El artículo científico es un informe escrito y publicado que describe resultados originales de investigación. Es el método principal para comunicar los resultados científicos. En Basics of research paper writing and publishing se explica:
The dissemination of research results and findings is an integral part of the research process and the career in academia. Researchers write to keep records of their work for themselves, but more importantly for readers and peers who are expecting a standard form, language and style when reading research papers.
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Robert Day (1983) defines a scientific paper as “a written and published report describing original research results” (p.1). Day claims that scientific papers have to meet certain requirements regarding how the paper was written and the way it is published. He stresses that the process leading to publication is equally important as the content, style and organisation of the published paper. According to this view, a scientific paper must be a valid publication, i.e. it must be published in the right place, like in a peer-reviewed journal or in a top-ranked conference. The publication outlet nowadays heavily relies on the field of research, for instance in computer science, papers in proceedings of some of the top-ranked conferences are equally or even more prestigious than articles in highly ranked journals, while in the natural sciences, conference publications have little to no value in the track record. Regardless of the publication outlet, a validly published scientific paper must contain the “first disclosure of results with sufficient information toenable peers (i) to assess observations, (ii) to repeat experiments, and (iii) to evaluate intellectual processes” (Council of Biology Editors, 1968, pp.1–2, as cited in Day, 1983, p.2).