How to...

structure your article

1.What is the purpose of your paper?

"We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acic (DNA). This
structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest."
(Francis Crick and James Watson,
introducing their seminal 1953 Nature paper on the double helix)

One of the most common faults of research papers is that they fail to communicate a sense
of purpose, and how they extend the boundaries of knowledge. The most important thing
that a writer can do when thinking about writing is to write a purpose statement, covering:

• What is the significance of the paper?

• Why is it important and original?
• Who will be interested, who is the intended audience?
• What next: what are the implications for practice, what are the further research
questions?

The purpose statement belongs close to the start of the article, but should also be central to
the article's composition. It will help you develop the article's structure, and provide a focus
as you weave in salient facts and discard others. All subsequent points should be related to
the development of this purpose statement.

Examples of purpose statements

The aim of this paper is to develop a holistic model of customer retention, with specific
emphasis on the repurchase intentions dimension, incorporating service quality and price
perceptions, customer indifference and inertia. The holistic approach in the study reported
here is distinct from most past studies on this topic that focussed on a single determinant of
customer retention, namely service characteristics. The hypothesized relationships are
tested using data from a large-scale survey of the telecommunication industry.
(Chatura Ranaweera and Andy Neely,"Some moderating effects on the service quality-
customer retention link", International Journal of Operations & Production Management,
Vol. 23 No. 2)
Are most leadership behaviours universal? Or, are there exceptions across country and
corporate cultures? This study aims to answer these important questions. Our aim is to
highlight any generalizability concerns that may arise due to American-centric researchers
and their leadership theories. By taking a global perspective, researchers and managers
can be more confident with their understanding of what leadership means and how
leadership works in various national settings.
(Karen Boehnke, Nick Bontis, Joseph J. DiStefano and Andrea C. DiStefano,
"Transformational leadership: an examination of cross-national differences and
similarities", Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, Vol. 24 No. 1)
In this paper, we will critically reflect on the assumptions and assertions of the human
resource-based view of the firm. The human resource-based view of the firm is limited in its
unambiguous, instrumental, and rationalistic conceptualization of the relationships between
the HRM practices, the HR outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and commitment, and
the success of the organization. Our critique is directed towards the utilitarian and
formal/technical assumptions of this view, since it reduces human beings to "human
resources". In our opinion, this view represents the "standard system-control frame of
reference of much management thinking" (Watson, 2002, p. 375). We argue that such a
conceptual model does not do justice to the complexity of human beings and their
functioning in organizational processes. In particular, the approach neglects the
ambiguities, irrationalities, and emotions that characterize the usual practice in
organizational change (Carr, 2001; Downing, 1997).
The purpose of this article is to sketch the outlines of a more differentiated approach
towards the contribution HRM can make to organizational change, an approach which
corresponds to a process-relational perspective, and one which "acknowledges the
pluralistic, messy, ambiguous and inevitably conflict-ridden nature of work organizations"
(Watson, 2002, p. 375). Such a conceptual model pays more attention to both the rational
and instrumental considerations and the emotional needs and desires that influence
processes of organizational change. We base our approach on the core elements of the
relational theory of emotions (Burkitt, 1997). This view helps us in understanding the
complex functioning of human beings in the processes of organizational change (see, for
example, Albrow, 1992; Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995; Downing, 1997; Duncombe and
Marsden, 1996; Fineman, 2000; Pedersen, 2000 ). According to the relational theory of
emotions, the actions and intentions of a person do not only stem from their rationality, but
they are always and inextricably bound up with the emotions he or she has. Furthermore,
emotions are viewed as being both individual characteristics and features of the power-
based relationships between people involved in organizational change. In particular, we will
focus on emotions as elements of implicit, so-called "hegemonic", power processes, which
function as subroutines in the daily practices of organizations. Hegemonic power processes
may induce the organizational members to consent to prevalent organizational views and to
accept their insertion into organizational practices, despite the possible disadvantages
these practices might pose for them (Benschop and Doorewaard, 1998; Doorewaard and
Brouns, 2003).
(Hans Doorewaard and Yvonne Benschop, "HRM and organizational change: an
emotional endeavour", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 16 No. 3)
Purpose statements and thesis statements

Sometimes, you may wish to write a paper which develops a particular thesis, in which
case your statement of purpose will be more a "thesis statement" – one that does not
merely state coverage but which also sets out an argument.

The following is an example of a "thesis statement" from a practitioner article about the
survival of high tech companies, expressed in succinct and rather journalistic fashion.

Example of a thesis statement

Our premise: only high-tech companies that align their business models with the
hypercompetitive future – one in which horizontal, not vertical, business models offer
strategic advantage – will succeed. Those that don't will falter.
(Vivek Kapur, John Peters and Saul Berman, "High-tech 2005: the horizontal,
hypercompetitive future", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 31 No. 2)

A thesis statement should be precise, and focused enough for all related points to be
considered in the article. As with a purpose statement, it should be kept in mind at all points
during the writing of the article, and may well change as the writing progresses.

In many cases, a series of hypothesis statements will be developed, perhaps as a result of

a literature review.

The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Maddison has useful handouts on thesis
statements:

• Thesis and purpose statements

• Developing a thesis statement
They are aimed at undergraduates, but are clearly set out.

The introduction

The purpose statement sits within the introduction: what else should of the introduction
contain? The latter's purpose is not merely to set out the paper's main aims, but also to
provide context: why the topic is important and what it contributes to the body of
knowledge, background to the research, what the structure of the paper will be, what made
you decide to research this topic/write the article?

Look at the following articles and the way that they set out their introductions and provide a
context for the purpose statement.

Examples of introductions
In "HRM and organizational change: an emotional endeavour" (Hans
Doorewaard and Yvonne Benschop, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol.
16 No. 3), the authors preface their purpose statement with a paragraph about the
importance of the human-resource based view of the firm for the organization as a whole
and for the field of organizational change.
Victor H. Vroom, in "Educating managers for decision making and leadership"
(Management Decision, Vol. 41 No. 10), provides a particularly strong example of an article
which states why the research was important to him, starting with an account of how he
became interested in follower behaviour and participation as a graduate student.
"Children's visual memory of packaging" (James U. McNeal and F.Ji Mindy, Journal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3) starts by reminding us how biassed consumer
research is to the verbal rather than the visual, as a jumping off point for his own research.
"On the use of 'borrowed' scales in cross-national research" (Susan P. Douglas and Edwin
J. Nijssen, International Marketing Review, Vol. 20 No. 6) considers the use of a research
tool, and starts by describing the interest that there has been in cross-national and multi-
country research, as a preface to describing the ways in which constructs and scales are
transported without due consideration of equivalence.
Clyde A. Warden et al., in "Service failures away from home: benefits in intercultural service
encounters" (International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 14 No. 4), provide
a novel way of setting the context by quoting a service encounter from Jules
Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.
How long should the introduction be?

Opinions vary over this – some say 500-700 words, others two pages. All in all, the
introduction should be long enough to develop the purpose statement and set out the
background to the topic, but should not overwhelm, or be out of proportion to, the rest of
the paper.

When should the introduction be written?

There is a school of thought which says that the introduction should be written last, along
with the conclusion. However, the purpose statement should be the kernel of the work and
should be written first, and it is also useful to set out the context of the article. It is probably
wise to write the introduction first, because the introduction sets out your stall, as it were,
and then revisit it as you write.
2.Ways of organizing a paper
One of the most difficult aspects of writing anything is the organization of material, and
research papers are no exception. This section presents some very general tips on creating
a structure.

Organization can be represented as a flow chart of processes which consider a series of

ever decreasing perspectives on the article:

The article's purpose was considered in the previous section. It should always be the
cornerstone of the article and should be borne in mind at all points to prevent aimlessness.

What are the main ideas?

Brainstorm the main ideas relevant to your article. Include within this ideas from the
literature, which may be background material or which may also be used to develop
hypotheses.

Having done this, look at the main themes that emerge in your notes and group them into
major sections. You could try using some organizational device such as colour coding your
notes, or index cards. The following questions may be important:

• Why is the topic significant?

• What background material is relevant?
• How is it relevant to my thesis/purpose statement?
• Which are the more important points?

How can these ideas be grouped?

It is a good idea to create an outline of your paper before you start generating the text, so
that you have a blueprint. This could be a very rough draft or it could be a series of notes
on index cards. Either way, you should by this stage have the main headings, and the main
topics within the headings, so that you know where your article is going.

Writing a paper is like stringing pearls to make a necklace. There is an optimum order for
these pearls to form a paper, and some pearls are better left out.
(Kwan Choi, Editor, Review of International Economics, "How to publish in top journals")
There are a number of ways of organizing your material.

John A. Sharp, John Peters and Keith Howard refer to the "stimulus-response" pattern of
writing, quoting Monroe, Meredith and Fisher's 1977 book The Science of Scientific Writing:
Question-Answer
When you generate a question in writing, the reader will expect you to answer the question
soon.
Problem-Solution
If you present a problem the reader will expect a solution or an explanation of why no
solution is forthcoming.
Cause-Effect, Effect-Cause
Whether you have mentioned a cause first or an effect first, once you have mentioned one,
the reader will surely expect you to mention the other.
General-Specific
When you make a general statement, the reader will expect to be supplied with specifics,
which clarify, qualify or explain the general statement.
John A. Sharp, John Peters and Keith Howard, in The Management of a Student Research
Project(Gower, 3rd ed., 2002)

If you look at Emerald articles, you will see a number of different structures, for example:

• describing the development of a research project, from literature background to

methodology to findings and discussion
• chronological, describing developments over a period of time
• developing a number of hypotheses, and using these to develop a thematic
structure for the article.

Whatever your method of organization, it needs to be logical and appropriate to your

material.

How can the main sections be broken into sub-headings?

By this stage you will know what your main sections are; the next task is to structure your
material within the major sections. Here, the task is basically very similar to organizing
material into main headings: select, and group, the main ideas within the sections. You will
probably want to organize material into subheadings within the main sections: subheadings
help you develop the logical flow of your material, and also act as sign posts to your reader.

Here are a couple of examples of articles which make particularly good use of headings:

• "A comprehensive system for leadership evaluation and development" (Larrson et

al., Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 24 No. 1).
• "Children's visual memory of packaging" (James U. McNeal and F. Ji
Mindy, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3).

Note that Emerald requires that headings be short, clearly defined and not numbered.

Are there smooth transitions between paragraphs?

Lastly, check that within sections there is a smooth flow of ideas. If the purpose statement
is the foundation of the article, its paragraphs are the bricks that make its construction
sound. Paragraphs are described in the "Use the paragrah effectively" section of our How
to... write more simply guide, and should always be concerned with the development of a
topic or theme. Paragraphs should also develop and flow from one another, without too
many awkward breaks in the sense, or non sequiturs with abrupt changes in topic without
explanation.

3.The body of the paper

The body of the paper is where you recount the interesting facts of the research, after you
have set the scene and before you sum up the latter's implications.

John A. Sharp and Keith Howard, in The Management of a Student Research

Project(Gower, 2nd ed., 1996, p. 195), propose the following logical order for a research
report:

1. Introduction
2. Survey of prior research
3. Research design
4. Results of the research
5. Analysis
6. Summary and conclusions

A similar approach could be taken in a research article.

Emerald articles containing research usually follow a similar structure:

• Literature review
• Research methodology or approach
• Findings

Literature review

It is important to remember that an article is not the same as a dissertation: you should not
cite all possible references on the topic but only those that are relevant to your research or
approach. The literature review is not exhaustive; it is part of the setting of context. Bear in
mind the following:

• Quote those papers from which your own research follows.

• Make it clear what the position was prior to your own paper, and how your paper
changes it.
• Make sure that the papers you cite are relatively recent.
• Cite only your own articles in so far as they are directly relevant to your
research/approach.
• Cite papers of potential referees, explaining the significance of the work to your
own analysis.
• Once you have decided which articles are really important, create a "package" and
have the articles to hand as you write.

A common approach is to use the literature to develop a series of hypotheses, which are in
turn used to develop a new framework or as a determiner of the research objective.
Example
"Children's visual memory of packaging" (James U. McNeal and F. Ji Mindy, Journal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3) is an example of an article which takes such an
approach.
Research methodology/approach

If you have done empirical research, you need to state your methodology clearly and under
a separate heading. The methodology should:

• indicate the main methods used

• demonstrate that the methodology was robust, and appropriate to the objectives.

Focus on telling the main story, stating the main stages of your research, the methods
used, the influences that determined your approach, why you chose particular samples,
etc. Additional detail can be given in Appendices.

Examples
Efthymios Constantinides, in "Influencing the online consumer's behaviour: the Web
experience" (Internet Research, Vol. 14 No. 2), presents the results of a review of the
issue of online customer behaviour from 48 academic papers. He describes the majority
characteristics in terms of time of publication, journal, etc. rather than giving a detailed list.
"Some moderating effects on the service quality-customer retention link" (Chatura
Ranaweera and Andy Neely, International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, Vol. 23 No. 2), describes the stages in research, the methods (including prior
studies and their impact on use of the methods), the sample and how it was selected, and a
brief description of the instrument (greater detail is given in the Appendix). Again, the focus
is on the main details in so far as they lend weight to the credibility of the research.
Clyde A. Warden et al., in "Service failures away from home: benefits in intercultural service
encounters" (International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 14 No.
4), describe the pretest, including the research that influenced the approach, and the actual
survey, with essential details of the instrument, measure, and participants.
James U. McNeal and F.Ji Mindy, in "Children's visual memory of packaging" (Journal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3), describe the two studies they did to test the
hypotheses developed through their literature survey. The first was a content analysis of
cereal packets; the method of determining the packages is described, as is the coding
criteria for content analysis. The second was a study of children drawing cereal boxes; the
rationale for use of this technique is given, and the sample, procedure and coding approach
are all described.

In the case of a theoretical paper, where you are not actually reporting on research which
you did, but perhaps putting together other people's research and developing it into a
hyphothesis or framework, you will still need some sort of section on methodology which
details the criteria you used in selecting your material. Alternatively, you will need to show
how researches in literature lead you to derive new conclusions.

Findings

As with the methodology, focus on the essentials, the main facts and those with wider
significance, rather than giving great detail on every statistic in your results. Again, tell the
main story: what are the really significant facts that emerge? Your section on results may
well include one on discussion of the significance of the findings.
Examples
Efthymios Constantinides, in "Influencing the online consumer's behaviour: the Web
experience" (Internet Research, Vol. 14 No. 2), summarizes the main issues of web
experience for the online consumer under the main headings which they found to be
important in the literature, in such a way both researcher and practitioner can get a good
idea of the main themes.
In "Some moderating effects on the service quality-customer retention link" (Chatura
Ranaweera and Andy Neely, International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, Vol. 23 No. 2), the authors describe their results, and the statistical tests they
ran, in sufficient detail to give several pages of discussion on their results.
Clyde A. Warden et al., in "Service failures away from home: benefits in intercultural service
encounters" (International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 14 No. 4), start
their discussion of results by stating what they included in the analysis – only those service
failures that were equally represented in both cultural settings. The statistical tests
(ANOVA, Chi-square) are discussed in relation to how they impact on the study's overall
objectives. The results are linked back to the hypotheses.
James U. McNeal and F. Ji Mindy, in "Children's visual memory of packaging" (Journal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3), present the results of their study summarized
according to relevance to visual memory. There is also an extensive discussion section.
Appendices

The purpose of an appendix is to contain material which is important to give a full

understanding of the topic of the paper, but which is too cumbersome to be given in the
text; to do so would disrupt the reader's train of thought. If material is relatively short, it can
be integrated into the text. If in doubt, study the examples given, and also other examples
from the journal you are hoping to publish in.

4.Writing the conclusion

"It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated
immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."
(Francis Crick and James Watson
concluding their seminal 1953 Nature paper on the double helix)

The conclusion should summarize the main state of play at point of writing and look forward
to the future. Here are some do's and don'ts:

Do:

• summarize and conclude, restating the main argument, and presenting key
conclusions and recommendations
• state how your findings/new framework, etc. apply to the world of practice
• state what are the implications for further research
• say to what extent your original questions have been answered
• state the limitations of your research.

Don't:

• start a new topic or introduce new material

• repeat the introduction
• make obvious statements
 • contradict anything you said earlier.

As Emerald's philosophy is based on the idea of research into practice, most journal editors
and reviewers are particularly keen on a statement of implications for the practitioner. This
statement, along with one describing the implications for further research, should be within
the conclusion somewhere, either within a section heading "Conclusion" or "Discussion", or
in a separate section. Obviously in some cases it may not be possible to make such
statements, but all research papers should state implications for research, and most papers
will have implications for practice.

Examples
Dean Neu et al., in "The changing internal market for ethical discourses in the Canadian CA
profession" (Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 16 No. 1), close a review of
ethics in the accountancy field with a summary of the key findings of their analysis, a
discussion of how the work complements existing work, the limitations of the research, and
summary remarks on the contemporary dilemmas of accountants: "We would like to close
by suggesting that we have entered a period in which accountants are being forced to live a
twin life, one that encompasses the globally competitive, but equally integral, moral
individual."
Allen Edward Foster and Nigel Ford, in "Serendipity and information seeking: an empirical
study", (Journal of Documentation, Vol. 59 No. 3), summarize findings in bullet points, then
talk about the need for further triangulated studies.
"On the use of 'borrowed' scales in cross-national research" (Susan P. Douglas and Edwin
J. Nijssen, International Marketing Review, Vol. 20 No. 6) also has a lengthy section on the
implications for further research.
Clyde A. Warden et al., "Service failures away from home: benefits in intercultural service
encounters" (International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 14 No.
4), conclude their research on intercultural exchanges in the area of service by
summarizing their findings, and their are sections on the management implications
(apologizing for poor service) and business strategy implications (need for training).
In "Transformational leadership: an examination of cross-national differences and
similarities" (Karen Boehnke et al., Leadership and Organizational Development Journal,
Vol. 24 No. 1), there is a section "Discussion" on their research findings which is full of
obversations for practice; the "Conclusion" starts: "One executive's remark can summarize
the content of all the reports: 'key learnings from this experience were that a clearly
focused, committed organization with strong visible leadership can accomplish what might
otherwise be seen to be the impossible!'".