The research report

The shape of a real report

An executive summary and the question being asked, then method and scope, then the findings one section at a time, then implications, limitations and what to do next. Each findings section states one finding as its title claim and then supports it — the sections have to build to a conclusion, not accumulate observations.

The evidence rules, which matter more here than anywhere else

This is the only format with explicit honesty instructions attached to it, and they are worth reading before you use it:

• Never invent citations, studies, authors, dates, DOIs or institutions. A fabricated source is worse than no source.
• Where a real, widely-known source genuinely supports a point, name it plainly in the prose.
• Where it is reasoning rather than citing, it must say so — “the pattern suggests”, “on these assumptions” — and make the assumption visible.
• An estimate is never presented as a measurement. An unsourceable number is marked illustrative.

Why figures stay consistent

The continuity record for this format carries every figure, percentage, date and quantity stated and what it referred to, plus any term defined and any source named. The rule attached: the same number must not appear later with a different value, and a term defined once keeps that definition. Where a section revises an earlier estimate, it has to say that it is doing so.