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Research Article Format

It took some time for scientific research articles to attain this structure / form, but it's standard now.

'IMRaD'

 

Introduction

  • Current state of knowledge with references
  • Knowledge gaps
  • Primary and secondary objectives

Methods

  • Selection criteria for study population
  • What has been done, and how: Tests, interventions, techniques
  • Primary and secondary endpoints
  • Ethical considerations
  • Dedicated paragraph for statistical analysis

Results

  • Describe results but don't interpret (yet)
  • Use tables and figures and illustrations
  • Every method described should have a dedicated result

Discussion

  • Recapitulate main findings
  • Compare findings with those in literature
  • Describe how results contribute to knowledge and advancement
  • Summarize strengths and limitations of the study

 

From: Figure 1: Summary of IMRAD format. IMRAD: Introduction, Methods,... (n.d.). ResearchGate. Retrieved January 23, 2024, from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Summary-of-IMRAD-format-IMRAD-Introduction-Methods-Results-and-Discussion_fig1_366491146

More Details about Research Article Structure

IMRaD is the base structure; when completed, an article includes all of this:

 

  • Title:
    • Usually no-nonsense, clearly indicating the subject of their research; if they do get 'creative' with the initial part of the article title, there will be a colon, then a subtitle that makes the subject matter clear.
  • List of author(s):
    • Especially in STEM fields, there can be MANY authors, often collaborating from different institutions. (Each scholarly discipline has its own 'rules', by the way, about who gets to be listed as first, second, third author, etc..)
  • Abstract:
    • A short description of what the research is about, so you can skim it and quickly  know if the article is really relevant to you. (No one really has time to waste downloading or saving irrelevant literature.)
  • Introduction and/or literature review:
    • The researchers make it clear why they went ahead and did this research. You get a brief history into the research in that area, then essentially an explanation for why the researchers decided to contribute their own efforts, and why they chose to do specifically what they did.
  • Materials and/or Methods:
    • What they decided to do, what they needed to use to do it, and how they did it, so that other investigators could theoretically replicate that exact research should they wish to.
  • Results:
    • So, what did happen?  This section will include data in various formats such as graphs, charts, and tables, though the complete listing of data results (if especially long) is sometimes relegated to an appendix for readers to refer to.
  • Discussion / Conclusions:
    • They discuss the highlights of what happened / what they discovered, the good and the bad. (If they don't...peer reviewers later can and will demand more transparency.) Did they prove their hypothesis, (or in STEM fields, did they 'disprove their 'null hypothesis')?  Now that they completed and reported on their most recent research, what do they think that they (or anyone else interested in that area of their field) should do next?
  • Conflict of Interest Statement:
    • Not all research articles have this, but STEM-related ones often do. It's ethical in research to include information about whether there may have been any conflicts of interest during the research process.
      • Examples: Someone testing a new pharmaceutical product for safety who had in the past been paid for consulting work for the company whose product they were now testing - THAT would be a potential 'conflict of interest'. Or if a relative of one researcher worked for that company, as a more subtle example. Or if a researcher USED to work for that company. I think you get the idea. Precisely where this statement appears can vary.
  • Bibliography:
    • Citations for ALL the research literature mentioned (including in any formal literature review), in order to correctly attribute/cite the literature that came before them, and also so that other interested scholars can go find and read all the literature considered relevant to this research report.