Although there are many journals in the field of health sciences, the structures of the published articles usually have a similar design. For example, research articles follow an order like Introduction, Materials&Methods, Results, and Discussion in almost all journals. However, slight differences may occur between different journals, especially in writing references and formatting tables. The manuscript must be prepared as described in the Instructions for Authors page of the journal. Journals can change their format over time. Therefore, before submitting your manuscript, be sure to read the Instructions for Authors on the journal’s website or check one of the last issues of the journal to make sure that the manuscript you have prepared is up-to-date.

One of the most common mistakes made by the authors is sending their rejected manuscript from one journal to a new journal without considering its rules. Such a method will never be successful and will lead to a direct rejection of your manuscript, or at least prolong the manuscript evaluation process.

Never copy-paste a sentence in more than one section of your manuscript (a common mistake is to use the same sentence without any changes in the Summary, Introduction, and Discussion sections). Even if you are going to express the same information, try to write your sentence with other words.

Similarly, never copy-paste a sentence from another article (even if the article is an article you have published before) in your manuscript. Such uses are considered plagiarism.

Novice authors and non-native English speakers often think that their manuscript will be appreciated when they use long, complex sentences. This is a huge mistake. Keep your language simple and do not use hard-to-follow sentences. If the editor or referee does not understand a sentence in your manuscript after reading it and has to reread it, this indicates that the sentence is incorrectly constructed; a serious fault in the eyes of the editors/referees.

Always put yourself in the place of the person reading your article and write a traceable text, especially when writing the Materials&Methods section. A common mistake is to forget critical points in the Materials&Methods.

Do not start your sentence with a number. If you have to use a number, then spell the number out; do not use any numerals.

Example sentences:

Incorrect: 3 months later, the patient was hospitalized due to severe vomiting.

Correct: Three months later, the patient was hospitalized due to severe vomiting.

Incorrect: 33% of S. aureus isolates and 42% of S. schleiferi isolates were methicillin-resistant.

Correct: Thirty-three percent of S. aureus isolates and 42% of S. schleiferi isolates were methicillin-resistant.

Alternatives to solve this problem:

• Reword your sentence so that the number does not appear at the beginning.
• End your preceding sentence with a semicolon or another punctuation mark rather than period.
• Add an introductory word or phrase.

When giving the numbers in the text, the numbers below 10 are expressed in writing. However, if any unit follows a number below 10, you can write it as a number.

Example sentences:

Incorrect: The material was collected from the archives of 3 universities and 2 research institutes.

Correct: The material was collected from the archives of three universities and two research institutes.

Correct: After centrifugation, 2 ml of sample was added to all tubes.

Always follow a logical sequence when conveying your information or findings. Always go from the general to the specific.

Example:

You want to write a manuscript on the use of PCR for the diagnosis of viruses in acute respiratory infections. Your order could be as follows:

• The importance of acute respiratory tract infections, and the social and economic loss they cause
• Lack of an effective method for the detection of viral agents
• Usability of PCR for detection of viruses in acute respiratory infections

Example sentence 1:

Weak: The importance of these enzymes in wound healing and the occurrence of ulcerative lesions was emphasized in diabetic patients.

Wound healing follows ulceration. Therefore, it would be more accurate to write these two events in the order they occur.

Better: The importance of these enzymes in the occurrence of ulcerative lesions and wound healing was emphasized in diabetic patients.

Example sentence 2:

Weak: Recent declines in mortality and morbidity of AIDS are attributed to novel antiretroviral treatments.

Morbidity precedes mortality.

Better: Recent declines in morbidity and mortality of AIDS are attributed to novel antiretroviral treatments.

Example sentence:

Although there are numerous studies revealing its effectiveness in adults, the effect of Substance A is not known in newborns and infants.

Manuscripts are written in formal language. Avoid using colloquial expressions.

Example sentences:

Incorrect: Lots of patients (n=37) developed diarrhea as a side effect.

Lots of is a colloquial expression and should be replaced with a more formal expression.

Correct: Many patients (n=37) developed diarrhea as a side effect.

Examples of expressions that should be avoided in formal writing:

A bit of

A few

A great deal of

A large amount of

A little bit

A lot of

Lots of

Plenty of

Using abbreviations like “weren’t” instead of “were not” or “wouldn’t” instead of “would not” is known as contraction in English and such abbreviations are not used in formal writing including manuscript writing. Avoid using such abbreviations while writing your manuscript.

Example sentences:

Unclear: The bacterium uses organic acids, lactate, and pyruvate as an energy source.

The intended meaning in this sentence is that the bacterium uses the organic acids lactate and pyruvate as energy sources. However, the sentence can be misunderstood as if the bacterium uses three substances (1. Organic acids, 2. Lactate, 3. Pyruvate) as an energy source. Therefore, the comma has been used in a way that causes confusion.

Clear: The bacterium uses organic acids (lactate and pyruvate) as an energy source.

Example sentences:

Unclear: ABCD consists of a standardized mixture of the plants Urtica dioica 0.12 mg, Vitis vinifera 0.16 mg, Glycrrhiza glabra 0.18 mg, Alpinia officinarum 0.14 mg, and Thymus vulgaris 0.10 mg in an ampule of 2 ml.

The numbers next to the plant names (written in italics) indicate the amount of active substance of each plant. However, the correct way is to write the numbers in parentheses.

Clear: ABCD consists of a standardized mixture of the plants Urtica dioica (0.12 mg), Vitis vinifera (0.16 mg), Glycrrhiza glabra (0.18 mg), Alpinia officinarum (0.14 mg), and Thymus vulgaris (0.1 mg) in an ampule of 2 ml.

Words of Latin origin are written in italics. However, some journals write Latin words like in vivo and in vitro in plain characters due to their widespread use.

Genus and species names of microorganisms are written in italics:

Escherichia coli

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus spp.

Note: sp. (single species), spp. (plural species), and subspp (subspecies) are abbreviations and are not italicized.

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Example sentences:

Incorrect: This study involved old people aged 60-75 years.

The use of the word old in the sentence can be considered age discrimination.

Correct: People aged 60-75 years were included in this study.

In medical journals, two methods are used more commonly than the others in citing references in the text. These are the Harvard citation method (Harvard style) and Vancouver citation method (Vancouver style).

Harvard citation method:

Sources in the text are shown as author surname and year in parentheses. In the References list at the end of the article, an alphabetical order is made according to the surnames of the first authors:

Example sentence:

The effects of various ointments on wound healing have been investigated by several researchers (Cangul et al., 1998; Gul et al., 1999).

When citing sources in the text, the authors’ surnames in parentheses are listed chronologically from oldest to newest:

Example sentences:

Incorrect: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (James et al., 2014; Shibahara, 2008; Kim et al., 2006).

Correct: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (Kim et al., 2006; Shibahara, 2008; James et al., 2014).

If more than one publication by the same author is in the same parenthesis, they are put in the year’s order:

Example sentences:

Incorrect: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (Kim et al., 2006; Kim et al., 2008).

Correct: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (Kim et al., 2006 and 2008).

If there is more than one publication by the same authors published in the same year in the same parentheses, these are indicated by placing the letters starting from a next to the year. The same letters are added to the literature in the References list at the end of the manuscript:

Example sentences:

Incorrect: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (Kim et al., 2006; Kim et al., 2006).

Correct: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (Kim et al., 2006a and 2006b).

Vancouver citation method:

References in the text are numbered according to their passage and are listed in the same order in the References list at the end of the article. There may be slight differences between journals in citing the references in the text:

… (16).

…16. (The reference number is written before the period at the end of the sentence. It is the method preferred by British journals.)

When citing references in the text, if there are more than two consecutive numbers, the first and last reference number is indicated by placing a hyphen (“-“) sign between them:

Example sentences:

Incorrect: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (1, 2, 3, 4).

Correct: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (1-4).

Note: If the full text of the article is published on the Internet, a link is often given to the citations in the text (this link takes the reader directly to the References section). Therefore, even if more than two consecutive numbers are used in articles published on the Internet, reference numbers can be written one by one.

If there are both more than two consecutive numbers and nonconsecutive numbers in parantheses, the first and last of the consecutive numbers are separataed with a hyphen, and the other references are separated with commas.

Example sentence:

Correct: Similar findings have been previously reported by several researchers (1-4, 7, 11).

“et al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin word et alia meaning “and others” (the Latin original of the word is et alii [male], et aliae [female] and et alia [neutral gender]). It is used to indicate that more than two authors wrote the publication. The most common form of citation in the text is as follows:

One author:

……… (Johnson, 2011).

Two authors:

……… (Johnson and Smith, 2011).

More than two authors:

…….. (Johnson et al., 2011)

Note 1: et is not an abbreviation; it means “and”. Therefore, there is no punctuation afterwards.

Note 2: al. is an abbreviation followed by a period.

Note 3: While some journals refer to print et al. in italics because of its Latin origin, others print it in regular characters due to its widespread use. You can easily find out which format the journal you intend to send your manuscript prefers by looking at the Instructions for Authors page or recently published articles in the same journal.

Note 4: APA (American Psychological Association) style is primarily used in social sciences. However, some journals in the health sciences use the APA style, albeit rarely. In the APA style, et al. usage differs slightly.

One author:

……… (Johnson, 2011).

Two authors:

……… (Johnson & Smith, 2011).

3-5 authors: All author surnames are given in the first citation. In subsequent citations, et al. is written only with the first author’s surname:

First citation: …….. (Johnson, Smith, Williams, Kennedy & Herald, 2011)

In subsequent citations: ………. (Johnson et al., 2011)

If there are more than six authors, the surname of the first author is followed by et al.:

…. (Johnson et al., 2011)

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INTRODUCTION:

The aim of the Introduction part is to give information about the subject in general and to reveal the purpose of the study. The simple present tense is used for well-known knowledge. The simple past tense and the simple past perfect tense are mainly used for reference information. The simple past tense is also used to indicate expressions such as “we aimed to ….. in this study” written as the last part of the Introduction.

Examples of simple present tense sentences:

Bacterial infections cause millions of lives every year.

Clinical and radiographic presentation of childhood tuberculosis is very different from adult tuberculosis.

Examples of simple past tense sentences:

In this study, we aimed to identify predictors of disease progression.

Examples of simple present perfect tense sentences:

Bedaquiline has been included in the treatment regimens recommended for resistant tuberculosis in the last decade.

MATERIALS&METHODS:

In this section, the simple past tense is used because the parts of the research that have been done and ended are mentioned.

RESULTS:

Since the results obtained in the completed study are mentioned in this section, the simple past tense is used.

DISCUSSION:

When addressing two consecutive expressions followed by a common word, the common part in the first expression is not written.

Example  sentence 1:

Tubulin is a heterodimer of two polypeptide chains, designated as α-tubulin and β-tubulin.

Better: Tubulin is a heterodimer of two polypeptide chains, designated as α- and β-tubulin.

Example sentence 2:

The new method replaces the old labor-intensive and time-intensive histomorphometric methods.

Better: The new method replaces the old labor- and time-intensive histomorphometric methods.

The words former and latter are used to indicate the order of two things in a sentence. The former denotes what is expressed first, while the latter denotes what is expressed in the second order.

Example sentence:

The tumor had two morphological variants: epitheliod and spindle cell type. In the former the patients’ ages ranged from 22 to 77 (mean: 42) years, whereas in the latter the age ranged between 39 and 56 (mean: 45) years.

The use of former and latter in this sentence means that epithelioid type tumor was seen in the age range of 22-77 (mean: 42) years and spindle type tumor was seen in the age range of 39-56 (mean: 45) years.

Respectively refers to the previous clauses in a sentence in the same order. The primary purpose of the use is to shorten the sentences by bringing together the mentioned items. A comma must be used before the word respectively.

Example sentences:

Sentence 1:The patient’s systolic blood pressure was 110 mm Hg and the diastolic blood pressure was 70 mm Hg.

Sentence 2: The patient’s systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 110 and 70 mm Hg, respectively.

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Countable nouns are nouns that can also be expressed as plurals. To make them plural, the letter s is added to the end of the word in most instances.

Examples:

patient, experiment, animal

Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be plural.

Examples:

Knowledge, information, understanding

Note 1: Articles a/an are not used before uncountable nouns. However, if you use other words such as adjectives before these nouns, you can use a/an.

Examples:

An in-depth knowledge, a thorough understanding

Note 2: It is debatable whether the word “research” is a countable or uncountable noun. In some sources, it is stated that it can only be used in its singular form, while in others, the use of the word researches is allowed.

Adjectives used with nouns:

Countable: A number of, few, many

Uncountable: Little, much

Countable/uncountable: Any, enough, no, none, some

There are slight differences between the two languages in the spelling of some words. In general, journals published in the Americas are published in American English, while journals published in the European continent prefer British English (there are exceptions). If you are in doubt about the language in which you will prepare your article, you can find the most accurate information in the Instructions for Authors section of the journal’s website. If you cannot find any guidance on this subject, it would be best to choose one of these two languages and use the same language throughout the article.

Some general rules about the differences between American English and British English spellings and examples of spelling differences are given in the table below:

*The more common usage in word groups is bold.

**This rule does not apply to all words. For example, phosphorus is both American and British English spelling.

***There are no words written as diameter and perimeter. The spelling of these words is diameter and perimeter in both American and British English.

Medical words with different American English-British English spelling

You may see Latin origin terms or abbreviations in articles written in health sciences, or you can use such terms to enrich your manuscript. It is good practice to know the meanings of Latin terms, use them correctly, and avoid excessive use.

You can find information about Latin terms and abbreviations in the tables below:

Table: Latin phrases, their meanings, and examples of their use

Table: Abbreviations of Latin origin, their full forms and meanings

Main conjunctions according to their intended use:

• Conjunctions used for talking about an alternative thought:

Alternatively, another possibility is, as an alternative, on the other hand

• Conjunctions used for expressing a point in another way:

In other words, in short, put differently, that is, to put it more simply

• Conjunctions used for adding a point:

Also, as well, besides, further, furthermore, in addition, indeed, moreover, similarly

• Conjunctions used for indicating a contradiction:

But, conversely, however, in contrast, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, still

• Conjunctions used for expressing similarity:

Equally, in the same way, likewise, similarly

• Conjunctions used for giving examples:

An example of this is, for example, for instance

• Conjunctions used for summarizing:

In conclusion, in short, to conclude, to sum up, to summarize

• Conjunctions used for sorting:

First(ly), second(ly), third(ly), finally, lastly, next, then

• Conjunctions used for expressing results:

Accordingly, as a result, hence, so, then, therefore, thus

•  Conjunctions used for emphasizing:

Above all, chiefly, especially, in particular, mainly, most noteworthy, mostly, notably, particularly

An abbreviation is a shortened version of a word or phrase. For example aa (amino acid), d (day), hr (hour), mg (milligram)

Acronyms are abbreviations formed by combining the first letters of words and read as a single word. For example AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).

An initialism is the words formed by combining the first letters of the words, but in which the abbreviated letters are read separately. For example DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), pH (potential of hydrogen-original Latin pondus hyrogenii), RNA (ribonucleic acid). In some grammar books, initialism is included under the title of abbreviations.