IMRAD Research Paper Structure: A Practical Guide For Students

Todd Nesnick
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It is not enough to publish a good-quality research article in a Scopus or Web of Science indexed journal. Before publication, you need to bring the structure of your article into line with the IMRAD research paper standard which is the subject of our practical guide.

Representatives of leading universities that have long published in Western scientific periodicals have no problems with publication in journals indexed by Scopus and WoS. Nevertheless, many faculty members have been met by the universities’ requirement for mandatory publication in reputable international journals without enthusiasm or applause.

These dissatisfactions have a number of specific traits inherent in both Russian science and the overall mentality of researchers from developing countries. Often the anxiety, resentment, and regret over rejections are associated with banal ignorance of the rules for publishing in journals indexed by the leading scientometric databases. Here are perhaps the most common reasons why journal editors reject authors:

  • questions and problems of history, philosophy, sociology, ethnography. linguistics, law, investigated in the works of Russian scientists have the status of a long time studied;
  • some publications are devoted to very local questions, which are unknown to world science or are not too interesting for a wide range of specialists;
  • academic garbage, reprints of well-known works, and review articles containing no new scientific information are also rejected;
  • the article does not conform in its structure and content to the rules of registration, tacitly accepted by the world community of scientists;

The fourth case, which we will consider in this publication, is one of the simplest. Unlike rewrite, review of papers claiming the status of research, and various cases related to the insufficient significance of the article, in this case, you only need to bring the structure of your article to the IMRAD template. If you are having trouble writing papers or essays, then you can pay to do assignment and get professional paper.

What is IMRAD?

The abbreviation IMRAD consists of the first letters of the four key sections of the article – Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This standard (template) for scientific articles was developed in the 1970s and has actually become mandatory for articles based on empirical research. Each original research article has the following structure:

  • Title;
  • Abstract;
  • The Introduction;
  • Methods;
  • Results;
  • Discussion;
  • Conclusions;
  • References.

Below we discuss each of these elements in detail.

The Title Of A Scholarly Article

A well-written title is a good advertisement for your paper. It should tell about the merits of your material even to an untrained person. From a good title of scientific articles, the reader will also learn about the purpose and object of research.

Now let’s deal with common mistakes made by authors.

  • Journal editors do not recommend the use of abbreviations and piles of terms.
  • Clickbait (parasitizing on the headlines of highly quoted articles – note), contrived imagery, slang words and expressions, and ambiguity inherent in media headlines are unacceptable in the title.
  • The ideal headline is 7-10 words, and no more than that is acceptable, but there are exceptions, which you can learn about in the rules for authors published on the Web site of the magazine to which you are submitting your text.

Abstract

Reading evaluation of scholarly articles is mostly limited to looking at the titles, reading abstracts and keywords, and examining the list of cited sources.

The abstract, or a brief summary of a scientific article, is perhaps the most important of these evaluation elements. After reading the text of the abstract, the scholar decides whether to continue reading. Keep in mind that you often have to pay for access to the full text of a scholarly article, in which case special attention should be paid to the drafting of the abstract.

A properly drafted abstract serves several functions:

  • Introduces the goals and objectives of your research;
  • Explains briefly the methodology of your research;
  • reports on the results you have achieved;
  • Justifies the relevance of the research to science.

Typical abstract mistakes:

  • Incoherent annotation text overloaded with terminology. It is not clear where in the abstract the beginning, where the end, what the author wanted to say.
  • The abstract is full of “water” and fragments from the abstracts of highly cited works to reinforce the significance.
  • The amount of text in the abstract is excessive. Journals recommend sticking to 150-200 words.

Introduction

The introduction is a difficult element of a scientific article for those authors who are accustomed to writing in a journalistic style. The introductory part of the article is not intended to tell about the history of mankind from the beginning of time, in the introductory part (as well as in the abstract) should not be “water”, detached philosophical arguments that are not directly related to the study, arguments about the frailty of life and comments on acute socio-political issues.

A literature review is mandatory for the introduction, which should integrate your article into the corpus of scholarly materials and publications. The introduction also requires you to answer three questions: What is known about the research subject? What is unknown? What will the author talk about in this article, what research contribution will he or she make?

Check the text of the introduction against the checklist:

  • Is the optics of the research defined, namely, does the introduction answer the following questions: 1) Why is the research topic relevant? 2) What research practices and tools do you think should be used to study the subject? 3) How does your work differ from the work of other scholars?
  • What niche does your work occupy in the body of similar research work?
  • Does the introduction of your paper state the key hypotheses for the research? Is the research apparatus sufficiently clear to the reader?

Check for flaws and errors in the introduction:

  • The introduction suggests some literature review – it is the starting point of your research. You should not turn the main body of the article into a series of bibliographic references.
  • Template expressions like: “This topic is widely represented in the works of domestic and foreign scientists”, “The topic of this study is poorly developed by Russian scientists” are unacceptable.
  • The literature review exceeds the 1000 words allocated to it.

Methods And Materials

Usually, this part of the paper does not cause problems for authors who have conducted qualitative research. In this case, it is enough to simply retell the research report, transfer from its descriptions of methods, instruments with which you studied the object, data.

It is important that the data in your study be valid and the methods correctly presented. All of this is necessary so that reviewers and, after publication, other scientists can reproduce your study.

Results

The shortest, but no less important, is a key section of the research paper. The author is required to present the results of the work done, if necessary, to make the layout of the data in tables, graphs, illustrations, and references to data sets (datasets) are allowed.

Discussion

In this part of the scientific paper, the author presents his interpretation of the data obtained as a result of the study. But “naked” interpretation for scientific periodicals is not enough: it is necessary to explain again the similarities and differences of the author’s approaches and in general the vision of the work. Compare the results with the experience of other scientists.

Check the structure against the checklist:

  • How well laid out and understandable are the results to readers?
  • Do the results of your study correlate with the experience of other scholars?
  • Are there weaknesses in the study? Are there some frameworks that you have followed? Be sure to talk about them.
  • Are the results of your work applicable to further research?
  • Was your hypothesis supported by the research?
  • Prospects for further research.

Conclusion

Each research paper concludes with the conclusion of the research. From this part of the paper, readers will learn whether you were able to achieve your goal, prove or disprove some hypothesis. Here it is also worth recalling once again the importance of research work for the development of science. What do the findings provide to the community of scientists? Who and how will be able to use this knowledge in practice in the future? What aspects of the research need refinement?