Q: In the results section, is it compulsory to compare all my other treatments with control?
I have many treatments. so when results come out , will I only write analysis all treatments according to my results that I see on condition my results or will I more empathize analyze on my hypothesis treatments? Will I compare all my treatments together with control one by one? I want to know one more in which condition will I compare with control treatment.
Essentially, all experiments need to have a control treatment to understand the effect of the condition being tested in the study. For example, if you are studying the effects of compounds A, B and C on diabetes, then you will need to compare them with no treatment or only solvent controls to understand if A, B, and C have any effect on diabetes. Therefore, for a better understanding of the readers always ensure to emphasize the comparison of treatments with proper controls.
There are generally 2 kinds of controls, negative control which will definitely not fulfill your hypothesis and positive control which will definitely fulfill your hypothesis. The kinds of controls required in your study will depend on the treatment condition. If you are testing 5 compounds, all of which are dissolved at a similar concentration in a particular solvent, then you might only need 1 control with 1 concentration of the solvent. Controls should be represented in all your figures or tables. These will be asked by journal reviewers if not included in the manuscript.
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