Introduction, Methods, Results, And Discussion Research Articles

How, and why, science and health researchers read scientific (IMRAD) papers.

The purpose of our study was to determine the order in which science and health researchers read scientific papers, their reasons for doing so and the perceived difficulty and perceived importance of each section. An online survey open to science and health academics and researchers distributed via existing research networks, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn. Almost 90% of respondents self-declared to be experienced in reading research papers. 98.6% of the sample read the abstract first because it provides an overview of the paper and facilitates a decision on continuing to read on or not. Seventy-five percent perceived it to be the easiest to read and 62.4% perceived it to be very important (highest rank on a 5-point Likert scale). The majority of respondents did not read a paper in the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion) format. Perceived difficulty and perceived importance influenced reading order. Science and health researchers do not typically read scientific and health research papers in IMRAD format. The more important a respondent perceives a section to be, the more likely they are to read it. The easier a section is perceived, the more likely it will be read. We present recommendations to those teaching the skill of writing scientific papers and reports.

Investigating the Implementation of IMRaD Structure in Abstracts of Undergraduate Students' Theses

The IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) structure is a crucial framework for organizing information in abstract writing, enabling clear and effective communication of research findings. Hence, this research aims to analyze the adherence of undergraduate students to the IMRaD structure in their thesis abstracts. The study focuses on students who graduated from a private university in 2019. A sample of 77 from 326 thesis abstracts was selected from the population using the simple random sampling technique. Data collection involved a document review technique. The result shows that among the 77 students, all abstracts included the Introduction section, indicating a high level of adherence. However, the Method and Results sections were found in the abstracts of only 70 students, suggesting a relatively lower compliance rate. Surprisingly, the Discussion section was present in the abstracts of only 31 students, representing the lowest adherence to the IMRaD structure. This research reveals a need for interventions to enhance undergraduate students' understanding and implementation of the IMRaD structure in their thesis abstracts. Therefore, lecturers and institutions should provide guidance and support to improve students' adherence to this important academic writing convention. By enhancing students' proficiency in applying the IMRaD structure, their thesis abstracts can become more effective and aligned with scholarly standards.

The Structure of Scientific Writing: An Empirical Analysis of Recent Research Articles in STEM

While the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format is common in scientific writing, it may not currently be as ubiquitous as often thought. We undertook a systematic, corpus-based study of primary section headings in research articles across a range of STEM disciplines to investigate adherence to the IMRAD structure in relation to type of study (computational, empirical, or theoretical) and field. We identified four categories of structure: IMRAD, IMRAD+ (IMRAD with additional sections and/or different order), Nested IMRAD (multi-part studies), and Non-IMRAD. Papers in biology mainly used an IMRAD format, while less than half in engineering or social sciences did so. While empirical papers tended to use IMRAD formats, most computational papers did not. Thus, our findings show that IMRAD is a common but not universal structure for contemporary scientific writing. Awareness of these differences should encourage teachers of scientific and technical writing and scholars of writing studies to pay closer attention to the actual structural forms used in different STEM disciplines and with different methodological types of research studies.

The Intrinsic Story Structure of Original Research Manuscripts

Most research manuscripts are now written in a standard structure known as IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). In this structure, the Introduction describes the background of the study, the Methods describe how the study was carried out, the Results report what the study found, and the Discussion explains what the study findings mean. This standard IMRaD structure makes the process of developing and publishing manuscripts more consistent and easier to manage. This structure helps authors organize their ideas and ensure they include all the important elements of the study. The IMRaD structure also helps editors and reviewers evaluate manuscripts more easily. And the structure helps readers to quickly locate specific information without going through the entire paper. The IMRaD structure has another valuable feature. This structure helps authors to tell a story with the most common story structure: the three-act structure.

Systematic Review Reporting - Writing concisely and precisely.

Systematic reviews rank at the top of the evidence hierarchy. Concise writing implies drafting the systematic review article succinctly, i.e. using as few words to express as full an extent of the research effort as possible. Precise writing means drafting the text with accuracy especially with respect to the methodological and statistical aspects. The Abstract ought to be succinct and structured to allow for editors, peer reviewers and readers to get the gist of the key aspects of the systematic review with a quick read. The readership needs to be able to critically appraisal systematic reviews for their internal and external validity rapidly. The Abstract also needs to be standalone, representing an independent summary that can be fully understood without the need for reading the full paper. The standard structure of the main text of a scientific article called IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) applies equally to systematic reviews in the same way as it does to any other kinds of research manuscripts whether related to laboratory experiments or clinical trials. Restricting the word count limits to those imposed by journals may at first seem difficult, even unfair, to systematic reviewers. However, with the availability of online appendices to transparently and fully report the details of the methods, results and other aspects of the work undertaken allows for a succinct print or PDF article. Writing a shorter manuscript is more effortful than writing a longer report. This commentary is aimed at novice systematic reviewers to help them learn the written and unwritten writing rules in order to assist them in producing impactful publications to support evidence-based medicine.

The role of artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies in sustainable tourism in the Middle East

PurposeThis paper reviews the role of two significant smart technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology (BT) in achieving sustainable tourism success. Such changes will maintain consistent tourism growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by improving environmental, social and economic sustainability.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a qualitative approach focusing on AI and blockchain-based adaptations towards sustainability in technology-driven platforms, particularly in the tourism sector. However, this study is conceptualized with Day's (1989) IMRAD (introduction, methods, results and discussion) framework and Hall's (2012) suggestions. This reinforced the structure of this article by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) concept. In addition, the entire study proceeds by way of accentuating the research question.FindingsThe potential of these technologies (AI and blockchain) can internalize a win-win situation for economic prosperity and sustainable conservation of environmental resources. Even though, apathy among potential tourists (of traditional mass tourism) can be revived under sustainable tourism in the region through smart technology. Replacing traditional practices and policies with innovative technologies can reduce the adverse effect on environmental and cultural resources.Originality/valueThis research justifies the potential for AI and blockchain to balance economy-oriented tourism and sustainability-prone technologically advanced tourism as a caustic issue for the MENA region. Indeed, this study has revitalized and transformed the less eventful margins of leading cultural-heritage-based tourism into sustainable profitability with concerns over diversity, socio-economic conditions, economic recession and burgeoning geopolitical instability.

Structured abstract summarization of scientific articles: Summarization using full‐text section information

AbstractThe automatic summarization of scientific articles differs from other text genres because of the structured format and longer text length. Previous approaches have focused on tackling the lengthy nature of scientific articles, aiming to improve the computational efficiency of summarizing long text using a flat, unstructured abstract. However, the structured format of scientific articles and characteristics of each section have not been fully explored, despite their importance. The lack of a sufficient investigation and discussion of various characteristics for each section and their influence on summarization results has hindered the practical use of automatic summarization for scientific articles. To provide a balanced abstract proportionally emphasizing each section of a scientific article, the community introduced the structured abstract, an abstract with distinct, labeled sections. Using this information, in this study, we aim to understand tasks ranging from data preparation to model evaluation from diverse viewpoints. Specifically, we provide a preprocessed large‐scale dataset and propose a summarization method applying the introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRaD) format reflecting the characteristics of each section. We also discuss the objective benchmarks and perspectives of state‐of‐the‐art algorithms and present the challenges and research directions in this area.

How to write an original article in medicine and medical science

Excellent research in the fields of medicine and medical science can advance the field and contribute to human health improvement. In this aspect, research is important. However, if researchers do not publish their research, their efforts cannot benefit anyone. To make a difference, researchers must disseminate their results and communicate their opinions. One way to do this is by publishing their research. Therefore, academic writing is an essential skill for researchers. However, preparing a manuscript is not an easy task, and it is difficult to write well. Following a structure may be helpful for researchers. For example, the standard structure of medical and medical science articles includes the following sections: introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD). The purpose of this review is to present an introduction for researchers, especially novices, on how to write an original article in the field of medicine and medical science. Therefore, we discuss how to prepare and write a research manuscript for publication, using the IMRAD structure. We also included specific tips for writing manuscripts in medicine and medical science.

From poster to publication: Seven steps to success

From poster to publication: Seven steps to success

Autism and Emotion: A Narrative Review

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes a variety of childhood-onset and lifelong neurodevelopmental condition with an enduring impact on multiple domains of functioning characterized by persistent deficits in social communication, restricted and repetitive behavior interest, and activities. They often find it hard to recognize and control emotions but their emotional expression can be improved by various intervention techniques that in turn can help them understand and respond more appropriately to other people. Problems in the area on emotional reciprocity among individual with ASD involve recognizing, understanding, expressing, and regulating emotions. Their ability in emotional reciprocity is often improved with a comprehensive treatment approach, especially by focused emotional enhancement intervention. In this review, we followed the standard IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) structure to critically examine the condition of autism and its relation with genetic mechanism, and how theories of emotion and theory of mind associated with persons with ASD, some of the widely used assessment tools and future research direction in the emotional development of individuals diagnosed with ASD by using the narrative review method. Records collected through research databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, EBSCO and published books with ISBN (International Standard Book Number), and published test manuals were evaluated in-depth and summarized based on the subtopic of the proposed title. A critical theoretical analysis of the genetic mechanism of emotions, theories of emotions, and theory of mind was explained in connection with ASD.

English

Writing a scientific article is a daunting task but needs to be accomplished to be considered for publication in appropriate journals. A scientific experiment or project is not considered complete unless the outcome is disseminated to the fraternity. The entire work conducted by the researcher has to be written as a scientific document keeping in mind the heterogeneity of readers and the range of journals which consider submission of manuscripts for the purpose of publication. The purpose of publication is not only for getting promotions, evidence build up and peer recognition but also as a measure of work done by competent people in relevant field. The process of article writing should begin from the conceptualisation of the scientific experiment. Penning down a manuscript does not follow the same order in which an article is read. Scientific articles follow the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (IMRaD) format when printed and read, whereas while preparing the manuscript the order is different. The methods are written first since it is the actual work done by a researcher and should be most easy to write. The findings / observations can be written next for the results section. The discussion section interprets the results, puts forward the work of similar research and ends with the conclusions and limitations. The introduction, abstract and title are the last to be written since by then most of the manuscript is well articulated. Selection of journals, acknowledgement, conflict of interest, plagiarism, referencing style and letter to editors are the other aspects of preparation of manuscript. KEY WORDS Publication, Article Writing

What Is the Story You Want to Tell? Utilizing the Narrative Arc as an Academic Writing Framework for Graduate Students in Health Promotion

Writing well is an important skill for graduate students to learn. We contend that viewing the writing process through the lens of storytelling and narrative helps graduate students make clearer, more compelling cases in their academic writing. Mapping the movements of the classic narrative arc onto the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRAD) format of health promotion writing can help authors engage in the writing process more thoroughly because we are socially trained to organize information in narrative forms. This commentary examines the narrative framework in relation to writing, reading, and synthesizing academic literature. We conclude that graduate students will benefit from seeing themselves as health promotion storytellers.

Ontological Knowledge for Rhetorical Move Analysis

Scholarly writing in the experimental biomedical sciences follows the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) structure. Many Biomedical Natural Language Processing tasks take advantage of this structure. Recently, a new challenging information extraction task has been introduced as a means of obtaining these types of detailed information: identifying the argumentation structure in biomedical articles. Argumentation mining can be used to validate scientic claimsand experimental methodology, and to plot deeper chains of scienti creasoning. One subtask in identifying the argumentation structure is the identication of rhetorical moves, text segments that are rhetorical and perform specic communicative goals, in the Methods section. Based on a descriptive taxonomy of rhetorical moves structured around IMRaD, the foundational linguistic knowledge needed for a computationally feasible model of the rhetorical moves is described: semantic roles. One goal is to provide FrameNet and VerbNet-like ontologies for the specializeddo main of biochemistry. Using the observation that the structure of scholarly writing in the laboratory-based experimental sciences closely follows the laboratory procedures, we focus on the procedural verbs inthe Methods section. Occasionally, the text does not contain llers forall of the semantic role slots that are needed to perform an adequate analysis of a verb. To overcome this problem, an ontology of experimental procedures can be interrogated to provide a most likely candidate for the missing semantic role(s).

Combining Poetry and Science to Create Scientific “Thesis Poetry” as a Tool for the Communication of Science

Research scientists are expected to communicate their science to the lay public. However, lay people need scientific literacy in order to understand science. Both science and poetry are aspects of culture that connect people and might be able to expand their reach by incorporating elements of each other. “Thesis poetry” based on the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) scientific paper format could promote understanding and empathy between scientists and the lay public, and foster and improve scientific literacy. This article proposes a thesis poem format incorporating empirical and personal logic and data drawn from original papers as a tool for the communication of science.

Automatic Structured Abstract for Research Papers Supported by Tabular Format using NLP

The abstract is an extensive summary of a scientific paper that supports making a quick decision about reading it. The employment of a structured abstract is useful to represent the major components of the paper. This, in turn, enhances extracting information about the study. Regardless of the importance of the structured abstract, many computer science research papers do not apply it. This may lead to weak abstracts. This paper aims at implementing the natural language processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning on conventional abstracts to automatically generate structured abstracts that are formatted using the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format which is considered as a predominant in medical, scientific writing. The effectiveness of such sentence classification, which is the capability of a method to produce an expected outcome of classifying unstructured abstracts in computer science research papers into IMRAD sections, depends on both feature selection and classification algorithm. This can be achieved via IMRaD Classifier by measuring the similarity of sentences between the structured and the unstructured abstracts of different research papers. After that, it can be classified the sentences into one of the IMRaD format tags based on the measured similarity value. Finally, the IMRaD Classifier is evaluated by applying Naïve Bayes (NB) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers on the same dataset. To conduct this work, we use dataset contains 250 conventional Computer Science abstracts for periods 2015 to 2018. This dataset is collected from two main websites: DBLP and IOS Press content library. In this paper, 200 xml based files are used for training, and 50 xml based files are used for testing. Thus, the dataset is 4x250 files where each file contains a set of sentences that belong to different abstracts but belong to the same IMRaD sections. The experimental results show that Naïve Bayes (NB) can predict better outcomes for each class (Introduction, method, results, Discussion and Conclusion) than Support Vector Machine (SVM). Furthermore, the performance of the classifier depends on an appropriate number of the representative feature selected from the text.

How to write an article: An introduction to basic scientific medical writing.

An original scientific article published in a peer-reviewed professional journal of repute provides great personal satisfaction, adds stature and endows professional respectability to contributing authors. Various types of surgical publications that exist nowadays are case report, cohort study, case–control study, randomised controlled trial narrative review, systematic review, Cochrane review, meta-analysis, editorials and leading articles. A study/research protocol is a standardised document, common to all research projects that typically comprise study objectives, study design, selection of participants, study intervention, study evaluations, safety assessments, statistics and participant rights committees. Once the study protocol is completed and reviewed, it is submitted to the local Institutional Review Board/Institutional Ethics Committee for approval. An outline of the levels of evidence and grades of recommendation is available from the Centre for evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford. A standardised, structured template exists for scientific presentations in the field of medicine which is also followed in medical writing and publications Introduction Methods Results And Discussion (IMRAD). Instructions to authors would normally include reference to International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines for good and ethical publication practice. It is strongly advised to follow the recommended guidelines appropriate for the published study.

Improving animal research reporting standards

For more than 30 years, individuals and organizations have expressed concerns about the quality of reporting the results from and details of research experiments that use animals. These concerns and efforts to establish better standards along with guidelines for researchers (see Sidebar A) have gained more attention and importance lately given the ongoing discussion about a “reproducibility crisis” in biomedical research along with similar efforts to further improve the welfare of laboratory animals. However, implementation of reporting standards by journals and adherence to these by authors is still patchy. Given this variation in awareness and implementation of current reporting standards, the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) decided to seek to harmonize animal research reporting guidelines so as to encourage improvements in the quality of science where laboratory animals are involved. ICLAS, which was formed under the auspices of UNESCO in 1956 as an international scientific organization to advance human and animal health by promoting the ethical care and use of laboratory animals in research worldwide, believes that improving research reporting will aid the dissemination of responsible research practices worldwide and reduce the impact of cultural factors influencing the ethical use of animals. Here, we present simplified and general reporting principles that would make it easier for both journals and authors to report details of animal experiments. Adoption and implementation of these general principles could improve reproducibility of research results and animal welfare globally. ### Sidebar A: Further reading Papers outlining concerns regarding the reporting of animal experiments Smith JA, Birke L, Sadler D (1997) Reporting animal use in scientific papers. Lab Animal 31: 312–317 Alfaro V (2005) Specification of laboratory animal use in scientific articles: current low detail in the journals’ instructions for authors and some proposals. Methods Find Exp Clin …

Structure formats of randomised controlled trial abstracts: a cross-sectional analysis of their current usage and association with methodology reporting

BackgroundThe reporting of randomised controlled trial (RCT) abstracts is of vital importance. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the association between structure format and RCT abstracts’ quality of methodology reporting, informed by the current requirement and usage of structure formats by leading general medical/internal medicine journals (secondary objective).MethodsA two-part cross-sectional study. First, through hand searches, we identified all RCTs published in the top-50 high-impact general medical/internal medicine journals during July–December 2015 (n = 370), and retrieved the ‘instructions to authors’ of these journals. From these, we extracted the actual usage of structure formats and headings, as well as relevant journal policies. Then, after a pilot study and sample size calculation, we assessed the methodology reporting quality of 176 IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) and 165 HS (Highly Structured) RCT abstracts sampled from 33 of the 50 selected journals, using a 9-item checklist developed based on the CONSORT for s guidelines (primary outcome: overall quality score, OQS; score range 0 to 9).Results88% (324/370) of all identified RCT abstracts were structured, among which 66% (215/324) used the IMRaD format and 34% (109/324) used HS. According to journals’ ‘instructions to authors’, 48% (24/50) journals required IMRaD, 32% (16/50) required HS, 8% (4/50) required unstructured, while the rest did not state any requirement on structure format. According to generalised estimation equation analysis adjusting for potential confounders and clustering effects, the OQS of HS abstracts was 0.5 (95% CI 0.1 to 1.0, p = 0.028) higher than IMRaD abstracts. More HS abstracts reported study setting (adjusted odds ratio, 4.2; 95% CI: 1.7 to 10.0; p = 0.001), definition of the main outcome measure (2.5; 1.3 to 4.9; p = 0.006) and the time point for main outcome assessment (3.0; 1.5 to 6.2; p = 0.002), whereas more IMRaD abstracts described the unit of randomisation (0.4; 0.3 to 0.8; p = 0.004).ConclusionsFor RCT abstracts, the IMRaD format is more frequently used and required by leading general medical/internal medicine journals than the HS format. s in the HS format report trial methodology more completely than those in the IMRaD format.

In the Beginning-There Is the Introduction-and Your Study Hypothesis.

Writing a manuscript for a medical journal is very akin to writing a newspaper article-albeit a scholarly one. Like any journalist, you have a story to tell. You need to tell your story in a way that is easy to follow and makes a compelling case to the reader. Although recommended since the beginning of the 20th century, the conventional Introduction-Methods-Results-And-Discussion (IMRAD) scientific reporting structure has only been the standard since the 1980s. The Introduction should be focused and succinct in communicating the significance, background, rationale, study aims or objectives, and the primary (and secondary, if appropriate) study hypotheses. Hypothesis testing involves posing both a null and an alternative hypothesis. The null hypothesis proposes that no difference or association exists on the outcome variable of interest between the interventions or groups being compared. The alternative hypothesis is the opposite of the null hypothesis and thus typically proposes that a difference in the population does exist between the groups being compared on the parameter of interest. Most investigators seek to reject the null hypothesis because of their expectation that the studied intervention does result in a difference between the study groups or that the association of interest does exist. Therefore, in most clinical and basic science studies and manuscripts, the alternative hypothesis is stated, not the null hypothesis. Also, in the Introduction, the alternative hypothesis is typically stated in the direction of interest, or the expected direction. However, when assessing the association of interest, researchers typically look in both directions (ie, favoring 1 group or the other) by conducting a 2-tailed statistical test because the true direction of the effect is typically not known, and either direction would be important to report.

Procedimentos de pesquisa : alguns conselhos práticos para o estudo também psicolinguístico de realidades concretas - parte II

This text comes in line with an article previously published in 2015 by the same authors on Letras de Hoje, a journal of the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul: “Research procedures: some practical tips aimed at studying concrete realities in psycholinguistics”. We now aim at taking the previous article further, hence the choice for the same title and its extension to a Part II. After a brief outline of what is to be expected of a research article on Applied Psycholinguistics in terms of writing and methodology, we intend to advocate the structure Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (IMRD) whenever texts are based on empirical data coming from diff erent areas of language studies such as didactics of languages insofar as these are domains to which Applied Psycholinguistics may bring the insights necessary to get to the roots of language learning issues. It is also our purpose to stress the originality and relevance of sections Methods and Results. Eventhough they may be considered simpler in what concerns academic writing, both sections may also be regarded as problematic as they imply a methodological framework often less familiar to researchers. Under these circumstances and bearing in mind recommendations of the scientifi c community, we intend to highlight some steps that may prove to be helpful in the process of either reading or writing academic texts in a more accurate and knowledgeable way both from the writers’ and the readers’ standpoint. By trying to answer possible questions asked by researchers who may feel doubtful when handling or interpreting experimental data, in line with the approach of the aforementioned article (Martins & Pinto 2015), this text contemplates four topics – sample selection methods, sample size, case study, and focus group – in hopes that they become less opaque