Writing a Scientific Paper subjectId: 674632

The Introduction:

• Objective of paper is clearly defined: Provide a sentence or two discussing the focus of the paper. Why is this topic important?
• Background information on disease / condition has been included: Provide a few sentences about the disease / condition. Give basic information about the type of disease, common symptoms, etc.
• Statistical information about the disease / condition provided (such as incidence, prevalence, etc.): Information could be incidence, prevalence, number of cases in the United States, or other relevant statistics. Is this a common disease/ condition? Is it rare? You may find this information in your articles. The Northeast Ohio Medical University's Health Data and Statistics library guide may also be helpful.
• Background information on the two drugs or treatments is provided: Provide a few sentence on the drugs. Discuss things like pharmacologic category or mechanism of action. How do the drugs differ from each other? Provide a few sentences describing treatments. How do treatments differ from one another?
• Note: A (narrative) review article can be a good resource for information for the introduction and discussion sections of the paper. The review article could cover the following topics: the disease or condition; one or both drugs; one or both treatments, etc. This article does not need to be a systematic review.

Research Article:

• Objective of study provided: What was the clinical question? What was the focus of the article?
• Hypothesis of study given: Provide a sentence of two on the hypothesis. It may be discussed as the intervention versus the comparison in the article.
• Clinical research design of the study described: Is it a randomized control trial? A cohort study? Is there blinding?
• Sample size provided: What was the sample size? What population is this study targeting?
• Inclusion/exclusion criteria provided: Summarize the criteria stated in the article. Remember that this can influence the applicability of the research to a general patient population.
• Methods described: Describe briefly the general methods utilized by the study.
• Results described: Describe results found for primary and important secondary outcomes
• Important statistical results discussed: Discuss all important statistical results for primary and important secondary outcomes. This includes p values (non-significant too), etc.
• Conclusions of authors summarized: Provide a few sentences summarizing the authorsâ conclusions for the study.

Discussion:

• Research Article critiqued: Critique the article. Provide evidence to support your critique of the article
• Strengths and weaknesses given: Provide a few sentences describing the strengths and weaknesses of the study
• Importance of the topic to medicine / pharmacy: Briefly describe the importance of this topic to medicine / pharmacy. How will these articles impact out knowledge about the topic?
• Future trends in medicine / pharmacy: What is in the future in medicine / pharmacy for the treatment of this disease / condition?
• Note: A (narrative) review article can be a good resource for information for the introduction and discussion sections of the paper. The review article could cover the following topics: the disease or condition; one or both drugs; one or both treatments, etc.

These are general guidelines. Discuss details and specific cases with your professor or PI.

There are multiple citation styles. In medicine, the most used style is the American Medical Association (AMA) style, available in print format and also online: AMA manual of style : a guide for authors and editors (NY: Oxford, 2020).

The following journal articles are examples of the citation-sequence system.

Superscript number system

Number within parentheses method

For more help citing resources within the literature cited section of the paper, see the Citing Resources library guide.