Anatomy and physiology of a scientific paper

Abstract

Writing and publishing a scientific paper in academic journals is a highly competitive, time-consuming stepwise process. The road to scientific writing and publication is rarely straightforward. Scientific writing has uniform format, which is perplexing for the novice science writers due to its inflexible anatomy (structure) and physiology (functions). Many obstacles are allied with the scientific writing path which can be minimized by applying some simple guidelines and practices. The scientific papers have an almost similar format but, original articles are divided into distinct sections and each segment contains a specific type of information. The basic anatomy of scientific papers is mainly comprised of the structure of the various components of a scientific paper, including title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgments and references. However, the physiology of a scientific paper is difficult to understand. Early career researchers and trainees may be less familiar with the various components of scientific papers. In this study, we applied an observational approach to describe the essential steps to facilitate the readers and writers to understand the basic characteristics, anatomy and physiology of writing the various sections of a scientific paper for an academic science journal.

Pathophysiology of a scientific paper

“…The results section is the core of an academic paper for reporting the data to justify the conclusions. [11] This section, emphasizes the major findings in a balanced progression, reports both negative and positive findings, organizes the data in tabular or illustration format and provides associations, variances and magnitude of the findings with adequate interpretation. It is crucial to avoid discussing or interpreting the results reporting background information to explain the findings.…”

“…It is crucial to avoid discussing or interpreting the results reporting background information to explain the findings. [11] The results section should include both text and illustrations to provide better understanding of the theme.…”

“…[10] It contains evidence to enable the readers to understand “what was done, where it was done, and how it was done”. [11] The study “design, settings, control, exposed or treatment groups and variables measured” should be discussed stepwise in the methods section. It is also essential to provide the “study protocol, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample size”, grouping,[11] materials, equipment, data collection, experimental handling, measurements and procedures.…”

The art and science of scientific writing

“…For those willing to embrace publishing as part of their academic careers, a scientific paper needs to be understood in full, from the basic structure, currently well acknowledged, to its delivery to the readership. 2 Building a scientific contribution is a complex process, from the inception of the idea, to the practical execution at the time of writing and finally to the publication of the paper in the given scientific journal. Complexity is related to the structure of the paper, which contemplates a number of accepted sections and to time required to write it once the design is confirmed and the data are available for analysis.…”

A brief guide to the science and art of writing manuscripts in biomedicine

“…Few articles have been published previously about the different aspects needed for writing high-quality articles [3][4][5][6]. In this article, we provide an updated and brief guide for the multiple dimensions needed for writing manuscripts in the health and biological sciences, from current, international and interdisciplinary perspectives and from our expertise as authors, peer reviewers and editors, extending and complementing previous publications about this topic.…”