Detailing the Writing of Scientific Manuscripts: 25-30 Paragraphs

DOI: 10.5935/abc.20140019 In their professional practices, physicians often face unexpected situations or chance on innovative proposals and ideas. As a result of their training and competence, they usually come up with hypotheses to be tested and research is conducted. This research is completed and their results submitted for presentations at conferences as free communications. Nevertheless, the realization of this creative process is only complete when a scientific manuscript is published in a journal. At this ultimate stage, most efforts seem not be brought to a standstill1,2. There are several reasons why scholars, interns, residents, graduate students and even experienced physicians may find it difficult to move forward from congress’ abstracts to full manuscripts published in journals. However, the most significant hindrance rests with the difficulty writing the mere 25-30 paragraphs of an original manuscript. Many freeze and give up in front of a blank paper or a blinking cursor on a blank word processor’s page on the monitor screen. In the previous manuscript3, we analyzed and suggested improvements to the process of peer review. In this point of view, we propose a practical strategy to systematize the writing of scientific paragraphs, aiming to simplify the task of scientific writing. This way, our intent is to increase the rate of publication of full manuscripts based on several outstanding abstracts presented annually at major medical conferences, and facilitate the currently overburdened process of peer review.