Why do you need to learn to write a manuscript? Good question! Medical journals are some of the most highly regarded and trusted sources of scientific knowledge today. Thus, writing a manuscript and submitting your research or findings to medical journals is a great way to get your work recognized as well as give it the exposure it deserves. If you are an aspiring scientist, researcher, medical writer, or doctor and aspire to publish your findings in a medical journal, then this article will come in handy. If you are a medical writer, someone will ask you to write a manuscript sooner or later. One of the main challenges that most researchers or medical writers face while submitting their manuscripts to leading medical journals is the complexity of their manuscript formatting.
After all, these journals have very strict standards when it comes to how a manuscript needs to be formatted and structured. They will not even consider reading a manuscript if it does not meet these standards. Fortunately for you, we explore everything you need to know about writing a manuscript for medical journals in this blog post so that you can get started on yours immediately.
In This Article – Write a Manuscript
- Step 1: Find the right journal and read their authors’ guide
- Step 2: Write the Abstract
- Step 3: Write the Introduction
- Step 4: Write the Methods and Materials
- Step 5: Write the Results
- Step 6: Write Conclusion and Discussion
- Conclusion
In Previous Articles
- In-text Referencing in Scientific Writing
- Reviewing a Document & Giving Feedback – A Quick Guide
- Health Technology Assessment: A Step-by-Step Guide
- White Paper in Marketing: What, Why & How
- How to Write a Reference List
Step 1: Find the right journal and read their authors’ guide
The first step towards writing a manuscript for a medical journal is to find a journal that suits your field of research. There are hundreds of medical journals across the world that publish various kinds of research and findings. Therefore, you need to choose one that is most appropriate for your field of research.
You can do this by simply browsing through journals online and looking for ones that publish research in your area of interest. You can also consult your supervisor, colleagues, or mentors for recommendations. Alternatively, you can also use one of the many online databases such as PubMed or the Directory of Open Access Journals to find medical journals that publish in your area of research.
After you have found the appropriate medical journal(s) for your manuscript, you need to read the authors’ guide carefully. This guide will give you detailed information about the journal’s format, language and style of writing, length, and submission process. This will ensure that you submit your manuscript according to their standards and that it has the best chance of being accepted.
Step 2: Write the Abstract
The journal abstract is a short summary of the research findings and conclusions of your manuscript. Typically, the abstract is limited to 250-350 words. Therefore, you need to write an abstract that is concise and clear. This will help the journal readers and reviewers to get a basic understanding of your research findings quickly, and they can decide whether to read the complete manuscript or not. The first paragraph of your abstract should start with a statement that summarizes your research findings. If possible, avoid using information that is not relevant to the research findings. This can help you to avoid including unnecessary details in the abstract.
The rest of the abstract should include information about the research method and sample size, the main findings, limitations, and conclusions that you have drawn from the research findings.
It is often better to write your abstract last. That way, you ensure that the abstract is a perfect manuscript summary.
Step 3: Write the Introduction
The introduction of your manuscript is the first part that is read by the journal editor and reviewers. Therefore, it is extremely important to write it well so that it attracts the editor and reviewers to read the complete manuscript. The introduction should be able to answer the question of why this research is important for others. You can also use this part to summarize the research question and hypothesis statement. You can also include any limitations and/or challenges that you faced during the research process.
The editor and reviewers will be able to understand the importance of your research findings if you have written them in a way that is clear and understandable. If you have used complex or difficult language in this part, you might lose the editor and/or reviewers. Therefore, make sure that you write the introduction part in a simple and straightforward manner.
Step 4: Write the Methods and Materials
Medical journals publish peer-reviewed research papers that have been conducted with proper research methodology and methodology is the process followed by researchers while conducting research. Therefore, if you have conducted your research with proper methodology, then you can include it in the methods and materials part of the manuscript. If your research did not follow proper methodology, then editors and reviewers will not consider publishing it in their journal. Therefore, you need to make sure that you conduct your research using the proper methodology.
The methods and materials part of the manuscript is also known as the experimental part. This is where you need to describe how you conducted your research, the type of research method you used (e.g. case study, experimental research, etc.), and the equipment or materials that you used while conducting the research.
Step 5: Write the Results
The results are the findings that you have obtained after conducting your research. The results section of the manuscript is one of the most important parts. However, you need to write it in a way that is easy for the journal readers to understand. You should avoid using complex or complicated language in this section. The results section is where you can include graphs, tables, figures, images, and/or diagrams that help the reader to understand your findings better.
It is recommended that you use graphs and/or tables to present numerical data as they are easy to understand. You can use figures and images to present non-numerical data.
Step 6: Write Conclusion and Discussion
This is the last step in writing a manuscript. The conclusion and discussions section of the manuscript is where you need to summarize the findings that you have obtained during your research. You can also discuss the limitations and challenges that you faced during the research process. You should not use complex or difficult language in this section. Make sure that you write it in a simple and straightforward manner so that even non-experts can understand your findings.
Write a manuscript – Conclusion
Now that you have written the manuscript, you need to format it according to the journal’s guidelines. We recommend that you use Microsoft Word while writing and formatting your manuscript. You can change the font size, color, indentation, spacing, and alignment according to your preference. You can also use track changes and comments to write your manuscript and make changes as needed. We recommend that you submit your manuscript to a few medical journals at a time. It is better to submit your manuscript to a few journals than submit it to a few journals simultaneously.
This will give you enough time to respond to the reviewers’ comments and make necessary changes to your manuscript until it is accepted by one of the journals. Once your manuscript is accepted by a journal and you have signed the copyright transfer agreement, you can start marketing it to your audience. You can also submit your manuscript to open-access journals if you have the right to do so. Finally, remember to keep researching and writing so that you can publish more manuscripts in the future!
