These pages cover typical approaches for the reporting of experimental procedures and reported data, which is applicable to reports and journal articles. In many cases there will be specific style guides to adhere to for these sections, with most journals providing author guidelines which outline the specific expectations. Typically guidelines vary between journals with regard to orders in which data is reported and the formatting requirements. Before preparing any data for reports or publication, it is important to be familiar with the specific expectations, as reformatting later can be very time consuming. This should involve looking at author guidelines, and examining journal articles, previous theses etc which are following these guidelines.

Preparing experimentals

Experimentals are often the most substantial sections of many publications, for example theses in synthetic areas may have as much as two thirds of the thesis consisting of experimental. Being consistent throughout the section is important to make the section as accessible as possible to readers. When preparing multiple entries in an experimental, it is strongly recommended that a single representative entry is prepared first (eg the synthetic procedure and data listing for one compound), and that feedback is obtained on this and implemented, before attempting to prepare subsequent entries.

Locating examples

Reading journal articles in the relevant field will give access to many examples of experimentals. Note that experimentals do vary by journal type, for example full papers generally have much more extensive experimental sections and may be found within the paper itself, or within supplementary information (SI or ESI) available on publishers websites. This site has a page linking to common chemistry journals.

Theses are also an excellent source of examples. Most universities now publish theses into repositories which provide easy access to theses. Theses from the University of York are located in the White Rose repository. Theses from Chemistry at York may be a good starting point. Note that recent theses are often subject to an embargo period of a couple of years.