BrazJOtorhinolaryngol.2014;80(5):371---372
Brazilian
Journal
of
OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY
www.bjorl.org
EDITORIAL
The
writing
of
scientific
articles
夽
Redac
¸ão
de
artigos
científicos
TheAmericanwriterErnestHemingway,1898---1961,saidthe followingabouttheartofwriting:‘‘Weareallapprenticesin acraftwherenooneeverbecomesamaster’’.Thisphrase alsoapplies towriters of scientific texts. Weare appren-ticesandself-taughtwritersinthisdifficulttaskofproducing qualityscientificwriting.
Creating a good textis the result of thehard work of writing.Thisistheopinionofexperiencedwritersthat con-sider other influences, such as inspiration, as being less important.MarkTwain,1835---1910,alsoanAmericanwriter, proclaimedthatconvictionbypromotinghisthreerulesfor writingwell:‘‘thefirstistoreview;thesecondistoreview andthethirdistoreview’’.
Whatdoestheeditorofascientificjournalexpectfrom amanuscriptsubmittedforpublication?Firstly,thatit ori-ginatesfrommethodologicallycorrectresearch,performed on a relevant and appropriatetheme for the journal. He will be even more pleased if the text is in agreement with the learned rules of the language in which it was writtenandifitcontainscharacteristicsthatdemonstrate itshigh--- quality production.Among thesecharacteristics are clarity, for the reader to understand what he reads;
brevity, not towaste the reader’s time and space in the journal; accuracy, not to cheat or embarrass the reader;
elegance, to attract and keep the reader’s attention and even delight him; and the logical sequence in the pre-sentation of facts andarguments, toensure continuityof reading.1
Thepresentationoftheresultssequenceofan investiga-tioniscurrentlystandardizedinthemajorscientificjournals in the health area. Four sections constitute the original scientificpaper:introduction,methods,results,and discus-sion.Thisstructure,calledIMRDorIMReD,originatedinthe 1940sandwasgraduallyadopted,beingtheonlyformatused fromthe1980sonwards.2
夽
Pleasecitethisarticleas:PereiraMG.Thewritingofscientific articles.BrazJOtorhinolaryngol.2014;80:371---2.
Eachsectionofthearticlehasitsspecificity,whichmust berespected.Intheintroduction,theauthorexplainsthe investigationandinformsthestudy’sgoal.Inthemethods’ section,the authorexplains howthestudy wasdesigned. Theresults’sectiondisclosestheinvestigationfindingsand, iftheinvestigationisaquantitativeone,thestatistical anal-ysisisalsopresented.Inthediscussion’ssection,theauthor supportstheconclusionoftheinvestigation,commentsthe resultsandcomparesthemwithrelevantfindingsfromother studies.
The IMRD structure is not simply a stylistic issue. It expressesthelogicofscientificrationale.Thewritermust masterthisreasoninganduseguidelinestoreportresearch results.Therearegeneralguidelines,suchasthe Vancou-verguidelinesandtheinstructionsforauthorsofscientific journals. There are also specific ones available for virtu-allyalltypesofstudy.Thefirstspecificguidelinetoattain broadconsensuswastheCONSORT,publishedin1996,forthe reportingof clinical trials.It wasthe stimulusand model for the creation of several others, including the STROBE guidelineforobservationalstudies,andthePRISMA,for sys-tematicreviews.Theseguidelinescanbefoundinasingle electronicaddress.3
Theuseofguidelines,astheaforementionedones,will helpauthorstoavoidtheomissionofrelevantinformationon theirinvestigations.Byfollowingtheseinstructions,reports tendtobecomemoretransparent.Asaresult,everyonewill benefit---editors,reviewers,readers,andespeciallyauthors themselves, asit will increase the chances of the article beingpublishedinthescientificjournals.
Conflicts
of
interest
Theauthordeclaresnoconflictsofinterest.
References
1.PereiraMG.Artigoscientíficos:comoredigir,avaliarepublicar. RiodeJaneiro:EditoraGuanabara-Koogan;2011.p.22.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bjorl.2014.07.004
372 EDITORIAL
2.SollaciL,PereiraMG.Theintroduction,methods,resultsand dis-cussion(IMRAD)structure:afifty-yearsurvey.JMedLibrAssoc. 2004;92:364---7.
3.The EQUATOR --- Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research --- Network; 2014. Available at: www. equator-network.org/[accessed26.7.14].
MauricioGomesPereira
