 Hi everyone, welcome to basic science series. I'm your host look in the Kumar and today we are going to discuss how to write the discussion section of the Manuscript Discussion section is the most important part of the research article and there are some points that I want to discuss With those points you can write a very good quality discussion section So if you're new to the channel, please do subscribe to the channel and if you like the video, please press the like button Discussion section of the manuscript provides you a lot of freedom Discussion varies from discipline to discipline. It also varies from article to article and it also varies from author to author There is a specific style that every author follows for discussion There is a no universal recipe for discussion So it is really important that you read all the research articles most of the research articles from good authors from respective generals and Then you can develop a specific or unique set of style that will help you to write your discussion section So one point is discussion provides you a lot of freedom It provides you a lot of opportunity to incorporate your idea into your research article second important point is Discussion because of its variability or its freedom It can be really scary because you do not have an idea that what kind of format I'm going to follow But there is a specific guideline that Usually I follow for my research article and I want to discuss those guidelines one by one with you now Let's discuss. What is the main function of the discussion? What is the main function of the discussion section of the manuscript? The main function of the discussion is to convert your data into knowledge What do I mean by that? How you can convert the data into knowledge, right? Let me give you an example of bacterial growth curve those who are not aware of bacterial growth curve is a Bacteria grows in a sigmoid growth curve where you have three phases lag phase log phase and a stationary phase in that phase bacteria The division of the bacterial cell is minimum because at that particular time bacteria is trying to prepare for cell division in log phase, there is an increased exponential increase in the bacterial cell division That's where you see highest number of cells in your Culture after that you have a stationary phase where bacterial cell division slows down So when you perform this experiment in the lab, what you will get is the data points You will get numbers and on the basis of the knowledge that you have of the growth curve You can say this is the time interval where you have the lag phase This is the time interval where the log phase Was there then after you have the stationary phase So you get all those data points and you convert it their data That are into knowledge. So that is the main function of your discussion So these were the most important points of the discussion section is that discussion Provides you a lot of freedom and that freedom can sometimes be really scary And it can be Really hard for any researcher to make use of that freedom in the right way Second, it provides you a lot of variety. It changes from author to author It changes from person to person as well as from a research article to research article So it is really important that you develop your own style Third is you need to Convert your data into the knowledge Next we want to discuss that what are the important elements of the discussion section how you can write these elements and convert One paragraph into a nice and very accurate discussion section paragraph Now that brings me to the next point. That is the element of the discussion section There are four major elements of discussion section element number one is The meaning of your result Element number two is the positive as well as the negative points of your result or weaknesses or benefits of your results of the experiments third important point is the broader impact or the review of the literature that what is Known in the particular research area that you are working in The fourth section is the future prospect that what are the future implications of your research that you have So we're going to discuss all these points one by one now Let's discuss what is the point number one that is Interpretation or the meaning of the result section So when you do a particular experiment, let's take an example where you are trying to find out Antimicrobial activity of the compound. So that's the example we are Following in this series, right? So it's a very simple example where you have a particular compound and you're trying to find out the antimicrobial activity against let's say three Different bacterial species So you have three different bacterial species and you are trying to find out the particular Activity of that compound against these three species. This compound is active against Species number one and species number two not against species number three So you have a result where you're showing that it kills these two particular species of the bacteria, but not the third one, right? So basically you are trying to interpret the result in a way that you are mentioning that this is The activity of your compound now you have to discuss that. Why is that? Why it is active against only these two particular species of the bacteria not against the third species? There might be some molecular mechanism that you need to find out. You need to dig into the literature to find out Why the activity is only against these two species of the bacteria, but not against the third species There might be some reason there might be some targets that your compound is Affecting, right? So that is the main Important section of your discussion where you have to propose if you you are not having the valid result But you have to provide the alternatives Alternative hypothesis for the activity of your compound so this is this is a one way that how you can interpret your result, but Just saying that this compound this particular compound is active against these two species is not enough You have to provide some a valid explanation for that particular activity Second as I have mentioned already is the gap weaknesses or positive and negatives of your result So whenever you're trying to write a research article, we always try to sell the idea sell the result We are trying to hide the limitations or the loopholes or The weaknesses in the research article I think that's not a good idea Because whoever is trying to read or whoever is the reviewer of your research article He's definitely going to dig into the literature and he will definitely find those loopholes and That's not a good thing because he is Going to understand what there are some weaknesses So it's better if you have an idea about the weaknesses of your research article you immediately propose those weaknesses into the research article and Also, if you think there are some additional positive impacts of your research You should also mention those particular points in your research article immediately after Discussing the after discussing the result of your particular experiments third important point is the review of the literature you need to mention all the Available articles that were published in that particular area So if you are working a particular compound There might be some literature available on the activities of that compound There might be some literature available against those bacterial species that you are trying to Test in your experiment So it is really important that you mention all those points because researchers they are working in this particular area and You are the next one who is trying to work in the same area and it's your responsibility that you should Mention or you should cite their research because it's a kind of chain of the of the results or or the literature That keeps going when when you keep citing the latest information in the in the Particular research area, so it is really important that you consider All the articles that were published and you properly cite all those articles and you also Write your discussion section in the light of all those Results that were mentioned by previous researchers. So that's a very important point here You need to discuss the results that were mentioned by the previous researchers and the last but not the least is the Future prospect. What is the future? What are the different different experiment that you propose? That can be really important to extend your research or if someone wants to Extend your research. What are the experiments that you propose in the particular research area? It is really important that you discuss those future points So that covers the future prospect of your research area in case of anti microbial compound You can propose now I have tested in the in the lab and I have found out that these are the Bacterial species or bacterial genus that can be killed by this particular Compound now we can develop these kind of therapeutics We can develop or we can test these this particular compound in different models. So these are the points that you can Mention and you should mention in your Discussion section in the end of the discussion section So for every result you can follow this pattern and this pattern is really really useful It is really useful as far as I have done my research. It's been very useful for me So these are the points that you might be able to you know cope up and you can incorporate all those points in your Research article. Let me summarize again What were the important points that were discussed in this particular video? The first point was start with the result because a result is the highlight of your research Result is the core fruit of your experiments So you need to highlight those results first and then move on to the positives and the weaknesses of those results then you can start discussing Discussing the available literature or what is known on that particular research question or that particular research article and the last point you should and You should incorporate all those future prospects or future implications in your research article That is really important and you should cite all the researchers that are working in that particular area. It is really important So I hope these are points are going to help you while you're writing your research articles especially the discussion part of your research article and I want to wish you good luck for your research article And I hope your research article will get published in a very good general All right, so that was all from my side and I hope this Video lecture is going to help you while you are writing the discussion section of your Manuscript if you like the video, please press the like button and if you want to support my channel You can support me on my patreon website. I will post the link in the description box and If you like the video, please press the like button. Thank you. Take care