Writing a scientific article: A step-by-step guide for beginners ScienceDirect

1. Background Every researcher has been face to face with a blank page at some stage of their career, wondering where to start and what to write first. Describing one's research work in a format that is comprehensible to others, and acceptable for publication is no easy task. When you invest a lot of time, energy and often money in your research, you become intimately and emotionally involved. Naturally, you are convinced of the value of your research, and of its importance for the scientific community. However, the subjectivity that goes hand in hand with deep involvement can make it difficult to take a step back, and think clearly about how best to present the research in a clear and understandable fashion, so that others-likely, non experts in your field-can also appreciate the interest of your findings. Even today, the old adage ''publish or perish'' remains valid. Many young researchers find themselves under pressure to produce scientific publications, in order to enhance their career prospects, or to substantiate requests for funding, or to justify previous funding allocations, or as a requirement for university qualifications such as a Masters degree or doctoral thesis. Yet, often, young doctors do not have much training, if any, in the art of writing a scientific article. For clinicians, in particular, the clinical workload can be such that research and scientific writing are seen to be secondary activities that are not an immediate priority, and to which only small amounts of time can be devoted on an irregular basis. However, the competition is already quite fierce amongst all the good quality papers that are submitted to journals, and it is therefore of paramount importance to get the basics right, in order for your paper to have a chance of succeeding. Don't you think that your work deserves to be judged on its scientific merit, rather than be rejected for poor quality writing and messy and confusing presentation of the data? With this in mind, we present here a step-by-step guide to writing a scientific article, which is not specific to the discipline of geriatrics/gerontology, but rather, may be applied to the vast majority of medical disciplines. We will start by outlining the main sections of the article, and will then describe in greater detail the main elements that should feature in each section. Finally, we will also give a few pointers for the abstract and the title of the article. This guide aims to help young researchers with little experience of writing to create a good quality first draft of their work, which can then be circulated to their co-authors and senior mentors for further refinement, with the ultimate aim of achieving publication in a scientific journal. It is undoubtedly not exhaustive, and many excellent resources can be found in the existing literature [1-7] and online [8]. Many young researchers find it extremely difficult to write scientific articles, and few receive specific training in the art of presenting their research work in written format. Yet, publication is often vital for career advancement, to obtain funding, to obtain academic qualifications, or for all these reasons. We describe here the basic steps to follow in writing a scientific article. We outline the main sections that an average article should contain; the elements that should appear in these sections, and some pointers for making the overall result attractive and acceptable for publication. ß

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