Manuscript Preparation and Report Writing

(For Class Test)

Types of Scientific Manuscript/Articles/Paper

1. Research Paper
- This is the most common type of journal manuscript. It may be called an Original Article,
Research Article, or just Article, depending on the journal.
- The original research format is suitable for many different fields and different types of
studies.
- An original research article is a report on a recent trial performed by the researchers.
- It includes the full Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion &
References and other sections.

2. Review Articles
- A review article is a summary of other published articles on a given concept or idea.
- Review Articles provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic, and a
perspective on the state of the field and where it is heading.
- They are not original research articles and are considered as secondary literature.
- They are often written by leaders in a particular discipline after an invitation from the
editors of a journal.
- Review research articles are often widely read and cited. These articles are read by
researchers looking for a full introduction to a field.
- Maximum times, these articles do not have a required page limit or maximum number of
references.
- Review articles can be of three types- narrative reviews, systematic review, and meta-
analysis.

3. Short Communication
- Short Communications are short papers that present original and significant research that
needs to be published quickly.
- Subsequently, editors believe this article will be interesting to many researchers. So, the
submitted article likely stimulate further research in the field.
- As they are relatively short the format is useful for scientists with results that are time-
sensitive (for example, those in highly competitive or quickly-changing disciplines).
- The short communication format often has strict length limits. Therefore, some
experimental details may not be published until the authors write a full Original Research
manuscript. Also, this type of article sometimes called Brief communications.

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
4. Case Studies
- Case study article reports specific instances of interesting phenomena.
- A goal of Case Studies is to make other researchers aware of the possibility that a specific
phenomenon might occur.
- Also, this type of study is often used in medicine to report the occurrence of previously
unknown or emerging symptoms.
- The case studies can be written about an unusual case, adverse event, side effects or new
mode of treatment for the existing conditions.

5. Methods Paper
- These types of manuscripts present a new experimental method, test or procedure.
- The method described may either be completely new or may offer a better version of an
existing method.
- The article should describe a demonstrable advance on what is currently available.

6. Clinical trial reports

- The clinical trial reports present detailed information about a clinical trial on a large
subject base. The report includes sections such as abstract, background, methods
followed, results obtained and the analysis of the results.
- These reports are similar to the original research article, in terms of structure and length.

7. Perspectives/View/ Reactions
- These write-ups contain the views or perspectives of an author or researcher on a specific
topic.
- Although the opinion in the report is of the author, the thoughts and ideas are evidence-
based and backed by scientific evidence.
- The contributing authors are usually the experts in their field; many journals also invite
these experts to provide their opinion as a written report.

8. Commentaries
- Commentaries are intended to present a thoughtful slant on a topic for which opinions in
the literature are either controversial or undecided.
- Commentary articles seek to provide a critical or alternative viewpoint on a key issue or
provide an insight into an important development that is of interest to a large number of
scientists.
- The commentary manuscript must be concise and bring novel insights into a specific
problem.

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
 - Calls for special topic commentaries may be announced from time to time and include
specific instructions.

9. Letter to the Editor

- A letter to the editor is a means of short communication between the author of an
article and the reader of a journal.
- Letters to editor reviews unfavorably aspects of a paper, letters are a control
mechanism that facilitates progress after an article has been published
- If the submission serves only to identify an important error or mistake in the published
paper, it will usually lead to the publication of a clarification statement.
- Letters to the Editor and replies are bidirectional linked with the original published paper.
The journal does not consider Letters to the Editor on papers published in other journals.
- Before formal submission, the author(s) should contact the journal with a pre-submission
enquiry. If approved for submission as a Letter to the Editor, the article should then be
submitted through the submission system.
- Letters to the Editor should be around 800 words, excluding references.

10. Book review

- Book reviews are published in most academic journals.
- The aim of a book review is to provide insight and opinion on recently published
scholarly books.

Parts/Body of the Research Paper/manuscript or Manuscript Design

Broadly, the body of the research paper usually consists of:

1. Title
2. Authors name and affiliation
3. Abstract and keywords
4. Introduction
5. Methodology and proposed algorithm/ Methods and Materials
6. Results
7. Discussions
8. Conclusion
9. Acknowledgement
10. Funding
11. Conflict of interest
12. Authors Contributions
13. Copyright and License

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
 14. Data availability
15. References
Note: Acknowledgement, Funding, Conflict of interest, Authors Contributions, Copyright and
License, Data availability following sections under the heading 'Declarations'.

1. Title
- Needs to be attention grabbing
- Few words (Maximum guideline gives less than 20 words) that can adequately describe
the contents of the paper.
- Often times in epidemiological studies, we indicate the study’s design or the name of the
study
2. Authors name and affiliation
3. Abstract and keywords
- Content of Abstract:
❖ Background
❖ Purpose
❖ Methods
❖ Results
❖ Conclusions
- The most important part of the manuscript
- Most of the time when you send paper to a journal, the Editor-In-Chief will read the
abstract to see if your paper can be send to external reviewer.
- Maximum abstract is to be provided, preferably no longer than 250-300 words.
- Most readers only read that
- Readers use the abstract to decide whether or not to read and cite the paper
- It is a brief summary of each of the main sections of the paper.
- Avoid the classical “In this paper” starting
- Avoid bibliographical references in the abstract
- Avoid acronyms. If they must be used, their definition should be repeated in the main text
- In general, write the abstract in one paragraph
- Tense: past or present tense may be used
- Keywords: a list of 4−6 key words is to be provided directly below the abstract.
- Keywords should express the precise content of the manuscript, as they are used for
indexing purposes.
- These will decide whether your paper will be cited in the future or not
- When academic researcher search for papers in online engines they will enter keywords
so if you put the right one your paper will appear to them and they will cite your work .

Structured vs. Unstructured Abstract

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
Structured Abstract Unstructured Abstract
Divided into several short sections A single paragraph that briefly summaries each
Background, Purpose, Methods, Results, main section of your paper.
Conclusions.

Tips to write a good Abstract

- Write the abstract after you finish writing your paper
- Choose main points from your introduction and conclusion
- Pick out key points from the methods section
- Pick out the major findings from results section
- Add a sentence or two as a conclusion
- Don’t add any new information or undefined abbreviations
- Do not add any references in the abstract
- Link your sentences so that the information flows clearly
- Check if points presented in your paper and abstract are consistent
- Review your abstract
- Check if your abstract meet journal format
4. Introduction
- Maximum 3-4 paragraphs
- 100-200 words to introduce your topic
- Clearly state the importance of the paper to the development of the field
- Describe on literature review
- Describe knowledge gap
- Last paragraph should be the aim of the study (general objective)

5. Methodology and proposed algorithm/ Methods and Materials

- 200-400 words
- Materials, Reagents & Equipment
- Methods
✓ Provide full details: don’t leave “blanks” in the description of your method
✓ It is useful if someone unfamiliar with your work reads it
✓ Make your paper as self-contained as possible (depending on the space you have)
✓ Structure this section: use sub-sections according to the different components of
your method
✓ Describe study population and location
✓ Study design
✓ List of questionnaires used and from where adopted?
✓ Sampling methods
- Ethics

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
 - Statistics
✓ Describe all statistical methods

6. Results
- 500-1000 words
- Contain Tables, figures, pictures and spectra.
- No need to explain in details.
- Common mistakes
▪ Raw data
▪ Redundancy
▪ Discussion and interpretation of data
▪ No figures or tables
▪ Methods/materials reported
Tables:
✓ About 6 tables max, sometimes this depends on the journal.
✓ Title of each table must be self-explanatory
✓ Table should not be large
✓ Include confidence interval and p value where possible.
✓ Tables and figures should stand alone.
✓ Use a consistent footnoting style (footnotes may be specific to journals)
✓ Define abbreviations, even if they have been defined in the manuscript.

Figures:
- Needs to be clear and self-explanatory.
- Visual representation of results or illustration of concepts/methods (graphs, images,
diagrams, etc.)
- Caption must be stand-alone

Guidelines for Figures and Tables:

- High resolution
- Neat, legible label
- Simple
- Clearly formatted
- Indicate error
- Detailed captions

7. Discussions
- Maximum 3-4 paragraphs
- 500-1000 words

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
 - Introductory discussion
- Discussion about the study main findings
- Evaluate the data and discuss their implications
- Focus on the key findings
- Compare your results with previous studies
- Justify any assumptions you make
- Write about the study limitations
- Modal verbs are important in the discussion section
- The most commonly used modal verbs in science writing are: may, might, could, can,
should, ought to, need to, have to, must etc.

8. Conclusion
- Maximum about 200 words
- One paragraph
- Maximum 3-4 sentences Goals
- Summarize your contributions to the field
- Propose possibilities of future work
9. Acknowledgement
- 1 or 2 sentences
- If other people or organizations assisted in any way with the experiments/research (e.g.
funding, facilities, guidance etc.), they should be thanked at the end of the document.
10. Funding
11. Conflict of interest
- All authors must declare any conflicts of interest.
- When submitting your manuscript to the journals, you will be asked whether you have
any conflicts of interest.
- As submitting author, it is your responsibility to ascertain any conflicts of interest from
your co-authors and to declare these accordingly.
12. Authors Contributions
13. Copyright and License
14. Data availability
15. References
- Usually 40-50 maximum (Depends on research paper)
- References should be limited to the most relevant.
- You should not cite references they have not read.
- Cite any references that you have used, ensuring that each item in the reference list has an
in-text citation.
- Abstracts should not be used as references.
- Check specific referencing style of journal

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
 - Should reference: Peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, books
- Should not reference: Non-peer-reviewed works, textbooks, personal communications
16. Appendix
- An appendix contains supplementary material that is not an essential part of the text itself
but which may be helpful in providing a more comprehensive understanding of the
research problem and/or is information which is too cumbersome to be included in the
body of the paper.
- If necessary, one or more appendices containing raw data, figures not used in the body of
the paper, sample calculations, etc. may be included. They are considered as additional
material to the report.

Order of Good Manuscript Preparation

1. Tables, figures and figure legends
2. Material and Methods
3. Results
4. Discussion and Conclusion
5. Introduction
6. Title and abstract
7. References

Documents for Research Paper/Manuscript Submission

1. Cover letter or Memo

2. Title page
3. Main Text/Main Body/Body of Article
4. List of Tables
5. List of Figure
6. Supplementary Materials

1. Cover letter
▪ A formal covering letter (if the the report is for someone outside your organisation) or
memo (if the report is for someone within your organisation) which accompanies the
report will include the following:
- Identification of the report topic.
- Identification of the person authorizing the report, and date of authorization.
- Key findings.
- Acknowledgement of any assistance received.

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
2. Title page
▪ Content of Title page
- Running title
- Authors Name
- Author affiliations
- Corresponding author

3. Main Text/Main Body/Body of Article

▪ Content of Main Text:
- Abstract and keywords
- Introduction
- Methodology and proposed algorithm/ Methods and Materials
- Results
- Discussions

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy
 - Conclusion
- Acknowledgement
- Funding
- Conflict of interest
- Authors Contributions
- Copyright and License
- Data availability
- References

4. List of Tables
▪ Should be after the Discussion or Reference section or separate page.
▪ Tables and figures should stand alone.
▪ About 6 tables max, sometimes this depends on the journal.
▪ Use a consistent footnoting style (footnotes may be specific to journals)
▪ Define abbreviations, even if they have been defined in the manuscript.
5. List of Figure
6. Supplementary Materials
▪ Unpublished material such as tables and figures that relate to the manuscript but are too
lengthy to be printed with the manuscript can be submitted online as Supplementary
Material.
▪ These should be in a final, viewable format such as MS word, Photos, tables and PDF.
▪ You will be able to upload this material when you submit your manuscript.
▪ Do not include material that has been published previously or is otherwise under
copyright restriction.

Prepared by Md Abdul Barek

Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy