Students pursuing their research either for their Masters or Ph.D. are always advised to structure their research manuscripts in a logical and effective manner. Specifically, students and early career researchers conducting research in STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are typically urged to incorporate the traditional IMRAD structure or format while working on and finalizing their research manuscript. Similarly, many top academic journals too expect scientific research papers to be written in this format. In this article we will explain what the IMRAD format is in research and how best to structure your research manuscript integrating this format.
What is the IMRAD format?
The IMRAD format means Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion and form the key parts that should form the structure of a research paper. These are further explained below.
- Introduction: the introduction should give readers an understanding of the scope, objectives, and significance of the research. This section provides the context of the study and moves on to detailing how your study is situated within the larger body of knowledge. This can be done by referring to other relevant scholarly discourses within the field and how your study will be contributing to these discourses. It is important to state your research problem or hypothesis and explain why this is critical to be studied. The methodological approach that you have adopted has to be briefly outlined. You can conclude by highlighting the main findings and stating a brief overview of how your paper is organized.
- Methods: this section should describe how you did the study. Provide details of the choice of study design and the justification for the same. State the population of the study and the sampling strategies. Specify the main study variables and explain the data collection processes and instruments used. You should also briefly touch upon your analytical approach and interpretive framework. Always remember to write this section in the past tense.
- Results: here, the empirical data and findings of the study have to be reported. Usually tables, figures and graphs are used to present the findings. Ensure that the tables contain only relevant information and figures and graphs that are easily understood by the readers. Ensure that these are numbered and labelled correctly.
- Discussion: this section allows you to discuss and explain the results reported in the previous part. Comment on the significance of these results both in relation to previous scholarly work on the subject and in terms of your research question. The analysis of the study results should be provided in this section. Furthermore, detail the implications of your research and point out any limitations of the study. Areas for further research can also be outlined here.
Tips to structure your paper effectively
- Ensure logical flow of ideas and arguments: in structuring your paper, make sure that there is a smooth progression of ideas and arguments. Each paragraph ideally should have a topic sentence that conveys the main point discussed in it and supported with strong evidence. Every paragraph should be logically connected to the ones preceding and following it. Make use of transitions to ensure connections between paragraphs and sections.
- Define technical terms: these are specialized vocabulary that may not be understood by a general audience. Hence it is crucial to define technical terms and key terms used within the context of the study.
- Clear and concise writing: avoid long winding and complicated sentences and use of jargons. Keep your writing simple, concise, and clear.
- Adhere to formatting requirements: depending on the style guide chosen, follow the specific formatting guidelines in terms of font size, spacing, page layout out, margins, format of headings and so forth. Ensure consistency throughout with regard to formatting.
- Provide proper Citations: follow the citation style guide prescribed by your institution or the journal where you will be submitting your paper. Check whether the citations in the text align with that in the references.
Research papers have to follow a well-defined structure. As we have seen, the IMRAD format focuses on the main components of a research paper which are the introduction, method, results, and discussion. The other parts of the overall structure include the title page, abstract, acknowledgments and references. Incorporating the IMRAD format greatly enhances the quality and structure of your research manuscript. It goes a long way in effectively communicating your research objectives, process, analysis, and recommendations to the readers.
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