What does a journal

manuscript look like?

CRP unit
Faculty of Medicine
Hasanuddin University
 Outline

• Introduction to manuscript

• Structure of the article manuscript

• Dissecting the sample manuscript

Introduction
 Type of Manuscript
▪ Papers that report epidemiological data (prevalence, risk factor, etc)

▪ Papers that report the trial of drug treatment and intervention

▪ Papers that report diagnostic or screening test

▪ Papers that report prognostic study

▪ Papers that summarize other paper (systematic review and meta-

analyses)

▪ Papers that tell you what to do (guideline)

Some reason for reading medical articles
Read to find about For example
New health problem Covid-19 Vaccine
New presentation or manifestation Transmission-transmitted malaria
of diseases
Extend and natural history of Prevalence of HIV among university student
health problems
Test for diagnosis and prognosis Screening for Covid-19

New treatment or program Anti IL-6 for Covid-19 treatment

Adverse effect of medical care Safety of m-RNA vaccine

Causes and predictor of disease Heart failure from emotional distress

Article Structure
▪ Title
▪ Authors
▪ Abstract
▪ Keywords
▪ Main text
❖ Introduction
❖ Methods
❖ Result and discussion
❖ Conclusion
▪ Acknowledgements
▪ References
▪ Supplementary material
 Title
• Interesting, concise and
informative
• Use for indexing the
manuscript
 Abstract
▪ Advertisement of the article
▪ Accurate and specific
▪ Explain briefly what has been done
and what are the main findings
 Introduction
▪ Provide context to convince readers why the work is useful

▪ Overview of what to expect from the article

▪ Clearly address:

▪ What is the problems (knowledge gap), aims, hypothesis and

significance of the work

▪ What was done before (background)

▪ What did the author do

▪ What is the author achievement

Introduction

▪ Treatments for Covid-19 in the early stages of the disease remain

elusive
▪ Plasma infusions have not been commonly associated with
adverse events and associated with improve outcomes inpatient
who had other diseases
▪ ....the infusion of convalescent plasma against SARS-CoV-2 late in
the course of illness has not shown clear benefits and,
consequently, the most appropriate antibody concentrations for
effective treatment are unclear.
▪ We evaluated whether convalescent plasma with high SARS-CoV-2
antibody titers, administered within 72 hours after the onset of mild
symptoms, would be efficacious in preventing progression to
severe disease in older adult patients with Covid-19.
 Methods
▪ Describe how the problem was studied

▪ Identify equipment and material used, including how to

analyze the data

▪ Include ”detailed” information (can be replicate)

▪ Important part for critical appraisal

Methods
• Trial Design: A randomized, double blind, placebo controlled
trial of high IgG titers vs Placebo
• Subject: Covid-19 patient with the age 75 years old or older
without comorbid OR 65-74 years old with at least one
comorbid
• Diagnostic methods: RT-PCR
• Trial drug: 250 ml Convalescent plasma with an IgG titer >
1:1000 against SARS-CoV2-Spike
• Convalescent plasma or placebo was administered less than
72 hours after the onset of symptoms, and the infusions were
given over a period of 1.5 to 2.0 hours.
Methods
▪ Trial end point: development of severe respiratory
diseases
▪ Secondary clinical end point: life threatening respiratory
diseases, critical systemic illness and death associated with
Covid-19
▪ Trial termination: 76% of target population enrolment
▪ Statistical analysis: clinical important difference 40%,
continuous data presented with mean and SD, categorical
data presented with percentage, calculated RR for both
intervention and Kaplan–Meier to compare the time to
reach the primary end point.
Result
▪ What the author found?

▪ Contain illustration and figures

▪ Include only data of primary

importance

▪ Highlight the main findings

▪ Should be clear and easy to

understand
Subject characteristic

Primary end point result

Time to the Development of Severe Diseases

SARS-Cov-2 Serum Titers

Discussion
▪ Interpretation of the result
❖Most important section!
▪ The discussion should correspond to the result
❖Include the disagreement work, limitation and
implication of the result
▪ Comparing the result with the other publication
Discussion
▪ The administration of convalescent plasma with high titers
of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 to infected patients
within 72 hours after the onset of symptoms reduced the
risk of progression to severe respiratory disease by
48%.

▪ The early administration of convalescent plasma was not

associated with any serious side effects.

▪ The study showed a dose-dependent IgG effect in

convalescent plasma infusions.

• Limitation: lacked the statistical power to discern long term

outcomes.
Conclusion

▪ How the work advances the field from the present

state of knowledge
▪ Justify the work in the research field
▪ Suggest the future experiment
Conclusion
▪ The administration of high-titer convalescent plasma
against SARS-CoV-2 to infected older adults within 72
hours after the onset of mild symptoms reduced the
progression of Covid-19 to severe illness.
▪ This simple and inexpensive intervention can reduce
demands on the health care system and may save
lives.
▪ Early infusions of convalescent plasma can provide a
bridge to recovery for at-risk patients until vaccines
become widely available.
 List of References
• Acknowledge the contribution of other writer and
researcher

• Provide evidence to support the assertion and claims

• A way to give credit to the writers where the author

borrowed their idea
 References
1. Greenhalgh, T. How to read a paper: the basics of evidence –based
medicine and health care. 6th Edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2019

2. Gehlbach, H.S. Interpreting the Medical Literature. 5th Edition. Mc. Graw
Hill, 2006

3. Lee, K.T. How to Prepare a Good Manuscript. Elsevier. 2020

4. Libster, et.al. Early High-Titer Plasma theraphy to Prevent Severe Covid-

19 in Older Adults. NEJM. 2021