IMRAD Structure: Research Article
A research article is the most common type of paperwork in peer-reviewed scientific journals. It is a unique full-length paper that has not been published before. Such articles usually comprise the IMRAD structure that is distinguished by many nuances. So, what does IMRAD stand for, and how to format the research article? Let's explore this question in more detail.
The Concept of the IMRAD Structure
It is considered a format of scientific articles that involves four or five sections:
- I - introduction;
- M - methods;
- R - results;
- A - analysis;
- D - discussion.
You can meet such a structure in scientific journals related to different fields.
Who Created Such a Structure?
Most often, Louis Pasteur is mentioned as the IMRAD structure creator who implemented such a format in his work Études sur la Bière (Studies on Beer) in 1876.
In a hundred years, it became the widely accepted article structure. In addition, the American National Standards Institute published specific rules in 1972 that set the IMRAD as the united standard for scientific articles. Thus, every publication should comply with the IMRAD requirements.
When Do I Use the IMRAD Format?
If you have to create paperwork that describes the results of unique research, the IMRAD format will be the best choice. It helps organize so-called primary research events (experiments, interviews, questionnaires, etc.), but you can use it for article and book analysis.
The primary purpose of the IMRAD is to show the objective expertise in the chosen topic. In this case, you don't state your unique opinion but back it with data collected from reliable sources.
As for structure, this format does not involve adding a separate theory section, which differs IMRAD from the social sciences thesis. Instead, you should give your readers facts and figures using unambiguous language, so give up on fanciful words. In any case, you can also ask for college homework help from experienced writers at bestcustomwriting.com.
IMRAD Article Sections
An IMRAD article for a scientific journal is divided into five sections. Let's review each of them in more detail.
Title Page and Additional Information
It is where your article begins. We will learn three separate parts of the first pages:
- The title should describe the article's content as clearly as possible and be readable for humans and AI tools that analyze scientific information;
- Authors - here, you have to follow the globally accepted standard. The researcher that made the most significant contribution goes first, and the head of the research department is last;
- Keywords are vital for the proper analysis by automatic abstract database tools. Therefore, they do not double the title wording.
Let's move on to the following sections.
Abstract and Introduction
An abstract is a brief description of your article that reflects the study purpose, the methods used, and the conclusion. Generally, this section volume is 1-2 paragraphs.
The introduction immerses the reader in the context of the research work. In this section, you must do the following steps:
- prove the study's relevance and importance by mentioning the most significant research works and the historical development of the chosen topic;
- show the current state of the study area through recent achievements;
- indicate the necessary abbreviations and definitions;
- formulate the basis for your hypothesis that you will test in your research article;
- identify a specific problem that needs a solution in the research process;
- setting questions that you answer in the article.
You can specify all this data and bring the reader to speed on the article's case.
Materials and Methods
The primary purpose of this section is to enable other scientists to replicate your research.
You should fully describe all the work done during the study, from software to specific procedures (it also includes statistical methods, if they have been used). In addition, it is necessary to justify each approach and material used.
Results and Discussion
You have to provide a report on the data obtained during the study. At the same time, the data presented in the Result section must be representative (i.e., they must meet the statistical requirements for formating a reasonable conclusion based on them).
You can arrange the data in chronological order and importance or class of phenomena under study. It is also not uncommon for scientific articles to organize the facts in tables or other visualization.
The Discussion section requires you to disclose the relationship between the data obtained as a study result and the answers to the questions that you identified in the introductory part. Thus, you generalize the experimental results and use them for the theoretical and practical justification of your hypotheses.
If you have discrepancies with previously obtained data on the subject or its consistency in the research process, you should pay attention to them in the Discussion part.
Plus, it is worth emphasizing the benefits of your scientific work and aspects that require improvement in the study process. You also have to provide a conclusion about the significance of your research and its possible impact on further subject research. In some cases, you can place it in a separate section.
Additional Sections
Besides, the IMRAD article comprises some valuable sections. They can help you to describe solving vital problems.
Acknowledgеments
Here you indicate the persons and organizations that you are grateful for their help and support in the study. These can be laboratories, investors, grant funds, and technical specialists. Plus, in the Acknowledgments section, collaborators indirectly involved in research work are indicated and therefore are not listed in the authors' list. Finally, if you have experimented as part of your dissertation, this is also worth mentioning in this section.
References
In this section, you should indicate the sources you have used while preparing the research article. You can use MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard bibliography style, but the final choice depends on the editor's requirements.
Appendices
Here you can provide additional information about certain activities in the exploration process. This data can be helpful to scientists who want to repeat the experiment. Among other things, you can use the Appendices section to describe the experimental setup, the characteristics of equipment and materials, and the details of processing scientific data.
Conclusion
The IMRAD standard provides a unique approach to creating research articles. It requires following some rules and formatting the entire text properly. And if you follow our guidelines, you will write a first-class piece for a journal. But if you feel that you cannot provide the quality paperwork, visit bestcustomwriting.com and ask for research paper help from our pool of top academic writers.
