Q: What is the role of tenses in research communication?

Tenses are used in communication, both verbal and written, to indicate the time at which something happened. Improper usage of tenses could lead to confusion and misinterpretation of the sender's message. For instance, the sentence "I am eating" has an entirely different meaning from the sentence "I will eat." In these two sentences, while the former action is currently happening, the latter will occur at some point in the future. Thus, despite being about the same person and being about the same action i.e., eating, both sentences have taken on separate meanings merely because of a difference of tense usage.

There are three basic forms of verb tenses: 

• Present tense - This tense is used to describe actions that are currently happening.
• Past tense - This tense is used to describe an action that has already happened at some point in the past. For instance, the action could've happened yesterday, a month ago, a year ago, etc. 
• Future tense - This tense is used to describe actions that are yet to happen and will happen at some point in the future. For instance, the action could happen tomorrow, next week, two years later, etc.  

In scientific writing, tense usage depends upon the section of the paper being written. Different sections of an IMRaD manuscript warrant the use of different tenses. Here are a couple of articles that would help you understand which tense you should use while writing different sections of your manuscript: 

• The secret to using tenses in scientific writing 
• How to use tenses in scientific writing?
• Getting the tenses right: Materials and Methods
• Using past and present tenses in research writing

Additional reading: 

• Which tense should be used in the results and discussion section of a paper?
• What tense should I use while writing a literature review?
• Verb tenses - Grammar Rules