【交流】Nature Reviews Neuroscience 前任编辑 Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第七讲 ：“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第七讲

The ‘write’ order and IMRaD


“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

Dr. Daniel McGowan
分子神经科学博士


Dr. Daniel McGowan曾任 Nature Reviews Neuroscience 副编辑，负责约稿，管理和撰写期刊内容。于2006年加入理文编辑（Edanz Group） 并从2008年起担任学术总监。Dr. McGowan有超过十年的博士后和研究生阶段实验室研究经验，主要致力于神经退化疾病、分子及细胞生物学、蛋白质生物化学、蛋白质组学和基因组学。

精彩系列讲座

第一期：Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第一讲： “How to write a world class paper”（标题练习）

第二期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第二讲：“摘要和关键词（附PPT和在线修改）”

第三期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第三讲：“cover letter的练习”

第四期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第四讲：“Nature Reviews Neuroscience 前任编辑帮您修改语言问题”

第五期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第五讲：“如何做好研究设计和预先规划工作。 ”

第六期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第六讲：“如何选择合适的目标期刊？”

第七期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第七讲：“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

第八期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第八讲：“如何完成一个出色的论文图表？”

第九期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第九讲：“让统计学告诉你的结果意味着什么？”

第十期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十讲：“如何回复审稿意见? ”

第十一期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十一讲：“科研伦理和论文发表道德”

第十二期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十二讲：“投稿，最后检查”

编者按：在本帖中，理文编辑学术总监Dr. Daniel McGowan将向大家展示:“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

附：“什么是IMRaD格式？

目前医学杂志上发表的论文大多数按标准的IMRAD格式撰写：即前言(introduction)、方法(methods)、结果(results)、讨论(discussion)。

IMRAD格式概括了论文四个关键性问题：

* 前言：所研究的问题是什么？
* 方法：怎样研究问题？
* 结果：发现了什么？
* 讨论：这些发现意味着什么？

IMRAD格式的优点：

* 有助于作者组织和撰写论文
* 使编辑和同行专家更易于审阅、评价论文的科学性
* 有助于读者阅读

更多请详见“IMRaD”的PPT介绍

请大家注意，尽管理文编辑设在中国，Dr. McGowan的母语是英语，因此请各位尽量使用英语交流，这也是一个很好的锻炼机会！

The ‘write’ order and IMRaD
“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

Scientific enquiry can take a number of different forms. As a result, there is a variety of publication types, including papers describing original research, reviews, case studies, methodology papers and theoretical papers. By far the most common format for writing scientific papers describing original research is the IMRaD format. The letters in this acronym stand for introduction, methods, results and discussion, representing the sections lying between the abstract and references in such manuscripts (although in some journals, the methods section is presented at the end rather than after the introduction). The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), in their “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication”, section IV.A.1.a (General Principles), provide the following description of the IMRaD format and why it is used:
“The text of observational and experimental articles is usually (but not necessarily) divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This so-called “IMRAD” structure is not an arbitrary publication format but rather a direct reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Long articles may need subheadings within some sections (especially Results and Discussion) to clarify their content.”

The following four sections describe the important components of each of these sections as well as some common mistakes to avoid. However, it is worth mentioning that these sections should not be written in the order in which they appear (or in which they are described here); rather, there is a specific order in which the sections of a manuscript should be written to achieve maximum clarity and consistency throughout. The recommended order for writing these sections, with the addition of the abstract and title, is as follows:

理文编辑推荐使用如下的写作顺序:

(符合IMRaD格式，但不拘泥于IMRaD的顺序写作)

•  Methods
•  Results
•  Introduction
•  Discussion
•  Title
•  Abstract

第一步：实验前先写Methods

The methods can be written while you are performing the research or, for certain standard protocols, before it has even begun. Doing this early in the course of your research could make you aware of any potential problems in your study design, or point to additional controls you might not previously have considered. The advantage of this is that the methods can be adjusted before performing experiments, preventing the need for time-consuming and costly repeats of experiments already performed.

第二步：做实验、出结果、写好“Results”

With the methods written up and the experiments performed, you will want to analyze your results to determine how they relate to your hypothesis, and what they actually show. It is pointless writing the introduction prior to this stage because the results you obtain will determine how the paper needs to be ‘framed’, that is, what context the results are described in. Therefore, the results should be analyzed and written up second. During this stage you will determine how your data should be presented (for example, in tables, graphs, schematics or photographs; see tip on graphics), how they need to be analyzed (see tip on statistics), and what they mean; once decided, you will then need to describe them.

第三步：根据结果总结“Introduction”和“Discussion”

By now you will have a good idea of how your findings relate to your hypothesis and the existing literature in your field. It might be necessary at this point to ask a different research question or to change the focus of your research. Following such a change, re-analyses of your data and/or additional experiments might be necessary to make a complete story. Once these are done, the introduction can be written, to provide the context, and then the discussion can be written to describe the relevance of your findings within that context.

最后一步：“Abstract”和“Title”

Finally, with all of that fresh in your head, the abstract（详见第二期：Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第二讲：“摘要和关键词（附PPT和在线修改））” and title(详见第一期：Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第一讲： “How to write a world class paper”（标题练习））, the important components of which are described in previous tips, should be written last.

更多精彩内容请下载完整的“Writing for Success”系列培训材料。