Refining a Research Manuscript

A well-written research article is quintessential for the innovative work to be appreciated and receiving a good number of citations. But writing a good research article is not an art. With due care and understanding the focus requirements can help a researcher to present his work with high scientific impact. The seeds of a research article are in the primary research or discovery by a researcher, which once communicated and peer reviewed takes the form of a publication and triggers further scientific pursuits in future. Before beginning to draft a research manuscript, it is important to decide upon the journal a researcher wants to publish his work in. The draft can be then prepared according to its format requirements. But a standard flow of information in any article is as follows: abstract followed by introduction, details of materials and methods and then results leading to discussion and conclusion and ending up with acknowledgments and references. A research report is an objectively written piece where no personal anecdotes are included. The research article should not be written in first person and it should be attempted that there are least number of grammatical mistakes or mis-spellings in the article. The choice of words may also affect the impact or curiosity generated from the article, fancy words are better avoided and words reflecting knowledge like define, The title of the article describes the focus of the work reported in the manuscript and helps future researchers to go through the article. It is very important to select an appropriate title, which should be self explanatory. An attractive title invites attention of the readers towards the manuscript and the content of the manuscript should be enough to keep the interest of the reader. Too catchy title is not always beneficial in case the contents of the manuscript are weak because more readers also mean more negative impact. ABSTRACT OR SUMMARY The article begins with the abstract, which is summary of the research work. It is a concise and focused representation of research work indicating the aim of the study, the methods used, results and major findings as a conclusion from the studies. It ends with the implications for future. The abstract gives a first-hand impression of the impending article to the reader and needs to be written precisely and with clarity. The researchers should refrain from writing extended background or methodology. Few keywords may be …