in the context of the study and a reference to the method for readers to refer.[ 5 ]

The material and method section may or may not have subheadings, depending upon the journal guidelines. The subdivisions can be: Study design, setting, subjects, data collection and data analysis[ 2 ] or overall design of the study, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample sizes and statistical power.[ 6 ]

It is of paramount importance that a consistency is maintained between the “Materials and Method” section and “Results” section of the article. Procedures described in Methods section should correlate with the results described in the Results section for readers to understand the association of the specific methodology to results.[ 4 ]

Often, few issues arise while writing Materials and Method like inclusion of unnecessary details or results. Limitations on number of references that can be cited in journals, many times, leads to this section being extremely concise and lacks details required for the “reproducibility”.[ 7 ] The details of the procedure are not completely mentioned by authors sometimes because of commercial reasons.[ 7 ] These situations result in compromise with the basic principle of “reproducibility” while writing this section.

In certain cases, the authors are apprehensive of results being reproduced and validity of their results being challenged. To avoid any questions being raised on the methodology and results, the authors provide insufficient details in this section to avoid reproducibility.[ 7 ]

The aim of any research is progression of knowledge in that particular field. One of the essential requirement for progression of scientific knowledge is “reproducibility” and the assessment of the validity of available results. This is achievable only if the authors provide sufficient details in the “Materials and Method section”.[ 7 ]

Writing this section should be simple and easy especially when this part is written after the completion of the study, as the authors would have performed the experiment themselves. This is one of the first sections written while writing a research article.

“History has repeatedly shown that when a new method or material becomes available, new uses for it arise.”

Wilson Greatbatch