Components of a Manuscript/ Research Paper (PART I)- Title, Author detail & Abstract

Scientific articles follow a general pattern. A fairly simple pattern is followed by the vast majority of papers published in scientific journals today. Most papers follow the “IMRAD” format with some variations. IMRAD pattern contains:

Introduction

Method (experiment, theory, design, model)

Results and Discussion

Conclusions

In addition to this main structure, scientific articles will also have the components like Title, Author details, Abstract, Key words, Acknowledgements, References and Footnotes.

All articles begin with a title. In most papers, title is followed by an abstract and ‘key words’. All three of these components describe an article’s content in varying degrees of detail. The purpose of the title is to stimulate the reader’s interest. The abstract summarises the content of the paper. The half-dozen or so key words, also called ‘descriptors’, together with the title and the abstract, facilitate computer-based search and retrieval.

1.        Title

A title will be read by thousands of people and only a few will be reading the entire article. Hence, a good title is required to attract and inform the readers about the content. The title should be accurate and needs to stand out in some way from the other thousands of titles that compete for the reader’s attention. It should also tell the reader what the paper is about. All words in the title should be chosen with great care and they should have association with one another. Titles should not be too long or too short. Titles should not contain abbreviations, chemical formula, proprietary names rather than generic names, jargon etc. Some key words should be included in the title relating to the topic of the paper to facilitate computer-based searches. Also, Indexing and abstracting services are heavily dependent on the accuracy of the title and an improper title may miss the reach of intended audience. 

2.        Author Details

List of authors usually follow the title of a scientific article. List of authors should include those who have actively contributed to the overall design and execution of the particular research work. No authorship issue in the case of single author papers. Two author articles require clarification regarding who comes first. Problem becomes more complicated as the number of authors increase.

·    The sequence of names of the authors to an article must reflect the relative scientific or professional contribution of the authors, irrespective of their academic status.

·   The general rule is that the name of the principal contributor should come first, with subsequent names in order of decreasing contribution.

·       Mere possession of an institutional position on its own, such as Head of the Research team, does not justify authorship.

·       A student should be listed as a principal author on any multi-authored article that is substantially based on the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Sometimes, more than 10 authors will be there for a single paper. Such papers will be quoted in references with the name of first author, followed by et al. Eg:  Stephen et al. Degrees (MD, MS, Ph D etc) or titles (Dr, Mr/Mrs) are not usually added in author details except some medical journals. However, author should go through the “author instructions” provided by the journal before preparing scientific paper to that particular journal. “Author instruction” or “Instruction for authors” of a journal clearly defines the pattern and style to be followed while preparing an article to that specific journal.  

Author name is followed by institutional address of authors where the research work was carried out. If the author has moved to a new institute at the time of publication, then that address is also added as “present address”. Also communication details like e mail address of a “corresponding author” will be added. The “corresponding author” is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process.

3.   Abstract

Abstract of an article is placed at the top of the paper immediately after title and authors. However, it is written last by the author as the abstract should summarise the work in limited words. A well prepared abstract enables the reader to identify the basic content of the paper quickly and accurately and thus the author can decide whether they need to read the document entirely.  It is considered as the mini version of the paper and is defined as the summary of the information in the document. It should not exceed 250 words, should clearly define what is dealt with in the paper and should be written in past tense.

Abstracts generally follow the same pattern, summarising the objective and scope of the study, methodology, results and principal conclusions of the study in a very clear and compact manner. Such abstracts are called “informative abstract”.

“Structured abstracts’ are another type now common in medical and many social science articles. Structured abstracts have typically 5 sud-headings, back ground, aim/ objective, method, result & conclusion.  Compared to traditional informative abstracts, structured abstracts contain more information, easier to search, easier to read, facilitated peer review for conferences and also more welcomed by readers and authors.

References:

1.             James Hartely, 2008. Academic writing and publishing-A practical handbook (ISBN 0-203-92798-2), Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York

2.             Robert A Day and Barbara Gastel, 2012. How to write and publish a scientific paper (ISBN 978-1-107-67074-7), Cambridge University press, UK.