The challenge of writing the discussion section of a scientific article

Abstract

Unlike other more descriptive sections, the discussion section of a scientific article requires a higher level of elaboration. This section is expected to discuss the results in terms of the objectives and hypotheses of the study, compare these results with those obtained in previous studies and establish the contributions of the study to the research topic. However, despite these objectives, the authors face different problems or uncertainties both when writing the discussion of their own article and in guiding students when they start to write their first manuscripts. The way in which the results are linked to the hypotheses, the order in which the different aspects of the discussion are developed and the possibility and degree of scientific speculation are some of the uncertainties that emerge when approaching the section. This paper presents a method for developing the discussion section of a scientific article. The proposal is based on the analysis of hypotheses, on epistemological concepts and on an internal division according to different levels of analysis. A first level of internal discussion and hypothesis testing, a second level of comparative discussion with existing knowledge of the same order, and a third level in which hypotheses are discussed at different levels of biological organization are proposed. These proposals are intended to guide the development of a discussion and gives solution to the inconveniences posed by making explicit the testing of hypotheses, ordering the discussion and encouraging scientific speculation under criteria that limit their excess.