学术论文的introduction（引言）也叫前沿，是正文前面的一段短文。引言是学术论文的开场白，其目的是向同行或读者介绍研究的来龙去脉，起着“引领”和吸引读者的作用。在撰写引言时，应注意以下四点：

1、切忌写成文献综述。在简要介绍前人所作的研究工作时应突出重点，提炼具有代表性、且与本人研究关系最密切的“信息”来论述。

例一，Much of the existing previous work on children’s gestures focuses on providing insight into how designers can improve children’s touchscreen experiences when using gesture-based interfaces. A study by Hiniker et al.found that children respond better to gesture prompts that are designed specifically for younger users than to standard prompts. Research by Anthony et al.has shown the importance of providing visual feedback for children when making gestures, and a study by McKnight and Fitton demonstrated the benefits of compensating for errors that children tend to make when articulating gestures, such as unintended touches. Aziz et al.examined appropriate gesture sets for children ages 2 to 4 years old, and Nacher et al.offered a set of guidelines for designing multi-touch gestures for children based on a study of kids ages 2 to 3 years old. Hamza and Salivia showed that 4 and 5 year-olds’ability to use gestures like zoom-in and drag-and-drop is affected by target size and position. (Alex Shaw, et al)

例二，Back-analyses of boundary-value problems are commonly used in geotechnical engineering to calibrate relevant soil properties for modelling purposes. Slope stability was among the first geotechnical problems initially tackled by back-analysis [7,13]. In the literature, there are many articles that discuss the shortcomings of back-analysis in slope stability applications [30,20,12]. Yet, the increasing use of sophisticated mathematical models currently prompts the geotechnical community to use back-analyses of reported case studies to properly identify the corresponding model parameters. Although the interpretation of laboratory tests is commonly used to this aim, the specimens being tested are unlikely to represent real site conditions of the soil [20,28]. In addition, regular trial-and-error methods might be grueling processes for calibrating and validating complex constitutive models. In these cases, the use of automatic inverse modelling algorithms is surely advantageous. Calvello [2] recently coined the expression‘‘observational modelling approach”to indicate any method or procedure that employs inverse analysis techniques to update, with time, the design predictions of a geotechnical boundary value problem using available monitoring data. Inverse modelling has been employed for different slope stability and landslide simulations [36,3,33,32]. The majority of the research conducted on this topic has focused on landslide triggering employing the hydrualic response of the slope, such as measures from piezometers, as observations to identify the model soil properties [37,1]. Landslide propagation behaviour, although a subject of broad and current interest (e.g., [9,14,15], has rarely been coupled with inverse analysis algorithms explicitly considering the geometric characteristics of the slope as observation values, which may include ground displacements and run-out soil heights (e.g., [10]). This kind of data is particularly useful for the simulation of the propagation stage of landslides. Concerning that, for a wellposed inverse analysis problem, it is very important to choose proper sets of observations-not always an easy task to perform. （Michele Calvello, et al. Computers and Geotechnics, Volume 92, December 2017, Pages 11-12)

2、要有一定的“深度”。在阐述本人所开展的研究工作时，不宜“面面俱到”，不要罗列或赘述人们所熟知的普及性知识和原理，如众所周知的基础理论，教科书中早已有的公式等等。

例一，The study presented herein deals with the key role played by field observations when they are used to set up an inverse analysis. To this aim, the paper proposes an original procedure to optimize the calibration of a landslide propagation model when observations of the deposition heights are available. The procedure is organised in two sequential steps and it includes both parametric and optimisation analyses, wherein the results of the first ones provide relevant information for the second ones. The observation sets employed in the definition of the inverse problem always refer to the values of soil deposit thickness, yet they differ for both the location and the number of adopted field values. During the first step of the procedure, when the analyses are conducted using a simpler rheology to model the propagating soil, many observation sets are tested with the aim of defining the ones that are most suitable to be used for the back-analysis of the landslide. Those sets are then used, in the second step of the procedure, to calibrate the model parameters of a more complex two-phase soil model. The proposed procedure is tested for a landslide case history that occurred in Hong Kong and for which detailed information is available [21]. The inverse modelling algorithm used in the study is‘‘UCODE”[27,26], which employs a modified Gauss-Newton nonlinear regression to minimise a user-defined weighted leastsquares objective function. Landslide propagation is simulated using the‘‘GeoFlow_SPH”model [25,11], which schematises the propagating mass as a mixture of a solid skeleton saturated with water, the unknowns being the velocity of the solid skeleton and the pore water pressure. (Michele Calvello, et al. Computers and Geotechnics, Volume 92, December 2017, Pages 11-12)

例二，In the current study a multi-objective optimization approach is used and combined with TRNSYS (an energy simulation program) and GenOpt (an optimization program). The combination of these tools is used for the optimization of retrofit cost, energy savings and thermal comfort of a residential building, in the framework of a multi-objective model. Decision variables represent a wide selection of alternative materials for the external walls insulation, roof insulation, different window types, and installation of a solar collector to the existing building that are prescribed by a set of parameters and constraints. A case study is used to demonstrate the functionality of the proposed approach in a real-world setting. (Ehsan Asadi, et al. Building and Environment, Volume 56, October 2012, Pages 370-371)

例三，We add to the existing literature by characterizing gestures elicited from children ages 5 to 10 based on a number of different geometric, kinematic, and relative accuracy features. (Alex Shaw, et al)

3、要对自己的研究进行客观评价。在介绍自己的研究成果时，切忌过于“张扬”或过于“谦虚”。尽可能少用“国内领先”、“国内首创”、“国际水平”等字眼，把评价研究水平的“权力”交给读者。

例一，In this paper, the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm is connected to the multifield finite element model for ground freezing [47] in order to find optimal positions of freeze pipes in applications of artificial soil freezing in tunneling such that a minimum freezing time required to establish a fully frozen soil arch around the tunnel cross section is obtained.For a given seepage velocity,the optimized solution presents a cost effective pipe arrangementfor ground freezing in tunneling with minimal energyconsumption. (Ahmed Marwan, et al. Computers and Geotechnics, Volume 75, May 2016, Pages 112-123)

例二，Without a doubt, heat transfer is involved during spontaneous combustion of coal... The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate the characteristics of thermal properties of coal versus temperature during pyrolysis, oxidation, and re-oxidation; (2) to analyze the differences of thermal properties in different processes at the same temperature; (3) to delve into the sensitivity of thermal properties corresponding to temperature.The results are helpfulto further understanding the development of coal fire and reignition.(Jun Deng, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 110, 5 January 2017, Pages 1137-1138)

例三，Coal fires are worldwide problems. Aimed at investigating the characteristics of coal combustion, this paper examines the oxygenadsorption mass-gain stage and the decomposition/combustion massloss stage during coal combustion.... The main purposes of this research were to: (1) analyze the thermal behavior of several coals; (2) investigate the variations of apparent activation energies during combustion of coal; (3) study the influence of oxygen concentration on coal combustion.These results should aid in understanding spontaneouscoal combustion better, particularly the influence of oxygenconcentrations on combustion evolution.(Jun Deng, et al. Thermochimica Acta, Volume 653, 10 July 2017, Pages 106-114)

4、一般不要罗列图表。引言只是简要地阐述论文的研究情况，所以一般不要罗列详细的图表、公式等。