IMRAD
Encyclopedia
The basic structure of a scientific paper
The IMRAD structure is currently the most prominent norm for the structure of a scientific paper. IMRAD is an acronym for Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Scientific papers are typically structured in this basic order:- Introduction - why was the study undertaken? What was the research questionResearch questionA research question is the methodological point of departure of scholarly research in both the natural sciences and humanities. The research will answer any question posed...
, the tested hypothesisHypothesisA hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
or the purpose of the research? - Methods - when, where, and how was the study done? What materials were used or who was included in the study groups (patients, etc.)?
- Results - what answer was found to the research question; what did the study find? Was the tested hypothesis true?
- Discussion - what might the answer mean and why does it matter? How does it fit in with what other researchers have found? What are the perspectives for future research?
Many scientific journals now prefer this structure, and use the IMRAD acronym as an instructional device in the instructions to their authors, recommending the use of the four terms as main headings. For example, it is explicitly recommended in the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals is a set of guidelines produced by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, for standardising the ethics, preparation and formatting of manuscripts submitted for publication by biomedical journals...
: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication" issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (previously called the Vancouver guidelines):
The text of observational and experimental articles is usually (but not necessarily) divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This so-called “IMRAD” structure is not an arbitrary publication format but rather a direct reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Long articles may need subheadings within some sections (especially Results and Discussion) to clarify their content. Other types of articles, such as case reports, reviews, and editorials, probably need to be formatted differently.
The IMRAD structure has come to dominate academic writing in the sciences, most notably in empirical
Empirical
The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation or experimentation. Empirical data are data produced by an experiment or observation....
biomedicine. In a study of four of the major English language biomedical journals Sollaci & Pereira (2004) report that "The IMRAD structure, in those journals, began to be used in the 1940s. In the 1970s, it reached 80% and, in the 1980s, was the only pattern adopted in original papers." Even though the IMRAD structure originates in the empirical sciences, it now appears in academic journals in many disciplines. The IMRAD structure is also recommended for empirical studies in the 6th edition of the publication manual of the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
(APA style
APA style
American Psychological Association Style is a set of rules that authors use when submitting papers for publications in APA journals. The APA states that they were developed to assist reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and to "move the idea...
). The APA publication manual is widely used by journals in the social, educational
Educational research
Educational research refers to a variety of methods, in which individuals evaluate different aspects of education including but not limited to: “student learning, teaching methods, teacher training, and classroom dynamics”....
and behavioral sciences.
The IMRAD structure has proved successful because it facilitates literature review, allowing readers to navigate articles more quickly to locate material relevant to their purpose. But the neat order of IMRAD rarely corresponds to the actual sequence of events or ideas of the research presented; the IMRAD structure effectively supports a reordering that eliminates unnecessary detail, and allow the reader to assess a well-ordered and noise free presentation of the relevant and significant information. It allows the most relevant information to be presented clearly and logically to the readership, by summarizing the research process in an ideal sequence and without unnecessary detail.
The idealised sequence of the IMRAD structure has on occasion been criticised for being too rigid and simplistic. In a radio talk in 1964 the nobel laureate Peter Medawar
Peter Medawar
Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CBE FRS was a British biologist, whose work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants...
even criticised this instructive text structure for not giving a realistic representation of the thought processes of the writing scientist: "... the scientific paper may be a fraud because it misrepresents the processes of thought that accompanied and give [sic] rise to the work that is described in the paper". Medawars criticism was discussed at the XIXth General Assembly of the World Medical Association
World Medical Association
The World Medical Association is an international and independent confederation of free professional Medical Associations, therefore representing physicians worldwide...
in 1965.
It seems that neither the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors nor Peter Medawar
Peter Medawar
Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CBE FRS was a British biologist, whose work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants...
even considered that it may be a bit too much to ask from such a simple instruction device to carry the burden of representing the entire process of scientific discovery. They both, however, give eloquent testimony both to the importance and to the limitations of the device.
In addition to the scientific article itself a brief abstract
Abstract (summary)
An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject or discipline, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. When used, an abstract always appears at the beginning of a...
is usually required for publication. This has become important enough as an article component that the "A" of abstract may sometimes be added to the acronym, yielding "AIMRAD". The abstract should, however, be composed to function as an autonomous text, even if most authors and readers will think of it as an integral part of the article. There is a strong recent trend toward developing formal requirements for abstracts, most often structured on the IMRAD pattern, and often with strict additional specifications of topical content items that should be considered for inclusion in the abstract. Such abstracts are often referred to as "structured abstracts". The increasing importance of structuring abstracts may well be a consequence of the increasing use of searchable digital abstract archives, where a well-formed abstract will dramatically increase the probability for an article to be found by its optimal readership.