By Paula Gabriela Ferrari Over the past decade, the world of academic publishing has rapidly modernized and the intersection of research and publishing has become ever more complex (Swales and Feak, 2004). In order to participate in a given discourse community, potential researchers need to be acquainted with the different rhetorical features each section of the research paper has. According to Bruce (1983, as cited by Swales, 1990, p. 133), m ost RAs are prepared according to the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) standard format because they follow the cycle of inductive scientific inquiry. Even though many relevant aspects of the RA sections in different fields have been pointed out by scholars in an attempt to reflect the characteristics of the genre itself (Swales, 1990; Swales & Feak, 2004; Hyland, 2004), more contrastive studies are needed to identify the specificities of each discipline. The aim of this paper is to analyse an...