Diary - How to use proper tense for writing academic paper?

이번에 작성한 논문을 영어 교정을 받아보니, 부끄럽게도 시제에 대한 교정이 잔뜩 있었습니다. 사실 문장별로 어떤 시제를 사용해야 하는지 잘 몰랐습니다. 실제로 말하기 할 때도 시제를 제멋대로 써서 상대방이 못알아 들은 경우도 허다했고요. 하지만 논문은 평생 남는 것이니 정확한 시제를 사용해야겠습니다.

교정 리뷰어로부터 온 5가지 법칙인데, 사실 제가 기억하려고 글로 남깁니다.

1) The present simple (continuous) when putting forward a theory/design or stating facts

2) The past simple (continuous) for writing about methods, results, discussion, or referring to directly cited information (e.g. “Smith et al. [1] reported that…”; “The best method so far was reported by [2]”), or referring to past events with a specific timeframe (e.g. “In 1997, the PM2.5 concentration was only 12 µg/m3.”).

3) The present perfect when referring to indirectly cited information (e.g. “It has been reported that….. [1].”), with certain words (e.g. “Recently, it has been stated that…”), or connecting a past event to the present (e.g. “This method has been chosen by researchers as the best in the field on many occasions”).

4) The past perfect for a past event before another past event (e.g. “We observed that the mice had already eaten the food.” “Smith et al. [1] reported that the ship had already left the harbor.”

5) Sometimes one rule cancels the other out. E.g. You should use the present perfect with “Recently” unless you are directly citing (e.g. “Recently, Smith et al. [1] reported that…).