how to write a medical research

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How to Write a Medical Research Paper

Last Updated: February 5, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Chris M. Matsko, MD . Dr. Chris M. Matsko is a retired physician based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With over 25 years of medical research experience, Dr. Matsko was awarded the Pittsburgh Cornell University Leadership Award for Excellence. He holds a BS in Nutritional Science from Cornell University and an MD from the Temple University School of Medicine in 2007. Dr. Matsko earned a Research Writing Certification from the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) in 2016 and a Medical Writing & Editing Certification from the University of Chicago in 2017. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 89% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 203,520 times.

Writing a medical research paper is similar to writing other research papers in that you want to use reliable sources, write in a clear and organized style, and offer a strong argument for all conclusions you present. In some cases the research you discuss will be data you have actually collected to answer your research questions. Understanding proper formatting, citations, and style will help you write and informative and respected paper.

Researching Your Paper

• Pick something that really interests you to make the research more fun.
• Choose a topic that has unanswered questions and propose solutions.

• Quantitative studies consist of original research performed by the writer. These research papers will need to include sections like Hypothesis (or Research Question), Previous Findings, Method, Limitations, Results, Discussion, and Application.
• Synthesis papers review the research already published and analyze it. They find weaknesses and strengths in the research, apply it to a specific situation, and then indicate a direction for future research.

• Keep track of your sources. Write down all publication information necessary for citation: author, title of article, title of book or journal, publisher, edition, date published, volume number, issue number, page number, and anything else pertaining to your source. A program like Endnote can help you keep track of your sources.
• Take detailed notes as you read. Paraphrase information in your own words or if you copy directly from the article or book, indicate that these are direct quotes by using quotation marks to prevent plagiarism.
• Be sure to keep all of your notes with the correct source.
• Your professor and librarians can also help you find good resources.

• Keep all of your notes in a physical folder or in a digitized form on the computer.
• Start to form the basic outline of your paper using the notes you have collected.

Writing Your Paper

• Start with bullet points and then add in notes you've taken from references that support your ideas. [1] X Trustworthy Source PubMed Central Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Go to source
• A common way to format research papers is to follow the IMRAD format. This dictates the structure of your paper in the following order: I ntroduction, M ethods, R esults, a nd D iscussion. [2] X Research source
• The outline is just the basic structure of your paper. Don't worry if you have to rearrange a few times to get it right.
• Ask others to look over your outline and get feedback on the organization.
• Know the audience you are writing for and adjust your style accordingly. [3] X Research source

• Use a standard font type and size, such as Times New Roman 12 point font.
• Double-space your paper.
• If necessary, create a cover page. Most schools require a cover page of some sort. Include your main title, running title (often a shortened version of your main title), author's name, course name, and semester.

• Break up information into sections and subsections and address one main point per section.
• Include any figures or data tables that support your main ideas.
• For a quantitative study, state the methods used to obtain results.

• Clearly state and summarize the main points of your research paper.
• Discuss how this research contributes to the field and why it is important. [4] X Research source
• Highlight potential applications of the theory if appropriate.
• Propose future directions that build upon the research you have presented. [5] X Research source
• Keep the introduction and discussion short, and spend more time explaining the methods and results.

• State why the problem is important to address.
• Discuss what is currently known and what is lacking in the field.
• State the objective of your paper.
• Keep the introduction short.

• Highlight the purpose of the paper and the main conclusions.
• State why your conclusions are important.
• Be concise in your summary of the paper.
• Show that you have a solid study design and a high-quality data set.
• Abstracts are usually one paragraph and between 250 – 500 words.

• Unless otherwise directed, use the American Medical Association (AMA) style guide to properly format citations.
• Add citations at end of a sentence to indicate that you are using someone else's idea. Use these throughout your research paper as needed. They include the author's last name, year of publication, and page number.
• Compile your reference list and add it to the end of your paper.
• Use a citation program if you have access to one to simplify the process.

• Continually revise your paper to make sure it is structured in a logical way.
• Proofread your paper for spelling and grammatical errors.
• Make sure you are following the proper formatting guidelines provided for the paper.
• Have others read your paper to proofread and check for clarity. Revise as needed.

Expert Q&A

• Ask your professor for help if you are stuck or confused about any part of your research paper. They are familiar with the style and structure of papers and can provide you with more resources. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Refer to your professor's specific guidelines. Some instructors modify parts of a research paper to better fit their assignment. Others may request supplementary details, such as a synopsis for your research project . Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Set aside blocks of time specifically for writing each day. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Do not plagiarize. Plagiarism is using someone else's work, words, or ideas and presenting them as your own. It is important to cite all sources in your research paper, both through internal citations and on your reference page. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178846/
• ↑ http://owl.excelsior.edu/research-and-citations/outlining/outlining-imrad/
• ↑ http://china.elsevier.com/ElsevierDNN/Portals/7/How%20to%20write%20a%20world-class%20paper.pdf
• ↑ http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/191
• ↑ http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html#form

About This Article

To write a medical research paper, research your topic thoroughly and compile your data. Next, organize your notes and create a strong outline that breaks up the information into sections and subsections, addressing one main point per section. Write the results and discussion sections first to go over your findings, then write the introduction to state your objective and provide background information. Finally, write the abstract, which concisely summarizes the article by highlighting the main points. For tips on formatting and using citations, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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A Brief Guide To Writing Your First Scientific Manuscript

I’ve had the privilege of writing a few manuscripts in my research career to date, and helping trainees write them. It’s hard work, but planning and organization helps. Here’s some thoughts on how to approach writing manuscripts based on original biomedical research.

Getting ready to write

Involve your principal investigator (PI) early and throughout the process. It’s our job to help you write!

Write down your hypothesis/research question. Everything else will be spun around this.

Gather your proposed figures and tables in a sequence that tells a story. This will form the basis of your Results section. Write bulleted captions for the figures/tables, including a title that explains the key finding for each figure/table, an explanation of experimental groups and associated symbols/labels, and details on biological and technical replicates and statements (such as “one of four representative experiments are shown.”)

Generate a bulleted outline of the major points for each section of the manuscript. This depends on the journal, but typically, and with minor variations: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. Use Endnote, Reference Manager, Mendeley, or other citation software to start inserting references to go with bullets. Decide from the beginning what word processing software you’ll use (Word, Google Docs, etc.). Google Docs can be helpful for maintaining a single version of the manuscript, but citation software often doesn’t play well with Google Docs (whereas most software options can automatically update citation changes in Word). Here’s what should go in each of these sections:

Introduction: What did you study, and why is it important? What is your hypothesis/research question?

Methods: What techniques did you use? Each technique should be its own bullet, with sub-bullets for key details. If you used animal or human subjects, include a bullet on ethics approval. Important methodologies and materials, i.e., blinding for subjective analyses, full names of cell lines/strains/reagents and your commercial/academic sources for them.

Results: What were your findings? Each major finding should be its own bullet, with sub-bullets going into more detail for each major finding. These bullets should refer to your figures.

Discussion: Summarize your findings in the context of prior work. Discuss possible interpretations. It is important to include a bullet describing the limitations of the presented work. Mention possible future directions.

Now read the entire outline (including the figures). Is it a complete story? If so, you’re ready to prepare for submission. If not, you should have a good idea of what it will take to finish the manuscript.

Writing your manuscript

You first need to decide where you want to submit your manuscript. I like to consider my ideal target audience. I also like to vary which journals I publish in, both to broaden the potential readers of my papers and to avoid the appearance of having an unfair “inside connection” to a given journal. Your academic reputation is priceless.

Once you’ve chosen your journal, look at the journal’s article types. Decide which article type you would like to submit and reformat your outline according to the journal’s standards (including citation style).

Convert your outline (including the figure captions) to complete sentences. Don’t focus on writing perfect prose for the first draft. Write your abstract after the first draft is completed. Make sure the manuscript conforms to the target journal’s word and figure limits.

Discuss all possible authors with your PI. If the study involved many people, create a table of possible authors showing their specific contributions to the manuscript. (This is helpful to do in any case as many journals now require this information.) Assigning authorship is sometimes complicated, but keep in mind that the Acknowledgements can be used to recognize those who made minor contributions (including reading the manuscript to provide feedback). “Equal contribution” authorship positions for the first and last authors is a newer option for a number of journals. An alternative is to generate the initial outline or first draft with the help of co-authors. This can take a lot more work and coordination, but may make sense for highly collaborative and large manuscripts.

Decide with your PI who will be corresponding author. Usually you or the PI.

Circulate the manuscript draft to all possible authors. Thank them for their prior and ongoing support. Inform your co-authors where you would like to send the manuscript and why. Give them a reasonable deadline to provide feedback (minimum of a few weeks). If you use Microsoft Word, ask your co-authors to use track changes.

Collate comments from your co-authors. The Combine Documents function in Word can be very helpful. Consider reconciling all comments and tracked changes before circulating another manuscript draft so that co-authors can read a “clean” copy. Repeat this process until you and your PI (and co-authors) are satisfied that the manuscript is ready for submission.

Some prefer to avoid listing authors on manuscript drafts until the final version is generated because the relative contributions of authors can shift during manuscript preparation.

Submit your manuscript

Write a cover letter for your manuscript. Put it on institutional letterhead, if you are permitted by the journal’s submission system. This makes the cover letter, and by extension, the manuscript, more professional. Some journals have required language for cover letters regarding simultaneous submissions to other journals. It’s common for journals to require that cover letters include a rationale explaining the impact and findings of the manuscript. If you need to do this, include key references and a citation list at the end of the cover letter.

Most journals will require you to provide keywords, and/or to choose subject areas related to the manuscript. Be prepared to do so.

Conflicts of interest should be declared in the manuscript, even if the journal does not explicitly request this. Ask your co-authors about any such potential conflicts.

Gather names and official designations of any grants that supported the work described in your manuscript. Ask your co-authors and your PI. This is very important for funding agencies such as the NIH, which scrutinize the productivity of their funded investigators and take this into account when reviewing future grants.

It’s common for journals to allow you to suggest an editor to handle your manuscript. Editors with expertise in your area are more likely to be able to identify and recruit reviewers who are also well-versed in the subject matter of your manuscript. Discuss this with your PI and co-authors.

Likewise, journals often allow authors to suggest reviewers. Some meta-literature indicates that manuscripts with suggested reviewers have an overall higher acceptance rate. It also behooves you to have expert reviewers that can evaluate your manuscript fairly, but also provide feedback that can improve your paper if revisions are recommended. Avoid suggesting reviewers at your own institution or who have recently written papers or been awarded grants with you. Savvy editors look for these types of relationships between reviewers and authors, and will nix a suggested reviewer with any potential conflict of interest. Discuss suggested reviewers with your PI and co-authors.

On the flip side, many journals will allow you to list opposed reviewers. If you believe that someone specific will provide a negatively biased review for non-scientific reasons, that is grounds for opposing them as your manuscript’s reviewer. In small fields, it may not be possible to exclude reviewers and still undergo expert peer review. Definitely a must-discuss with your PI and co-authors.

Generate a final version of the manuscript. Most journals use online submission systems that mandate uploading individual files for the manuscript, cover letter, etc. You may have to use pdf converting software (i.e., Adobe Acrobat) to change Word documents to pdf’s, or to combine documents into a single pdf. Review the final version, including the resolution and appearance of figures. Make sure that no edges of text or graphics near page margins are cut off (Adobe Acrobat sometimes does this with Microsoft Word). Send the final version to your PI and co-authors. Revise any errors. Then submit! Good luck!

Edited by Bill Sullivan, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine.

Michael Hsieh is the Stirewalt Scientific Director of the Biomedical Research Institute and an Associate Professor at the George Washington University, where he studies host-pathogen interactions in the urinary tract. Michael has published over 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His work has been featured on PBS and in the New York Times.

Your article is wonderful. just read it. you advise very correctly. I am an experienced writer. I write articles on various scientific topics. and even I took some information for myself, who I have not used before. Your article will help many novice writers. I’m sure of it. You very well described all the points of your article. I completely agree with them. most difficult to determine the target audience. Thanks to your article, everyone who needs some kind of help can get it by reading your article. Thanks you

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How to Write Better Medical Papers

• © 2019
• Michael Hanna 0

Mercury Medical Research & Writing, New York, USA

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• Assists clinicians and researchers in writing papers for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals in medicine, health, and life sciences
• A step-by-step guide from analyzing the data to writing each part of the manuscript to revising and publishing the paper
• Includes careful referencing and an extensive annotated bibliography to guide readers to further resources in the vast literature on medical scientific writing

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About this book

This book guides medical researchers through all stages of transforming their scientific data and ideas into a published paper.  Many researchers in medicine, including the life sciences and health sciences, struggle to get their research written and published.  Manuscripts are typically rejected and/or sent back for revisions several times before ever being published.  One reason for this is that researchers have not received much instruction in the specific subjects and skills needed to write and publish scientific medical papers:  research methodology, ethics, statistics, data visualization, writing, revising, and the practicalities of publishing. 

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A Practical Guide to Writing (and Understanding) a Scientific Paper: Clinical Studies

Writing a Scientific Article

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• medical writing
• scientific writing
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• research ethics

Table of contents (60 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Michael Hanna

The Ethical Foundations of Medical Scientific Writing

Ethics of conducting research, searching the literature, the elevator speech, the outline, envision your readers, ethics of data analysis, data preparation, statistics: general principles, statistics: common mistakes, presentation: figures versus tables versus text, figures: general guidance, authors and affiliations, mercury medical research & writing, new york, usa, about the author.

Michael Hanna, PhD, is an independent Medical Writer and Research Consultant from New York City.  He has over a decade of experience consulting on study design, conducting literature reviews, performing statistical analysis, and writing and editing scientific papers across the spectrum of medical specialties.  He has lectured widely in Europe and North America on medical writing and has mentored many researchers and medical residents on scientific writing.

            Michael Hanna earned a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Cologne, Germany,  and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University’s medical school in New York City.  Previously, he earned a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Paris VIII and a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and in French Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, USA.

            Prior to becoming a professional Medical Writer and Research Consultant, Michael Hanna taught at the University Hospital of Aachen, Germany.  He also acquired clinical and scientific experience at the University of Cologne, Germany; the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Paris, France; and other specialized clinics in America and Europe.  He is fluent in German, French, and Spanish.   

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : How to Write Better Medical Papers

Authors : Michael Hanna

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02955-5

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Medicine , Medicine (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-02954-8 Published: 29 March 2019

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-02955-5 Published: 20 March 2019

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XI, 335

Number of Illustrations : 8 illustrations in colour

Topics : Internal Medicine , Primary Care Medicine

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• 08 May 2019

Toolkit: How to write a great paper

A clear format will ensure that your research paper is understood by your readers. Follow:

1. Context — your introduction

2. Content — your results

3. Conclusion — your discussion

Plan your paper carefully and decide where each point will sit within the framework before you begin writing.

Collection: Careers toolkit

Straightforward writing

Scientific writing should always aim to be A, B and C: Accurate, Brief, and Clear. Never choose a long word when a short one will do. Use simple language to communicate your results. Always aim to distill your message down into the simplest sentence possible.

Choose a title

A carefully conceived title will communicate the single core message of your research paper. It should be D, E, F: Declarative, Engaging and Focused.

Conclusions

Add a sentence or two at the end of your concluding statement that sets out your plans for further research. What is next for you or others working in your field?

Find out more

See additional information .

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01362-9

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Professional Medical Writing & Editing Services

The Ultimate Guide for Medical Manuscript Writing

Medical Manuscript writing can be overwhelming, but there are some tried-and-true techniques and creative tips that can dramatically simplify the process.

We mined the literature for strategies plus revealed some tricks from our seasoned writers to help you get your manuscript written and published.

In this document, we focused our attention on manuscripts since they are one of the most common types of medical writing . However, these are techniques that can be useful for any medical writing project.

What is good medical manuscript writing?

When you’re writing for a scientific audience it’s important to write with three C’s in mind:

• Clear: Don’t be ambiguous or leave anything to the imagination.
• Concise: Use brief, simple language and avoid repetition/redundancy.
• Correct: Be accurate, and don’t overstate the significance of your results.

Good medical writing is never more complicated than it needs to be.

Make it easy for your audience by keeping your language clear and simple.

How is medical writing different?

Many people want to know how writing healthcare blog topics is different from other types of writing. The answer is simple: it isn’t.

Good writing has a goal and a target audience and they will influence how you write, regardless of what you’re writing. A good manuscript is rooted in a good story.

Even data-driven medical texts can be delivered in an engaging way. Most of us can think of examples of stand-out papers in our field of expertise.

At their best these papers are entertaining and thought-provoking even while they deliver complicated, data-heavy material.

Make an Outline for your Manuscript

Before you start writing you need to have a clear understanding of the type and scope of your writing.

For example, consider exactly what you are writing. Is it a case study, textbook chapter , or literature review? These distinctions have important implications for how you craft and present your material.

An outline should be an obvious place to start, but you’d be surprised at how often this step is skipped.

How to structure your medial manuscript outline

When possible, before you start your outline you should understand the formatting requirements for your targeted publisher.

Many publishers specify abstract headings and have specific requirements for what can (and can’t) be included in the body of your text.

Use the outline as a way to narrow down the research you’ll need to do as you write.

It is an unfortunate fact of life: the abstract is often the only portion of a paper that ever gets read. For this reason, your abstract needs to convey the most important points from your paper in 300 words or less. Note what these points are in your abstract.

Make sure you know what your publisher expects from your abstract. Some journals limit you to 150 words or require that you arrange your abstract using specific headers.

You may need to include an objective or a statement of impact as well.

Most publishers ask authors to provide some keywords. Think about the keywords you’d use to search for your paper and write them down.

Keywords that are more general will increase the number of search results your paper will appear in. For example, use “spinal cord stimulation” instead of “neuromodulation.”

Define your goal

Is your goal to present new research data or to provide a meta-analysis of existing data? By clarifying the goal of your manuscript you can streamline preparation and writing.

Defining the goal is one of the secrets of successful grants and manuscripts of top biomedical PIs . Having a well-defined goal will also help you find the most appropriate publisher.

Keep your target audience in mind as you define your goal.

Introduction/background

The outline for your intro should note the current state of the field and identify knowledge gaps.

A good way to understand how to arrange your intro is by looking at similar papers that have been published by your target journal.

A standard approach to an intro can be broken down as follows:

• First paragraph: Current knowledge and foundational referencesYou’re paving the way for your readers to understand your objective
• Second paragraph: Introduce your specific topic and identify knowledge gaps
• Third paragraph: Clearly identify your aim

Key references and identifying your hypothesis and aim(s).

Methods Briefly list your methods and timeframe, but don’t get too detailed. This is just an outline.

Results The results section can be the most challenging to organize.

To simplify the writing process, state your overall question and create subsections for each dataset.

List the experiments you did and your results.

In your outline, identify data that should be presented in a figure or table. Save any subjective interpretations for the discussion section.

Discussion Your outline for the discussion should pick up where the introduction left off.

For example, if your intro ends with an aim, your discussion should start by restating your aim and reminding your readers of the knowledge gap(s) that you are addressing.

Your discussion needs to address each set of experiments and your interpretation, but don’t simply restate your results section.

Timeline Make a timeline for your manuscript and specify a submission date to help keep you on track.

Questions to consider when making your discussion outline include:

• How do your data relate to your original question?
• Do they support your hypothesis?
• Are your results consistent with what other researchers have found?
• If you had unexpected results, is there an explanation for them?
• Consider your data from the perspective of a competitor. Can you punch holes in your argument?
• Address potential concerns about your data head on. Don’t try to hide them or gloss over them.
• If you weren’t able to fully address your question(s) or aim(s), what else do you need to do?
• How do your data fit into the big picture?

Include a discussion subsection for each of your results subsections where you can subjectively interpret your data. Your outline should include the points you want to make in each subsection as well as your overall goal.

Conclude your discussion with a one sentence summary of your conclusion and its relevance to the field.

Again, don’t forget to write to your target audience!

Additional Resources for Medical Writing

Templates for Building a Perfect Writing Plan:

• Scope of work guide
• 30 Scope of work templates
• Medical cover letter + Templates
• Detailed guide of medical manuscript Scope of Work
• Short guide of scope of work for a medical journal

Know the Literature Before You Write Anything

An effective medical or scientific manuscript provides compelling information that builds on the existing literature and advances what is currently known.

This means you need to have a thorough understanding of the relevant literature!

Your goal is to collect all relevant references into a structured document. Make note of the aim and conclusion of each reference. Use this as a foundation to refer back to when you’re writing your paper.

Organize your research into buckets.

When you find a relevant source, ask yourself:

• Are the data consistent with what’s already known?
• If not: why are they different and how do they affect what’s known?
• Do your data support or refute the data presented in the source?
• You’ll need to explicitly address inconsistencies and identify potential resolutions.

Find Scholarly Sources

If you are writing an original research article , how do your data fit into the broader topic?

Google searches don’t usually produce scholarly resources unless you know where to look.

There are numerous FREE and Paid online resources available to find the right sources.

Top Scholarly Databases for journals, news, and articles

These tools can be used to find all the reputable sources needed to flesh out quality medical writing.

PubMed (MEDLINE):

PUBMED is an extremely popular and free search engine hosted by the NIH (National institutes of Health and U.S. National Library of Medicine. It can be used to access a vast index of peer-reviewed biological and medical research.

EMBASE is a database of literature intended to aid in organizational adherence to prescription drug regulations. Whereas it does contain some references that are not returned by PUBMED, there is a subscription fee associated with EMBASE.

Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library is a curated database of medical research reviews, protocols, and editorials. While a subscription is required, the Cochrane is a critical resource for evidence-based medicine.

Web of Science

The Web of Science is another subscription service similar to those that have already been mentioned, albeit with an expanded range of academic disciplines including the arts, social sciences, and others.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar leverages Google’s powerful search engine to retrieve published literature from the whole internet (rather than just biomedical journals). This means you’ll get textbooks, theses, conference proceedings, and other publications that won’t show up in PubMed or EMBASE searches. Google Scholar is a powerful tool but it lacks the curation of other search tools, so a careful vetting of any information from this source is important.

Other databases:

Faculty of 1000 (F1000) offers Faculty Opinions and F1000Research. Faculty Opinions are links to recommended life-science articles, while F1000Research is a database of open-source research papers and results.

EBSCO is an online library providing a wide range of services, including its research databases that allow powerful searches of journals in a variety of academic disciplines.

iSEEK Education:

iSeek Education is a search engine geared specifically for academics. The resources from iSeek are meant to be dependable and from reliable sources, such as government agencies and universities.

RefSeek is another popular option for academically oriented search engines. RefSeek is designed to pull results from a large number of sources but not commercial links. 

Virtual LRC:

The Virtual Learning Resources Center is a modified Google search of academic information websites. Its index of websites has been chosen by qualified curators.

More journal databases for medical research

• 100+ journal databases
• Top Academic Search Engines
• 101 Free Journal and Research Databases
• List of Global scholarly sources 

Organize Your References:

One other point on knowing the literature: find a strategy that helps you keep references organized. 

If you’ve ever written a paper and couldn’t remember where on earth you saw that one, perfect reference you know how important this is! 

Rather than putting things into a long word document start with a research template.

RESOURCE: Use our FREE research template to collect sources for your manuscript

You can also download free basic software to organize references.

5 Reference Organization Tools and Software

EndNote is the most popular reference organization tool for medical writers. 

A basic version of EndNote is available for free, but paid subscriptions offer more options.

EndNote features include:

• Import, annotate, and search PDFs
• Ability to store reference libraries online, so you can access them from anywhere
• Collaboration is easy with shared libraries
• EndNote provides the most comprehensive citation style database, or you can create custom citation styles
• Easy to import/export references from databases using RIS, BibTex, and many other standard data schemes 

One potential drawback of EndNote is that it’s not compatible with Linux.

Zotero Zotero is a free, open-source reference management and citation tool. 

Features of Zotero include:

• Save screenshots and annotate them within your citation library
• Import and export references in many formats, including RIS, BibTeX and BibLateX, EndNote, RefWorks, and more
• Supports over 30 languages
• Zotero’s online bibliography tool ZoteroBib lets you generate bibliographies without installing Zotero or creating an account
• Drag-and-drop interface
• Linux compatible

Mendeley Mendeley is Elsevier’s “freemium” referencing software, meaning the basic package is available for free but more sophisticated versions require a paid subscription. 

Features of Mendeley include:

• Extract metadata from PDFs
• Create private, shareable libraries

A free online reference tool, Citefast allows users to quickly generate a library in APA 6 or 7, MLA 7 or 8, or Chicago styles. 

Citefast doesn’t require you to make an account, but if you don’t create one your references will be lost after 4 days of inactivity.

Another free online resource, BibMe lets you import references and offers MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian formatting styles.

BibMe can also check your spelling and grammar, as well as look for plagiarism.

List of MORE Online Software Tools for Academic and Medical Research

30+ research tools to make your life easier

5 best tools for academic research

31 Best Online Tools for Research

10 great tools for online research

Know your audience

It’s important to know your audience before you start writing. This will help you define your goals and create an outline.  

For example, if you’re preparing a case study for specialists your manuscript will be different than one for a multidisciplinary audience. 

Ask yourself what your message is and find out how it aligns with the goals of your readers to maximize your paper’s impact.

Formatting requirements

Whenever possible, find out the formatting requirements you’ll need to follow before you start writing. They will explicitly state the layout, word limits, figure/table formatting, use of abbreviations, and which reference style to use.

If you’re writing for a journal their website will have a Guide for Authors that specifies formatting. If you’re not sure what the requirements are, you should contact the editor or publisher and ask them. 

Types of medical manuscripts

Knowing what kind of manuscript you’re writing will help you organize your material and identify which information you should present. In addition, many publishers have different formatting requirements for different types of articles.

Although each publisher has their own guidelines for authors, many journals encourage authors to follow reporting guidelines from the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research). 

Original research

The goal of an original research article is to convey your research findings to an audience. These articles typically follow the same structure:

• Introduction 

Methods & Materials

Examples of great original medical research manuscripts:

• Nowacki J, Wingenfeld K, Kaczmarczyk M, et al. Steroid hormone secretion after stimulation of mineralocorticoid and NMDA receptors and cardiovascular risk in patients with depression . Transl Psychiatry . 2020 Apr 20;10(1):109.
• Pfitzer A, Maly C, Tappis H, et al. Characteristics of successful integrated family planning and maternal and child health services: Findings from a mixed-method, descriptive evaluation . F1000Res . 2019 Feb 28;8:229. 
• Yi X, Liu M, Luo Q, et al. Toxic effects of dimethyl sulfoxide on red blood cells, platelets, and vascular endothelial cells in vitro . FEBS Open Bio . 2017 Feb 20;7(4):485-494. 
• Karsan N, Goadsby PJ. Imaging the Premonitory Phase of Migraine . Front Neurol . 2020 Mar 25;11:140. 
• Chan SS, Chappel AR, Maddox KEJ, et al. Pre-exposure prophylaxis for preventing acquisition of HIV: A cross-sectional study of patients, prescribers, uptake, and spending in the United States, 2015-2016 . PLoS Med . 2020 Apr 10;17(4):e1003072.

Examples of great medical journal publications from The Med Writers :

Rapid communications

Rapid (or brief) communications are aimed at publishing highly impactful preliminary findings. 

They are shorter than original research articles and focus on one specific result. 

Many journals prioritize rapid communications, since they can provide paradigm-shifts in how we understand a particular topic.

5 Examples of Rapid Communications

• Rose D, Ashwood P. Plasma Interleukin-35 in Children with Autism . Brain Sci . 2019 Jun 27;9(7).
• Nash K, Johansson A, Yogeeswaran K. Social Media Approval Reduces Emotional Arousal for People High in Narcissism: Electrophysiological Evidence . Front Hum Neurosci . 2019 Sep 20;13:292.
• Su Q, Bouteau A, Cardenas J, et al. Long-term absence of Langerhans cells alters the gene expression profile of keratinocytes and dendritic epidermal T cells . PLoS One . 2020 Jan 10;15(1):e0223397.
• Nilsson I, Palmer J, Apostolou E, et al. Metabolic Dysfunction in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Not Due to Anti-mitochondrial Antibodies . Front Med . 2020 Mar 31;7:108.
• Rabiei S, Sedaghat F, Rastmanesh R. Is the hedonic hunger score associated with obesity in women? A brief communication . BMC Res Notes. 2019 Jun 10;12(1):330. 

Case reports

Case reports detail interesting clinical cases that provide new insight into an area of research. 

These are brief reports that chronicle a case, from initial presentation to prognosis (if known). 

Importantly, when writing a case report, you need to clearly identify what makes your case unique and why it’s important. 5 Examples of Great Case Studies

• Scoles D, Ammar MJ, Carroll SE, et al. Cytomegalovirus retinitis in an immunocompetent host after complicated cataract surgery . Am J Ophthalmol Case Rep . 2020 Apr 6;18:100702.
• Yanagimoto Y, Ishizaki Y, Kaneko K. Iron deficiency anemia, stunted growth, and developmental delay due to avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder by restricted eating in autism spectrum disorder . Biopsychosoc Med . 2020 Apr 10;14:8.
• Pringle S, van der Vegt B, Wang X, et al. Lack of Conventional Acinar Cells in Parotid Salivary Gland of Patient Taking an Anti-PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor . Front Oncol . 2020 Apr 2;10:420.
• Crivelli P, Ledda RE, Carboni M, et al. Erdheim-Chester disease presenting with cough, abdominal pain, and headache . Radiol Case Rep . 2020 Apr 10;15(6):745-748.
• Tsai AL, Agustines D. The Coexistence of Oculocutaneous Albinism with Schizophrenia . Cureus . 2020 Jan 9;12(1):e6617.

Literature review

A good literature review provides a comprehensive overview of current literature in a new way. There are four basic types of literature review:

Traditional: Also known as narrative reviews, these reviews deliver a thorough synopsis of a body of literature. They may be used to highlight unanswered questions or knowledge gaps.

Li X, Geng M, Peng Y, Meng L, Lu S. Molecular immune pathogenesis and diagnosis of COVID-19 . J Pharm Anal . 2020 Mar 5. 

Wardhan R, Kantamneni S. The Challenges of Ultrasound-guided Thoracic Paravertebral Blocks in Rib Fracture Patients . Cureus . 2020 Apr 10;12(4):e7626.

Lakhan, S.E., Vieira, K.F. Nutritional therapies for mental disorders . Nutr J 7, 2 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-7-2

A minireview is similar to a review, but confines itself to a specific subtopic:

Marra A, Viale G, Curigliano G. Recent advances in triple negative breast cancer: the immunotherapy era . BMC Med . 2019 May 9;17(1):90.

  Systematic : These are rigorous, highly structured reviews that are often used to shed light on a specific research question. They are often combined with a meta-analysis or meta-synthesis. 

Asadi-Pooya AA, Simani L. Central nervous system manifestations of COVID-19: A systematic review . J Neurol Sci . 2020 Apr 11;413:116832.

Katsanos K, Spiliopoulos S, Kitrou P, Krokidis M, Karnabatidis D. Risk of Death Following Application of Paclitaxel-Coated Balloons and Stents in the Femoropopliteal Artery of the Leg: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials . J Am Heart Assoc . 2018 Dec 18;7(24):e011245.

Meta-analysis: A meta-analysis analyzes data from multiple published studies using a standardized statistical approach. These reviews can help identify trends, patterns, and new conclusions.

Zhang J, Zhang X, Meng Y, Chen Y. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules: An updated meta-analysis with comprehensive heterogeneity analysis . PLoS One . 2020 Apr 20;15(4):e0231775.  

  Meta-synthesis: A meta-synthesis is a qualitative (non-statistical) way to evaluate and analyze findings from several published studies.

Stuart R, Akther SF, Machin K, et al. Carers’ experiences of involuntary admission under mental health legislation: systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis . BJPsych Open . 2020 Feb 11;6(2):e19. 

At this point you’ve established three things for your manuscript:

• Your goal : Is your goal to convey the latest research? You should find a way to describe what you want to accomplish with this article. 
• Your target audience : The most effective medical writing is done with a specific audience in mind. 
• Type of manuscript : The type of article you’re writing will influence the format of the document you are writing.

You probably have a target journal or publisher in mind and you should have checked out their formatting requirements. Now it’s time to start writing!

Notably, many seasoned authors don’t write their articles from beginning to end. For example, if you’re preparing an original research manuscript they suggest writing the methods section first, followed by the results, discussion, introduction, and, lastly, the abstract. This will help you stay within the scope of the article.

Generally, the title for a medical document should be as succinct as possible while conveying the purpose of the article. 

If you’re writing an original research article your title should convey your main finding as simply as possible. 

Avoid using unnecessary jargon and ambiguity.

Some authors recommend including keywords that will help people find your writing in the title.

Your publisher may have a specific abstract format for you to follow. There are three general types of abstract:

• Indicative (descriptive) abstracts provide a clear overview of the topics covered. They are common in review articles and conference reports.
• Informative abstracts summarize the article based on structure (e.g. problem, methods, case studies/results, conclusions) but without headings.
• Structured abstracts use headings as specified by the publisher.

Good abstracts are clear, honest, brief, and specific. They also need to hook readers or your article will never be read (no pressure!).

Many publishers will ask you to come up with some keywords for your article. Make sure they’re specific and clearly represent the topic of your article. 

If you’re not sure about your keywords the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings ( MeSH ) website can help. Just type in a term and it will bring up associated subject headings and definitions.

Introduction

The goal of the introduction is to briefly provide context for your work and convince readers that it’s important. It is not a history lesson or a place to wax poetic about your love of medicine (unless you’re writing about history or your love of medicine). Everything in your introduction needs to be directly relevant to the overall goal of your manuscript.

Introductions vary in length and style between the different types of manuscript. The best way to understand what your publisher is looking for in an introduction is to read several examples from articles that are stylistically similar to yours.

Broadly speaking, an introduction needs to clearly identify the topic and the scope of the article. For an original research article this means you explicitly state the question you’re addressing and your proposed solution. For a literature review, the topic and its parameters should be stated.

Importantly, don’t mix the introduction with other sections. Methods and results don’t belong in the introduction.

Abbreviations

If you use terms that are abbreviated, some journals will ask you to include a section after the introduction where you define them. Consult the authors guide to learn how you should handle abbreviations. Also check to see if they have standard abbreviations that you don’t need to define in your manuscript.

A couple of tips for abbreviations:

·        Terms that are only used once or twice should be spelled out, not abbreviated

·        Don’t capitalize each word in an acronym unless it’s a proper noun (e.g. ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS), not Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS))

A good methods section will contain enough information that another researcher could reproduce the work. Clearly state your experimental design, what you did in chronological order, including equipment model numbers and specific settings you used. Make sure to include all equipment, materials, and products you used as they could account for future variability. Describe any statistical analyses.

The methods section should describe the following:

·        Population and sampling methods

·        Equipment and materials

·        Procedures

·        Time frame (if relevant)

·        Analysis plan

·        Approaches to ensure reliability/validity

·        Any assumptions you used

·        Scope and limitations

If you are using methods that have been described before you can refer to that publication or include them in your supplementary material, rather than re-writing them in the body of your text.

The results section is where your findings are objectively presented (save your interpretation of the results for the discussion section). Figure out which data are important for your story before you write the results section. For each important data set provide the results (preferably in a table or graph) and include a sentence or two that summarizes the results.

It’s easy to lose sight of the goal of the paper when you’re relaying numbers through the lens of statistics. Make sure to tie your results back to the biological aspects of your paper.

The discussion section is where you sell your interpretation of the data. Your discussion section needs to tie your introduction and your results sections together. A common strategy for the discussion section is to reiterate your main findings in light of the knowledge gaps you outlined in your introduction. How do your findings move the field forward?

Consider each of your results with respect to your original question and hypothesis. If there are multiple ways to interpret your data, discuss each of them. If your findings were not in line with your hypothesis, state this and provide possible explanations.

If your data are inconsistent with other published literature it’s important to consider technical and experimental differences before concluding that you’ve stumbled onto a groundbreaking medical discovery. Discuss all potential reasons for the divergent data.

Key points to include in your discussion section:

·        What your results mean

·        Whether your methods were successful

·        How findings relate to other studies

·        Limitations of your study

·        How your work advances the field

·        Applications

·        Future directions

Don’t draw grand conclusions that aren’t supported by your data; some speculating is okay but don’t exaggerate the importance of your findings.

It’s important to remind your reader of your overall question and hypothesis throughout the discussion section, while you are providing your interpretation of the results. This will ensure that you stay on track while you’re writing and that your readers will understand exactly how your findings are relevant.

This is your final chance to convince your readers that your work is important. 

Start your conclusion by restating your question and identify whether your findings support (or fail to support) your hypothesis. 

Summarize your findings and discuss whether they agree with those of other researchers. 

Finally, identify how your data advances the field and propose new or expanded ways of thinking about the question.

It’s important to avoid making unsupported claims or over-emphasize the impact of your findings. Even if you think your findings will revolutionize medicine as we know it, refrain from making that claim until you have the evidence to back it up.

Figures/Tables

Many readers will get the bulk of their information from your figures so make sure they are clear and informative. Your readers should be able to identify your key findings from figures alone.

Tips for figures and tables:

·        Don’t repeat data in tables, figures and in the text

·        Captions should sufficiently describe the figure so the reader could understand it even if the figure was absent

·        Keep graphs simple! If a basic table will work there’s no need for a multi-colored graph

Acknowledgements

Use the acknowledgments section to identify people who made your manuscript possible. Include advisors, proofreaders, and financial backers. In addition, identify funding sources including grant or reference numbers.

Make sure to use the reference style specified by your target journal or publisher. Avoid too many references, redundant references, excessive self-referencing, and referencing for the sake of referencing. Personal communications, unpublished observations, and submitted, unaccepted manuscripts should generally be avoided.

It should go without saying that you need to be ethical when preparing medical manuscripts. Fabricating or falsifying data is never acceptable, and you put your career at risk. It’s not worth it.

Plagiarism is not a viable strategy for getting works published. Any indication that you’ve plagiarized will be investigated, and if you’re found to have plagiarized your career and scientific reputation are at stake. Any time you refer to published work you need to reference it, even if it was your own publication. Be very careful about self-plagiarizing!

To learn more about ethical writing take a look at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guide: Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing , by Dr. Miguel Roig.

Ethics standards require that you submit your manuscript to only one publisher at a time. If you’re caught submitting to multiple editors none of them will publish your work.

Traps to avoid

Seasoned writers told us some of the pitfalls they’ve learned how to watch out for:

Writing versus editing

Writing and editing are not the same. Get comfortable writing , that is, pouring out all of your ideas without editing yourself. Then go back and edit.

Lack of editing

One of the toughest parts of writing is opening yourself up to critique. As hard as it can be, the best way to get a polished and meaningful manuscript is to have other people read it. As writers we can get attached to particular phrases or styles that may not read as well to other people.

Scientific manuscript editing is the toughest of any manuscript editing but if you keep patience and edit honestly it will get easier over time. Imagine that you’re editing someone else’s document to help give you fresh eyes. If possible give yourself a couple of days without looking at the manuscript, then go back and read it.

Being unfamiliar with the literature

It’s important to be familiar with the current literature on the topic you’re writing about. A fatal flaw of any research manuscript is proposing a hypothesis that has already been tested or posing questions that have already been answered.

Not formatting properly

If your manuscript is not formatted properly, it is less likely to be accepted. Make sure your font and line spacing are correct, that you’ve adhered to word and figure limits, and that your references are in the correct style.

Useful tips

Here are some helpful tips that you can use to improve your writing:

Framing your manuscript

A common trope in outlining manuscripts is the inverted triangle approach, which starts generally and ends specifically. A more useful method is to consider an hourglass-shaped outline, which starts generally, specifically addresses your contribution to the field, then ties your contribution back to current knowledge and unanswered questions.

Passive and active voice

Medical writing has long used passive voice to communicate and, while this is still the status quo for many journals, don’t be afraid to get out of that mire. As journals begin to recognize that active voice is not only more economical but can also be more readable they are becoming more comfortable publishing articles that include active voice.

Don’t edit while you write

Get a first draft onto paper as quickly as possible and then edit. Don’t waste time trying to get a paragraph perfect the first time you write it.

Ask someone else to edit

Medical writing does have some unique challenges associated with it. Your audience may not be experts on the material you are delivering, so an ability to communicate complicated information in an accessible manner is very helpful. Improve on your skills by asking people outside of your field to provide constructive criticism on writing samples.

It can be a very useful practice to edit some manuscripts that other people have written. This will help you understand what editors are paying attention to.

Keep track of references

Make sure to keep detailed notes of where you got your references so that you can easily and accurately cite the literature you used. There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to remember where you saw a really great reference.

Before you submit your manuscript

Ideally, you’ve left yourself plenty of time to proofread and have other people edit your document. At the very least make sure you budget some hours to carefully proofread. Triple check that your paper adheres to formatting requirements. You can learn how to proofread scientific manuscripts before submitting them for publication.

Cover letters

If you’re submitting an article for consideration you’ll need to write a cover letter. Take the time to find out who the editor is and address your letter to him or her. This is your chance to communicate with the editor! A generic “To whom it may concern” won’t impress anyone.

Your cover letter should be brief, but it needs to convey the value of your paper to the journal. Describe your main findings and their significance and why they’re a great fit for your publication of interest. 

If you have conflicts of interest, disclose them in your cover letter. Also, if your paper has already been rejected, let them know. Include the reason (if known) and reviewer comments, as well as discussing changes you’ve made to improve the paper.

You can also suggest peer-reviewers or people who shouldn’t review your paper. Be cautious when suggesting reviewers! Some of the most critical reviews come from suggested reviewers.

Your cover letter is an excellent opportunity to prove that you know what the goals of the journal are and that your article furthers them. Don’t waste it!

Reviewer comments/Revisions

If the publisher asks you to address reviewer comments, take the time to do this seriously and thoughtfully. Understand reviewer comments and address them objectively and scientifically (be polite!). If you disagree with a comment, state why and include supporting references. When more experiments or computations are requested, do them. It will make your paper stronger.

When you resubmit your manuscript make sure to identify page/line numbers where changes were made.

What if you’re rejected?

Don’t despair! Rejection happens to every writer. Try to understand why your manuscript was rejected. Evaluate your manuscript honestly and take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

A rejected paper isn’t a dead paper. You’ll need to make some substantial revisions and may need to change your formatting before resubmitting to a new journal or publisher. In the cover letter to the new editor you’ll need to state that your manuscript was rejected. Include any information you got about why your manuscript was rejected and all reviewer comments. Identify changes you made to the paper and explain why you chose to submit to the new journal.

Medical writing can be very rewarding but it’s important that writers have a clear understanding of what publishers are looking for. High-quality, original works that advance the medical field are much more likely to be published than papers that are not original or that have little medical or scientific interest.

Quality medical writing should have clarity, economy of language, and a consistent theme. It’s important to always state the question or topic you’re addressing early and refer to it often. This will help you stay focused and within the scope of your article during the writing process and it will help your readers understand your intentions. Using an outline is a very helpful way to make sure your article is consistently on-topic.

Following the tips and techniques provided here will definitely improve your writing skills, but the most effective way to get better at medical writing is to do it. There is no single best way to prepare a medical manuscript and even professional writers are continuously tweaking their writing strategies.

Hopefully these tips have helped you create a great manuscript. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and want some help with your medical writing or editing, we at The Med Writers can help. Contact us to learn more about our writing and editing services. 

AMBOSS Blog

• Student Life

How to Write and Publish Clinical Research in Medical School

From working hard on the USMLE® exams to holding leadership positions in a specialty’s academic society, there are many ways medical students can work towards matching into the residency of their choice. One such activity that looks great on residency applications is finding clinical research opportunities in medical school to write and publish papers. No one knows this better than Dr. Eve Bowers. 

An Otolaryngology resident at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, Eve became an expert in writing, submitting, and publishing manuscripts during her final years in medical school. Check out Eve’s blog post below to get valuable insights on how to get published in medical school. 

As medical students, we’re told that research is important and that publications are “good”, and even “necessary to match ” into residency, but we often aren’t given the tools we need to turn ideas into manuscripts. This is especially true given our rigorous schedules. 

When I looked through my CV, I saw I had a few abstracts and presentations, but no manuscripts. I wanted to write, but publishing seemed like just checking another resume box. On top of that, I didn’t know where to begin. 

My writing journey started with a case report I nervously picked up during my surgery clerkship . Then, over ten months of typing, editing, and sending unanswered emails, I went from writing 0 to ten manuscripts. The process was sometimes painful but mostly gratifying (yes, research can be gratifying), and you can do it, too.

To make finding, starting, and publishing high-quality research articles a little bit easier and a lot more enjoyable, check out my five tips for publishing clinical research in medical school.

1. Build your network to find publication opportunities in medical school

When looking for projects, finding great mentors is often more useful than finding the perfect project. This is especially true when starting out. Use your time on clerkships to identify attending and resident mentors who you trust to support your budding author ambitions.

At this stage, residents especially are your friends . When you demonstrate follow-through and receptiveness to feedback, you will be given more research opportunities. Don’t be shy about asking mentors for tasks if you can juggle multiple projects, but don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s important to communicate honestly and be transparent about the amount of time you have.

2. Kickstarting your research during medical school: start small 

If you have no research experience, start with a case report. Volunteer to write an article about an interesting case you saw in the operating room or clinic. It’s much easier and more rewarding to write about patients you have experience with, and case reports are a great way to demonstrate your writing ability to more senior authors.

Pro tip : Try to figure out as much as you can independently by using published reports as blueprints before asking for help. Nevertheless, don’t be afraid to seek guidance when you need it! If you approach a mentor with a problem, come prepared with 2-3 realistic solutions or examples of how you tried to figure it out on your own.

3. Know the criteria for writing a clinical research paper 

Before you begin, ask your mentor where they would like to submit the completed work. Each journal has specific standards, styles, and submission criteria. For guidance, look to papers previously published in that journal. 

As far as annotations and citations are concerned, download and learn how to use Endnote or Zotero right now! You’ll save days of work formatting your references.

Additionally, consider creating folders and spreadsheets to keep track of projects. Set goals and timelines for yourself from the beginning, and block off dedicated time to conduct a literature review, analyze data, and write.

Pro tip : If you are the first author and overseeing a large team, improve communication and efficiency by making everyone’s roles and expectations very clear to the group via email.

4. Follow up with your mentor

Sometimes you’ll send your mentor a draft, but she won’t get back to you with edits and feedback in a reasonable timeframe. Surprisingly, many projects do not get past this point because of insufficient persistence. Here’s what to do if this happens:

• Politely nudge your mentor with follow-up emails and schedule a meeting to discuss in person or via Zoom.
• Set deadlines and give specific reasons why the paper needs to be submitted. Some reasons could include, “I need this submission for my residency application ” or “this is a requirement for my school.”
• Ask your co-author resident and/or fellow to advocate for edits and submission.

Whatever happens, don’t give up at this point. You’ve put in the work, and persistence makes or breaks a successful student-author.

5. Write about the medical topics that you love

Writing is fun when you focus on subjects you’re really passionate about. You also don’t have to stay within your institution: feel free to branch out if you come across an interesting research opportunity at a different program. A little cold email can go a long way!

If your goal is quantity, you can increase output by asking around about “productive” research mentors and sticking to topics related to clinical practice or medical education. However, my advice is to never let relatively quick publication opportunities compromise the quality of your work. Remember — every paper you write gets easier and more enjoyable, and your work will be truly important to advancing the field you care about. Good luck!

About the Author : Eve is an Otolaryngology Resident at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. She attended medical school at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania. She is passionate about medical education, mentorship, and increasing minority and female leadership in surgical fields. For more tips and tricks, follow her on Twitter and Instagram !

For more information on residency applications, check out the AMBOSS Residency Applications Clerkship Survival Guide. 

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• 1 The FEBS Journal Editorial Office, Cambridge, UK.
• PMID: 35792782
• DOI: 10.1111/febs.16565

Literature reviews are valuable resources for the scientific community. With research accelerating at an unprecedented speed in recent years and more and more original papers being published, review articles have become increasingly important as a means to keep up to date with developments in a particular area of research. A good review article provides readers with an in-depth understanding of a field and highlights key gaps and challenges to address with future research. Writing a review article also helps to expand the writer's knowledge of their specialist area and to develop their analytical and communication skills, amongst other benefits. Thus, the importance of building review-writing into a scientific career cannot be overstated. In this instalment of The FEBS Journal's Words of Advice series, I provide detailed guidance on planning and writing an informative and engaging literature review.

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• > Introduction to Research Methodology for Specialists and Trainees
• > How to Write a Medical Thesis

Book contents

• Introduction to Research Methodology for Specialists and Trainees
• Copyright page
• Contributors
• Chapter 1 Research During Specialist Medical Training
• Chapter 2 Time Management When Planning and Conducting Medical Research
• Chapter 3 Computer Skills Required for Medical Research
• Chapter 4 Computer Skills Required for Medical Research: Social Media
• Chapter 5 Finding and Using Information in Your Research
• Chapter 6 Critical Appraisal of the Medical Literature
• Chapter 7 Evidence-based Medicine and Translating Research into Practice
• Chapter 8 Clinical Audit for Quality Improvement
• Chapter 9 A Journey of Exploration
• Chapter 10 Randomised Clinical Trials
• Chapter 11 Animal Research and Alternatives
• Chapter 12 Genetic and Epigenetic Research
• Chapter 13 ‘Omic’ Research
• Chapter 14 Data Management in Medical Research
• Chapter 15 Statistics in Medical Research
• Chapter 16 Epidemiological Research
• Chapter 17 Informing Patients, Consent, Governance and Good Clinical Practice
• Chapter 18 Patient Involvement in Medical Research
• Chapter 19 Research in the National Health Service
• Chapter 20 Supervising Medical Research and Being Supervised
• Chapter 21 Funding Medical Research
• Chapter 22 The Purpose and Practice of Medical Research Meetings
• Chapter 23 How to Present a Medical Research Paper
• Chapter 24 How to Write a Medical Research Paper and Get It Accepted for Publication
• Chapter 25 How to Write a Medical Thesis
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology Supplement
• B Research in Fetal Medicine
• C Research in Maternal Medicine
• D Research in Benign Gynaecology
• E Research in Gynaecological Oncology

Chapter 25 - How to Write a Medical Thesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

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• How to Write a Medical Thesis
• By Jennifer Byrom , David Lissauer
• Edited by P. M. Shaughn O'Brien , Fiona Broughton Pipkin , University of Nottingham
• Book: Introduction to Research Methodology for Specialists and Trainees
• Online publication: 04 August 2017
• Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107585775.026

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Medical Writing: A Guide for Clinicians, Educators, and Researchers. Second Edition

Robert B. Taylor New York, NY: Springer. 2011.   372 p.  $34.95.  ISBN: 978-1-4419-8233-9.  

Many intelligent people with much knowledge to share with their professions think academic writing is like the drudgery of dishwashing, when instead it is more like the joy of dance practice where one thinks and works hard at choreographing (organizing) the details of expression. Writing is about careful thinking rather than quick wit, and Robert Taylor, in this book, is an excellent coach.

In Medical Writing, Taylor first offers encouragement and motivation, followed by chapters about important reminders of basic skills, advice related to writer's block, specifics on writing for academic journals, and common pitfalls to understand and avoid. The remaining chapters address writing for specific purposes. He includes guidance on writing book chapters, grants, research protocols, literature reviews, and reports of clinical studies, as well case reports, editorials, and even letters to the editor. The two new chapters in this edition are “How to Write a Research Protocol” and “How to Write a Grant Proposal.” The final chapter is about the actual submission process. The book is indexed and has five appendixes, including a glossary of terminology used by editors and publishers, a page of proofreaders' marks, medical abbreviations, lab reference values for adults, and a glossary of methodological and statistical terms.

With its appealing, accessible design and rich content, this book will be useful to beginning writers among researchers, physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals—or anyone else with valuable information to impart to colleagues. The reader's purpose need not be medical to benefit from this compact guide to professional writing. In addition to providing help and encouragement for getting started, this book will also serve as a reference manual one returns to frequently like style manuals, thesauri, or usage guidebooks. The author offers humor, literary references, and relevant inspiring epigraphs that make his advice enjoyably digestible.

Throughout Medical Writing , Taylor models what he teaches. He tells the reader how to do something and then he demonstrates it—using his own writing in the book. He begins a paragraph warning against excessive alliteration with: “Alliteration almost always annoys an audience” (p. 58). He also provides excellent examples from other writers. Each chapter begins with a short epigraph from a poet or physician (or the occasional more whimsical source) to inspire the reader onward. Chapter two begins with good advice, “Do not skip this chapter.” In the chapter, he covers the importance of structure and organization, how to develop a paragraph with variety and cadence, differences between active and passive voice, and the correct use of punctuation. He includes an informative section on the “types of words we use” (rather than the sleep-inducing “parts of speech”). He uses metaphors—“Verbosity is a disease” (p. 50)—and similes—“like attempting to build a house without a blueprint” (p. 31)—throughout the book, which enliven the readability of a topic often avoided by those who most need it. Detailed, practical advice is sprinkled throughout with surprises from history and medicine: “bezoar” is the Persian word for antidote (p. 53), and Roget was a physician who first published his thesaurus in 1852 (p. 81).

The content is somewhat similar in advice and style to Lester King's Why Not Say It Clearly: A Guide to Scientific Writing (ISBN: 978-0-316-49346-8), but with updated examples and quoted material. Taylor's writing style is that of a friendly mentor and teacher who offers easily absorbable instruction for the nonwriter. Those who need only the motivation might turn instead to Paul Silvia's How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing (ISBN: 978-1-59147-743-3).

There are flaws in this book. Taylor's self-reflecting is somewhat overdone. He does not trust his reader to notice his modeling and points it out far too often (once would have been enough). He announces that he “invented” the two-word phrase “thesaurus abuse”—a silly claim in an era of Google. The frequency of typos is more and more common now that spell-check apparently substitutes for copyeditors; this is, however, particularly unfortunate in the second edition of a book about writing. The author states that Google Scholar “seems to let me focus my query better than PubMed” (p. 20), which will be worrisome to librarians who work with scientists but is certainly a reasonable suggestion for medical professionals who write for trade magazines rather than peer-reviewed research journals—at least, he uses Google Scholar, rather than Google.

In the final measure, this book is recommended for both academic and public libraries. Practicing physicians and allied health professionals unaffiliated with academic medical centers might also benefit. Taylor is an engaging teacher who will enable the courage of beginners and offer support throughout the process of scholarly communication.

How to write a medical research paper for publishing in a high impact journal?

Physician writing and why Physicians are better off involving professional services to help with the process?

Why Perform A Meta – Analysis Evidence Based Research?

Publishing a medical research paper in a high impact journal comes with its perks. Firstly, there’s the fame, the recognition by your peers and also among other scientific communities. Then, there are the material benefits; like grants, funds, and sponsorships for your future projects, and job promotions. Then there is also the increase in responsibility owing to the recognition.

But publishing in a high impact journal is not an easy feat. Only less than 10% of all the works submitted get published. It is understood that to get posted the communication is as important as the science part. High impact journals are the ones that get cited the most and vigorously strive to maintain a high standard for their publishing. Various factors go into consideration for work to be published.

The essential considerations for a researcher writing a manuscript for publishing must be the cover letter, conclusion part of their paper, keywords, literature references, abstract, and visual information. An editor will look at this first, sometimes only this before publishing. And the readers view the title and the abstract before deciding to read. Although written after the rest of the paper, the title and the abstract give the readers the first impression of the article.

In the cover letter;

• Address the importance of the topic
• The significance of your results to the field
• Highlight the innovation your research will bring
• Mention if you are adding on to previous work
• Provide reasons for choosing the particular journal
• Explain why you think readers will like it.

Keep the cover letter precise and concise, as this will help the editor note the key points.

Almost all research papers follow a similar general format. The final draft of the document opens with the abstract of the whole paper, followed by the introduction, the literature review, the methodology, research results, discussions, conclusion, reference, and the appendices.

The general rules for medical writing include all the regulatory, academic writing guidelines like sticking to the same tense, providing proper citations depending on the chosen or given style, limiting the use of jargons depending on the target audience. The critical components to get the paper published are the style and the structure.

It is better to start writing the main body of the research at first. This includes the literature review , methodology, results, and discussions. The literature review provides an overview of the existing knowledge and related investigations. The methodology chapter contains all the processes followed in the study and the justifications for choosing the specific method. It provides the reader with knowledge of the research design and approach. The chapter must provide thorough information on the means for another investigator to apply elsewhere.

The research results and discussions chapters go into details of the achievement or the lack thereof, of the research. It explains the thesis proved or disproved. These chapters form the crux of the study. The conclusion reiterates the salient features of the investigation while explaining the significance of it to the field of study.

The benefit of writing introduction and conclusion after the completion of the main body of the paper is that it will be easier to cite from the research. The introduction is written with the reader in mind, for it introduces the study. The chapter provides the context and the background of the research and also hints at the style and structure of the paper. The introduction contains the thesis statement in the middle or at the end.

The abstract is the summary of the paper that doesn’t exceed a page. The references, bibliography, and appendices are provided appropriate to the chosen style.

If you follow high impact journals regularly, you may note that certain authors get published more often than others. This isn’t because the editors favour them, instead the quality of their writing. The paper must explain why what you have done matters than what you have done. After everything is said and done, publishing is still up to the editor and referees and if you think you were rejected unfairly, do write them about it.

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