Many scientists don’t realize it, but a good scientific article is like a novel: they both tell a story [1]. A well-written research article tells us about the search for the answer to a question. When we read the article, we’re introduced to what is known and unknown, which leads us to the research question. Then we follow the action of the Methods and Results, until we reach the climax: the answer to the question. The story finishes with a Discussion of what the answer means, which usually suggests new questions for new heroes (other scientists) to pursue—and these heroes don’t reward the story-teller with gold, but with citations!
One of the great heroes of science, Nobel Prize Winner Shinya Yamanaka, and his colleague, Kazutoshi Takahashi, give a master class in scientific storytelling in an article [2] that was a key to Yamanaka’s Nobel Prize. (If you want to download the article so that you can read the whole thing, you can get it for free from Cell’s open archive.)
