Writing for Publication

A one-day workshop on scientific writing was held at KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Nepal on Saturday, 27th February 2010. Topics covered were ‘Writing an original research article’, ‘Writing an abstract’, ‘Why articles are rejected – views from a reviewer’, ‘Tips for effective scientific writing’, ‘Writing a case report’ and ‘Journals where you can publish your work’. The various sections of an original research article are abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgements, references and figures and tables. Let us now examine the first section of a paper, the abstract. An abstract can be regarded as an abbreviated and accurate representation of the paper contents. Abstracts can be unstructured, in IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) or in an eight heading format. Key words help in indexing and retrieval.Common reasons why articles are rejected are that they are sent to the wrong journal, the article does not follow the word limits of the journal or is not prepared in accordance with the journal instructions, errors with presentation, grammar and language, problems with the theoretical framework, references to appropriate literature are lacking or there are serious methodological flaws. A narrative structure should link together various parts of the paper. Sentences should be short, written in active voice and address one thought at a time. Unnecessary words should be deleted and short and simple words used instead of long and complicated ones. While writing an original article most authors start with the Methods section and then write the Results. Ensure that the article conforms to the journal’s guidelines for authors. Plagiarism should be avoided and previous studies read, understood and then paraphrased in the writer’s own words.A case report, one of the forms of scientific writing is a carefully documented scientific observation useful for education, research, practice and self learning. The essential components of a case report are title, abstract, introduction, case presentation or description, discussion, conclusion and references