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 which must be discussed with your professor.

You will have the choice of one of the following topics for your literature review (see the drop down list for paper topic ideas). Your paper will discuss current research and look for future trends. You will need to compare two medications or treatments in regards to some aspect of treatment of a disease or condition.

Comparing a drug to a placebo is NOT allowed for the paper. You could write about comparing Lipitor to diet and exercise for treating high cholesterol (comparing a drug to another treatment). The topic can look at drugs to treat the disease / condition in general or some specific aspect of the disease (such as breast cancer rather than just cancer in general). Medical students can also compare two non-pharmacological treatments. At the end of this guide is a list of possible topics. You are not limited to these topics. You may choose your own topic if you like.

An example of a topic is: Comparing rosuvastatin to atorvastatin for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. I would like a review article to give background information for the paper introduction so I chose:

Schachter M. Chemical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of statins: an update. Fundam Clin Pharmacol. 2005;19(1):117-25.

Your review article may focus on one or both the drugs/treatments or the disease/condition. It may provide you with background information for the introduction and discussion sections of your paper. It does not need to be a systematic review or meta-analysis.

I would also need to choose one of the two research articles that compare rosuvastatin to atorvastatin.

Jones P, Hunninghake D, Ferdinand K, Stein E, Gold A, Caplan R, et al. Effects of rosuvastatin versus atorvastatin, simvastatin, and pravastatin on non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoproteins, and lipid ratios in patients with hypercholesterolemia: additional results from the STELLAR trial. Clin Ther. 2004;26(9):1388-99.

Qu H, Xiao Y, Jiang G, Wang Z, Zhang Y, Zhang M. Effect of atorvastatin versus rosuvastatin on levels of serum lipids, inflammatory markers and adiponectin in patients with hypercholesterolemia. Pharm Res. 2009;26(4):958-64.

The two research articles are both randomized control trials and both compare rosuvastatin to atorvastatin to treating hypercholesterolemia.

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.