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146589
The latest version is at http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/doi/10.1373/clinchem.2010.146589
Clinical Chemistry 56:6
000 – 000 (2010) Clinical Chemistry
Guide to Scientific Writing
In a prior article on abstracts I discussed the need, when ondary consideration after clarity and adequate detail.
writing a paper, to tell the story by answering ques- As long as you help readers reach the goals listed above,
tions. If I extended that concept by asking what ques- your Methods section should be as long as necessary to
tion(s) the Methods section of a paper answers, the first describe the important experiments in your study.
response that comes to my mind is “How did I perform The importance of each question in Table 1 and
the study?” Yet “how” is just one of the main ingredi- the amount of detail required can vary depending on
ents in the recipe for a successful Methods section. An the type of study and the target audience. For example,
informative Methods section also starts with 1 part if you are comparing 2 analytical methods for quanti-
what, 1 part when, 1 part where, 1 part who, and 1 part fying serum human chorionic gonadotropin and need
why. As with any recipe, the proportions of each can be to identify specimens from healthy individuals, preg-
modified to taste, depending on the study type and nant women, or patients with renal failure or cancer,
journal format, but each must be added lest someone you might rely on the existing medical record and the
notice that something seems to be missing from the prior judgment of several clinicians. Detailing where
final product. the diagnosis was made (e.g., clinic vs hospital) or who
The Methods section is also called the Materials made the diagnosis (e.g., attending physician vs resi-
and Methods, Patients and Methods, Study Design, or dent) becomes less important to the reader than detail-
Experimental section. The goals of this section are to ing what protocols were followed to compare the as-
allow readers to (a) understand how and why the ex- says, where the analyses were performed, and what
periments were performed, (b) better understand the instruments were used.
remainder of the paper and how the results and con- By comparison, if you are doing a clinical study for
clusions derived from the experiments, (c) be able to which a diagnosis, histopathology interpretation, or re-
reproduce the study with an expectation of success, and sponse to treatment is the major outcome, then who
(d) acknowledge that the results and conclusions are made the diagnosis or what diagnostic criteria were
valid based on the strength of the methods and study used become key details compared with who in the
design. Making sure to include the important details central laboratory tested the patient’s blood or what
about who, what, when, where, how, and why in the was the analytical principle behind the commercial
study can help achieve these goals. I have listed in Table method used. In the second example you still want to
1 some example questions that, depending on the state that the testing was performed in the central lab-
study, might be important to answer for the reader. In oratory on a specified analyzer, but no additional de-
the remainder of this article I discuss other important tails are needed.
ingredients that can help you develop a winning recipe Errors of omission (insufficient detail) are com-
for your Methods sections. mon in Methods sections. Experimental conditions
and details sometimes become self-obvious to authors
Length and Detail and may be unintentionally left out. One way to avoid
leaving out important detail is to treat the first draft as
Although the Methods section should not read like a if it were a standard operating procedure used for train-
procedure manual or cookbook, it is the one part of a ing individuals about the analyses, diagnostic criteria,
research paper for which length (word count) is a sec- drug preparation, or even surgery used in the research
study. If you consider what details would cause the ex-
periment to fail if left out, you may decide that some
details (e.g., wearing latex gloves, the brand of pipette,
1
University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI. where reagents are stored in the laboratory, type of su-
* Address correspondence to the author at: University of Michigan Health System, tures) are relevant only to your facility and do not need
Room UH2G332, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5054.
E-mail annesley@umich.edu. to be included in the final paper. But you may discover
Previously published online at DOI: 10.1373/clinchem.2010.146589 that you forgot to include something as simple, yet crit-
tained during the course of the study, the description of it.” This statement has evolved into the modern phrase,
these experiments may make more sense if included in “method to one’s madness,” meaning a rational plan
the Results section along with the corresponding that is hidden by a mysterious action, or a strange plan
results: that manages to yield results. This strategy may have
When we evaluated the data, we noted an apparent worked for Polonius, but will not work in a scientific
bimodal distribution related to sex. Because the original paper. Poorly described experiments will trump the
patient data set included 13 women and 47 men, we in- credibility of your results. If readers cannot understand
creased the number of samples obtained from women to how and why the experiments were performed, they
45 to confirm whether there was indeed a sex difference. will be hesitant to acknowledge the results and conclu-
Statistical analysis of the expanded data set (45 women sions as valid. So make your Methods section work for
and 47 men) confirmed a bimodal distribution [median you, not against you.
(interquartile range) of 36 (14) mg/L for women and 61
(23) mg/L for men]. Resources and Additional Reading
Lastly, make sure that the Methods section is con-
sistent with all of the other sections in the final version Foote MA. Materials and methods: a recipe for success.
of your paper. Is there an important method or exper- Chest 2008;133:291–3.
iment that is missing in the Abstract? Is there a method Iles RL. Guidebook to better medical writing. Olatha,
or experiment listed in the Abstract that is missing in KS: Iles Publications; 2003.
the Methods section? Are there corresponding results Katz MJ. From research to manuscript. New York:
in the Results section to match each method or exper- Springer; 2009.
iment included in the Methods section? Is there an ex- Lang TA. How to write, publish, and present in the
planation, either in the Methods section or the Discus- health sciences. Philadelphia: ACP Press; 2010.
sion, as to why each experiment was performed? As Van Damme H, Michel L, Ceelen W, Malaise J. Twelve
stated at the beginning of this article, you don’t want a steps to writing an effective materials and methods sec-
missing ingredient or the wrong ingredient to affect tion. Acat Chir Belg 2007;107:102.
your final product. Zeiger M. Essentials of writing biomedical research pa-
pers. New York: McGraw Hill; 2000.
Learning Exercise