Effective communication is essential for scientific development. For research to be completed, its results must be presented at scientific meetings or published and shared with the scientific community. The main advantages of publishing can be listed as follows:

• Sharing the research results allows the evaluation of these results by other people and the criticism of errors and deficiencies, if any.
• Sharing of research results paves the way for other scientists and society to benefit from these results.
• The results of the studies form the basis for further research.
• Publication of the study results deters other researchers from planning and performing similar studies. Thus, the waste of time and resources is significantly reduced.
• Since the number and quality of the published publications reveal the scientific competence of the researcher to a certain extent, a successful CV help researchers benefit from the project funds and gain academic appointments and advancements.

Health science researchers should always keep in mind that only a successful study can turn into a good article. A study that is out of date, not innovative, has errors in the materials-methods part, or has no application area has very little chance to end up as an article in a reputable journal. Therefore, the study should be planned very carefully from the beginning.

The most important characteristics of a successfully planned study can be described as follows:

• It has a logical starting point
• It solves a gap or unknown
• It is testable
• Its results are applicable

While planning the research, it is essential to remember that the research results will be published in the future. While still in the planning stage of a study, the researchers should ask themselves, “What will the referees who will review my article criticize about my work when I complete this research and submit it for publication”. If your study plan has any major weaknesses that you fear to be criticized for, this fear often turns into reality; if the missing part of your work is critical, you may even lose your chance to publish your work.

One common mistake during the research planning is not reading enough references. Unfortunately, many researchers plan and conduct their studies after a superficial literature review, and they consult many of the  references at the writing stage, after the study is finished. This leads to significant deficiencies in studies or duplication of previous research. Rebuttal of a sentence like “This is the first time in this study that we prove … ” by the referees suggests that the authors carried out the study without adequate literature review, which reduces the likelihood of article’s publication.

Material and methods of the study should be carefully chosen. It is necessary to carefully consider whether the number of subjects or patients used in the study is sufficient and whether the methods used accurately measure the research question. It is crucial to make a preliminary statistical evaluation before the study to form groups with adequate number of subjects to reveal the statistical differences. Low subject numbers may cause the difference between the groups not to be displayed, and a high number may cause problems in terms of welfare and ethics. Sometimes, a study that lasts for years does not give the expected results due to the inappropriate selection of the subject groups or subject numbers. Therefore, the outline of the study, the size of the expected results, and the number of subjects should be consulted with someone competent in statistics, and the number of subjects and groups should be adjusted accordingly.

It is always beneficial to get help from a reliable colleague, both in the planning stage of your research and before submission of your manuscript to the journal. A scientifically competent colleague who was not involved in your work is an ideal outside eye for noticing critical deficiencies in your research plan or manuscript and providing you with very important feedback. If you have such an opportunity, you should use it.

Issues related to patient rights, animal welfare, and ethics are gaining more and more importance. If you need to get an ethics committee report before starting your study, definitely take the necessary steps.

One of the critical points in the planning and execution of the works is to be prepared for the problems that may arise during the performance of the work and to have the B (or even C, D, …) plans in reserve. Be prudent when planning your work and have your solutions ready for any disruptions.

In summary:

• As you plan the work, consider that it will be published in the future.
• Show your work plan to your colleagues and get their suggestions.
• Before doing the study, have a good grasp of your subject; read plenty of references.
• Solve any questions in your mind before starting your study.
• Make a preliminary statistical evaluation of the study.
• Obtain an ethics committee report if necessary.
• Be sure of the suitability and adequacy of the method you will use.
• Make sure you measure and analyze results correctly.
• Be prepared for any setbacks that may arise during your work, and have your plan B (and if possible C, D, …) thought out.

Research articles can be considered as the most common form of scientific publication in sharing the results of scientific studies with other scientists and society. A research paper mainly consists of the following sections:

Title

Summary and keywords

Introduction

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion and conclusion (Discussion and conclusion)

Acknowledgment

References

This general structure is referred to as IMRAD in some sources. IMRAD is an acronym formed by combining the first letters of the words Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and Discussion. This structure is valid for research articles and may vary between different journals and article types. The layout of the letter to the editor, review article, and congress proceedings is very different from this structure and is explained in the relevant sections of this Internet site.

We can list the critical points to be considered while preparing a manuscript as follows:

At the writing stage:

• Do not forget that in the eyes of the editors and referees, the care you show to write the manuscript is also a reflection of the care you show while doing your research. Try to write an article as neat and error-free as possible.
• Note that there is no one way to put forward a statement; try expressing yourself in other ways when you get stuck.
• Write while work is in progress or just after it is finished.
• Note that many people who will read your article will not be native speakers of English; make clear and understandable sentences.
• Keep in mind that long sentences and heavy use of English do not necessarily mean good knowledge of English.
• Be sure to check the spelling rules of the journal to which you will send your article and follow these rules.
• Do not work in uncomfortable environments; if necessary, take a break from writing.
• Make clear sentences. Express the idea you want to express in the shortest possible way.
• Do not use too long or too short sentences.
• Avoid overusing passive sentences and Latin terms.
• If you are not using reference editing software, use the author’s name and publication year until the last moment when writing your references in the text. Do not use numbering (otherwise, the numbers will be interlaced when adding or removing references).
• Beware of the copyright issues.

At the final check:

• Allow time between the end of the writing and the final check.
• Do not read from the screen; take a printout (although not very environmentally friendly, reading from the printout is always better at detecting errors than reading from a computer screen).
• Read your article word for word.
• Control the checkpoints (for example, whether the references are used both in the text and in the reference list; whether the order of the tables and figures is correct; whether abbreviations are used correctly, whether there is an error in giving the names of the manufacturers for the materials used) in order, not all at once.
• Pay attention not only to spelling and punctuation, but also to ambiguities and style.
• Have your article read by a scientifically competent colleague who was not involved in your work.

At the submission stage:

• Check again for the maximum word limit for the article and abstract.
• Check if there are other important points to consider (any payment, copy of ethics committee report to be sent, signed document showing that all authors have read and approved the article, etc.).

We can list the most essential points to be considered while preparing sections of an article as follows:

Overall:

• The article should be prepared in the structure requested by the journal and presented in the best possible way.
• Ethical rules should be strictly followed, and the study should only be started after all necessary permissions have been obtained.

Title:

• The title should not be too general or too detailed. There is no consensus on how the most appropriate article title should be. While some experts suggest descriptive titles in which only the subject of the article is stated, some experts suggest declarative, informative titles that also indicate the result of the study.
• It is not necessary to form a complete sentence as a title.

Abstract:

• The abstract should be clear and short. If there is a specified word limit, it must be adhered to.
• Other parts of the article, tables or figures should not be cited in the abstract and abbreviations should not be used unless very necessary.
• Only the most significant study results should be mentioned.

Introduction:

• The rationale of the study must be clearly stated.
• Only information directly relevant to the subject should be given.

Materials&Methods:

• Subject selection, inclusion, and exclusion criteria should be clearly indicated.
• The method should be oriented towards the solution of the problem and compatible with the purpose of the study.
• Enough details should be given so that another researcher can repeat the same study.
• Appropriate statistical methods should be chosen in the analysis of the data.

Remember: If you make significant mistakes in the study plan, subject selection, the study groups, or the analysis methods, it may be very difficult or even impossible to correct your article in line with the referee’s criticisms.

Results:

• Results should be presented clearly.
• Regarding the conduct of the study, the order followed in the Materials&Methods section should be followed similarly in the Results section.
• In presenting the results, repetitions should be avoided in the text, figures, and tables.
• The order of figures and tables in the text should be correct.
• Negative or unexpected results should also be given (negative results, although annoying, are important so that other researchers do not repeat the same study).

Discussion:

• All significant results should be discussed.
• The discussion should not be limited to comparing the study results with those in the references, but should include comments.
• If there were parts that could not be done or were missing in the study, these should be revealed frankly.
• The contribution of the results to science and their applicability should be mentioned.

Major article types are outlined below. It should not be forgotten that there may be differences between journals in the terminology and types of articles they publish. Publication principles of the selected journal should be checked before the manuscript is sent to the journal. As an example, you can review the types of articles published by the following journals:

https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/article-types

https://www.nejm.org/author-center/article-types

Research Article:

Research articles are the most used type of publication for publishing the results of original studies. They are often written to share the results of research done to answer a question or test a hypothesis. They generally have a structure listed as Introduction, Materials&Methods, Results, and Discussion. They are considered articles with high scientific merit.

Example:

Cangul IT, Gul NY, Topal A, Yilmaz R. Evaluation of the effects of topical tripeptide-copper complex and zinc oxide on open-wound healing in rabbits. Vet Dermatol, 2006; 17: 417-423

Short Paper (Short/Brief Communication):

This includes pilot studies, brief clinical reports, major case reports, case series, and sometimes minor studies of limited scientific value. Short communications presenting minor research results are in a format similar to research articles, but without abstracts and subheadings. Titles usually do not exceed ten words and there is a word limit (around 1000 words). In such publications, authors are asked to use one or two figures and tables at most.

Example:

van der Hoek W, Sarge-Njie R, Herremans T, Chisnall T, Okebe J, Oriero E, Versteeg B, Goossens B, van der Sande M, Kampmann B, Nwakanma D. Prevalence of antibodies against Coxiella burnetii (Q fever) in children in The Gambia, West Africa. Trop Med Int Health, 2013; 18: 850-853

Watkins A, John A, Bradshaw C, Jones J, Jones M. Schizophrenia in high risk opioid users: A short communication on an autopsy study. Psychiatry Res, 2019; 276: 112-114

Case Report:

Publications about a single case and sometimes case series fall into this group. Cases with previously unreported or rarely observed diseases or interesting findings are considered as case reports. Some journals do not prefer to publish case reports because they are cited less frequently and reduce the impact factor of the journals. Therefore, before submitting a case report to the journal, it is useful to check whether the journal publishes such articles.

Example:

Akkoc A, Ozyigit MO, Cangul IT. Valvular cardiac myxoma in a dog. J Vet Med A Physiol Pathol Clin Med, 2007; 54: 356-358

Some journals also require authors to prepare an extensive literature review on the subject along with the case report.

Example:

Sasatomi E, Nalesnik MA, Marsh JW. Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the extrahepatic bile duct: Case report and literature review. World J Gastroenterol, 2013; 19: 4616-4623

Roberts DE, Lombard CM. Serous carcinoma of the ovary with squamous differentiation: A case report and a literature review. Int J Gynecol Pathol, 2013; 32: 459-463

Letter to the Editor:

They are short articles written to comment on a recently published article in the relevant journal or draw attention to a subject. Journals sometimes co-publish a comment on an article and the original article’s authors’ response to that comment. In some journals, short case reports are also published in this publication format. Letters to the editor are not used in calculating the impact factor of journals. Examples:

Original article:

Cabrera González M, Pérez López LM, Martínez Soto G, Gutiérrez de la Iglesia D. Prognostic value of age and Wassel classification in the reconstruction of thumb duplication. J Child Orthop, 2013; 7: 551-557

Letter to the Editor written as a critique of this article:

Dijkman RR, van Nieuwenhoven CA, Hovius SE. Letter to the Editor “Prognostic value of age and Wassel classification in the reconstruction of thumb duplication”. J Child Orthop, 2014; 8: 289-290

Letter to the Editor in the form of the authors’ response to the criticism:

Cabrera González M, Pérez López LM, Martínez Soto G, Gutiérrez de la Iglesia D. In response to Letter to the Editor regarding: Prognostic value of age and Wassel classification in the reconstruction of thumb duplication. J Child Orthop, 2013; 7: 551-557. J Child Orthop, 2014; 8: 291-292

Letter to the Editor written to draw attention to a subject:

Rathinam S. Letter to the editor – Overarching forensic conclusion categories. J Forensic Sci, 2019; 64: 658

Agrawal A, Eiger D, Jain D, Allman R, Eiger G. The right to write: Who ‘owns’ the case report? Eur J Case Rep Intern Med, 2019; 6:001005

Letter to the Editor in the form of a short paper/case report:

McCarthy CM, Stratton JF. Letter to the editor- Familial differentiated vulval carcinoma. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol, 2019; 235: 130-131

Congress/Conference Proceedings:

The format in which the congress presentations are published can vary widely among journals. Some journals (especially journals published by an association or society) publish summaries of all presentations presented at a congress in a particular journal issue or as a supplement. Invited talks are generally published more extensively (e.g., as a review). Preliminary research results presented at congresses are expected to be published as articles by the researchers later.

Example:

Vrielink H. Advances and challenges in haemapheresis: Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary European Society for Haemapheresis and Haemotherapy. Transfus Apher Sci, 2013; 48: 125-126

Review, Systematic Review, and Meta-Analysis:

Publications other than the above-mentioned fall into this group. These are reviews of original publications made by other researchers and in some cases they include comprehensive statistical analyzes. Journals may use different terminology for naming these publications. In general terms;

Review:

They are publications that do not present new information, but contain extensive literature review on any subject. Authors are expected to have extensive knowledge and published articles on that subject to write a review. Eminent journals usually publish reviews written by the invited experts instead of publishing review articles submitted by the authors.

Example:

Huang CL, Moe OW. Clinical assessment of phosphorus status, balance and renal handling in normal individuals and in patients with chronic kidney disease. Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens, 2013; 22: 452-458

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis:

A systematic review is an article written on a single subject and is generally based on meta-analysis results.

Example:

Rombouts AJM, Hugen N, van Beek JJP, Poortmans PMP, de Wilt JHW, Nagtegaal ID. Does pelvic radiation increase incidence of rectal cancer? – A systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Treat Rev, 2018; 68:136-144

Announcing the results most effectively is as important as planning and carrying out a study. Submitting the article to the right journal is valuable both for delivering the results to the desired target audience for a widespread impact and its contribution to the academic progress of the researcher. If the journal selection is made beforehand, the article is prepared according to the requested format of the selected journal from the beginning, which provides convenience.

Many factors need to be considered in choosing the most appropriate journal to submit the article. These are:

• The target readership and scope of the journal
• Impact factor of the journal
• Number of databases the journal is included
• Availability of articles published in the journal
• The fees requested by the journal
• The time between the submission of the article to the journal and its publication

Now let’s examine them one by one:

Some journals appeal to a wide readership (practitioners, novice researchers, specialists, etc.) and include publications on a wide variety of topics. There are also journals which have a more specialized publication line and publish articles at a level that only specialists working in that field (oncologists, ophthalmologists, etc.) will be interested in. To determine if a journal is right for you in this regard, you can read the Aims and Scope of the journal or look at the last few issues. Do not forget that if your article is not suitable for the journal’s publication line and reader profile, it will be directly rejected by the editor/assistant editor without requiring a referee’s evaluation (a process often called “desk-reject”).

Every researcher aims to contribute to science, read by many researchers, and be cited by others. The easiest way to accomplish this is to publish the study in reputable journals with a wide readership. Today, the most widely used method in determining the ranking of journals in the scientific world is to look at the impact factor of that journal. The impact factor is a numerical value that shows how many citations the articles published in a journal get on average. Impact factors of journals have been published as an annual list (Journal Citation Reports [JCR]) since 1975. Compiling this list was done for many years by a private company called Thomson Reuters (formerly Thomson ISI) and is now maintained by Clarivate Analytics.

The impact factor, which has a reputable use in determining the value of journals and researchers’ success in the scientific world, is also criticized in many respects. The main criticisms of the impact factor calculation method are that some publication types are not included in the calculation, the evaluation covers only two years, and self-made citations are included in the analysis.

Due to all these criticisms, many researchers or institutions have suggested different evaluation methods that can be used as an alternative to the impact factor in evaluating scientific success. The main ones are:

• • Eigenfactor score
  • Article influence score
  • H-index
  • Immediacy index
  • Journal cited half-life
  • SCImago journal & country rank (Scopus-Elsevier)

While calculating the impact factor for each year, the number of articles published in that journal in the previous two years and the citations received by those articles are included in the calculation. The impact factor is determined by dividing the number of citations by the number of published articles.

For example, let us calculate the 2020 impact factor for the imaginary Journal of Unpublishable Data:

Number of articles published in the Journal of Unpublishable Data in 2019: 40

Number of articles published in the Journal of Unpublishable Data in 2018: 50

Number of citations in 2020 of articles published in the Journal of Unpublishable Data in 2019*: 22

Number of citations in 2020 of articles published in the Journal of Unpublishable Data in 2018*: 23

Journal’s impact factor for 2020=22+23/40+50=0.5

*Citations in the journals covered in the Web of Science (WOS) database of Clarivate Analytics are included in the calculation.

• • A high impact factor does not indicate that a journal is scientifically more valuable than others or that every article published in that journal is at a very high scientific level. The scope of the articles published by the journal, the types of articles published (review articles, research articles, case reports, etc.), and the number of researchers in the journal’s coverage directly affect the impact factor.
  • Review type publications receive more citations, and Case Report type publications receive fewer citations.
  • Letter to the Editor and Congress Proceedings type publications are not included in calculating the impact factor.
  • Each year’s journal impact factors are announced in the Journal Citation Reports [JCR], prepared by the Clarivate Analytics, approximately in the middle of the following year.

Many authors use databases such as Medline, PubMed or Google Scholar when searching for resources. Your article will have a higher chance of being read and cited if the journal you submit your article is indexed in several databases with easy access. The main databases that cover health sciences are as follows:

Membership required:

Biological Abstracts (Clarivate Analytics)

CAB Abstracts (CAB International)

CINAHL (EBSCO)

Cochrane Library (Cochrane)

EMBASE (Elsevier)

Science Direct (Elsevier)

Scopus (Elsevier)

Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)

Free access:

Google Scholar (Google)

Medline Plus (NLM, NIH and HHS in the US)

PubMed (NLM and NIH in the US)

An article will have higher reading and citation rates if its full text is easily accessible. Many publishers and journals require an institutional or individual subscription to display their published articles in full text, or charge fees per article for reading, saving to a computer, or printing.

Some journals follow an open access publishing policy; they provide full texts of the articles publicly available without any subscription or payment requirement. Open access is a publishing trend increasingly preferred by publishers and journals worldwide. Some subscription-based journals ask the authors whose articles will be published if they want to publish their articles as open access before printing. If the authors agree to reimburse the costs, their articles are made publicly available.

Open access publishing is a publishing policy that allows scientific resources to be read and used under certain conditions by all people on the Internet without any obstacles.

In open access publishing, there are two different options: Gold and Green. In the gold option, the article’s copyright remains with the author, while in the green option, the journal (or the association that publishes the journal) owns the copyright.

Unfortunately, with the development of open access publishing, many fake publishing houses and journals have emerged that benefit financially from this situation. Before submitting your article to an open access journal, be sure of the reliability and permanence of the journal. You can find more information under “predatory journals”.

While many journals do not charge any fee for publishing articles, some journals ask for payments from the authors under different names such as article review fee, color page printing fee, fee per printed page, etc. The purpose of these fees is to reduce the financial burden of journals. Some open access journals ask the authors to cover the printing costs of their articles to provide free full text access to all readers.

Unfortunately, researchers’ distressing need for publications has led to the abuse of this field by some malicious publishing houses, leading to the emergence of predatory journals. Upon payment of the printing costs, these fraudulent journals publish articles from almost every scientific field without proper referee evaluation. Authors are strongly advised to abstain from any predatory or even suspicious journals.

The timely publication of articles sent to the journals is important for the authors in terms of sharing the results without losing their actuality and adding the article to the publication list for academic progress. The period between submitting a manuscript to a journal and its publication can vary from weeks to years. Most of the journals now publish the articles’ first submission and acceptance dates as information on the article’s first page. It is becoming common practice for many journals to publish the article online as soon as it passes the review process before the printed version is published, which can take months in most instances.

Under construction

Systematic reviews are studies that collectively evaluate primary studies, which are usually original research articles, published on a particular topic. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are considered secondary sources of information. In this respect, it would not be right to include the information obtained from previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses in systematic reviews.