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Publishing in Sciences - Technology - Medicine (S.T.M.): The body of the text

version anglaise

1. Introduction

  • State of the art of the problem

 

  • Relevant reviews

 

  • Evocation of the decisive previous works, without excessively detailing their conclusions

 

  • Primary and secondary objectives, introducing them, if necessary, in the form of a question (s)

2-A. Materials

  • Materials = target (physical or abstract), sample, cohort...
  • Clearly identify the object of study, sample, data set, etc.
  • State only the factual facts existing at the beginning of the study
  • The elements that occurred during the study are to be reported in the Results section.

Pragmatism vs. Logic

Some authors voluntarily modify the IMRAD order. Example:

  • Introduction
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Methods

so that the reader can go directly to the results. They consider that the research path is secondary and give priority to a pragmatic vision of reading..

The IMRAD structure

Most scientific articles are written according to the IMRAD structure:

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. MATERIALS & METHODS
  3. RESULTS
    And
  4. DISCUSSION

The second part can be divided in two ; the third in many subsections.

2-B. Methods

 

  • Define the equipment used (model, series, manufacturer, version, depending on the case)
  • Give technical details of how the equipment apprehends the object

Statistical methods

  • —Statistically analyzed data must be accessible by the reviewer for verification purposes
  • Avoid as far as possible the exclusive use of P values
  • —Record all indicators (measurement of error or uncertainty...)
  • —Refer to the reference documents on these methods
  • Explain the symbols and vocabulary used

 

How do we read an article? The reader's vision

In fact, what do we really read? The opinion of researchers and doctoral students on how the elements of an article are actually captured.

3. Results

  • Present the results in a logical sequence associating text, tables and figures (cf. Economy of illustrations in the tab "Around the text")

 

  • Identify elements that were missing at the beginning of the study (in the context of 2-A Materials)

 

  • Give priority in Results to the most important results. Other results should be in the appendi

4. Discussion

  • Highlight the most important results by making them as obvious as possible
  • Explain the mechanisms for obtaining them, comparing them if necessary with other investigations in the same field
  • State their limits
  • Avoid drawing scientific conclusions that are not directly related to the study
  • Avoid constructing assumptions for which plausibility cannot be guaranteed