Chapter 1 Structure of a s cientifi c p aper

The research you have conducted is obviously of vital importance and must be read by the widest possible audience. It probably is safer to insult a colleague ’ s spouse, family and driving than the quality of his or her re search. Fortunately, so many medical journals now exist that your chances of not having the work published somewhere are small. Nevertheless, the paper must be constructed in the approved manner and presented to the highest possible standards. Editors and assessors without doubt will look adversely on scruffy manuscripts – regardless of the quality of the science. All manuscripts are constructed in a similar manner, although some notable exceptions exist, like the format used by Nature . Such ex ceptions are unlikely to trouble you in the early stages of your research career. The object of publishing a scientifi c paper is to provide a document that contains suffi cient information to enable readers to:  assess the observations you made;  repeat the experiment if they wish;  determine whether the conclusions drawn are justifi ed by the data. The basic structure of a paper is summarised by the acronym IMRAD, which stands for: