HOW TO READ AND WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER What type of paper do you want to read? What is the purpose? Education Entertainment Proposing to give a talk?

Literature Search Identify the subject of interest Look for related topics Read the abstracts Identify the hypothesis if stated Introduction- should tell you the magnitude of the problem and why research is necessary

Methods Method of the study is very important It gives the an idea of the coverage of the research and the problems addressed It gives idea about limitations It addresses the hypothesis on which the study is based You should also look at the possibility of replication of the study in your locality

Result Interpretation of the result is important. Do the authors address the research question? What about the statistical process Do you understand the statistics, if not look up the references and read about the statistical method

Result contd Are there issues with interpretation eg type1 or types 2 errors What about the power? How reliable is the instrument used? How culturally relevant is the research What about the procedure used? Eg studies in molecular psychiatry may present some problems with interpretation Can you interpret the rating scales If it is a study on validity or reliability- do you understand things like ROC curve

Discussion and Conclusion Are the points raised in discussion reasonable? Are there other explanations? Has the paper thrown more light to problem being addressed Does the research address boarder areas between psychiatry and other discipline eg depression in stroke Parkinson disease patients Do you need to read these topics for better understanding Are there ethical issues not addressed? What are the future research issues to be addressed?

Writing a paper All point above apply-from onset of study ensure the following issues are addressed Power, hypothesis, relevant local literature Proper statistical analysis What audience do you want to address? That will determine the journal you send your paper to Most foreign journals have limits for papers to be published from outside their shore. Ensure you are addressing an international audience