4 Parts of an Academic Manuscript

Writing an academic manuscript is very similar to writing a novel—you’re telling a story about the science that you have done. Just like a novel, there is a basic structure to telling your story. This consists of something we like to call IMRaD, or the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion.

In the Introduction, you want to tell your reader what your work is about. It is important to give context to the reader, define concepts you will be discussing, and say what the field has already shown about the subject. Your hypothesis and predictions about the research should also be clearly stated here, along with what the results of your experiment contribute to the field. 

The Methods section is extremely important for future replication of the research. In order to progress scientific knowledge, future studies should be able to replicate and expand upon your work. To do this, researchers will need to know exactly what you did to obtain your data. This section should include your study design, the conditions and details of your samples or subjects were under, measures obtained, and what statistical tests were run. If you are performing a replication experiment, be sure to also cite the original work!

The Results section is where you share your data. This data should be specific to your hypothesis/study question. Absolute numbers should be presented in tables, figures, and text—especially statistical values! Sample sizes are also extremely important to define here. Remember, this is the section where you present your data, and interpretations should be saved for the discussion. 

The Discussion is the final written part of your manuscript. This is where you spend time analyzing your results and connecting them back to your study question. You discuss what your results mean, how they relate previous studies, and what factors could have contributed to your results. 

While not part of the IMRaD acronym, the reference part of your paper is extremely important. This is where you acknowledge the papers and resources that you consulted when developing your hypothesis and interpreting your results. You must include any resource used, even if the concept seems obvious. The formatting of your references (APA, AMA, MLA, etc.) must be consistent across references and adhere to the style guide that your submission journal uses.

If written clearly enough, your paper should be able to be interpreted and understandable to an array of audiences—even those not in your field of study. As an experienced science editor, I can ensure all parts of the manuscript are included while also maintaining correct sentence structure and grammar!