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How To Write a Journal Article

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Sep 6, 2021 | Paper Writing Advice | 0 |

How To Write a Journal Article

How To Write a Journal Article for Publication in Twelve Essential Steps Original articles intended for publication are the most common means of disseminating the processes, results and implications of advanced research, so it is imperative that academics and scientists who wish to publish and share their work know how to write a journal article successfully. Although there are significant variations in manuscript requirements among disciplines and publishers, the writing tips I present below apply to most scholarly articles and journals across a wide range of research fields and specialisations.

Step 1: The first question to ask yourself as you begin drafting your paper or searching for a journal to publish it is what type of article will be appropriate for the material you wish to communicate. Original research, for instance, is usually reported in an original research article, whereas an evaluation of published scholarship on a topic would be written as a review article. Choosing the right type of article before you start is essential.

example of how to write an article for publication

Step 2: Either before or after you draft your article, you will need to learn about periodicals in the field and choose one as your target journal. The scope, aims and concerns published on the journal’s website should be appropriate for your research, and the journal must publish the kind of paper necessary to communicate all important aspects of your work.

Step 3: Once you have decided on the journal to which you will be submitting your article, you should study the journal’s guidelines for authors. In some cases these will provide a great deal of information about how to write a journal article for publication; in others very little help will be offered. Either way, the guidelines must be followed with care as you prepare your article, so pay close attention to details, examples and restrictions.

example of how to write an article for publication

Step 4: With the journal’s guidelines and your research notes by your side (or at least firmly in mind), you are ready to outline the structure and content of your article. A scientific research article is likely to use a predictable structure of introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion and conclusions, but other fields and types of paper might offer greater freedom. Structure should never be neglected, however, since clear and logical organisation increases accessibility and reader comprehension.

Step 5: Preparing tables, figures, appendices and other supplementary materials before you actually start drafting the paper is an excellent strategy when you are struggling with how to write a journal article. The production of these tools for readers can help an author analyse and interpret findings more effectively, and writing the main text with these tools in hand tends to reduce unnecessary repetition of information.

example of how to write an article for publication

Step 6: For many academics and scientists, starting to draft the text is the most difficult part of writing an article for publication. Beginning can be rendered easier by writing the separate sections not in the order in which they will ultimately appear, but in an order that better reflects the research process. The methods can therefore be described first, with the report of results, the discussion and the conclusions following. Once you know the contents of these parts, the introduction, background, abstract and list of references can be added.

Step 7: Be sure to take the time to assess your methods, analyse your results and interpret your findings thoroughly. Reporting what you did and what you discovered is not enough for a research paper intended for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. You will also need to tell your audience what your research means, why it is innovative and how it might be productively used by future researchers and practitioners.

Step 8: Remember as you work out how to write a journal article that there is simply no substitute for excellent writing. Scholarly prose must be both clear and correct to communicate research processes and results effectively, and the style must be both formal and appropriate for your discipline or area of specialisation. Reading published articles in your field and especially in your target journal will give you a good idea of the kind of writing you will need to submit.

Step 9: Proofread, edit and revise your draft repeatedly until you have eliminated all errors of fact, language and typing. Too many authors neglect this time-consuming aspect of how to write a journal article and suffer the consequences in the form of rejections and revision requests. As the person who knows your research better than anyone else, you are the person to ensure that your article intended for publication does that research justice.

Step 10: Recruit mentors, colleagues and friends to read your article and offer feedback. Researchers who work in your field and have successfully published their own academic or scientific writing will be able to comment constructively on research content and presentation. If English grammar, tricky references or other challenges of language and formatting prove problematic, a professional proofreader or editor can help.

Step 11: After reader feedback has been considered and the final revisions are complete, submit your manuscript exactly as the journal’s instructions indicate. Submission via an online form is an efficient and common method, but even if the journal’s preferences seem outdated, they must be observed. Unless the guidelines suggest that a cover letter to the journal editor would be unwelcome, be sure to include one to introduce your research and article in an engaging way.

Step 12: Finally, it is likely that your thoughts will be with your manuscript after you have submitted it and even that a host of ideas for further refinements will pop into your mind the instant the article is beyond your grasp. Take advantage of this impulse as you await a response by jotting your ideas down. If a request for revisions arrives from the editor, your notes are likely to prove incredibly helpful.

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How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal

  • Open access
  • Published: 30 April 2020
  • Volume 36 , pages 909–913, ( 2021 )

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  • Clara Busse   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0178-1000 1 &
  • Ella August   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5151-1036 1 , 2  

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Communicating research findings is an essential step in the research process. Often, peer-reviewed journals are the forum for such communication, yet many researchers are never taught how to write a publishable scientific paper. In this article, we explain the basic structure of a scientific paper and describe the information that should be included in each section. We also identify common pitfalls for each section and recommend strategies to avoid them. Further, we give advice about target journal selection and authorship. In the online resource 1 , we provide an example of a high-quality scientific paper, with annotations identifying the elements we describe in this article.

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Introduction

Writing a scientific paper is an important component of the research process, yet researchers often receive little formal training in scientific writing. This is especially true in low-resource settings. In this article, we explain why choosing a target journal is important, give advice about authorship, provide a basic structure for writing each section of a scientific paper, and describe common pitfalls and recommendations for each section. In the online resource 1 , we also include an annotated journal article that identifies the key elements and writing approaches that we detail here. Before you begin your research, make sure you have ethical clearance from all relevant ethical review boards.

Select a Target Journal Early in the Writing Process

We recommend that you select a “target journal” early in the writing process; a “target journal” is the journal to which you plan to submit your paper. Each journal has a set of core readers and you should tailor your writing to this readership. For example, if you plan to submit a manuscript about vaping during pregnancy to a pregnancy-focused journal, you will need to explain what vaping is because readers of this journal may not have a background in this topic. However, if you were to submit that same article to a tobacco journal, you would not need to provide as much background information about vaping.

Information about a journal’s core readership can be found on its website, usually in a section called “About this journal” or something similar. For example, the Journal of Cancer Education presents such information on the “Aims and Scope” page of its website, which can be found here: https://www.springer.com/journal/13187/aims-and-scope .

Peer reviewer guidelines from your target journal are an additional resource that can help you tailor your writing to the journal and provide additional advice about crafting an effective article [ 1 ]. These are not always available, but it is worth a quick web search to find out.

Identify Author Roles Early in the Process

Early in the writing process, identify authors, determine the order of authors, and discuss the responsibilities of each author. Standard author responsibilities have been identified by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) [ 2 ]. To set clear expectations about each team member’s responsibilities and prevent errors in communication, we also suggest outlining more detailed roles, such as who will draft each section of the manuscript, write the abstract, submit the paper electronically, serve as corresponding author, and write the cover letter. It is best to formalize this agreement in writing after discussing it, circulating the document to the author team for approval. We suggest creating a title page on which all authors are listed in the agreed-upon order. It may be necessary to adjust authorship roles and order during the development of the paper. If a new author order is agreed upon, be sure to update the title page in the manuscript draft.

In the case where multiple papers will result from a single study, authors should discuss who will author each paper. Additionally, authors should agree on a deadline for each paper and the lead author should take responsibility for producing an initial draft by this deadline.

Structure of the Introduction Section

The introduction section should be approximately three to five paragraphs in length. Look at examples from your target journal to decide the appropriate length. This section should include the elements shown in Fig.  1 . Begin with a general context, narrowing to the specific focus of the paper. Include five main elements: why your research is important, what is already known about the topic, the “gap” or what is not yet known about the topic, why it is important to learn the new information that your research adds, and the specific research aim(s) that your paper addresses. Your research aim should address the gap you identified. Be sure to add enough background information to enable readers to understand your study. Table 1 provides common introduction section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

figure 1

The main elements of the introduction section of an original research article. Often, the elements overlap

Methods Section

The purpose of the methods section is twofold: to explain how the study was done in enough detail to enable its replication and to provide enough contextual detail to enable readers to understand and interpret the results. In general, the essential elements of a methods section are the following: a description of the setting and participants, the study design and timing, the recruitment and sampling, the data collection process, the dataset, the dependent and independent variables, the covariates, the analytic approach for each research objective, and the ethical approval. The hallmark of an exemplary methods section is the justification of why each method was used. Table 2 provides common methods section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Results Section

The focus of the results section should be associations, or lack thereof, rather than statistical tests. Two considerations should guide your writing here. First, the results should present answers to each part of the research aim. Second, return to the methods section to ensure that the analysis and variables for each result have been explained.

Begin the results section by describing the number of participants in the final sample and details such as the number who were approached to participate, the proportion who were eligible and who enrolled, and the number of participants who dropped out. The next part of the results should describe the participant characteristics. After that, you may organize your results by the aim or by putting the most exciting results first. Do not forget to report your non-significant associations. These are still findings.

Tables and figures capture the reader’s attention and efficiently communicate your main findings [ 3 ]. Each table and figure should have a clear message and should complement, rather than repeat, the text. Tables and figures should communicate all salient details necessary for a reader to understand the findings without consulting the text. Include information on comparisons and tests, as well as information about the sample and timing of the study in the title, legend, or in a footnote. Note that figures are often more visually interesting than tables, so if it is feasible to make a figure, make a figure. To avoid confusing the reader, either avoid abbreviations in tables and figures, or define them in a footnote. Note that there should not be citations in the results section and you should not interpret results here. Table 3 provides common results section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Discussion Section

Opposite the introduction section, the discussion should take the form of a right-side-up triangle beginning with interpretation of your results and moving to general implications (Fig.  2 ). This section typically begins with a restatement of the main findings, which can usually be accomplished with a few carefully-crafted sentences.

figure 2

Major elements of the discussion section of an original research article. Often, the elements overlap

Next, interpret the meaning or explain the significance of your results, lifting the reader’s gaze from the study’s specific findings to more general applications. Then, compare these study findings with other research. Are these findings in agreement or disagreement with those from other studies? Does this study impart additional nuance to well-accepted theories? Situate your findings within the broader context of scientific literature, then explain the pathways or mechanisms that might give rise to, or explain, the results.

Journals vary in their approach to strengths and limitations sections: some are embedded paragraphs within the discussion section, while some mandate separate section headings. Keep in mind that every study has strengths and limitations. Candidly reporting yours helps readers to correctly interpret your research findings.

The next element of the discussion is a summary of the potential impacts and applications of the research. Should these results be used to optimally design an intervention? Does the work have implications for clinical protocols or public policy? These considerations will help the reader to further grasp the possible impacts of the presented work.

Finally, the discussion should conclude with specific suggestions for future work. Here, you have an opportunity to illuminate specific gaps in the literature that compel further study. Avoid the phrase “future research is necessary” because the recommendation is too general to be helpful to readers. Instead, provide substantive and specific recommendations for future studies. Table 4 provides common discussion section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Follow the Journal’s Author Guidelines

After you select a target journal, identify the journal’s author guidelines to guide the formatting of your manuscript and references. Author guidelines will often (but not always) include instructions for titles, cover letters, and other components of a manuscript submission. Read the guidelines carefully. If you do not follow the guidelines, your article will be sent back to you.

Finally, do not submit your paper to more than one journal at a time. Even if this is not explicitly stated in the author guidelines of your target journal, it is considered inappropriate and unprofessional.

Your title should invite readers to continue reading beyond the first page [ 4 , 5 ]. It should be informative and interesting. Consider describing the independent and dependent variables, the population and setting, the study design, the timing, and even the main result in your title. Because the focus of the paper can change as you write and revise, we recommend you wait until you have finished writing your paper before composing the title.

Be sure that the title is useful for potential readers searching for your topic. The keywords you select should complement those in your title to maximize the likelihood that a researcher will find your paper through a database search. Avoid using abbreviations in your title unless they are very well known, such as SNP, because it is more likely that someone will use a complete word rather than an abbreviation as a search term to help readers find your paper.

After you have written a complete draft, use the checklist (Fig. 3 ) below to guide your revisions and editing. Additional resources are available on writing the abstract and citing references [ 5 ]. When you feel that your work is ready, ask a trusted colleague or two to read the work and provide informal feedback. The box below provides a checklist that summarizes the key points offered in this article.

figure 3

Checklist for manuscript quality

Data Availability

Michalek AM (2014) Down the rabbit hole…advice to reviewers. J Cancer Educ 29:4–5

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International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Defining the role of authors and contributors: who is an author? http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authosrs-and-contributors.html . Accessed 15 January, 2020

Vetto JT (2014) Short and sweet: a short course on concise medical writing. J Cancer Educ 29(1):194–195

Brett M, Kording K (2017) Ten simple rules for structuring papers. PLoS ComputBiol. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005619

Lang TA (2017) Writing a better research article. J Public Health Emerg. https://doi.org/10.21037/jphe.2017.11.06

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Acknowledgments

Ella August is grateful to the Sustainable Sciences Institute for mentoring her in training researchers on writing and publishing their research.

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Busse, C., August, E. How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal. J Canc Educ 36 , 909–913 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01751-z

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Writing a paper for publication

Finding and positioning your argument.

This resource provides a brief introduction to this topic, which should take you 15-20 minutes to complete. It includes activities to help you apply tips to your own context and reflect on your learning. Check out the further resources and references provided for further information on the topic.

Writing a paper for publication allows you to communicate a central argument of your research problem. This video introduces some key considerations for writing a paper for publication.

The following activity will take you through tips for choosing a journal and establishing your contribution. You can fill in your answers as you go and download them at the end.

*If content below does not display, please refresh your browser

You can also try the following tips:

  • Pitch your idea aloud to a real or imagined audience in 1-3 minutes to see if your argument is clear to yourself and others.
  • Imagine your paper being cited in a sentence or two in another author's literature review on your topic (Thomson & Kamler, 2013). What point or contribution would you like to be remembered for?
  • Use your abstract to work on shaping your argument. Refer to the ‘ Title and abstract ’ section for more information.

The Library’s journal selection guide

Writing for publication – finding an angle and an argument

Use the side menu to go the next section: Planning your paper , where we explore article types and an article mapping tool.

Planning your paper

Once you’ve formed your argument and related it to your target journal, it’s time to create a plan for your paper. This will help you a lot in the writing stage.

Article types

In your planning, consider what type of paper you’re going to write based on the type of material you have on your topic. Deciding the type of article you write will help you to determine its structure. Different journals may accept different article types, but there are generally four main publication focuses:

  • Empirical paper Usually follows an IMRAD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) or some variation of this
  • Review paper Includes literature reviews, systematic reviews and other reviews
  • 'Think piece' / theoretical paper Focuses on discussing an idea conceptually
  • Modelling paper Proposes and justifies a new model for solving a problem based on research

These types of paper differ in focus rather than exclusive content. Some papers strike a balance between these focuses and are therefore harder to categorise. You just need to be aware of these choices and which paper type your piece is leaning toward.

Examples of the four article types and their structures are given in the 'Title and abstract' section.

Mapping your writing

Watch this video to find out how to plan your paper using an article mapping template, then download the template below.

Download the  article mapping template (Word Doc)

Use the side menu to go the next section: Title and abstract , where we look at writing an effective article title and abstract.

Title and abstract

Your article will need an effective title and abstract to be retrieved easily through search programs and to appeal to your readers. These are usually the most read parts of your paper.

Watch the following video for practical tips and examples to help you write your title and abstract.

The following sample abstracts illustrate how different types of academic paper could be structured. Complete this activity to discover a structure you can use in your own work. Choose the paper type you're interested in from the accordions below then follow the instructions to complete the activity.

*If content does not display below, refresh your browser.

(adapted from Richardson et al., 2016)

(adapted from Shadiev & Sintawati, 2020)

(adapted from Raamsdonk, 2018)

(adapted from Osberg & Biesta, 2010)

Use the side menu to go the next section: Writing your paper , where we look at effective writing strategies for publication.

Writing your paper

The writing stage is exciting! It’s where you can see your ideas coming to life. However, getting started and staying focused can be challenging. The following tips will help you to avoid procrastination and stay on track.

  • Set up systems to help you keep going, e.g. ‘write 300-1000 words a day five days a week’ or ‘complete at least 300 words before I do any reading or check emails’. Having a system, however modest, can sustain writing over time.
  • Try generative writing techniques, which involve writing continuously without correction or judgement for a short interval or writing to prompts, such as 'My key findings are...' , to get your ideas flowing.
  • Try to avoid perfectionism – initially, getting the writing done is more important than getting it perfect. You might find that the act of writing offloads and clarifies your ideas and helps you structure them much better than thinking alone.
  • Consider approaching your colleagues or peers to set up a writing group that meets to work quietly for a set length of time, e.g. 25 minutes, then breaks for 5 minutes for a social discussion between writing blocks.
  • Use read-to-write strategies: Look through some recent publications in your target journal to observe how they are put together – notice the typical structures, writing moves and terminology used. This awareness can help you to attune your paper to the journal’s expectations or deviate from them in an informed, justified way. Understanding the conventional way of writing in the journal also helps you to balance ‘convention and novelty’ (Patriotta, 2017) in joining and adding to the conversation.
  • Signpost your ideas throughout to help your readers navigate your writing. You can use the Academic Phrasebank to choose signposting expressions for different sections of your paper.
  • You may need to refine your paper multiple times, with a different focus each time: content, organisation and structure, writing style and language expression.
  • Writing can be a fun and social activity. Try to get support and feedback from trusted peers, supervisors, mentors or advisers during the writing process as this can boost your confidence and give you the reader’s perspective.
  • Connecting to other graduate researchers can also help you to shape and test your ideas through engaging in scholarly dialogue. When published, your ideas will be in the public domain and become public good.
  • As you write, imagine yourself as an authoritative writer speaking to your journal’s audience (Thomson & Kamler, 2013). This visualisation can help enhance your sense of authority and nurture a writer identity.
  • Find a writing mate or join a writing group to review one another’s papers. This will not only give you feedback on your paper but also the experience of being a reader-reviewer of others’ work. This informal peer review experience can help prepare you for the more formal peer review process of a journal.
  • If you’re co-authoring your paper, this can be a great opportunity to learn from others and become a collaborative writer. Setting clear parameters and establishing supportive relationships are key in co-authorship.

When asking for feedback, you can guide the person giving you feedback using these suggestions from Thomson and Kamler (2013, p. 173) by asking them to:

  • Tell you their summary of your argument
  • Tell you what point they think the article is trying to make
  • Name two strengths of the paper
  • Identify the most important improvement you should make to achieve the biggest 'gains' excluding spelling and grammar points.

Now, look at the current draft of your paper and answer the following questions to help you assess your own progress. You can download the list of questions and your answers on the last page of the activity.

How to write and structure a journal article

11 steps to structuring a science paper editors will take seriously

Looping – a free writing strategy for generating ideas

Writing for publication – some beginning strategies …

The perfect sentence vortex and how to escape it

(Scroll down to the bottom of the listing to access the blog entry titled 'The prefect sentence vortex and how to escape it')

Academic Phrasebank

Editing your writing

Learning to be a co-author

Use the side menu to go the next section: Responding to peer reviews , where we explore strategies for the peer review process.

Responding to peer reviews

Peer review is a key part of the publication process. Blind reviewing means that you will be treated as an equal member in the field and that your paper will be judged based on its merits only.

Taking charge of your response

Most good journals use a peer review process to make sure what they publish has gone through high levels of scrutiny from academics in a field of research. To your readers, this means that your paper has met the publication standards of the journal.

After your paper has been read by an editor and deemed suitable for the journal, it will be sent to several (usually two) academics in your field to be reviewed.

The peer review process can take anywhere from a few months to a year, sometimes longer, depending on the journal. When you receive your reviewers’ reports, you will need to respond to them demonstrating that you have taken their suggestions onboard or explaining why you’ve decided not to follow some suggestions.

Reviewers may differ widely in their views and ways of giving feedback. Some are encouraging, while others can be directly critical. However, most reviewers invest their time and effort in giving feedback that they think will be useful to writers.

When responding to reviewers' reports:

  • Try to take criticisms, even those you find challenging, as opportunities to develop as a writer and researcher. If you think some feedback is unfair or unhelpful, give reasonable explanations of what you have done instead of what was suggested.
  • Don’t get carried away by the commentary. Focus instead on picking out suggested changes, or actionable items. You might find it useful to create a simple table listing the reviewers’ suggested changes in one column and your responses to these in another, indicating the evidence of each change and its page number.

Responding to peer reviews is an opportunity for you to argue your case further. When you’re responding to critique, it’s easy to ask the reactive question ‘How can I defend my position?’ but a more useful question might be: ‘How can I strengthen my argument?’ You can then incorporate strengthening elements in your paper to make the most of the peer review process.

To be able to do all this, you may need support from your peers, supervisors or other people you trust to give you advice. It’s a good idea to talk to them early on to help you understand and respond to peer reviews effectively.

Deciding on big revisions

To decide how best to respond to suggestions for big changes, think about:

  • Scope: Is the suggested change within the scope I aim for?
  • Quality: Will making the suggested change significantly improve the quality of my paper?
  • Effort: What is an easier alternative to making the change suggested? E.g., can I add a few sentences to justify the methodology rather than changing it completely?

Writing a paper for publication is a challenging but rewarding process, from finding and positioning your argument, planning and writing your paper through to responding to peer reviews. Reflecting on your learning along the way will help you develop as a researcher, writer and contributing member of your scholarly community.

For more information and support in your writing, Explore: Academic Skills Graduate Research services

Osberg, D., & Biesta, G. (2010). The end/s of education: Complexity and the conundrum of the inclusive educational curriculum. International Journal of Inclusive Education , 14 (6), 593–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110802530684

Patriotta, G. (2017). Crafting papers for publication: Novelty and convention in academic writing. Journal of Management Studies , 54 (5), 747–759. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1111/joms.12280

Raamsdonk, J. (2018). Mechanisms underlying longevity: A genetic switch model of aging. Experimental Gerontology , 107 , 136–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2017.08.005

Richardson, J., Gauert, A., Briones Montecinos, L., Fanlo, L., Alhashem, Z. M., Assar, R., Marti, E., Kabla, A., Härtel, S., & Linker, C. (2016). Leader cells define directionality of trunk, but not cranial, neural crest cell migration. Cell Rep , 15 (9), 2076–2088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2016.04.067

Shadiev, R., & Sintawati, W. (2020). A review of research on intercultural learning supported by technology. Educational Research Review , 31 , 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100338

Steinbok, P. (1995). Ethical considerations relating to writing a medical scientific paper for publication. Child’s Nervous System , 11 (6), 323–328.

Stommel, W., & de Rijk, L. (2021). Ethical approval: None sought. How discourse analysts report ethical issues around publicly available online data. Research Ethics , 17 (3), 275–297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1747016120988767

Thomson, P. (2018). Writing for publication—Some beginning strategies.  Patter . https://patthomson.net/2018/06/18/writing-for-publication-some-generative-strategies%e2%80%8b-to-begin/

Thomson, P., & Kamler, B. (2013). Writing for peer reviewed journals: Strategies for getting published . Routledge.

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Primacy of the research question, structure of the paper, writing a research article: advice to beginners.

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Thomas V. Perneger, Patricia M. Hudelson, Writing a research article: advice to beginners, International Journal for Quality in Health Care , Volume 16, Issue 3, June 2004, Pages 191–192, https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzh053

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Writing research papers does not come naturally to most of us. The typical research paper is a highly codified rhetorical form [ 1 , 2 ]. Knowledge of the rules—some explicit, others implied—goes a long way toward writing a paper that will get accepted in a peer-reviewed journal.

A good research paper addresses a specific research question. The research question—or study objective or main research hypothesis—is the central organizing principle of the paper. Whatever relates to the research question belongs in the paper; the rest doesn’t. This is perhaps obvious when the paper reports on a well planned research project. However, in applied domains such as quality improvement, some papers are written based on projects that were undertaken for operational reasons, and not with the primary aim of producing new knowledge. In such cases, authors should define the main research question a posteriori and design the paper around it.

Generally, only one main research question should be addressed in a paper (secondary but related questions are allowed). If a project allows you to explore several distinct research questions, write several papers. For instance, if you measured the impact of obtaining written consent on patient satisfaction at a specialized clinic using a newly developed questionnaire, you may want to write one paper on the questionnaire development and validation, and another on the impact of the intervention. The idea is not to split results into ‘least publishable units’, a practice that is rightly decried, but rather into ‘optimally publishable units’.

What is a good research question? The key attributes are: (i) specificity; (ii) originality or novelty; and (iii) general relevance to a broad scientific community. The research question should be precise and not merely identify a general area of inquiry. It can often (but not always) be expressed in terms of a possible association between X and Y in a population Z, for example ‘we examined whether providing patients about to be discharged from the hospital with written information about their medications would improve their compliance with the treatment 1 month later’. A study does not necessarily have to break completely new ground, but it should extend previous knowledge in a useful way, or alternatively refute existing knowledge. Finally, the question should be of interest to others who work in the same scientific area. The latter requirement is more challenging for those who work in applied science than for basic scientists. While it may safely be assumed that the human genome is the same worldwide, whether the results of a local quality improvement project have wider relevance requires careful consideration and argument.

Once the research question is clearly defined, writing the paper becomes considerably easier. The paper will ask the question, then answer it. The key to successful scientific writing is getting the structure of the paper right. The basic structure of a typical research paper is the sequence of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (sometimes abbreviated as IMRAD). Each section addresses a different objective. The authors state: (i) the problem they intend to address—in other terms, the research question—in the Introduction; (ii) what they did to answer the question in the Methods section; (iii) what they observed in the Results section; and (iv) what they think the results mean in the Discussion.

In turn, each basic section addresses several topics, and may be divided into subsections (Table 1 ). In the Introduction, the authors should explain the rationale and background to the study. What is the research question, and why is it important to ask it? While it is neither necessary nor desirable to provide a full-blown review of the literature as a prelude to the study, it is helpful to situate the study within some larger field of enquiry. The research question should always be spelled out, and not merely left for the reader to guess.

Typical structure of a research paper

The Methods section should provide the readers with sufficient detail about the study methods to be able to reproduce the study if so desired. Thus, this section should be specific, concrete, technical, and fairly detailed. The study setting, the sampling strategy used, instruments, data collection methods, and analysis strategies should be described. In the case of qualitative research studies, it is also useful to tell the reader which research tradition the study utilizes and to link the choice of methodological strategies with the research goals [ 3 ].

The Results section is typically fairly straightforward and factual. All results that relate to the research question should be given in detail, including simple counts and percentages. Resist the temptation to demonstrate analytic ability and the richness of the dataset by providing numerous tables of non-essential results.

The Discussion section allows the most freedom. This is why the Discussion is the most difficult to write, and is often the weakest part of a paper. Structured Discussion sections have been proposed by some journal editors [ 4 ]. While strict adherence to such rules may not be necessary, following a plan such as that proposed in Table 1 may help the novice writer stay on track.

References should be used wisely. Key assertions should be referenced, as well as the methods and instruments used. However, unless the paper is a comprehensive review of a topic, there is no need to be exhaustive. Also, references to unpublished work, to documents in the grey literature (technical reports), or to any source that the reader will have difficulty finding or understanding should be avoided.

Having the structure of the paper in place is a good start. However, there are many details that have to be attended to while writing. An obvious recommendation is to read, and follow, the instructions to authors published by the journal (typically found on the journal’s website). Another concerns non-native writers of English: do have a native speaker edit the manuscript. A paper usually goes through several drafts before it is submitted. When revising a paper, it is useful to keep an eye out for the most common mistakes (Table 2 ). If you avoid all those, your paper should be in good shape.

Common mistakes seen in manuscripts submitted to this journal

Huth EJ . How to Write and Publish Papers in the Medical Sciences , 2nd edition. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1990 .

Browner WS . Publishing and Presenting Clinical Research . Baltimore, MD: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1999 .

Devers KJ , Frankel RM. Getting qualitative research published. Educ Health 2001 ; 14 : 109 –117.

Docherty M , Smith R. The case for structuring the discussion of scientific papers. Br Med J 1999 ; 318 : 1224 –1225.

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  • v.11(2); 2013 Apr

How to write a scientific manuscript for publication

Giancarlo maria liumbruno.

1 Immunohaematology, Transfusion Medicine and Clinical Pathology Units, “San Giovanni Calibita” Fatebenefratelli Hospital, AFAR, Rome, Italy

Claudio Velati

2 Immunohaematology and Transfusion Medicine Department, Ospedale Maggiore Pizzardi, Azienda USL Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Patrizio Pasqualetti

3 Medical Statistics & Information Technology, Fatebenefratelli Association for Research, Isola Tiberina, Rome, Italy

Massimo Franchini

4 Department of Transfusion Medicine and Haematology, Carlo Poma Hospital, Mantua, Italy

Introduction

The origins and development of the scientific and technical press can be traced back to 1665 when the first “modern” scientific papers appeared and were characterized by non standardised form and style 1 . Subsequently, nearly 300 years ago 2 , in an attempt to ensure that articles met the journal’s standards of quality and scientific validity, the peer-reviewed process for scientific manuscripts was born in England and France. Since then, there has been an enormous proliferation of scientific journals and manuscripts so that, at present, the numbers of biomedical papers published annually by over 20,000 journals, at a rate of 5,500 new papers per day, far exceeds 2,000,000 1 , 2 .

Published scientific papers and professional meetings are really essential to disseminate relevant information and research findings. However, most of the abstracts of presentations given at scientific meetings are usually available only in conference proceedings although they have the potential to be subsequently published as articles in peer-reviewed journals.

A recently published Cochrane review showed that only 44.5% of almost 30,000 scientific meeting abstracts were published as articles 3 . No association between full publication and authors’ country of origin was detected. Factors associated with full publication included acceptance vs rejection of abstracts for oral or poster presentations, acceptance for oral presentations rather than poster sessions, “positive” results, using the report authors’ definition of “positive”, randomised trial study design and basic rather than clinical research.

Possible reasons for failed publication include lack of time, research still underway, problems with co-authors and negative results 4 . Undoubtedly, lack of the necessary skills and experience in the process of writing and publishing is another possible contributing factor also in the field of Transfusion Medicine although the specialists in this discipline are currently adopting the principles and research methodologies that support evidence-based medicine 5 , and high-level research is actually being carried out at the same rate as in all medical specialties.

There are three broad groups of manuscripts: original scientific articles, reviews and case reports. Although case reports are part of the evidence hierarchy in evidence-based practice, albeit at a lower level, and case series are incorporated in a significant proportion of health technology assessments 6 , this article will address the multiple steps required in writing original articles and reviews with the aim of providing the reader with the necessary tools to prepare, submit and successfully publish a manuscript.

The anatomy of a paper: from origin to current format

The history of scientific journals dates from 1665, when the French “Journal des sçavans” and the English “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society” first began systematically publishing research results 7 . From then on, the initial structure of scientific papers evolved gradually from letters (usually by a single author, with a polite style and contemporarily addressing multiple subjects) and experimental reports (essentially descriptive and presenting experiences and effects in chronological order) to a better structured and more fluent form characterised by an embryonic description of methods and interpretation of results. This evolved way of reporting experiments gradually replaced the letter form.

It was not, however, until the second half of the 19 th century that the method description became fully developed and a comprehensive organisation of the manuscripts known as “theory-experiment-discussion” emerged 1 . At the beginning of the last century a gradual decrease of the use of the literary style coincided with a growing standardisation of the editorial rules that paved the way for the formal established Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRAD) structure of scientific papers, which was adopted in the 1980s.

At present, IMRAD is the format encouraged for the text of observational (i.e. retrospective/descriptive) and experimental (i.e. randomised controlled) studies by the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” which have become the most important and widely accepted (by over 500 biomedical journals) guide to writing, publishing, and editing in international biomedical publications 8 . The Uniform Requirements are released by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), an evolution of the initial group of Journal Editors who met for the first time in Vancouver in 1978 and subsequently issued a number of editorial policy statements and guidelines for manuscript submission.

According to the ICMJE, “this so-called IMRAD structure is not an arbitrary publication format but rather a direct reflection of the process of scientific discovery” 9 . In addition it facilitates modular reading and locating of specific information, which is normally found in pre-established sections of an article 7 .

“Long articles may need subheadings within some sections (especially Results and Discussion) to clarify their content. Other types of articles, such as case reports, reviews and editorials, probably need to be formatted differently” 9 .

This format does not comprise other important and integral parts of the article, such as the Title Page, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Figures and Tables (comprising their legends) and References 8 .

There are often slight variations from one journal’s format to another but every journal has instructions to authors available on their website and it is crucial that authors download and comply with them.

The latest edition of the Uniform Requirements was updated in April 2010; it is available at the ICMJE website and is an essential guideline for all authors writing a biomedical manuscript 9 .

Consolidated standards of reporting trials

Medical science depends entirely on the transparent reporting of clinical trials 10 .

Unfortunately, several reviews have documented deficiencies in reports of clinical trials 11 – 15 .

In 1996, a group of scientists and editors developed the CONsolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement which is intended to improve the reporting of a randomised, controlled trial (RCT), enabling readers to understand the design of a trial, its conduct, analysis and interpretation and to assess the validity of its results 16 . It emphasises that this can only be achieved through complete transparency from authors.

The CONSORT statement was updated in 2001 and after the 2007 meeting the statement was further revised and published as CONSORT 2010 which is the most up-to-date version and can be freely viewed and downloaded through one of the several link to Journals available at the CONSORT website under the section “CONSORT Statement - Downloads” 17 . The statement facilitates critical appraisal and interpretation of RCT and many leading medical journals and major international editorial groups have endorsed it.

The statement consists of a checklist (25 items) and a flow diagram that authors can use for reporting a RCT. The checklist items pertain to the content of the Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Other information. The flow diagram is intended to depict the passage of participants through a RCT (enrolment, intervention allocation, follow-up and analysis). It is strongly recommended that the CONSORT Statement be used in conjunction with the CONSORT Explanation and Elaboration Document which is available at the CONSORT website under the above mentioned section 17 .

Another major point to consider is the obligation to register clinical trials 9 .

In September 2004 the ICMJE changed their policy and decided they would consider trials for publication only if they had been registered before the enrolment of the first participant. The ICMJE accepts registration in the international registries listed in Table I .

International trial registries acceptable to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and relevant websites.

Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology

The reporting of observational studies frequently lacks details and is not clear enough 18 , 19 . Consequently the quality is poor although many questions in medical research are investigated in observational studies and overwhelming evidence is also extrapolated from them 20 . In fact, observational studies are more suitable for the detection of rare or late adverse effects of treatments, and are more likely to provide an indication of what is achieved in daily medical practice 21 .

To improve the reporting of observational studies (cohort, case-control or cross-sectional studies) a group of methodologists, researchers and editors developed a useful checklist of 22 items: the StrengThening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement 21 . The checklist items pertain to the content of the Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Other information sections of articles. The STROBE checklists can be freely viewed and downloaded at the STROBE website under the section “Available checklists” 22 . They also include a draft checklist for conference abstracts (items to be included when reporting observational studies in a conference abstract) pertaining to the content of the following sections: Title, Authors, Study design, Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion.

The STROBE Statement provides guidance to authors on how to improve the reporting of observational studies, it facilitates critical appraisal and interpretation of studies and is widely supported by reviewers, a growing number of biomedical journal editors and readers.

The STROBE checklist is best used in conjunction with an explanation and elaboration article which discusses each of the 22 checklist items, gives methodological background, publishes examples of transparent reporting and is freely available at the STROBE Statement website under the above mentioned section through the link with the Journals in which the document has been published (PLoS Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine and Epidemiology) 22 .

As review articles comprehensively cover a specific biomedical topic and justify future research directions, they require that the author extensively review and master the literature and then develop some general statements and conclusions with practical implications for patients’ care 23 , 24 . In addition, they should provide an updated reference for those readers interested in broadening their knowledge of critical issues. Review articles are, therefore, important not only for younger physicians early in their career but also for senior academic staff as they represent a tool for intellectual enrichment and enhancement of the standards of research. Writing a review requires knowledge and continuous improvement of qualifications in line with the accumulation of better and updated scientific literature evidence. For this reason, journals often invite experts on a specific topic to write a review article. However, authors can also ask Editors if they would be interested in publishing a review article on a particular, topical, relevant and debated issue.

As reviews are the most accessed among the various types of articles and contribute substantially to the impact factor of journals, obviously they are welcomed and encouraged by many journals and have become an inseparable part of the writing scientific culture.

The three basic types of literature reviews are narrative reviews (which include editorials, commentaries and narrative overviews or non-systematic narrative reviews), qualitative systematic reviews and quantitative systematic reviews (meta-analyses) ( Table II ) 25 .

Summary of the types of literature reviews.

Editorials, typically written by the editor of the journal or an invited guest, may be a narrative review if the author retrieves and summarises information about a particular topic for the reader 25 . Usually, these types of narrative reviews are based upon a short, select and narrowly focused review of only a few papers. However, editorials may be no more than the editor’s comments regarding a current issue of the journal or a current event in health care and do not, therefore, automatically qualify as narrative reviews.

Commentaries

Commentaries may also be written as a narrative review; however, they are typically written with a particular opinion being expressed 25 . Research methodology is not usually presented in these articles which reflect the author’s biased synthesis of other articles. Commentaries are usually shorter than a full-length review article and the author should be an expert in the content area of the commentary. Usually, the purpose of a commentary is to stimulate academic debate between the journal’s readers.

Narrative reviews

Non-systematic narrative reviews are comprehensive narrative syntheses of previously published information 26 . This type of literature review reports the author’s findings in a condensed format that typically summarises the contents of each article. Authors of narrative overviews are often acknowledged experts in the field and have conducted research themselves. Editors sometimes solicit narrative overviews from specific authors in order to bring certain issues to light. Although the bibliographic research methodology is an obligatory section in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, it is also becoming an inseparable part of narrative literature reviews. Providing information on the databases accessed, terms, inclusion and exclusion criteria and time limits adds objectivity to the main messages and conclusions. It is advisable to use only credible databases (at least two or three) which only select high-quality publications that contain the most up-to-date information (see Table III ) 24 . The best way to organise the analysis of the sources in the main text of a narrative biomedical review is to transform information from the retrieved publications into bibliographic cards with a short description of the main results, level of evidence, strengths and limitations of each study and relevance to each section of the manuscript. Furthermore, the readability of a review can be improved by including a few self-explanatory tables, boxes, and figures synthesising essential information and conveying original messages 24 . We also suggest the use of software packages for reference management, which saves time during the multiple revisions.

Main online libraries, catalogues and databases.

In conclusion, a successful narrative review should have the following characteristics: be well-structured, synthesise the available evidence pertaining to the topic, convey a clear message and draw conclusions supported by data analysis.

Qualitative systematic reviews

Qualitative systematic reviews are a type of literature review that employ detailed, rigorous and explicit methods and are, therefore, a more powerful evidence-based source to garner clinical information than narrative reviews, case reports, case series, and poorly conducted cohort studies. A detailed bibliographic research based upon a focused question or purpose is the peculiar characteristic of a systematic review 27 . These reviews are called qualitative because the process by which the individual studies are integrated includes a summary and critique of the findings derived from systematic methods, but does not statistically combine the results of all of the studies reviewed.

Quantitative systematic reviews

A quantitative systematic review or meta-analysis critically evaluates each paper and statistically combines the results of the studies 28 . The authors of a meta-analysis employ all of the rigorous methodology of qualitative systematic reviews and, in addition, gather the original patients’ data from each of the studies under review, pool it all together in a database and produce the appropriate statistics on this larger sample. While this process leads to a more powerful and generalizable conclusion, which is the strength of the meta-analysis, on the other hand it can pool together studies that are very heterogeneous which is the main drawback of a quantitative systematic review. Nevertheless, well-executed quantitative systematic reviews constitute the highest level of evidence for medical decision making 28 .

The recently published Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement aims to help improve reporting, focusing on systematic reviews of RCT. The Statement consists of a checklist of 27 essential items for transparent reporting and a flow diagram for the phases of study selection and is accompanied by the PRISMA Explanation and Elaboration Document, which, among other things, provides examples of good reporting for the various review sections 29 .

A further guidance on the reporting of systematic reviews has been published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organisation that prepares, updates and publishes systematic reviews of the effects of health-care interventions following a standardised format 30 .

Preparing to write a manuscript Background information

The question or hypothesis formulated by the investigator is the common starting point to search the relevant published literature for an answer 31 . Gathering the background information through an extensive literature search relevant to the topic of interest is the subsequent essential step. Peer reviewers are often experts and not citing important articles poses the manuscript at risk of rejection. It is advisable to consult at least two or three credible databases (see Table III ) to identify the crucial relevant articles and to track down “landmark” articles. In addition, avoid using papers published more than 10 years ago and do not rely on just the abstracts but obtain full-text articles. Articles relevant to the research topic and published in the journal in which the paper is to be submitted should be reviewed and cited 32 .

Last but not least, the bibliographical search should also aim at finding recently published articles similar to the one the author intends to submit. In fact, a journal can be less interested in publishing such a manuscript unless the results reflect new or different findings.

Target journal

It can be worth thinking about this issue before starting to write as a proper choice of the journal can affect not only the writing style but also the ease of publication and the prompt dissemination of research. Ideally, the target journal should be the one in which similar work has been published 32 .

Electronic and open-access journals are the latest resources for publishing and data dissemination available on the scientific journal horizon.

It is also worth considering an appropriate level of impact factor or journal quality. The impact factor of a journal is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to recent articles published in science and social science journals. It is determined by the ratio of the number of citations of papers from that journal in the whole of the biomedical literature over a 2-year period. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more important than those with lower ones.

It is also extremely important to read the instructions to authors section of the selected journal carefully. In fact, although there is a general style for most biomedical journals as agreed by the ICMJE in the Uniform Requirements 9 , individual journals may differ slightly in detail.

It is always best to sort out authorship before writing a manuscript as authorship order can be a source of problems once the paper has been written 23 .

Several guidelines relating to authorship are available and this issue has been extensively addressed in a recently published review article by Elizabeth Wager 33 . Most guidelines on the authorship of scientific articles are focused more on creative and intellectual aspects of research than on routine or technical contributions.

Alhough not universally accepted, the authorship criteria suggested by the ICMJE are the ones most widely promoted by medical journals 9 . According to these criteria, co-authors should: (i) substantially contribute to conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (ii) draft the article or revise it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) approve the final version.

The authors are listed in decreasing order of their contribution and the senior author, or mentor, should be the last but this convention has never been codified 33 .

It is advisable to provide accurate affiliations and contacts as they will be published on PubMed as well as in the journal but it is also important to agree on the corresponding author who should have full access to the study data and through the provided e-mail address will be the link with the scientific community for the future 1 .

Ethical issues

In addition to the authorship discussed above, there are several ethical issues involved in writing a paper. These include fabrication of data, duplicate publication, plagiarism, misuse of statistics, manipulation of images and inadequate or obviously false citations 31 .

A must-read for all those who are involved in any editorial activity are the guidelines released by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) which is a forum for editors and publishers of peer-reviewed journals to discuss all aspects of publication ethics 34 . COPE provides advice to editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics and, in particular, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct.

Writing the manuscript

Several models for the initial draft exist. A useful algorithm for writing a scientific manuscript is the one recently published by O’Connor and Holmquist 35 . According to these authors, the writing should start with making figures and tables, and then proceed with summary statements (the conclusions summarising the major contributions of the manuscript to the scientific community), identification of the audience, materials and methods, results, discussion, references, introduction, title and conclusion. The aim of this algorithm is to give the structural backbone to the manuscript and is designed to overcome writer’s block and to assist scientists who are not native English speakers.

A further and more general strategy to increase productivity during the early phases of manuscript writing is to ignore at the outset all the details that can be approached later such as structure, grammar and spelling.

The sequence of writing should address the following core sections of the paper in the order from first to last: methods, results, discussion and introduction 31 , 36 , 37 .

“Like every well-written story, a scientific manuscript should have a beginning (Introduction), middle (Materials and Methods), and an end (Results). The Discussion (the moral of the story) puts the study in perspective. The Abstract is an opening summary of the story and the Title gives the story a name” 38 . However, as correctly pointed out by Michael McKay, “writing is not necessarily in the temporal order of the final document (i.e. the IMRAD format)” 39 .

The take-home messages are, therefore: (i) a clear understanding of the essential components of each of these sections is critical to the successful composition of a scientific manuscript; (ii) the proper order of writing greatly facilitates the ease of writing; (iii) the approach to writing can be customised by authors on the basis both of the subject they are dealing with and their personal experience; (iv) the CONSORT 16 , 17 , STROBE 21 , 22 or PRISMA 29 statement must be used as a guidance document for the appropriate reporting of the type of study the authors are dealing with 31 , 32 , 38 .

In the following part of this paper the different sections of a manuscript will be dealt with in the order they are presented in the final document.

Title, keywords and abstract

The title is determinant for the indexing process of the article and greatly contributes to the visibility of the paper. It should reflect the essence of the article, its novelty and its relevance to the biomedical field it deals with 24 . It should be clear, brief, specific, not include jargon or non-standard and unexplained abbreviations, reflect the purpose of the study and state the issue(s) addressed rather than the conclusions 38 . Indicative titles are, therefore, better than declarative ones. Obviously, the title and abstract should correlate with each other.

Available evidence suggests that the presence of a colon in the title positively correlates with the number of citations 40 . In other words, the more specific and accurate the description of the content is, the more chance the manuscript has of being cited 38 .

The title of systematic reviews should ideally follow the participants, interventions, comparisons, outcomes, and study design (PICOS) approach, and include the terms “systematic review”, “meta-analysis”, or both 41 .

The keywords enable the database searching of the article and should be provided in compliance with the instructions to authors. A careful choice from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing articles in PubMed greatly increases the chances the paper is retrieved and cited by other authors 42 .

The abstract is the last section to be written but it is the most important part of a paper because it is usually the first to be read and readers use the information contained in it to decide whether to read the whole article or not. It should be a concise summary of the manuscript and no longer than specified in the instructions to authors. Usually, abstracts do not contain references and abbreviations and acronyms are not always allowed. If required, it has to be structured in a specific way. For example, original articles submitted to Blood Transfusion, require an abstract of no more than 2,000 characters (including spaces), structured as follows: Background, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion 43 .

A good abstract should be easy to understand and broadly appealing, informative but not too detailed. It can start with a sentence or two outlining the work; then the disease and/or system studied must be introduced and what was previously unknown has to be stated in order to provide a brief overview of the current state-of-the art knowledge on the issue. The methods must be summarised without too many details; the major findings must be clearly indicated and followed by a sentence or two showing the major implications of the paper that must be consistent with the study conclusions without overestimating their possible relevance 44 . In the abstract the present tense should be used to refer to facts already established in the field, while the findings from the current study should be dealt with in the past tense.

The aim of the introduction is to introduce the topic to the readers in a straightforward way, avoiding excessive wordiness 42 . For this reason it should be short and focused, comprising approximately three paragraphs in one page 37 .

The first paragraph should mention the questions or issues that outline the background of the study and establish, using the present tense, the context, relevance, or nature of the problem, question, or purpose (what is known) 23 , 37 .

The second paragraph may include the importance of the problem and unclear issues (what is unknown).

The last paragraph should state the rationale, hypothesis, main objective, or purpose thus clearly identifying the hypothesis to be treated and the questions addressed in the manuscript (why the study was done).

One of the most common mistakes is the failure to make a clear statement of purpose. This is because many research projects, especially retrospective clinical studies, do not start at the beginning (with the identification of a specific question, followed by methods and data collection) but begin by collecting data without first identifying a specific question to be addressed that must in any case be established before beginning to write 38 . Data or conclusions from the study should not be presented or anticipated in the introduction section.

Writing the introduction at the end of the process prevents any block and it is easier after the methods, results and discussion have been completed.

Materials and methods

The methods section is one of the most important parts of a scientific manuscript and its aim is to give the reader all the necessary details to replicate the study.

CONSORT 16 , 17 , STROBE 21 , 22 and PRISMA 29 statements provide a guideline relevant to the particular type of study 2 , 42 .

The two essential elements of this section are a clear presentation of the study design and the identification and description of the measurement parameters used to evaluate the purpose of the study.

It is, therefore, necessary to provide a thorough explanation of the research methodology, including the study design, data collection, analysis principles and rationale. Special attention should be paid to the sample selection, including inclusion and exclusion criteria and to any relevant ethical considerations. A description of the randomisation or other group assignment methods used should be included, as should be the pre-specified primary and secondary outcome(s) and other variables.

According to the Uniform Requirements 9 , in the case of experimental/clinical reports involving patients or volunteers, the authors must provide information about institutional, regulatory and ethical Committee authorisation, informed consent from patients and volunteers and the observance of the latest release of the Helsinki Declaration 45 .

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should state which institutional authority granted approval for the animal experiments 9 .

Finally, in addition to describing and identifying all the measurement parameters used, it is also important to describe any unusual statistical methodology applied, how subjects were recruited and compensated and how compliance was measured (if applicable).

The results section consists of the organised presentation of the collected data. All measurements that the authors described in the materials and methods section must be reported in the results section and be presented in the same order as they were in that section 35 . The past tense should be used as results were obtained in the past. Author(s) must ensure that they use proper words when describing the relationship between data or variables. These “data relation words” should be turned into “cause/effect logic and mechanistic words” in the discussion section. A clear example of the use of this appropriate language can be found in the article by O’Connor 35 .

This section should include only data, including negative findings, and not background or methods or results of measurements that were not described in the methods section 2 . The interpretation of presented data must not be included in this section.

Results for primary and secondary outcomes can be reported using tables and figures for additional clarity. The rationale for end-point selection and the reason for the non-collection of information on important non-measured variables must be explained 35 .

Figures and tables should be simple, expand text information rather than repeat it, be consistent with reported data and summarise them 23 . In addition, they should be comprehensible on their own, that is, with only title, footnotes, abbreviations and comments.

References in this section should be limited to methods developed in the manuscript or to similar methods reported in the literature.

Patients’ anonymity is essential unless consent for publication is obtained.

The main objective of the discussion is to explain the meaning of the results.

This section should be structured as if it were a natural flow of ideas and should start with a simple statement of the key findings and whether they are consistent with the study objectives enunciated in the last paragraph of the introduction. The strengths and the limitations of the research and what the study adds to current knowledge should then be addressed 42 .

Through logical arguments, the authors should convert the relations of the variables stated in the results section into mechanistic interpretations of cause and effect using the present tense as these relations do exist at present 35 . In addition, they should describe how the results are consistent or not with similar studies and discuss any confounding factors and their impact.

They should avoid excessive wordiness and other commonly made errors such as 38 : (i) including information unrelated to the stated purpose of the article; (ii) repeating detailed data previously presented in the Results section; (iii) not interpreting and not critically analysing results of other studies reviewed and cited but rather just repeating their findings; (iv) presenting new data or new details about techniques and enrolment criteria, and (v) overstating the interpretation of the results.

Another common mistake is to forget to criticise the research described in the manuscript by highlighting the limitations of the study. The value of a scientific article is enhanced not only by showing the strengths but also the weak points of the evidence reported in the paper.

The conclusion is a separate, last paragraph that should present a concise and clear “take home” message avoiding repetition of concepts already expressed 32 . The authors should also avoid excessive generalizations of the implications of the study and remember that except for RCT there can only be testable hypotheses and observed associations, rather than rigorous proof of cause and effect 42 . Possible implications for current clinical practice or recommendations should be addressed only if appropriate.

Finally, the areas for possible improvement with future studies should be addressed avoiding ambiguous comments such as “there is a need for further research” and if there is a real need for further studies on the topic it is strongly advisable to be specific about the type of research suggested.

Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section 9 . The authors should, therefore, add a statement on the type of assistance, if any, received from the sponsor or the sponsor’s representative and include the names of any person who provided technical help, writing assistance, editorial support or any type of participation in writing the manuscript.

In addition, “when submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Journals generally list other members of the group in the Acknowledgments. The NLM indexes the group name and the names of individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the manuscript; it also lists the names of collaborators if they are listed in Acknowledgments” 9 .

The first suggestion is to follow the journal’s policies and formatting instructions, including those for books and web-based references. Other general considerations related to references, including the following ones, can be found in the Uniform Requirements 9 .

References to review articles are an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature but they do not always reflect original work accurately. Papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming” and information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations”.

Avoid using abstracts as references and citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source. In this case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. Do not include manuscripts “in submission”

In addition it is important to remember that “authors are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction. Authors can identify retracted articles in MEDLINE by using the following search term, where pt in square brackets stands for publication type: Retracted publication [pt] in PubMed” 9 . Last but not least, remember that if a reviewer does not have access to any references he or she can ask the author for a full (pdf) copy of the relevant works.

Tips for successful revision of a manuscript

Most papers are accepted after some degree of revision. In some cases, a manuscript may be rejected after internal and editorial review only.

The process of revising a manuscript and successfully responding to the comments of reviewers and Editor can be challenging. Little has been published addressing the issue of effectively revising a manuscript according to the (minor or major) comments of reviewers. This topic was recently extensively and pragmatically covered by James M. Provenzale 46 . The ten principles for revising a manuscript suggested by the author are reported in Table IV .

Ten principles for revising a manuscript suggested by James M. Provenzale 46 .

Many manuscripts are not published simply because the authors have not followed the few simple rules needed to write a good article. We hope that this paper provides the reader with the basic steps to build a draft manuscript and an outline of the process needed for publishing a manuscript. However, in Table V we summarise the ten principles we strongly recommend to comply with in order to improve the likelihood of publication of a scientific manuscript 47 .

Ten principles to improve the likelihood of publication of a scientific manuscript, suggested by James M. Provenzale 47 .

The Authors declare no conflicts of interest.

example of how to write an article for publication

Writing clinical articles: A step-by-step guide for nurses

Focus on your audience and narrow your topic. .

Editor’s note: Dissemination 101 is a series designed to help nurses share their expertise. To read other articles in the series, visit myamericannurse.com/category/dissemination-101 . 

  • Writing for publication allows you to contribute to nursing practice and help build nursing and healthcare knowledge.
  • Taking a step-by-step approach to writing a clinical article can help increase the chances for acceptance.

Are you thinking about writing a clinical article for publication? You can write for a general interest nursing journal that addresses a broad audience or a specialty journal that caters to nurses focused on caring for a specific patient population (for example, oncology or wound care). Most clinical articles published in general interest journals aim to help nurses understand the clinical presentation and progression of a disease or health issue and the subsequent care for a specific patient population.

To increase your chances of article acceptance for publication, take a step-by-step approach, as recommended by Mee.

Start with what you know

Write about what you’re most familiar with. Are you working on a hemodialysis unit and recently managed a patient who experienced a cardiovascular event? Then consider writing about managing cardiovascular emergencies in this patient population. Are you an endoscopy nurse who works with patients receiving endoscopic retrograde cho­lan­giopancreatography? Focus your article on the nursing implications of caring for patients after this test.

Strive to keep your topic focused so you can control manuscript length and ensure you deliver relevant content to the reader. For example, an article about caring for patients with pancreatic disorders is too broad. A narrower-focus article might cover cystic fibrosis, specifically on the impact of this condition on health-related quality of life. You can narrow the topic further by a concentrating on adolescents.

Solo vs. team writing

Are you going to write alone or with a team? Pros and cons exist for each. When writing alone, you may have better control of your timeline and content. However, compared to writing with a team, you might miss an opportunity to present a more diverse perspective of the topic. Another advantage of writing with a team includes having more access to resources, including a network of colleagues to interview. With a team, you can distribute the work among the authors and even have more proofreaders. However, delays may arise if one team member lags behind schedule or conflict emerges within the group. When writing with a team, establish authorship early in the process. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors developed a set of four criteria to establish authorship: authors should make substantial contributions to the manuscript, draft or revise it, have final approval of the published version, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Journal selection

Before selecting a journal, establish your intended audience. For example, are you writing for staff nurses, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, or nurse midwives? Write for the selected audience, keeping in mind what they already know about the topic.

Now you can narrow your journal choices to those that are a good match for your topic and intended audience. You can expect immediate rejection if your manuscript doesn’t match a journal’s purpose and readership. Read at least three to four issues, and explore the table of contents for similar articles related to your topic. An article on a disease or condition similar to your topic doesn’t necessarily make yours ineligible for publication. Your topic may have a different focus.

After you select the target journal, carefully read the author guidelines, which usually can be found on the journal’s website. Follow directions for formatting the manuscript, and comply with page or word limitations. Consider querying the journal editor before submitting your manuscript (in fact, many journals require this step). Querying can help ensure your topic is appropriate for the journal. In addition, the editor may provide feedback to help you focus the manuscript accordingly before submission.

Article type

Elements of a clinical review article.

Clinical review articles typically include the following sections:

  • Etiology. The cause or origin of the disease.
  • Pathophysiology. The pathologic and physiologic processes associated with the disease.
  • Epidemiology. Discussion of disease frequency (number of new cases in a given population) or prevalence (number of cases present at a point in time).
  • Clinical presentation. What are the signs and symptoms of the disease?
  • Diagnostics. This includes relevant tests and normal and abnormal laboratory values.
  • Treatment and interventions. Depending on the journal guidelines, this section might include medications, medical and nursing procedures, and key nursing considerations.
  • Patient education. This section focuses on key points for patient education. If your article discusses best practices in your setting, consider including a patient education handout that can be incorporated into any organization.
  • Nursing implications. Includes the nursing process from assessment to interventions and outcomes. Some journals want a separate section devoted to nursing implications.

Case studies 

Most nurses are familiar with case studies, first from learning how to write them in nursing school and then in clinical practice when reading progress notes. If you’re a novice writer, you’ll find reading case studies in journals to be helpful.

Published case studies can evolve from real case reports or be a simulated, fictional case. If you choose to write about a real case, obtain permission from the patient and your organization. Although the patient’s identity will be concealed in your article, you may run the risk of readers identifying the patient. Also, don’t choose a case that’s so rare that the reader may never encounter such a situation.

Case studies typically begin with the patient’s health history followed by a discussion of the common clinical presentation, pathophysiology, nursing process, psychosocial considerations, and treatments. Keep in mind that you’re using the case to teach readers, not merely reporting what you experienced.

How-to articles 

How-to articles focus on teaching a skill, procedure, or intervention. For example, caring for patients with a colostomy, proning patients with COVID-19 who haven’t been intubated, or attending to patients after cardiac catheterization. When writing a how-to article, focus on what’s most meaningful to nurses who provide direct care, such as patient and family education, and cite evidence-based recommendations.

Do your research

A fundamental motto for writing is “Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write.” In other words, do your research. When you read a wide range of literature on your topic, including relevant nursing models or theories, and access key databases, you’ll soon be ready to write. Organize your notes (paper or digital) and maintain a complete and accurate account of your references, which should be as current as possible.

Create an outline

Use an outline to organize your thoughts and help you stick to one main focus or purpose that’s appropriate for the intended audience. At this stage, you’ll also want to consider what information can be best covered in tables or figures rather than in text. For example, you can create a table that lists signs and symptoms in column one and related pathophysiology in column two. Such a table can effectively present a large amount of information that doesn’t need to be repeated in the text of the article.

Writing and editing

Knowing where to start can be daunting. Consider starting on the section you know best or one for which you have the most information to help build your confidence and spur development of other sections. Other writing tips that can enhance the chances your article will be accepted for publication and engage readers include the following:

  • Passive: The patient’s medications were reviewed by the nurse before discharge.
  • Active: The nurse reviewed the medications with the patient before discharge.
  • Cite relevant references. Support statistics and practice guidelines with appropriate recent references. Follow the journal’s author guidelines for number of references and style.

After completing your manuscript, let a day or two pass and then read it again and start editing. Note that your overall goal during editing is to make the manuscript concise and meaningful for the reader. Check that it aligns with the journal’s author guidelines and requirements. Ask colleagues (including an expert, novice, or someone who’s not familiar with your topic) to read your manuscript, and request their honest feedback. Review tables, figures, and other graphics to ensure they provide relevant information and that they adhere to the journal’s author guidelines. Consider including a box with key points, such as nursing implications.

Follow the journal’s article submission guidelines. Some journals request submission through an author portal that requires you to create an author account, while others prefer to receive submissions via email. Most journals require that you attach a cover letter, sign copyright release and conflict-of-interest forms, and submit information about all authors.

Advance nursing practice and science

When you publish, you contribute to nursing practice and help build nursing and healthcare knowledge by providing guidance for practitioners and future researchers. Regardless of the type of article, include implications for nursing practice and, when appropriate, education, policy, and research. Writing involves hard work, but it’s rewarding and a great way to build your credentials.

Rhoda Redulla is director of nursing excellence and Magnet Recognition at NewYork-Presbyterian in New York, New York, associate editor of Gastroenterology Nursing Journal, and author of Fast Facts for Making the Most of Your Career in Nursing . 

Eldh AC, Almost J, DeCorby-Watson K, et al Clinical interventions, implementation interventions, and the potential greyness in between – a discussion paper. BMC Health Serv Res. 2017;17(1):16. doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1958-5

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Defining the role of authors and contributors.

Mee C. Writing the clinical article. In: Saver C ed. Anatomy of Writing for Publication for Nurses. 4th ed. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma; 2021.

Morton P, Ketefian S, Redman R. Writing the research report. In: Saver C, ed. Anatomy of Writing for Publication for Nurses. 4th ed. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma; 2021.

Oermann MH, Ingles TM. Writing manuscripts about quality improvement: Squire 2.0 and beyond. Health. April 30, 2019.

Roush K. What types of articles to write. Am J Nurs. 2017;117(5):68-71. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000516278.97098.02

2 Comments . Leave new

I could have used this when I was writing articles years ago. Excellent resource

Thank you for this helpful article. I believe that when we publish good articles, we help healthcare providers to give a high quality of care to patients. I encourage all knowledgeable healthcare to write and publish many articles in order to help others for the betterment of patients. Thank you

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Literacy Ideas

How to Write an Article

example of how to write an article for publication

 THE CRAFT OF ARTICLE WRITING

Writing is a complex skill. A very complex skill.

Not only do we put students under pressure to master the inconsistent spelling patterns and complex grammar of the English language, but we require them to know how to write for a variety of purposes in both fiction and nonfiction genres.

On top of this, writing is just one aspect of one subject among many.

The best way to help our students to overcome the challenge of writing in any genre is to help them to break things down into their component parts and give them a basic formula to follow.

In this article, we will break article writing down into its components and present a formulaic approach that will provide a basic structure for our students to follow.

Once this structure is mastered, students can, of course, begin to play with things.

But, until then, there is plenty of room within the discipline of the basic structure for students to express themselves in the article form.

Visual Writing Prompts

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING NEWS REPORTING

how to write an article,article writing | journalism writing prompts | How to Write an Article | literacyideas.com

With over  FORTY GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS in this  ENGAGING   UNIT, you can complete a  WEEKLY  journalistic / Newspaper reporting task  ALL YEAR LONG   as classwork or homework.

These templates take students through a  PROVEN  four-step article writing process on some  AMAZING  images. Students will learn how to.

WHAT IS AN ARTICLE?

how to write an article,article writing | different articles 1 | How to Write an Article | literacyideas.com

The Cambridge Dictionary defines an article as, “a piece of writing on a particular subject in a newspaper or magazine, or on the internet.”

An article’s shape and structure will vary depending on whether it’s intended for publication in a newspaper, magazine, or online.

Each of these media has its own requirements. For example, a magazine feature article may go into great depth on a topic, allowing for long, evocative paragraphs of exposition, while an online blog article may be full of lots of short paragraphs that get to the point without too much fanfare.

Each of these forms makes different demands on the writer, and it’s for this reason that most newspapers, magazines, and big websites provide writers with specific submission guidelines.

So, with such diverse demands placed on article writers, how do we go about teaching the diverse skill required to our students?

Luckily, we can break most types of articles down into some common key features.

Below we’ll take a look at the most important of these, along with an activity to get your students practicing each aspect right away.

Finally, we’ll take a look at a few general tips on article writing.

KEY WRITTEN FEATURES OF AN ARTICLE

The headline.

The purpose of the headline is to capture the reader’s attention and let them know what the article is about. All of this in usually no more than 4 or 5 words!

There is an art to good headline writing and all sorts of literary devices (e.g alliteration and metaphor) can be used to create an eye-catching and intriguing headline.

The best way for students to learn how headlines work is to view some historical samples.

Newspaper headlines especially are known for being short and pithy. Here are just a few examples to whet the appetite:

  • Hitler Is Dead
  • Lincoln Shot
  • Men Walk On The Moon
  • Berlin Wall Crumbles

You could encourage students to find some pithy examples of their own. It’s amazing how much information can be condensed into so few words – this is the essence of good headline writing.

Headlines Practice Activity:

Give students opportunities to practice headline writing in isolation from article writing itself. For example, take sample stories from newspapers and magazines and challenge students to write new headlines for them. Set a word limit appropriate to the skills and age of the students. For example, younger, more inexperienced students might write 9-word headlines, while older, more skilled students might thrive with the challenge of a 4-word limit.

THE SUBHEADING

Subheadings give the reader more information on what the article is about. For this reason, they’re often a little longer than headlines and use a smaller font, though still larger (or in bold) than the font used in the body of the text.

Subheadings provide a little more of the necessary detail to inform readers what’s going on. If a headline is a jab, the subheading is the cross.

In magazines and online articles especially, there are often subheadings throughout the article. In this context, they let the reader know what each paragraph/section is about.

Subheadings also help the reader’s eye to scan the article and quickly get a sense of the story, for the writer they help immensely to organize the structure of the story.

Practice Activity:

One way to help organize paragraphs in an article is to use parallel structure.

Parallel structure is when we use similar words, phrases, and grammar structures. We might see this being used in a series of subheadings in a ‘How to’ article where the subheadings all start with an imperative such as choose , attach , cut , etc.

Have you noticed how all the sections in this ‘Key Features’ part of this article start simply with the word ‘The’? This is another example of a parallel structure.

Yet another example of parallel structure is when all the subheadings appear in the form of a question.

Whichever type of parallel structure students use, they need to be sure that they all in some way relate to the original title of the article.

To give students a chance to practice writing subheadings using parallel structure, instruct them to write subheadings for a piece of text that doesn’t already have them.

THE BODY PARAGRAPHS

Writing good, solid paragraphs is an art in itself. Luckily, you’ll find comprehensive guidance on this aspect of writing articles elsewhere on this site.

But, for now, let’s take a look at some general considerations for students when writing articles.

The length of the paragraphs will depend on the medium. For example, for online articles paragraphs are generally brief and to the point. Usually no more than a sentence or two and rarely more than five.

This style is often replicated in newspapers and magazines of a more tabloid nature.

Short paragraphs allow for more white space on the page or screen. This is much less daunting for the reader and makes it easier for them to focus their attention on what’s being said – a crucial advantage in these attention-hungry times.

Lots of white space makes articles much more readable on devices with smaller screens such as phones and tablets. Chunking information into brief paragraphs enables online readers to scan articles more quickly too, which is how much of the information on the internet is consumed – I do hope you’re not scanning this!

Conversely, articles that are written more formally, for example, academic articles, can benefit from longer paragraphs which allow for more space to provide supporting evidence for the topic sentence.

Deciding on the length of paragraphs in an article can be done by first thinking about the intended audience, the purpose of the article, as well as the nature of the information to be communicated.

A fun activity to practice paragraphing is to organize your students into groups and provide them with a copy of an article with the original paragraph breaks removed. In their groups, students read the article and decide on where they think the paragraphs should go.

To do this successfully, they’ll need to consider the type of publication they think the article is intended for, the purpose of the article, the language level, and the nature of the information.

When the groups have finished adding in their paragraph breaks they can share and compare their decisions with the other groups before you finally reveal where the breaks were in the original article.

Article Photos and Captions

how to write an article,article writing | article images | How to Write an Article | literacyideas.com

Photos and captions aren’t always necessary in articles, but when they are, our students must understand how to make the most of them.

Just like the previous key features on our list, there are specific things students need to know to make the most of this specific aspect of article writing.

  The internet has given us the gift of access to innumerable copyright-free images to accompany our articles, but what criteria should students use when choosing an image?

To choose the perfect accompanying image/s for their article, students need to identify images that match the tone of their article.

Quirky or risque images won’t match the more serious tone of an academic article well, but they might work perfectly for that feature of tattoo artists.

Photos are meant to bring value to an article – they speak a thousand words after all. It’s important then that the image is of a high enough resolution that the detail of those ‘thousand words’ is clearly visible to the reader.

Just as the tone of the photo should match the tone of the article, the tone of the caption should match the tone of the photo.

Captions should be informative and engaging. Often, the first thing a reader will look at in an article is the photos and then the caption. Frequently, they’ll use the information therein to decide whether or not they’ll continue to read.

When writing captions, students must avoid redundancy. They need to add information to that which is already available to the reader by looking at the image.

There’s no point merely describing in words what the reader can clearly see with their own two eyes. Students should describe things that are not immediately obvious, such as date, location, or the name of the event.

One last point, captions should be written in the present tense. By definition, the photo will show something that has happened already. Despite this, students should write as if the action in the image is happening right now.

Remind students that their captions should be brief; they must be careful not to waste words with such a tight format.

For this fun activity, you’ll need some old magazines and newspapers. Cut some of the photos out minus their captions. All the accompanying captions should be cut out and jumbled up. It’s the students’ job to match each image with the correct accompanying caption.

Students can present their decisions and explanations when they’ve finished.

A good extension exercise would be to challenge the students to write a superior caption for each of the images they’ve worked on.

TOP 5 TIPS FOR ARTICLE WRITING

Now your students have the key features of article writing sewn up tightly, let’s take a look at a few quick and easy tips to help them polish up their general article writing skills.

1. Read Widely – Reading widely, all manner of articles, is the best way students can internalize some of the habits of good article writing. Luckily, with the internet, it’s easy to find articles on any topic of interest at the click of a mouse.

2. Choose Interesting Topics – It’s hard to engage the reader when the writer is not themselves engaged. Be sure students choose article topics that pique their own interest (as far as possible!).

3. Research and Outline – Regardless of the type of article the student is writing, some research will be required. The research will help an article take shape in the form of an outline. Without these two crucial stages, articles run the danger of wandering aimlessly and, worse still, of containing inaccurate information and details.

4. Keep Things Simple – All articles are about communicating information in one form or another. The most effective way of doing this is to keep things easily understood by the reader. This is especially true when the topic is complex.

5. Edit and Proofread – This can be said of any type of writing, but it still bears repeating. Students need to ensure they comprehensively proofread and edit their work when they’ve ‘finished’. The importance of this part of the writing process can’t be overstated.

And to Conclude…

how to write an article,article writing | article writing guide | How to Write an Article | literacyideas.com

With time and plenty of practice, students will soon internalize the formula as outlined above.

This will enable students to efficiently research, outline, and structure their ideas before writing.

This ability, along with the general tips mentioned, will soon enable your students to produce well-written articles on a wide range of topics to meet the needs of a diverse range of audiences.

HUGE WRITING CHECKLIST & RUBRIC BUNDLE

writing checklists

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO WRITE AN ARTICLE

how to write an article,article writing | YOUTUBE 1280 x 720 10 | How to Write an Article | literacyideas.com

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh.  A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing , can be found here.  Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

Writing an article

Topic outline.

The purpose of an article is often to inform and persuade the reader. 

Articles give the reader information about a certain topic, bringing together and discussing different perspectives to provide a balanced argument which lets the reader make up their own mind about the topic. 

Articles can also be used to persuade the reader that a certain viewpoint is correct. For example, articles in newspapers or magazines might express a particular viewpoint or perspective; this may be positive or negative depending on the topic. 

The ways you use language and organise your ideas when writing an article will depend on the audience and the purpose you are writing for.

  • think about the audience that the article is for – w hen writing an article, you do not usually know your readers personally and so you will need to think about their likely interests and experience before you write
  • how you expect, or want, your audience to react – re member that the tone of most articles should be semi-formal, so before deciding on your tone imagine your article being read out loud and how that might sound to your reader. For example, an article reviewing a film may be humorous, even sarcastic, but that would not work well for more serious readers or topics
  • the purpose for the article – is th e purpose, or reason, for writing your article to persuade your readers to agree with you or to invite your readers to think about different points of view and decide for themselves? For example, do you need to sound reliable and well informed, or choose words that strongly convey a particular emotion?
  • how to keep your readers interest – ima gine how boring it would be for your reader if you used the same kind of sentences and simple repetitive vocabulary all the way through your article. Try to include a range of grammatical structures and relevant vocabulary to make sure that your reader wants to keep reading.
  • Plan a route through your article before you start writing it – th e structure of an article is usually in three parts. For example:
  • An introduction – engage your reader’s interest and introduce your argument or the main points of the topic to be discussed.
  • A middle – develop relevant and interesting points about the topic to interest and/or convince your readers to think about a particular perspective.
  • An end – d raw your points together and leave your reader with a clear impression of the argument you want them to believe or the viewpoints you would like them to consider.
  • Organise your ideas into paragraphs as appropriate – this will help you to develop and support your points convincingly, to build your argument and/or offer a full explanation of a particular point of view.
  • Show your reader at a glance what your article is about – articles usually have a suitable headline to attract their readers’ attention and you can choose to use subheadings (a bit like mini headlines) to help break your article up and move your reader on. Do not overdo these, but well-chosen subheadings can help to catch and keep your reader’s attention, as well as sum up the main points you are making.
  • Show the connections between ideas in sentences and paragraphs – for example, where a new point or idea follows on from what you have already said you might use linking words or phrases such as, 'in addition’, ‘likewise’ or ‘similarly’.
  • Example of an article

example of how to write an article for publication

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Article Writing

Article Writing

Different writing compositions are used to inform various target audiences. They can be find in almost any source, which includes print media and online sources. With the advancement of modern technology, such sources have become more easier to access by the day. The word article can be used to refer to a brief written composition which is often found among other compositions typically included in different publications (e.g. newspaper , magazines, online, etc). An article can tackle about different topics, depending on the writer, and is usually intended for a target audience.

What Is Article Writing? Article writing is a process of creating written pieces of content, paragraphs to reach a broad audience through different platforms. These platforms include newspapers, magazines, journals, and other publishing mediums. The goal is to engage readers by sharing information, stories, or opinions in a written format. This type of writing is common in various media outlets, making it an essential way to communicate and connect with people.

Writers present information in various ways, such as in an informative writing  or argumentative writing form. Basis of information written on articles may vary. Such facts may be gathered from different sources, such as eyewitness accounts, one on one interviews, and online, among others.

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Article Writing Format

An article will have an Introduction, Body Paragraphs and Conclusion . The introduction Briefly explains the topic and makes user strict to the content. The body paragraphs explains the subject in detail with evidence, examples, stats, arguments. The conclusion summarizes the important points to give overview to the reader.

1. Introduction

The introduction in article writing is the first section that sets the stage for the entire article. It serves to grab the reader’s attention and give them a reason to keep reading. This part typically includes:

Hook : Start with an interesting fact, question, or statement to grab attention. Background Information : Provide context or background related to the topic. Thesis Statement : Clearly state the main idea or purpose of the article.

2. Body Paragraph

In article writing, a body paragraph is a key section where the main ideas and arguments are developed. Each body paragraph typically follows this structure

Subheadings : Organize the content with relevant subheadings. Main Points : Discuss each main point in separate paragraphs. Supporting Information : Provide evidence, examples, and details. Clarity and Flow : Use simple language and smooth transitions.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion in article writing is the final section where the writer wraps up the discussion. It serves several key purposes:

Summary : Recap the main arguments or points. Final Thoughts : Conclude with a compelling closing statement or call to action.

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  • How to Cite a Journal Article | APA, MLA, & Chicago Examples

How to Cite a Journal Article | APA, MLA, & Chicago Examples

Published on March 9, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 17, 2024.

To cite an article from an academic journal, you need an in-text citation and a corresponding reference listing the name(s) of the author(s), the publication date, the article title and journal name, the volume and issue numbers, the page range, and the URL or DOI .

Different citation styles present this information differently. The main citation styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago style .

You can use the interactive example generator to explore the format for APA and MLA journal article citations.

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Citing an article in apa style, citing an article in mla style, citing an article in chicago style, frequently asked questions about citations.

In an APA Style journal article reference , the article title is in plain text and sentence case, while the journal name appears in italics, in title case.

The in-text citation lists up to two authors; for three or more, use “ et al. ”

When citing a journal article in print or from a database, don’t include a URL. You can still include the DOI if available.

You can also cite a journal article using our free APA Citation Generator . Search by title or DOI to automatically generate a correct citation.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Scribbr citation checker new.

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

  • Missing commas and periods
  • Incorrect usage of “et al.”
  • Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
  • Missing reference entries

example of how to write an article for publication

In an MLA Works Cited entry for a journal article , the article title appears in quotation marks, the name of the journal in italics—both in title case.

List up to two authors in both the in-text citation and the Works Cited entry. For three or more, use “et al.”

A DOI is always included when available; a URL appears if no DOI is available but the article was accessed online . If you accessed the article in print and no DOI is available, you can omit this part.

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to create your journal article citations.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

In Chicago notes and bibliography style, you include a bibliography entry for each source, and cite them in the text using footnotes .

A bibliography entry for a journal article lists the title of the article in quotation marks and the journal name in italics—both in title case. List up to 10 authors in full; use “et al.” for 11 or more.

In the footnote, use “et al.” for four or more authors.

A DOI or URL (preferably a DOI) is included for articles consulted online; for articles consulted in print, omit this part.

Chicago also offers an alternative author-date style of citation. Examples of how to cite journal articles in this style can be found here .

The elements included in journal article citations across APA , MLA , and Chicago style are the name(s) of the author(s), the title of the article, the year of publication, the name of the journal, the volume and issue numbers, the page range of the article, and, when accessed online, the DOI or URL.

In MLA and Chicago style, you also include the specific month or season of publication alongside the year, when this information is available.

The DOI is usually clearly visible when you open a journal article on an academic database. It is often listed near the publication date, and includes “doi.org” or “DOI:”. If the database has a “cite this article” button, this should also produce a citation with the DOI included.

If you can’t find the DOI, you can search on Crossref using information like the author, the article title, and the journal name.

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.

“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries .

Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.

Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation , and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

  • APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
  • MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
  • Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
  • Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, January 17). How to Cite a Journal Article | APA, MLA, & Chicago Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/cite-a-journal-article/

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EU AI Act: first regulation on artificial intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence in the EU will be regulated by the AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive AI law. Find out how it will protect you.

A man faces a computer generated figure with programming language in the background

As part of its digital strategy , the EU wants to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure better conditions for the development and use of this innovative technology. AI can create many benefits , such as better healthcare; safer and cleaner transport; more efficient manufacturing; and cheaper and more sustainable energy.

In April 2021, the European Commission proposed the first EU regulatory framework for AI. It says that AI systems that can be used in different applications are analysed and classified according to the risk they pose to users. The different risk levels will mean more or less regulation. Once approved, these will be the world’s first rules on AI.

Learn more about what artificial intelligence is and how it is used

What Parliament wants in AI legislation

Parliament’s priority is to make sure that AI systems used in the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly. AI systems should be overseen by people, rather than by automation, to prevent harmful outcomes.

Parliament also wants to establish a technology-neutral, uniform definition for AI that could be applied to future AI systems.

Learn more about Parliament’s work on AI and its vision for AI’s future

AI Act: different rules for different risk levels

The new rules establish obligations for providers and users depending on the level of risk from artificial intelligence. While many AI systems pose minimal risk, they need to be assessed.

Unacceptable risk

Unacceptable risk AI systems are systems considered a threat to people and will be banned. They include:

  • Cognitive behavioural manipulation of people or specific vulnerable groups: for example voice-activated toys that encourage dangerous behaviour in children
  • Social scoring: classifying people based on behaviour, socio-economic status or personal characteristics
  • Biometric identification and categorisation of people
  • Real-time and remote biometric identification systems, such as facial recognition

Some exceptions may be allowed for law enforcement purposes. “Real-time” remote biometric identification systems will be allowed in a limited number of serious cases, while “post” remote biometric identification systems, where identification occurs after a significant delay, will be allowed to prosecute serious crimes and only after court approval.

AI systems that negatively affect safety or fundamental rights will be considered high risk and will be divided into two categories:

1) AI systems that are used in products falling under the EU’s product safety legislation . This includes toys, aviation, cars, medical devices and lifts.

2) AI systems falling into specific areas that will have to be registered in an EU database:

  • Management and operation of critical infrastructure
  • Education and vocational training
  • Employment, worker management and access to self-employment
  • Access to and enjoyment of essential private services and public services and benefits
  • Law enforcement
  • Migration, asylum and border control management
  • Assistance in legal interpretation and application of the law.

All high-risk AI systems will be assessed before being put on the market and also throughout their lifecycle.

General purpose and generative AI

Generative AI, like ChatGPT, would have to comply with transparency requirements:

  • Disclosing that the content was generated by AI
  • Designing the model to prevent it from generating illegal content
  • Publishing summaries of copyrighted data used for training

High-impact general-purpose AI models that might pose systemic risk, such as the more advanced AI model GPT-4, would have to undergo thorough evaluations and any serious incidents would have to be reported to the European Commission.

Limited risk

Limited risk AI systems should comply with minimal transparency requirements that would allow users to make informed decisions. After interacting with the applications, the user can then decide whether they want to continue using it. Users should be made aware when they are interacting with AI. This includes AI systems that generate or manipulate image, audio or video content, for example deepfakes.

On December 9 2023, Parliament reached a provisional agreement with the Council on the AI act . The agreed text will now have to be formally adopted by both Parliament and Council to become EU law. Before all MEPs have their say on the agreement, Parliament’s internal market and civil liberties committees will vote on it.

More on the EU’s digital measures

  • Cryptocurrency dangers and the benefits of EU legislation
  • Fighting cybercrime: new EU cybersecurity laws explained
  • Boosting data sharing in the EU: what are the benefits?
  • EU Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act
  • Five ways the European Parliament wants to protect online gamers
  • Artificial Intelligence Act

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  • Published: 12 February 2024

Plasma proteomic profiles predict future dementia in healthy adults

  • Yu Guo 1   na1 ,
  • Jia You   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7079-8041 1 , 2   na1 ,
  • Yi Zhang 1   na1 ,
  • Wei-Shi Liu 1 ,
  • Yu-Yuan Huang 1 ,
  • Ya-Ru Zhang 1 ,
  • Wei Zhang 2 ,
  • Qiang Dong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3874-0130 1 ,
  • Jian-Feng Feng   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5987-2258 2 , 3 ,
  • Wei Cheng   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1118-1743 1 , 2 , 3 &
  • Jin-Tai Yu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2532-383X 1  

Nature Aging volume  4 ,  pages 247–260 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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  • Neurodegeneration
  • Predictive markers

The advent of proteomics offers an unprecedented opportunity to predict dementia onset. We examined this in data from 52,645 adults without dementia in the UK Biobank, with 1,417 incident cases and a follow-up time of 14.1 years. Of 1,463 plasma proteins, GFAP, NEFL, GDF15 and LTBP2 consistently associated most with incident all-cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), and ranked high in protein importance ordering. Combining GFAP (or GDF15) with demographics produced desirable predictions for ACD (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.891) and AD (AUC = 0.872) (or VaD (AUC = 0.912)). This was also true when predicting over 10-year ACD, AD and VaD. Individuals with higher GFAP levels were 2.32 times more likely to develop dementia. Notably, GFAP and LTBP2 were highly specific for dementia prediction. GFAP and NEFL began to change at least 10 years before dementia diagnosis. Our findings strongly highlight GFAP as an optimal biomarker for dementia prediction, even more than 10 years before the diagnosis, with implications for screening people at high risk for dementia and for early intervention.

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example of how to write an article for publication

Data availability

The data used in the present study are available from UK Biobank with restrictions applied. Data were used under license and are thus not publicly available. Access to the UK Biobank data can be requested through a standard protocol ( https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/register-apply/ ). Data used in this study are available in the UK Biobank under application number 19542. All data supporting the findings described in this manuscript are available in the article and in the supplementary materials and from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

All software used in this study is publicly available. The code used in this study can be accessed at https://github.com/jasonHKU0907/DementiaProteomicPrediction .

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the participants and researchers from the UK Biobank. W.C. was funded by National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2023YFC3605400). J.T.-Y. was funded by grants from the Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Projects (grant no. 2022ZD0211600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 82071201, 92249305), Research Start-up Fund of Huashan Hospital (grant no. 2022QD002) and Excellence 2025 Talent Cultivation Program at Fudan University (grant no. 3030277001). J.F.-F. was funded by National Key R&D Program of China (grant nos. 2018YFC1312904, 2019YFA0709502), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (grant no. 2018SHZDZX01) and the 111 Project (no. B18015). J.Y. was funded by Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program (grant no. 23PJD006). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis; decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. Further, we would like to thank the support from the ZHANGJIANG LAB, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, and the State Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Frontiers Center for Brain Science of Ministry of Education, Fudan University.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Yu Guo, Jia You, Yi Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Neurology and National Center for Neurological Disorders, Huashan Hospital, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Yu Guo, Jia You, Yi Zhang, Wei-Shi Liu, Yu-Yuan Huang, Ya-Ru Zhang, Qiang Dong, Wei Cheng & Jin-Tai Yu

Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Jia You, Wei Zhang, Jian-Feng Feng & Wei Cheng

Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China

Jian-Feng Feng & Wei Cheng

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Contributions

J.-T.Y. undertook conceptualization and design of the study, interpretation of the data and revision of the manuscript. Y.G., J.Y. and Y.Z. collected, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted and revised the manuscript. J.-F.F., W.C. and J.-T.Y. were responsible for funding, administrative, technical or material support. All authors carried out revision of the manuscript. All authors had full access to all the study data and accepted responsibility for submitting it for publication.

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Correspondence to Jian-Feng Feng , Wei Cheng or Jin-Tai Yu .

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Nature Aging thanks Keenan Walker and Alexa Pichet Binette for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended data fig. 1 flowchart for participants’ enrollment..

From the UK Biobank cohort, we excluded individuals with dementia at baseline or with self-reported dementia and those who did not undergo plasma proteomic assay. The remaining participants were classified based on their first reported years of ACD or AD or VaD after baseline. Abbreviations: ACD, all-cause dementia; AD, Alzheimer’s disease; VaD, vascular dementia.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

Supplementary Figs. 1–6.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary tables 1–13., source data, source data fig. 1.

Data used to plot Fig. 1.

Source Data Fig. 2

Data used to plot Fig. 2.

Source Data Fig. 3

Data used to plot Fig. 3.

Source Data Fig. 4

Data used to plot Fig. 4.

Source Data Fig. 5

Data used to plot Fig. 5.

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Guo, Y., You, J., Zhang, Y. et al. Plasma proteomic profiles predict future dementia in healthy adults. Nat Aging 4 , 247–260 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00565-0

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Google Launches “Help Me Write” AI Assistant For Chrome Browser

Google launches AI writing assistant "Help Me Write" in Chrome browser to suggest text based on website context.

  • Google launched an AI writing assistant called "Help Me Write" in the Chrome browser.
  • It suggests text based on the website context to help users compose things like reviews and inquiries.
  • The feature is available in English initially just for users in the U.S.

Google is releasing a new AI feature in the Chrome web browser that can help you compose written content.

The “Help Me Write” tool, announced last month and launching this week, assists with crafting everything from online reviews to inquiries and classified ads.

Everyday Writing Made Easier

Utilizing Google’s Gemini model, Help Me Write generates text based on the context of the website you’re browsing and the text field you’re writing in.

For example, when selling an item online, Help Me Write may take a brief product description and expand it into a polished, detailed post.

Google states in an announcement:

“The tool will understand the context of the webpage you’re on to suggest relevant content.

For example, if you’re writing a review for a pair of running shoes, Chrome will pull out key features from the product page that support your recommendation so it’s more valuable to potential shoppers.”

Read: 6 Ways To Humanize Your Content In The AI Era

Examples Of Help Me Write In Action

To demonstrate how Help Me Write works, Google provided the following examples.

Example One

Google Launches “Help Me Write” AI Assistant For Chrome Browser

When given the prompt “moving to a smaller place selling airfryer for 50 bucks,” the tool generated a post reading in part: “I’m moving to a smaller place and won’t have any room for my air fryer. It’s in good condition and works great. I’m selling it for $50.”

Example Two

Google Launches “Help Me Write” AI Assistant For Chrome Browser

Given the prompt “plane lands at 9 – ask to check in early,” it composed a hotel inquiry: “My flight is scheduled to arrive at 9 am, and I would like to check in as soon as possible. Is there any way I can check in early?”

Example Three

Google Launches “Help Me Write” AI Assistant For Chrome Browser

For the prompt “write a request to return a defective bike helmet that has a line crack despite not stated as covered in the product warranty,” Help Me Write suggested: “I would like to return a bike helmet that I recently purchased. The helmet developed a crack along the line where the helmet is joined together. This crack was not caused by an impact or other damage…”

Read: Content Creation In An AI World

How to Enable “Help Me Write”

To enable Help Me Write, Chrome users can navigate to the “Experimental AI” section of their browser settings.

This feature, integrated into the latest Chrome M122 update, is now available for English-language users in the United States on Mac and Windows PCs.

You can turn the feature off and on at any time.

How does the “Help Me Write” AI feature in Chrome Browser aid content generation?

The “Help Me Write” AI feature in Chrome Browser is designed to assist users with composing written content by using contextual cues. Here is how it supports content generation:

  • Contextual recognition capability: It generates suggestions based on the context of the website and the specific text field a user is interacting with.
  • Enhanced productivity: For various writing tasks such as crafting online reviews, inquiries, and classified ads, it enhances the composition by expanding brief descriptions into more detailed posts.
  • Quality content: Drawing from product or service details on a webpage helps to create more informative and valuable content for potential readers or shoppers.

Can marketers leverage “Help Me Write” to create online listings and ads?

Yes, marketers can use the “Help Me Write” AI feature to enhance online listings and advertisements. The tool is beneficial for:

  • Improving product descriptions: It can expand brief descriptions into polished, detailed listings that could attract more engagement and potential sales.
  • Creating targeted content: As the AI understands the webpage context, it can tailor content that aligns with marketing objectives and audience interests.
  • Enhancing communication: The AI’s ability to suggest text for customer inquiries and other forms of communication can help streamline marketing efforts.

What are the requirements for accessing Chrome’s “Help Me Write” feature?

To access the “Help Me Write” feature, users must:

  • Update to the latest version of Chrome (Chrome M122).
  • Navigate to the “Experimental AI” section within Chrome browser settings to enable the feature.
  • Be located in the United States and use an English-language version of Chrome on Mac or Windows PCs.

Note that users also have the flexibility to turn the feature off and on as needed.

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