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Writing A Journal Article
Your research is not complete until your research findings (new knowledge) has been disseminated. If your research findings are not disseminated then the resources committed to the research have been wasted. Writing a journal article is a standard way to share your research findings with your peers and colleagues in your field.
The standard format for writing a research article is:
- Introduction: The introduction describes the need for the study and the purpose of the study.
- Methods: The methods describe how you gathered and analysed your data.
- Results: The results present the data.
- Discussion: The discussion interprets the findings.
Although every paper has a title and an abstract, it is best to write these last to ensure they capture and summarise what has been written.
Introduction
The introduction puts the study into context, describes the rationale (need) for the study and why you are doing the study. The rationale is normally a critical review of current literature on the subject and the gap that you are investigating. You will need to explain why it is important to gather the missing information that is required to close this knowledge gap. In the last paragraph of the introduction state the aim of your study (research hypothesis)
Methods
The methods describe how you gathered and analysed your data and should include your decisions and why you made them:
- Settings and participants: Describe where you conducted the research; and what were your inclusion and exclusion criteria for you population (subjects).
- Interventions (if you did one). Describe what you did.
- Measurements; Describe how you measured the values of things.
- Procedure: Describe how you gathered data, and who gathered your data
- Analysis: Restate your research aims / hypothesis and describe how you analysed them. Statistical analysis for numeric information; and qualitative analysis for text information.
Results
The results present the data. There are a number of ways to do this, but many researchers present their findings in tables followed by a description of the finding which follows a format:
- Describe the sample demographics – age, gender etc and other information relevant to your study.
- Describe the simple analysis of that particular finding.
- Describe the more complex (multivariant) analyses.
Discussion
The discussion interprets the findings and because you have committed your time and research you should always present a summary of the MOST exciting findings first.
- Start with the most exciting findings relevant to your research question (aim) or hypothesis.
- Compare these findings to the current body of knowledge – are they consistent with other research or do they depart from previous findings.
- Do you have puzzling or surprising results? If so – describe what you think happened (potential explanation for the findings).
- What were the limitation of the study? Talk about thinks like generalisability, response bias, sample size, attrition, poor response rates etc
- Then finally conclude with your recommendations based on the findings of your study – what should happen next and how should your peers and colleagues use the information.
BY YOLISWA NTSEPE (MA, PhD)
ADOLESCENT PROGRAMMES MANAGER
UPDATED NOV 22, 2023
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