Abstract Retype with factors identified

A methods section of a scientific paper has the potential to have the greatest impact on the lasting legacy of a scientific paper. The methods section is what is used to replicate a paper’s experiment and serves to try and replicate the results. In the fall 2018 Writing in Biology class offered at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a project was assigned to demonstrate this point.  I conducted this project by first writing a methods section that included how to find a previously discovered spiderweb, photograph it and then turn the images into a multi-paneled figure.This was followed by another student in the class being given the methods section with the task of following as best as possible so as to try and produce an identical replicate of the final multipanel figure. Once a duplicate figure was made, I set out to identify observable differences between the two figures and from that, infer what could have caused the differences. I noticed that the figures had differences in the layout and size, the panels had differences in the location of the labels as well as the label’s color, capitalization and border, and there was a difference in the map type that was used. There were differences in the objects in the photos, such as a leg in the replicate, the pen that was used for scale, the amount of visible floor and wall tile, a wooden door in the corner of the photo and how much of the heating duct could be seen. From the observable differences, factors could be identified that may have led to the differences seen. The factors identified were the familiarity with the Inkscape program for composing the figures, the angle of the camera, the distance of the photo taken from the object, and the availability and access to resources. Being able to identify differences in an end product and what may have caused them will be an important part in understanding not only the data that this experiment generated, but data that any experiment may produce. Even if the methods section is written as precisely as possible, small variables may still cause an end product to be different and the ability to recognize what is different and why is how best to understand what the experiment’s results mean.