Typically consists of one page and introduces the topic to your reader
Should answer two key questions: What is the paper about? Why is it worth being read and published?
Provide your hypothesis and the purpose of your study. This is a mandatory part at the end of the introduction
Arrange your paper from basic to more complex
Materials and Methods
Meticulously describe the study design which can ideally serve as an instruction for the readership to redo the study
Create a clear story line. This section links the introduction with the results. Hence, it should be structured from basic to more complex. Clarify the type of study done
Proceed with a clear description of your study sample such as the exact number of patients or subjects included. When dealing with patients’ basic demographics such as mean age ± standard deviation, gender, body mass index, alignment information and other important variables should be given here
A clear flow chart should allow the reader to understand how many patients were screened, how may were excluded and how many finally included for this study. It also needs to allow the reader to judge a possible bias in patient selection
Add detailed description of tests and experiments done for experimental studies and description of outcome instruments used for clinical studies. In case a novel methodology is applied, a more detailed description is required. If standard methods are applied it is only necessary to refer to these
For all measurements done inter- and intra-observer reliability needs to be tested and presented and should be done by at least two independent blinded observers twice with an interval of six weeks
A statement that ethical approval was obtained from the local ethical committee or institutional review board approval should be included
For clinical studies, state that informed consent was obtained by each patient or subject in the study
Final paragraph should consist of a proper and complete description of the statistical methodology used. First you have to state which and how the data was presented. Include the exact description of tests used and differentiate parametric from non-parametric tests. The level of statistical significance needs to be reported as p-value. Generally, it is considered to be p<0.05
Sample size calculation needs to be presented in all clinical studies
Results
Should be brief and concise showing only the results. Do not interpret your results, simply describe what you have found
Organise them in the same logical order and structure as previously reported in material and methods
No referencing is allowed
Do not duplicate results in text and figures, tables or graphs
Discussion
Should put your findings into the context of current literature
Start with a sentence such as “The most important findings of the present study were…”
Compare your findings with relevant previous studies
Do not duplicate your results
Provide a comprehensive list of all limitations in your study
Conclusions
Should not be more than one or two sentences long
Should provide a summary of results and discussion
Clinical implications of the findings should be highlighted
Explain why the study is significant to the research world
It is also possible to provide an outlook of future research direction
DO NOT write further investigation is needed or announce future studies that might not be completed.