Writing a scientific article in the field of medicine has its own peculiarities and important nuances. First of all, such studies are directly based on the experimental part. It is also necessary to remember the general rules of the work execution. Therefore, the “Scientific Publications” Company offers to get acquainted with the step-by-step algorithm for writing a medical scientific article in order to take into account all the important points when preparing research material.
1. Work planning
First of all, for the timely realization of scientific purposes, it is necessary to determine the main stages of the article preparation in accordance with their chronological limits. Often, researchers neglect this stage believing that the publication of the work will be quick. Only 4-6 months can pass from the submission of the scientific article to the journal until its publication, sometimes the review process lasts for years. Because of this, it is necessary to develop a work plan that will include:
- Conduction of the necessary experiments
- Writing an article
- Work editing, structuring and translation
- Selection of a journal for publication and submission of the article for consideration
- Peer review and reviewing by the editorial board
- Formation of the journal issue, article publication and its indexing
In this regard, it is necessary to operate for a considerable period of time, at least 1.5-2 years. Of course, the decisive factors in planning are the research specificity and the journal scientometric indicators in which the publication is planned.
2. Conduction of the necessary study
At this stage, it is necessary to work on the proper development of work methodology and documenting of the results. Of course, it is necessary to adhere to the main research protocols and to pay attention to their representativeness and objectivity.
It is necessary to document all the important nuances in the research conduction, at this stage the scientist should already have drafts of the future publication. Subsequently, they must be correctly issued in the final version.
3. Writing an article and its structuring
After conducting the necessary research and obtaining the results, it is necessary to work on their execution in the proper form, the format of a scientific article. In this issue, you should rely on the IMRAD structure:
- “I” - Introduction
- “M” - Method
- “R” - Results
- “A” - And
- “D” - Discussion
Let’s consider each structural element of a scientific article:
- “Introduction” is a logical answer to the question of why the study was conducted at all and what hypotheses were tested by a scientist. A scientist asks himself these questions when planning his work, so there should not be any particular difficulties with writing an article.
- The “Method” part also actually does not require additional thinking. It is necessary to clearly describe the author’s approach: what methods were used and for what. Some experts recommend starting the writing of the work with this structural element.
- After that, it is necessary to work on the “Results” section, where the main points of the previously conducted stud will be described.
- In the “Discussions” part, it is necessary to evaluate what was learned from the specified topic and what new points the conducted study reveals.
After the main parts of the work have been written down, the results should be summed up.
4. Important technical nuances
In addition to the main structural elements, in a scientific article it is necessary to refer to the experience of other scientists, to cite them, which is an expression of the objectivity principle. Therefore, make sure that all citations, as well as references, are made up in accordance with the requirements (APA, MLA style, etc.).
You should also pay attention to the graphic material, signatures to it, the given formulas correctness. Even small technical nuances are important, for example, the difference between a dash and a hyphen.
5. Work promotion
Even at the stage of writing a scientific article, you should take care of its main scientometric characteristics in the future. To do this, you need to correctly select the work metadata: title, keywords and abstract. If they are filled in correctly, the article will be easier to find in search systems, it will be more cited and used by other scientists.
Professional translation into English is also an important nuance. Of course, there are publications that publish scientific articles in other languages, but their number is very small. Professional translation,by taking into account the specialized terminology in English, will make the work more accessible for understanding both at the stage of its review by reviewers and editors, and in the process of familiarization by the international scientific community.
6. Selection of a journal and final proofreading
In the matter of compliance with technical points, it is necessary to pay attention to the requirements of a specific journal. In order to choose an edition for publication, you should conduct an analysis regarding:
- Indexing (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed/Medline)
- Main scientometric indicators
- Geographic diversity and coverage
- Compliance with the subject area, knowledge field, individual thematic publication direction
- Journal business model
- Regular issues formation peculiarities
In addition, the requirements section for authors specifies the necessary technical characteristics regarding the style of writing and citation, length, numbering, punctuation, etc. You should pay special attention to them when submitting material to the publication.
7. Submission of work for publication
At this stage, the scientific article is considered written and submitted for expert review to the representatives of the scientific journal. It can be:
- Published: the scientific article corresponds the requirements, the author is informed about the inclusion of the work in the corresponding issue of the journal.
- Sent for revision: in general, the work corresponds to the level of a scientific journal, but some inaccuracies should be corrected.
- Rejected: the work does not correspond to the publication requirements, it is necessary to take into account the edits of the editors and reviewers and send the article for consideration to another journal.
In any case, at this stage you should conduct a constructive dialogue with representatives of the journal, answer correspondence and provide the necessary clarifications.
We wish you successful publication of articles and accomplishmentof scientific purposes, and the specialists of the “Scientific Publications” Company will be happy to help you in case of any difficulties. Choose the “Publicaton in Scopus” or “Publication in Web of Science” and get full support for a scientific article and guaranteed publication in medical publications!
We will remind you that the material “Scientific articles review. Features and types” was recently released
