URM and IMRAD format

Vancouver group 1978, Vancouver, Canada Uniform submission Make life easier for authors No rejection on grounds of style

Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Manuscript Preparation Preparing a Manuscipt for Submission to Biomedical Journals Sending the Manuscript to the Journal References Print References Cited in this Document Other Sources of Information Related to Biomedical Journals

Parts of an essay Beginning Main Body End

Sir Bradford Hill’s Questions Why did you start? What did you do? What did you find? and What does it all mean?

Parts of a paper: IMRAD IIntroduction MMethods RResults aand DDiscussion

Sir Bradford Hill’s Questions IIntroductionWhy did you start? MMethodsWhat did you do? RResultsWhat did you find? Aand DDiscussionWhat does it all mean?

Introduction Why did you start? Readers’ expectations Sufficient background information Understand and evaluate the results Without referring to previous publications Concise, adequate Not a review

Introduction Review pertinent literature Define lacunae in current knowledge Provide rationale for your study –What gap in knowledge did you try to fill? –What controversy did you try to resolve? State the aim of the study

Introduction Brief, clear, to the point Written in present tense May state the study group, study design and methods used

Introduction Key references: to support background information Refer to –your previous preliminary work –your own closely related papers Define any specialized terms, definitions or abbreviations you intend to use

Example We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological importance. Watson JD, Crick FHC. A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 1953; 171:

Methods What did you do?

Methods What all was done? How was it done? When was it done? Who did it ? How were the results analyzed? Did you have ethical clearance to do so?

Methods –Present methods in chronological order –Subheadings should match those in results ‘internal consistency’ –In past tense –Be precise

Methods: checklist Does it describe –What questions was being asked? –What was being tested? –How reliable was the measurement? Were the parameters recorded and analyzed correctly? Would a reader be able to repeat the same experiment?

Results Answers What did you find?

Results: Before writing Collate data Prepare master tables –Re-check accuracy Analyse –List all the findings –Identify the important ones

Results: The components Text Story TablesMeat FiguresDrama

Results Results of all experiments in natural order in subsections similar to methods Do not duplicate information text, tables, figures Statistical analysis

Results Should not include –Any methods –Data for which methods are not included –Interpretation of data –References

Results: Tables Table I. Parts of a table Footnote: BODY

Results: Table or figure Prefer tables Use figures only for illustrative Bar, histogram, pie: ? table Difference in written and oral communication

Results: Text or Tables Number of items Few variables: Text Many variables: Table

Figure: in place of text Intraperitoneal inoculation of 1 X 10 6 DLA cells (day 0) Group 1 Vehicle Group 2 Total alkaloid fraction (5 mg/Kg/d) Group 3 Total alkaloid fraction (10 mg/Kg/d) Group 4 Total alkaloid fraction (20 mg/Kg/d) Group 5 Methotrexate (3.4 mg/Kg/d) (Positive control) Days Treatment (d 1,2,3) Observation Study design

Figure: not in place of table

Summary URM IMRAD –Introduction –Methods –Results and –Discussion