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OK. Hello everyone. Welcome to another session in the research in the NHS teaching series. Um In this session, I will, I will be covering the topic on how to write up a research paper. So we'll go through each part of the research paper. Um And we'll talk about, I'll, I'll talk about the purpose of each section in the research paper and also some practical tips for writing. Um So the main objectives that I'm hoping to cover today um or would be to understand the structure of the research paper and learn some specific strategies for each of those sections and how to write them. Um and also understand some, some common um pitfalls that some beginners often make when they starting to write a paper. So this is just an introduction uh to the different parts of a research paper, what they are for and how you can obviously um you know, be good at writing them a bit bit more effective. So before we, before I dive into talking about each part, this is um this is topic as to why I think we should publish our research is something that I've also talked about in my previous um session in my previous sessions as well. And I think I cannot express enough the importance of publishing, especially for doctors because we're often so caught up in our clinical work that we, we, we often sort of overlook the importance of taking part in research and publishing papers. So why is it that we, we should consider it? Why should we bother? Well, the main reasons are the ones that I've put up here. First one is basically sharing our knowledge. So when we, when we publish, we are basically, it allows us to contribute to the medical knowledge that's out there to the medical community. So for example, if you're studying the effectiveness of a new treatment for diabetes, for example, and you've, you've discovered something in your research. When you publish it, your finding could potentially even shape the treatment guidelines and impact care and the way we look at the, the, the the disease overall. So pa as much as researching about it, but writing it up and publishing it and putting it out there in the public domain makes a huge difference in the way that we practice medicine as well. Second of all, it's about the skills. So as much as um you know, we, we learn so many skills when we were doctors writing skills, quite an essential one. Because when you're writing up a paper, you're learning the skill of summarizing information, you're learning, how about critical thinking you're learning how about how to present complex data very clearly. And these skills are both valuable for a doctor in terms of clinical practice and also both in research. Third thing is career advancement. So when we've got a number of publications that we've done, it makes us, you know, look a be AAA better for doctor. So, um for instance, especially when you're applying for competitive training programs, when you've got published research, it just shows that you're a very active doctor within the community and and and doctors who have published papers are tend to be seen as doctors who can thrive better academically and career wise as well. So these are the main reasons why you should not only take part in research, but you should also make the effort to publish your research, write it up and um you know, put it out there in various journals and public domains. So having said that let's look into the structure of a research paper. So most research papers, they usually follow a structure which is called the I MRA D format. So every paper starts with an introduction, then it has the method and then we talk about the results and then we discuss it. So the introduction part usually just describes and explains the study's purpose, what it's for and also gives the reader uh a background information, some basic information of that particular topic so that they can understand your paper a bit back up method describes how the study was done. So, did you use some kind of measurement tools? Did you involve some participants? Were there any human subjects involved? How did you uh you know, what sort of interventions did you make? What were you, how did you collect it, your sample size, uh who were included, who were excluded. So it's basically the methodology. It's a complete um description of how you ba basically uh you know, carried on and conducted the study. So and it should be uh it's usually in a very clear format in such a way that if someone wanted to replicate your study, they would, they can just look at the methodology and understand it and replicate it themselves. Third part is the results part. So in results, you're not telling them, this is everything I found, this is just saying, giving them figures of what you found without any interpretation. So it will just have some raw data on the results section. Whereas in discussion is when you interpret the data and you connect them to other researchers, other published existing published studies there and you can possibly discuss the limitations that you've had within your study. And then there are also some additional sections which I think are just as equal. I wouldn't say even additional, they're also equally important. Nowadays, the first one would be an abstract. So at the beginning of every paper, you will always see an abstract, abstract is just basically a summary that has summarized your entire paper um into a paragraph, usually, typically about 10 to 15 sentences and it basically covers 22 sentences from every section. And it's just a quick summary for someone who doesn't have a long time to read your entire paper, Nexus title and keyword. So I think nowadays title has become so much important that there is not a single research paper that doesn't have a title. Uh back in the days, yeah, there were some research papers that didn't really have important were given importance to having a title. But nowadays, it's just crucial and then keywords. So again, something uh um that's quite useful for um people who are looking up different public domains like PUBMED or Google scholar. And you know, they can put in those keywords and your paper will come up. So when you include those keywords, it's just easier for them to access your research paper. So it helps the reader find your study more quicker and then acknowledgements. So these are basically list of credits of those who contributed to your paper, but they're not listed in the author list. Um Next is reference. So again, this is basically a list of all the sources that you have cited in your paper. So these are basically the different um structure, different parts of a research paper. Now, let's start off with the first most important, which is coming up with a, an effective or an impact for title. So your title is the first impression of your paper. So, always try to aim for something that's quite accurate, concise and specific. You don't want a broad title that doesn't specify anything. Um, and then you get your reader's attention and they go and they read on about it and they find that it's quite useless. That's not what we want. We want a title that's to the point hits the bull's eye and exactly tells the reader what you're trying to prove. Um And it gives them an idea. For example, let me say in if I've, if I'm trying to talk about um type two diabetes, so I instead of my title saying this is a study on diabetes management. If I say impact of low carb diet on HBA1C level in type two diabetes patients. So do you see how much of an information I've put there? The key words are around there. I've put things like low carb diet HBA1C level type two diabetes. So this gives this makes the title very specific because I'm using the key terms and it gives a bit uh the reader a clear idea about the focus of the study. So use keywords are relevant to the field so that the reader can find your paper when they search for it and also avoid technical jargon that can confuse the readers um who are not even familiar within that specialty. Next is writing abstract So this is something that you should focus on right towards the end. So after you've written on your entire paper, you've, you've written your entire manuscript and it's finalized, you can then use it to basically create a quick summary of your entire paper which contains the uh all all the headings starting from the introduction to what methods you used, how you gathered the data and what the result was and how you interpreted it, like your discussion and your conclusion. So writing abstract is quite equal because honestly speaking, majority of the times when your paper is being researched or when readers are looking up for papers, they just look at abstract and they select papers, um they look for papers based on your abstract. So it's always important to have a really quick short and precise and sweet abstract for your paper as well. So like I said, an abstract is basically a summary of your paper and it should just contain key information of each section of the study. So what what I would say the structure is first, you should start off by explaining the background, just explain why the re study was done. For example, type two diabetes is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide. Uh Yeah, but effective management options still remains under searched or still remains quite um unknown. So that's why I started to do a disease, started to do a research on type two diabetes. So you see giving the reader's thumb back on as to why you did the study, why is it so important at this particular time to have a study like this in the public domain? That's the back, just giving two simple sentences, explaining the background of your study, then you go to the methods. So the method is you provide a quick summary of how the study was conducted. For example, we conducted a randomized controlled trial um of 100 patients to assess how low carb diet um on HBA1C levels or over or to assess the impact of low carb diet on HBA1C level over the over six months. So do you see how I've in a single sentence? I've put in my sample size, I've put in what I was trying to affect uh what I was trying to measure how I'm trying to measure it all those things in a very simple sentence. The next part is findings. So here, I'm just reporting the main findings. I don't have to report every single findings, just the ones that are quite significant and might be interesting for the reader to read as well, for example, protein on. But I mean, patients on low carb diets showed an average reduction in their HP A1C levels of 1.2% compared to the control group. So just a main finding of your study. And lastly, it's your conclusion. So again, summarizing the, what are the takeaway points from your study? For example, a low carb diet significantly improves the glycemic control in type two diabetes patients suggesting that it could be a viable treatment option. So writing the abstract is often the best. Uh it's the best thing to write, write at the end because it allows you to accurately summarize the entire study. So always remember to write the abstract right towards the end. So that that's what abstract was about. Next comes the introduction. So in the introduction, you set the stage for your research and you're focusing on three main things when you're writing the introduction, first is the background. Explain your context why you're researching? For example, if you're looking for uh you, if you're researching about a new approach to um stroke rehab start by discussing the challenges that are there in the current rehab methods. What are the common difficulties and challenges that a stroke patient is facing um in the common rehab method that that you're practicing in your country at the moment? Then when you look at you talk about the gap in knowledge. So what's missing from the current research? Why are you doing this research? When there are there are 100 other topics to pick from? Why are you choosing this particular study? For example, while there is various rehab methods and uh techniques available for stroke patients, few studies have examined the use of VR virtual reality technology for post stroke recovery. So do you see that how you're putting the fact that although there are so many techniques available, I'm trying to see whether this particular rehab technique is effective. And I think there isn't much information about it out there. So just justifying why you're doing it, why, whether whether that's a gap in knowledge or whether you feel like there's just not enough information out there, but just justifying it in the introduction, gives the reader a sense of idea of why this research is being conducted. Now, the third one is your objective. So clearly state your research question or your hypothesis. So for example, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of VR based therapy to improve the motor functions in patients who've had stroke, uh which can help in their stroke reco recovery. So always remember the introduction part, it should be concise and it should directly lead to your study purpose. That's what the introduction is about now, next, moving on to the methods. So the method is can actually be quite lengthy. The length of the method section can vary depending upon what your aims and objectives are. Uh what you're trying to find out how you're trying to find out the different techniques that you're using. Whether you've got a human uh subject involved part, you're using human participants. If you're using human participants, how are you covering the ethical aspects? How are you dealing with getting informed consent? How are you dealing with people who might be dropping out of the study. So all that need to be covered very much in detail um in the methodology. But and it, and it should be detailed enough for others to replicate your study basically. So the first thing that you should include is the study design and the setting. For example, this is a uh this study is uh used a double blind randomized controlled trial design um conducted in two tertiary hospitals. So do you see I'm saying what type of a study is? It's a double blinded randomized controlled trial. So we know what a controlled trial is. Double blinded means. Even the patients don't know what they're getting and um even the doctors or even the researchers are not aware whether the patient is receiving a the treatment or is receiving the placebo. So it's a double blind, both sides. Um And it's a randomized controlled trial and we're doing it in two hospitals. So it's describing the setting as well. Next is the participant. So describe your sample. How did you come up with the sample? Uh Do you have an inclusion criteria? Do you have an exclusion criteria? For example, um patients aged 40 to 60 with type two diabetes, uh uh with an HBA1C level above seven were included type one diabetes. Um or anyone below the age of 40 above the age of 60 were excluded from the study. So you need to be very, very precise about who are going to be included and who are not going to be included. So it's important to have that clear cut criteria about with your inclusion and your exclusion criteria. And the next is data collection. So how did you collect the data? So for example, uh patients followed a low carb diet and then recorded meals in a daily log. Then HBA1C levels were measured at baseline and then after six months. So that shows that how you're keeping track of your data, where you're collecting your data, how are you collecting it or whether you have, you got a time interval in between all of that should be explained in your data collection. Next is statistical analysis. So you also have to just briefly describe about analysis. This is where doctors become mathematicians for some times. Um And we basically use statistical tools and things to basically statistically prove that what we were trying to find out is statistically significant and it makes sense. Um So you, for example, you can say um we used AAA paired T test to compare the HBA1C levels before and after intervention with a significant uh P level of less than 0.05. Again, statistics is something that's quite can be that can take a bit of a time to wrap our heads around. I do have a video about statistical um terminologies that you can go through. Um But always remember, there's always a lot of help out there in terms of statistics it is quite hard um, to understand statistics, especially the fact that we're all from medical backgrounds. And we've chosen this because we didn't like maths in the first place. So, um, if you're working as a junior doctor or in your med or if you're a medical student, um statistics is something that we will, we will struggle with. And usually the consultants or us clinical supervisors are very aware of that. And because of that, they always make sure that they they help you with the maximum with statistics. So always feel free to ask for help when you're stuck in statistics part. So um but the take home point in this slide would be, it's basically the methodology should be very concise and it should directly lead to your study purpose. Uh be very transparent and detailed and avoid any kind of vague descriptions. OK. Next is the results. So in the results section, we present the data objectively without any kind of interpretation. I'm not going to say it's high. I'm not going to say it's low. I'm just going to give you the raw data, the figures. So here I can use things like tables, figures like pie charts, bar charts, histograms, forest plots to basically explain the results that I found. For example, you can say out of the 100 patients those were on low carb diet had a significant reduction in the HP A1C level by an average of 1.2% while the control group had no significant change, so then I can put a graph in there showing before and after um HBA1C levels. So it's just easier for the reader to understand my finding when it's presented in a, in a visual manner. Next is the discussion. So the discussion is when you interpret the results and you compare them with previous researchers that are out there. Um And you just outline the study's limitations as well. So how do you, you know, how can you approach the discussion part first is start off by interpreting your finding. Like for example, our results suggest that low carb diet is more effective than standard dietary advice for managing HP A1C levels in type two diabetes. So that's one way you can phrase them and you compare it with other studies that are already existing, mention how your findings fit with it or maybe it is different from the existing research. For example, our findings align um with studies conducted by Smith et al in 2020. But it contrasts another study done by Jones uh from America. So you can compare your paper with other papers and see whether they agree with it or whether they disagree with it. And you can also sometimes put in an extra point whether you explaining why it doesn't agree with your study, maybe they used different methodology, maybe they had a different practical approach to it. So you can always justify that as well. Oh, apologies for that. The next one is your limitations. Again, be honest about your, of the study weaknesses. So you can say things like um the study was quite limited by small sample size. Um or it was a lot more reliant on a patient log, which sometimes cannot be 100% reliable because it's logged in by the patient. So just be very much honest about the weaknesses that you have and lastly is your future directions. So suggest some areas. Um for future research, like for example, you can say that I would like to improve um next time by maybe uh having more of a larger sample size so that you, you, I can get a clearer image about the long term effects of having low carb diet. So try to avoid over interpreting things and just stick to what the data really shows in the discussion part. Lastly is the conclusion. So when you're writing the conclusion is just a brief summary of the key findings and their relevance. Uh you know, example, you might wanna say um this study shows that a low carb diet can significantly lower HP A1C levels in type two diabetes suggesting um that it can be an effective addition to the Diabetes Management Protocol on guidelines. So the conclusion should just be a very short uh and straight to the point and it should just contain only the essential information. Nothing else. Same. Um before we go into the common pitfalls. I do want to um pick write something about, I didn't want to mention something about the references. So, referencing having referencing references is quite um essential in papers nowadays because references give credit to the sources that you have used and consulted um throughout your research time. So always choose the APAC um citation style. So you can definitely read about this, which is called the APA format. That's something it's a universal citation that we most journals follow. Um And try to make sure that uh you put in as many references as you can because it just uh you know, when you cite all the references, um you, there are, there are chances that you will have lower plagiarism in your paper as well. So even if you've rephrased uh parts of the sentences from the paper, make sure you put that citation in because um as much as we don't want to completely copy someone's paper. Um but it's completely, it's, it's, it's fine and normal to grab ideas from various papers when we're writing up our own paper because there's just a lot of paper out there and that's completely fine. But as long as you cite it, you put it in your references, it shouldn't be a problem. Now, the last part I wanted to mention about were the common pitfalls that you can avoid. So first thing is using a poor organization, just a poor structure. Um if, if all your sections are quite haphazard and they're not in the right order. Um You know, for example, you start off with the introduction and then in the introduction, you doze off to talking about your methodology and then you come back to your research question and then you go to your sample size and you come back to your uh research and limitations and you go into results and then you come back to discussions. So you see how it's not easy for the reader to follow. Um as a reader, when you, when you're reading through various papers and all papers contain the same format. It's just easier for the reader to pick up your paper and read through it, just like how he would read through other papers. So it's very important that we follow the standard format and the f the standard order in structure um next would be um poor complex languages. So as much as we, you know, we have our own technical uh terminologies. Um There, there's always this saying that your research paper should be explained in a way that even a layman can understand it. So it shouldn't be overly uh complex, it shouldn't contain complex terminologies, try to keep it as simple as possible. Uh Something a bit more uh that provides more clarity and simplicity as well. Third thing is data in, in consistency. So make sure that whatever figures you've got in your results and in your findings, they are exactly matching what you're discussing. So, you know, sometimes you can say things like, oh, this is higher and this is lower. But when you look at your figures, they don't make sense because they are completely the opposite, make sure you stick to the figures and you're interpreting the figures really carefully and accurately when you're writing your paper as well. And fourth part is ignoring your journal guideline. So once you've got your paper ready, you've written the manuscript, you've gone through it a number of times, you've had a number of drafts um with your supervisor. And then finally, you both agree that. Yep, this is the perfect final script we're gonna publish in when you approach a journal. Now, almost all the journals, they follow a common format, some journals like to have it slightly different. So they might ask for um uh you know, a particular word limit. They may ask for things like a particular number of paragraphs. They might ask you to lengthen it shorten it. So every journal has its own format. So when you are publishing, when you're aiming for a particular journal, make sure you follow the guidelines as to how they want you to present your paper to them. So make sure you sort of uh you, you change your papers manuscript according to that journal's requirement and the journals have their own requirement because they, they are basically grabbing number of studies and they're all putting it together. So they all want all their journal, all their papers to look similar. So it's easy for their readers, their regular readers to follow through. No, next is editing and proofreading. So and, and this is something I think is really, really important because again, research is a very timely process. Um we spend sometimes months on a single paper or even years. So it's important that we're constantly revising and editing it. So after you finish your draft, don't sit there revising reading again and again, take a break because when you sometimes just a fresh mind um and a fresh perspective can help you catch some mistakes as well and then start revising. But um sometimes I, when I do, when I write in the paper, I get a, I get um quite lazy. So what I usually do is I just go ask a colleague or I ask my partner to just read it for me and ask him for his feedback. And then I sit there and I work on it again. So sometimes it's just asking a bit of peer review, asking someone close to just read it and see what, what, what they think you, what they might suggest. You do, you write better, which sections of the paper you can work on that will also give you a bit of an idea um on your editing and the proof reading. But um but it's just the importance of taking breaks in between and just not sitting with it in one go and trying to finish the entire paper. Um, so always be open to feedbacks that you get. Um, and sometimes if, if it's just those days where you're just really tired but you have to get the work done. I sometimes just read it out loud to myself. So I'm not like sleeping and typing. But, um, it just helps me understand whether if there's any like awkward phrasings or sentences that are out there. So it's just a bit of a um you know, reading it to yourself, reading, asking your patient to read it and give you feedback on um and just being open to uh feedbacks and, and improvements on your paper, they will all help you um you know, get the best version of your research paper. OK. So just a quick summary of what I've um what we've discussed in this session. So this is basically things like the structure, follow the introduction, methodology, results and discussion I MRI D structure be very clear and concise, right from the beginning, right to the end of your paper. And when you're publishing it, make sure you're, you're tailoring, you're altering your um your your paper according to the journal's requirement and always be uh open to suggestions. Um And al also, always get um always seek for advice on how you can improve a paper and how you can structure it. So I think I've given you the basic idea about how to write up a research paper. So um with this session, I think that brings us to the end of the research in the NHS teaching series. So these are the sessions that we aimed to uh have out there. Um But I think um we've covered most of the aspects of them. Um Again, if you have any questions at any point, these, these videos will be out there uh for everyone to access, hoping for quite a long time. So at any point, um even if it's after months or even years after you've uh you after we've released or we, we've put this out there and you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or to my colleague who's also a teaching organizer here as well. Um We hope these sessions were quite useful and um you've learned something about research. Um We wish you all the best on your academic paper or your research journey. Um Thank you, take care and I'll see you in another teaching series.