EDITORIAL
How to write an original research paper
(and get it published)
I. Diane Cooper, AHIP
See end of article for author’s affiliation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.103.2.001
The purpose of the Journal of the Medical Library
Association (JMLA) is more than just archiving data
from librarian research. Our goal is to present research
findings to end users in the most useful way. The
‘‘Knowledge Transfer’’ model, in its simplest form, has
three components: creating the knowledge (doing the
research), translating and transferring it to the user,
and incorporating the knowledge into use. The JMLA is
in the middle part, transferring and translating to the
user. We, the JMLA, must obtain the information and
knowledge from researchers and then work with them
to present it in the most useable form. That means the
information must be in a standard acceptable format
and be easily readable.
There is a standard, preferred way to write an
original research paper. For format, we follow the
IMRAD structure. The acronym, IMRAD, stands for
Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion. IM-
RAD has dominated academic, scientific, and public
health journals since the second half of the twentieth
century. It is recommended in the ‘‘Uniform Require-
ments for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
Journals’’ [1]. The IMRAD structure helps to eliminate
unnecessary detail and allows relevant information to
be presented clearly in a logical sequence [2, 3].
Here are descriptions of the IMRAD sections,
along with our comments and suggestions. If you
use this guide for submission to another journal, be
sure to check the publisher’s prescribed formats.
Introduction
The Introduction sets the stage for your presentation. It
has three parts: what is known, what is unknown, and
what your burning question, hypothesis, or aim is.
Keep this section short, and write for a general
audience (clear, concise, and as nontechnical as you
can be). How would you explain to a distant colleague
why and how you did the study? Take your readers
through the three steps ending with your specific
question. Emphasize how your study fills in the gaps
(the unknown), and explicitly state your research
question. Do not answer the research question.
Remember to leave details, descriptions, speculations,
and criticisms of other studies for the Discussion.
Methods
The Methods section gives a clear overview of what
you did. Give enough information that your readers
can evaluate the persuasiveness of your study.
Describe the steps you took, as in a recipe, but be
wary of too much detail. If you are doing qualitative
research, explain how you picked your subjects to be
representative.
You may want to break it into smaller sections with
subheadings, for example, context: when, where,
authority or approval, sample selection, data collec-
tion (how), follow-up, method of analysis. Cite
a reference for commonly used methods or previously
used methods rather than explaining all the details.
Flow diagrams and tables can simplify explanations
of methods.
You may use first person voice when describing
your methods.
Results
The Results section summarizes what the data show.
Point out relationships, and describe trends. Avoid
simply repeating the numbers that are already avail-
able in the tables and figures. Data should be restricted
to tables as much as possible. Be the friendly narrator,
and summarize the tables; do not write the data again
in the text. For example, if you had a demographic
table with a row of ages, and age was not significantly
different among groups, your text could say, ‘‘The
median age of all subjects was 47 years. There was no
significant difference between groups (Table).’’ This is
preferable to, ‘‘The mean age of group 1 was 48.6 (7.5)
years and group 2 was 46.3 (5.8) years, a nonsignificant
difference.’’
Break the Results section into subsections, with
headings if needed. Complement the information that
is already in the tables and figures. And remember to
repeat and highlight in the text only the most
important numbers. Use the active voice in the Results
section, and make it lively. Information about what
you did belongs in the Methods section, not here. And
reserve comments on the meaning of your results for
the Discussion section.
Other tips to help you with the Results section:
&If you need to cite the number in the text (not just
in the table), and the total in the group is less than
50, do not include percentage. Write ‘‘7 of 34,’’ not
‘‘7 (21%).’’
&Do not forget, if you have multiple comparisons,
you probably need adjustment. Ask your statisti-
cian if you are not sure.
J Med Lib Assoc 103(2) April 2015 67
