A Matter of Health
Conveying the information
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.
In the era of "translational medicine" that takes scientific findings from the laboratory bench to the patient's bedside as quickly as possible, some important intermediate steps often get overlooked.
One is the regulatory aspect as committees inside an institution and outside of it consider the ethics of translating the work to humans. The other is the writing up of the material for publication in a scientific journal.
As one scientist here put it in a course on science writing that she has put together and teaches: "Yet, research is of little value unless it is reported in written form to the greater scientific community."
Science writing as it appears in manuscripts in scientific journals is that continuity of information that informs scientists around the world. It should be done economically, in a straight-forward manner and with some speed to insure that new findings can be identified, applied and expanded upon in other laboratories. That is the way that science advances.
Writing a scientific paper focuses on providing information. Those creative and excellent writers who also do science can add flair to certain portions of the scientific paper that make reading more enjoyable. However, it is important that all scientists learn to communicate clearly.
For those who shuddered at the lessons on spelling and grammar that were the hallmark of English classes, it means that all that hard work now pays off. If you can spell, if you know grammar and you are concerned about communicating clearly, you can write about your science.
To the rest of us, it means that we can read science, if we are willing to keep a dictionary at hand and understand the meanings of the various parts. A scientific manuscript has several different portions:
- Title. This is self-explanatory and should give you a good idea of what the study covers.
- Abstract. A short (150 – 200 words) overview of what the study is about, what was found and what it means.
- Introduction or background. This gives you the rationale for the study and an overview of what has gone before.
- Materials and methods. How was the science carried out? Unless you are a scientist or a would-be scientist intending to replicate the results or build on what has been done here, this will probably mean little to you. Scientists, however, will often find this most interesting.
- Results. What did the experiments show? What are the numerical values? This is the facts and, usually, just the facts. Often this section includes figures and photographs, because they are facts.
- Discussion. In this section, the researchers put their findings into context. What does it mean?
- References. Here, the scientists list the published and unpublished reports that support their work.
Often, in the academic world, people refer to the term "publish or perish." It means that a researcher's accomplishments are often judged on the length of the bibliography he or she can amass. However, it can also mean that good results with implications for science or medicine can "perish" in the realm of the unpublished.
