how to write journal article

How to write and structure a journal article

Sharing your research data  can be hugely  beneficial to your career , as well as to the scholarly community and wider society. But before you do so, there are some important ethical considerations to remember.

What are the rules and guidance you should follow, when you begin to think about how to write and structure a journal article? Ruth First Prize winner Steven Rogers, PhD said the first thing is to be passionate about what you write.

Steven Nabieu Rogers, Ruth First Prize winner.

Let’s go through some of the best advice that will help you pinpoint the features of a journal article, and how to structure it into a compelling research paper.

Planning for your article

When planning to write your article, make sure it has a central message that you want to get across. This could be a novel aspect of methodology that you have in your PhD study, a new theory, or an interesting modification you have made to theory or a novel set of findings.

2018 NARST Award winner Marissa Rollnick advised that you should decide what this central focus is, then create a paper outline bearing in mind the need to:

Isolate a manageable size

Create a coherent story/argument

Make the argument self-standing

Target the journal readership

Change the writing conventions from that used in your thesis

Get familiar with the journal you want to submit to

It is a good idea to choose your target journal before you start to write your paper. Then you can tailor your writing to the journal’s requirements and readership, to increase your chances of acceptance.

When selecting your journal think about audience, purposes, what to write about and why. Decide the kind of article to write. Is it a report, position paper, critique or review? What makes your argument or research interesting? How might the paper add value to the field?

If you need more guidance on how to choose a journal,  here is our guide to narrow your focus.

Once you’ve chosen your target journal, take the time to read a selection of articles already published – particularly focus on those that are relevant to your own research.

This can help you get an understanding of what the editors may be looking for, then you can guide your writing efforts.

The  Think. Check. Submit.  initiative provides tools to help you evaluate whether the journal you’re planning to send your work to is trustworthy.

The journal’s  aims and scope  is also an important resource to refer back to as you write your paper – use it to make sure your article aligns with what the journal is trying to accomplish.

Keep your message focused

The next thing you need to consider when writing your article is your target audience. Are you writing for a more general audience or is your audience experts in the same field as you? The journal you have chosen will give you more information on the type of audience that will read your work.

When you know your audience, focus on your main message to keep the attention of your readers. A lack of focus is a common problem and can get in the way of effective communication.

Stick to the point. The strongest journal articles usually have one point to make. They make that point powerfully, back it up with evidence, and position it within the field.

How to format and structure a journal article

The format and structure of a journal article is just as important as the content itself, it helps to clearly guide the reader through.

How do I format a journal article?

Individual journals will have their own specific formatting requirements, which you can find in the  instructions for authors.

You can save time on formatting by downloading a template from our  library of templates  to apply to your article text. These templates are accepted by many of our journals. Also, a large number of our journals now offer  format-free submission,  which allows you to submit your paper without formatting your manuscript to meet that journal’s specific requirements.

General structure for writing an academic journal article

The title of your article is one of the first indicators readers will get of your research and concepts. It should be concise, accurate, and informative. You should include your most relevant keywords in your title, but avoid including abbreviations and formulae.

Keywords are an essential part of producing a journal article. When writing a journal article you must select keywords that you would like your article to rank for.

Keywords help potential readers to discover your article when conducting research using search engines.

The purpose of your abstract is to express the key points of your research, clearly and concisely. An abstract must always be well considered, as it is the primary element of your work that readers will come across.

An abstract should be a short paragraph (around 300 words) that summarizes the findings of your journal article. Ordinarily an abstract will be comprised of:

What your research is about

What methods have been used

What your main findings are

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements can appear to be a small aspect of your journal article, however it is still important. This is where you acknowledge the individuals who do not qualify for co-authorship, but contributed to your article intellectually, financially, or in some other manner.

When you acknowledge someone in your academic texts, it gives you more integrity as a writer as it shows that you are not claiming other academic’s ideas as your own intellectual property. It can also aid your readers in their own research journeys.

Introduction

An introduction is a pivotal part of the article writing process. An introduction not only introduces your topic and your stance on the topic, but it also (situates/contextualizes) your argument in the broader academic field.

The main body is where your main arguments and your evidence are located. Each paragraph will encapsulate a different notion and there will be clear linking between each paragraph.

Your conclusion should be an interpretation of your results, where you summarize all of the concepts that you introduced in the main body of the text in order of most to least important. No new concepts are to be introduced in this section.

References and citations

References and citations should be well balanced, current and relevant. Although every field is different, you should aim to cite references that are not more than 10 years old if possible. The studies you cite should be strongly related to your research question.

Clarity is key

Make your writing accessible by using clear language. Writing that is easy to read, is easier to understand too.

You may want to write for a global audience – to have your research reach the widest readership. Make sure you write in a way that will be understood by any reader regardless of their field or whether English is their first language.

Write your journal article with confidence, to give your reader certainty in your research. Make sure that you’ve described your methodology and approach; whilst it may seem obvious to you, it may not to your reader. And don’t forget to explain acronyms when they first appear.

Engage your audience. Go back to thinking about your audience; are they experts in your field who will easily follow technical language, or are they a lay audience who need the ideas presented in a simpler way?

Be aware of other literature in your field, and reference it

Make sure to tell your reader how your article relates to key work that’s already published. This doesn’t mean you have to review every piece of previous relevant literature, but show how you are building on previous work to avoid accidental plagiarism.

When you reference something, fully understand its relevance to your research so you can make it clear for your reader. Keep in mind that recent references highlight awareness of all the current developments in the literature that you are building on. This doesn’t mean you can’t include older references, just make sure it is clear why you’ve chosen to.

How old can my references be?

Your literature review should take into consideration the current state of the literature.

There is no specific timeline to consider. But note that your subject area may be a factor. Your colleagues may also be able to guide your decision.

Researcher’s view

Grasian Mkodzongi, Ruth First Prize Winner

Top tips to get you started

Communicate your unique point of view to stand out. You may be building on a concept already in existence, but you still need to have something new to say. Make sure you say it convincingly, and fully understand and reference what has gone before.

Editor’s view

Professor Len Barton, Founding Editor of Disability and Society

Be original

Now you know the features of a journal article and how to construct it. This video is an extra resource to use with this guide to help you know what to think about before you write your journal article.

Expert help for your manuscript

Taylor & Francis Editing Services  offers a full range of pre-submission manuscript preparation services to help you improve the quality of your manuscript and submit with confidence.

Related resources

How to write your title and abstract

Journal manuscript layout guide

Improve the quality of English of your article

How to edit your paper

Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World

How to write a journal article

Oxford Academic journals

Find out more about publishing partnerships with Oxford Academic.

• By Rose Wolfe-Emery
• July 21 st 2023

Academics normally learn how to write while on the job,  sugge s ts  Michael Hochberg. This usually starts with “the dissertation and interactions with their supervisor. Skills are honed and new ones acquired with each successive manuscript.” Writing continues to improve throughout a career, but that thought might bring little solace if you are staring at a blank document and wondering where to start. 

In this blog post, we share tips from editors and outline some ideas to bear in mind when drafting a journal article. Whether you are writing a journal article to share your research, contribute to your field, or progress your career, a well-written and structured article will increase the likelihood of acceptance and of your article making an impact after publication.

Four tips for writing well

Stuart West and Lindsay Turnbull  suggest  four general principles to bear in mind when writing journal articles:

• Keep it simple:  “Simple, clear writing is fundamental to this task. Instead of trying to sound […] clever, you should be clear and concise.”
• Assume nothing:  “When writing a paper, it’s best to assume that your reader is [subject] literate, but has very little expert knowledge. Your paper is more likely to fail because you assumed too much, than because you dumbed it down too much.”
• Keep to essentials:  “If you focus on the main message, and remove all distractions, then the reader will come away with the message that you want them to have.”
• Tell your story : “Good […] writing tells a story. It tells the reader why the topic you have chosen is important, what you found out, and why that matters. For the story to flow smoothly, the different parts need to link clearly to each other. In creative writing this is called ‘narrative flow’.”

“A paper is well-written if a reader who is not involved in the work can understand every single sentence in the paper,”  argues  Nancy Dixon. But understanding is the bare minimum that you should aim for—ideally, you want to  engage  your audience, so they keep reading. 

As  West and Turnbull say , frankly: “Your potential reader is someone time-limited, stressed, and easily bored. They have a million other things to do and will take any excuse to give up on reading your paper.”

A complete guide to preparing a journal article for submission

Consider your research topic.

Before you begin to draft your article, consider the following questions:

• What key message(s) do you want to convey?
• Can you identify a significant advance that will arise from your article?
• How could your argument, results, or findings change the way that people think or advance understanding in the field?

As  Nancy Dixon  says: “[A journal] editor wants to publish papers that interest and excite the journal’s readers, that are important to advancing knowledge in the field and that spark new ideas for work in the field.”

Think about the journal that you want to submit to

Research the journals in your field and create a shortlist of “target” journals  before  writing your article, so that you can adapt your writing to the journal’s audience and style. Journals sometimes have an official style guide but reading published articles can also help you to familiarise yourself with the format and tone of articles in your target journals. Journals often publish articles of varying lengths and structures, so consider what article type would best suit your argument or results. 

Check your target journals’ editorial policies and ethical requirements. As a minimum, all reputable journals require submissions to be original and previously unpublished. The  ThinkCheckSubmit  checklist can help you to assess whether a journal is suitable for your research.

Now that you’ve decided on your research topic and chosen the journal you plan on submitting to, what do you need to consider when drafting each section of your article?

Create an outline

Firstly, it’s worth creating an outline for your journal article, broken down by section. Seth J. Schwartz  explains  this as follows:

Writing an outline is like creating a map before you set out on a road trip. You know which roads to take, and where to turn or get off the highway. You can even decide on places to stop during your trip. When you create a map like this, the trip is planned and you don’t have to worry whether you are going in the correct direction. It has already been mapped out for you.

The typical structure of a journal article

• Make it concise, accurate, and catchy
• Avoid including abbreviations or formulae
• Choose 5-7 keywords that you’d like your journal article to appear in the search results for
• Summarize the findings of your journal article in a succinct, “punchy”, and relevant way
• Keep it brief (200 words for the letter, and 250 words for the main journal)
• Do not include references

Introduction

• Introduce your argument or outline the problem
• Describe your approach
• Identify existing solutions and limitations, or provide the existing context for your discussion
• Define abbreviations

Methods 

For STEM and some social sciences articles

• Describe how the work was done and include plenty of detail to allow for reproduction
• Identify equipment and software programs

Results 

For STEM and some social science articles

• Decide on the data to present and how to present it (clearly and concisely)
• Summarise the key results of the article
• Do not repeat results or introduce new discussion points

 Acknowledgements

• Include funding, contributors who are not listed as authors, facilities and equipment, referees (if they’ve been helpful; even though anonymous)
• Do not include non-research contributors (parents, friends, or pets!)
• Cite articles that have been influential in your research—these should be well-balanced and relevant
• Follow your chosen journal’s reference style, such as Harvard or Chicago
• List all citations in the text alphabetically at end of the article

Sharing data

Many journals now encourage authors to make all data on which the conclusions of their article rely available to readers. This data can be presented in the main manuscript, in additional supporting files, or placed in a public repository.

Journals also tend to support the Force 11 Data Citation Principles that require all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI).

Permissions

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for online publication without a time limit, must also be cleared and, if necessary, paid for by the author. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder are usually required to be made available to the editors.

Learning from experience

Publishing a journal article is very competitive, so don’t lose hope if your article isn’t accepted to your first-choice journal the first-time round. If your article makes it to the peer-review stage, be sure to take note of what the reviewers have said, as their comments can be very helpful. As well as continuing to write, there are other things you can do to improve your writing skills, including peer review and editing.

Christopher, Marek, and Zebel note  that “there is no secret formula for success”, arguing that: 

The lack of a specific recipe for acceptances reflects, in part, the variety of factors that may influence publication decisions, such as the perceived novelty of the manuscript topic, how the manuscript topic relates to other manuscripts submitted at a similar time, and the targeted journal. Thus, beyond actively pursuing options for any one particular manuscript, begin or continue work on others. In fact, one approach to boosting writing productivity is to have a variety of ongoing projects at different stages of completion. After all, considering that “100 percent of the shots you do not take will not go in,” you can increase your chances of publication by taking multiple shots.

Rose Wolfe-Emery , Marketing Executive, Oxford University Press

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How To Write a Journal Article

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Sep 6, 2021 | Paper Writing Advice | 0 |

How To Write a Journal Article for Publication in Twelve Essential Steps Original articles intended for publication are the most common means of disseminating the processes, results and implications of advanced research, so it is imperative that academics and scientists who wish to publish and share their work know how to write a journal article successfully. Although there are significant variations in manuscript requirements among disciplines and publishers, the writing tips I present below apply to most scholarly articles and journals across a wide range of research fields and specialisations.

Step 1: The first question to ask yourself as you begin drafting your paper or searching for a journal to publish it is what type of article will be appropriate for the material you wish to communicate. Original research, for instance, is usually reported in an original research article, whereas an evaluation of published scholarship on a topic would be written as a review article. Choosing the right type of article before you start is essential.

Step 2: Either before or after you draft your article, you will need to learn about periodicals in the field and choose one as your target journal. The scope, aims and concerns published on the journal’s website should be appropriate for your research, and the journal must publish the kind of paper necessary to communicate all important aspects of your work.

Step 3: Once you have decided on the journal to which you will be submitting your article, you should study the journal’s guidelines for authors. In some cases these will provide a great deal of information about how to write a journal article for publication; in others very little help will be offered. Either way, the guidelines must be followed with care as you prepare your article, so pay close attention to details, examples and restrictions.

Step 4: With the journal’s guidelines and your research notes by your side (or at least firmly in mind), you are ready to outline the structure and content of your article. A scientific research article is likely to use a predictable structure of introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion and conclusions, but other fields and types of paper might offer greater freedom. Structure should never be neglected, however, since clear and logical organisation increases accessibility and reader comprehension.

Step 5: Preparing tables, figures, appendices and other supplementary materials before you actually start drafting the paper is an excellent strategy when you are struggling with how to write a journal article. The production of these tools for readers can help an author analyse and interpret findings more effectively, and writing the main text with these tools in hand tends to reduce unnecessary repetition of information.

Step 6: For many academics and scientists, starting to draft the text is the most difficult part of writing an article for publication. Beginning can be rendered easier by writing the separate sections not in the order in which they will ultimately appear, but in an order that better reflects the research process. The methods can therefore be described first, with the report of results, the discussion and the conclusions following. Once you know the contents of these parts, the introduction, background, abstract and list of references can be added.

Step 7: Be sure to take the time to assess your methods, analyse your results and interpret your findings thoroughly. Reporting what you did and what you discovered is not enough for a research paper intended for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. You will also need to tell your audience what your research means, why it is innovative and how it might be productively used by future researchers and practitioners.

Step 8: Remember as you work out how to write a journal article that there is simply no substitute for excellent writing. Scholarly prose must be both clear and correct to communicate research processes and results effectively, and the style must be both formal and appropriate for your discipline or area of specialisation. Reading published articles in your field and especially in your target journal will give you a good idea of the kind of writing you will need to submit.

Step 9: Proofread, edit and revise your draft repeatedly until you have eliminated all errors of fact, language and typing. Too many authors neglect this time-consuming aspect of how to write a journal article and suffer the consequences in the form of rejections and revision requests. As the person who knows your research better than anyone else, you are the person to ensure that your article intended for publication does that research justice.

Step 10: Recruit mentors, colleagues and friends to read your article and offer feedback. Researchers who work in your field and have successfully published their own academic or scientific writing will be able to comment constructively on research content and presentation. If English grammar, tricky references or other challenges of language and formatting prove problematic, a professional proofreader or editor can help.

Step 11: After reader feedback has been considered and the final revisions are complete, submit your manuscript exactly as the journal’s instructions indicate. Submission via an online form is an efficient and common method, but even if the journal’s preferences seem outdated, they must be observed. Unless the guidelines suggest that a cover letter to the journal editor would be unwelcome, be sure to include one to introduce your research and article in an engaging way.

Step 12: Finally, it is likely that your thoughts will be with your manuscript after you have submitted it and even that a host of ideas for further refinements will pop into your mind the instant the article is beyond your grasp. Take advantage of this impulse as you await a response by jotting your ideas down. If a request for revisions arrives from the editor, your notes are likely to prove incredibly helpful.

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Structuring your article correctly

Anthony Newman

About this module

One of the key goals when writing a journal article is to communicate the findings clearly. In order to help researchers achieve that objective, scientific papers share a common structure (with slight variations per journal). Clear communication isn’t the only reason these article elements are so important; for example, the title, abstract, and keywords all help to ensure the article is found, indexed, and advertised to potential readers.

In this interactive module, we walk early career researchers through each of the building blocks. We help you understand the type of content each element should contain. We also share tips on how you can maximize their potential, such as key points to consider when writing your article title.

You will come away with the detailed knowledge you need to write an effective scientific article, increasing your chances of publication success.

About the presenter

Senior Publisher, Life Sciences, Elsevier

Anthony Newman is a Senior Publisher with Elsevier and is based in Amsterdam. Each year he presents numerous Author Workshops and other similar trainings worldwide. He is currently responsible for fifteen biochemistry and laboratory medicine journals, he joined Elsevier over thirty years ago and has been Publisher for more than twenty of those years. Before then he was the marketing communications manager for the biochemistry journals of Elsevier.  By training he is a polymer chemist and was active in the surface coating industry before leaving London and moving to Amsterdam in 1987 to join Elsevier.

Writing a Scientific Paper: From Clutter to Clarity

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How to Write a Journal Article 1

Putting your article together.

Acquire skills to organize and write a strong journal article. Understand the importance of structure and formatting. Learn effective strategies for articulating research clearly, maximizing discoverability, and increasing chances of publication.

Advantages of using How to Write a Journal Article 1

• Understand the importance of structuring and formatting a journal article
• Clarify thinking, articulate research, and present articles correctly
• Apply effective strategies and resources for clear research articulation
• Increase article discoverability for enhanced visibility

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Sarah Boon (PhD, FRCGS) is a science writer and editor. Her articles have appeared in Nature, Science, Water Canada, Hakai Magazine, iPolitics, and CBC’s The Nature of Things. Sarah is a co-founder and serves on the Board of Science Borealis.

How to Write a Journal Article: Tips and Tools

If you’ve trained as a scientist, you know that part of the learning curve involves figuring out how to write a scientific paper. Unfortunately, few scientists receive explicit instruction in writing papers—researchers by definition are expected to know how to write.

When you’re a grad student, your supervisor is there to guide you through the paper publication process, as it’s in their best interests to have you publish the outcome of your research with them. Once you become an independent scientist, however—whether that’s in academia, industry, or at an NGO—writing research papers can be a frustrating and lonely experience.

There are many online resources and excellent books designed to provide writing advice to scientists. The difficulty as an early career researcher lies in making the time to learn how to write a good paper while also teaching yourself R stats and maybe a bit of Bayesian statistical methods, coming up with new pedagogical approaches to engage your students—or figuring out how to manage a work team, applying for a shrinking pot of grant funds, starting up a lab orgetting familiar with a new job.

This post distills the process of writing a paper into the key steps, and provides links to additional resources available. The goal is to give you a good head start on writing your next scientific paper, while providing specific places to find more detailed advice.

Before You Start Writing

The key to writing a successful research article begins well before you even put pen to paper.

While you’re doing background reading about your research area, it can be useful to save journal articles in a reference management system such as Mendeley, Zotero, or Endnote. This will help you keep track of all the papers related to your research, and make it a lot easier to create reference lists for future research papers. Secondly, you want to ensure that the design of your research project includes a well-defined research goal and series of objectives, as this forms the foundation of your research paper. Thirdly, a good paper requires that you maintain excellent notes of the materials you used and the methods you applied to answer your research question, so that readers can replicate your experiment if they so choose. Finally, many scientists suggest that you only start writing once you’ve completed all of your analysis, and have created a series of key plots and tables that best support your research goal and objectives. This will give you a strong narrative to follow in outlining your results and developing your discussion.

Once you have these aspects together, you should be ready to sit down and write.

Research Paper Structure

A typical research paper is divided into nine sections: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, and References. If you do fieldwork, you may have an additional Study Site section between the Introduction and Materials & Methods sections.

Title & Abstract

Scientists read the title and abstract to decide whether or not they will delve into an entire paper—so you want to make sure to grab them right away! The key is to write these after the paper is completed. That way you can come up with a catchy title, and structure the abstract as a mini-paper, with the research question and context, the key results and the new things those results tell us, how it compares with other research, and a conclusion for further work.

Introduction

This section is all about placing your work into the broader research context, and then narrowing your focus to identify specifically what you plan to do in the paper: i.e., your research goals and objectives.

Materials & Methods

You want to provide enough detail that someone else could replicate the study if need be, and outline your rationale for that approach. Lay out what you did step by step, from the beginning to end of your experiment. Include not only how and why you collected data, but also how and why you applied specific analysis techniques. It can sometimes be hard to determine how much information is too much information; a good piece of advice is to put in more than you need, as you can always pare it down later.

As Ivan Valiela says in his book,  Doing Science , this section tells the reader “the facts revealed by your work.” For example, a colleague is currently working on a paper that includes these subheadings in the Methods section: experimental design, logging history, environmental monitoring, and data analysis. The results section outlines observed weather and snowpack conditions (based on the environmental monitoring), and describes changes in streamflow with logging quantified by applying specific data analyses to the streamflow data (part of the environmental monitoring), in relation to the specific experimental design.

The discussion is where you pull your results together into a coherent story, and put that story in context by referring back to your own results and to other peoples’ research. By the end of the discussion, you should have addressed the goals and objectives you outlined in your introduction.

The conclusion ties up the paper by reiterating the research question, restating the significant results and the story they tell, and identifying any areas for further research.

Acknowledgements & References

Always be sure to recognize the contributions of others to your research, whether they’re assistants, funding agencies, or colleagues who helped you talk through different aspects of your work. As for the references—this is where the reference management system we talked about previously comes in, as it should make it relatively easy to create your reference list.

Don’t assume you have to write the paper in order from start to finish. You may find it easier—as many scientists do—to start with the Results section, referring to your tables and figures to explain what’s happening. Others may find it easier to start with the Methods section, writing out what they did and why. Still others may start with the Introduction, as it helps them mentally set the stage for what they need to write next.

Don’t wait for the perfect sentences to arrive in your mind before you start typing. Remember, everyone writes a crappy first draft , but it gives you something to work with on the path to writing your final paper.

I also recommend that scientists who struggle with writing—and even those who don’t—hire a professional scientific editor. While some researchers may think this is “cheating” or an admission of failure, it’s similar in scope to hiring yourself out as a consultant in a particular research field. You can hire an editors for anything from just proofreading, to improving overall paper structure, to working at the intermediate scale of improving paper wording and flow. Whatever services you need, there’s an editor out there who is trained to provide them. Additional resources

Over on the LSE Impact Blog, Patrick Dunleavy explains why the title of your paper is so important—and gives advice on how to come up with the best title possible.

This post by Pat Thomson (also on the LSE Impact Blog focuses) specifically on writing an introduction. She reiterates the point above that a good introduction will make people want to keep reading your paper, and shows you how to get there.

This post over at Methods Blog provides an ‘Alternative Guide to Authors’ by detailing what you should include in each paper section. I particularly like their SUCCES acronym, which provides general principles of how to get your message across to the reader. The last S stands for ‘story’—just as we’ve described above.

Over on Dynamic Ecology, Brian McGill has an excellent post that goes beyond the standard paper outline to identify the five key paragraphs in a paper: the first and last paragraphs of the introduction, the first and last paragraphs of the discussion, and the abstract. If you’re having trouble getting the sections of your paper to flow together, McGill has some good advice for you.

If you’re having problems writing paragraphs, then  this post from Writing For Research is for you. They talk about the six things that usually go wrong in writing paragraphs—such as starting with a reference to another paper, or writing paragraphs that are too short or too long. Luckily, they also provide advice on how to fix these problems.

Doing Science , by Ivan Valiela, has an excellent chapter on Communicating Scientific Information: The Scientific Paper. He advocates for starting with the Results section when writing a paper, and provides prudent advice on dealing with all other paper sections.

Just this month, Canadian scientist (and  FACETS  editorial board member!) Stephen Heard released  The Scientist’s Guide to Writing —loads of great writing advice for both new and experienced scientists. Watch this blog for an upcoming book review!

Finally, if you’re trying to figure out how best to visualize your results, I recommend any book by Edward Tufte (e.g.,  The Visual Display of Quantitative Information , or  Envisioning Information ). He’s a master of data visualization, and can help you come up with new ways to show your data that make writing the Results section a breeze.

• Scholarly Publishing

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Funding and open science as avenues for improving accessibility and equity in science, on matters of mud, media, and making discoveries: a q&a with dr. john smol, elements of science: what are the elements of a great discussion.

How to Write a Journal Article

Writing and publishing journal articles is essential if you wish to pursue an academic career. Today, academic careers are publication-dependent; developing a high-quality publication record is a vital part of developing your academic credentials, your visibility among your discipline peers and your viability as a researcher.

This article will pinpoint the features of a journal article that are normally found in the humanities and social sciences. It will also examine some planning and writing strategies that will enable you to produce an article that is publication-ready. For those of you who prefer to learn by watching videos, we've prepared one on how to write your first journal article and you can watch it on Capstone Editing's YouTube channel .

The ‘preamble’ elements of a journal article

Title and subtitle.

The title should indicate the article’s topic or theme to readers, and a subtitle can extend or clarify the title. Many titles follow the format ‘Suggestive, Creative Title: Descriptive Subtitle’ (Hayot 2014, ch. 18); for example:

Chadwick, AM 2012, ‘Routine Magic, Mundane Ritual: Towards a Unified Notion of Depositional Practice’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology , vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 283–315.

In this type of title, the more suggestive first part of the title can indicate the author’s theoretical approach and something about how traditional (or not) this approach is. It is important that the subtitle gives readers some indication of the article’s objective or major theme.

Other titles may use a format that includes an abstract and a concrete noun:

Hansen, HL 2011, ‘ Multiperspectivism in the Novels of the Spanish Civil War’, Orbis Litterarum, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 148–166.

This more straightforward approach contains enough information through the words chosen (‘multiperspectivism’, ‘novels’, ‘Spanish Civil War’) so that readers can immediately identify if the article is pertinent to them, in both content and theoretical approach.

Along with a title that grabs readers’ attention and indicates the article’s theme or objective, a well-written abstract is essential. The abstract is what readers and other researchers will look at first to determine if your article is worth reading. It is worth spending time on a succinct, ‘punchy’ and relevant abstract that will clarify exactly what you are arguing or proposing. Abstract writing is a particular skill that requires practice and complete familiarity with your argument and article content. You will most likely need to review and rewrite your abstract after you have finished writing the article.

Most journals will ask you to select five to seven keywords that can be used in search engines. These are the words that students, researchers and other readers will use to search for information over the internet through Google or similar resources, library websites or the journal’s own website.

Acknowledgements

You should provide a brief acknowledgement of any financial, academic or other support you have received in relation to producing your article. You can also thank the peer reviewers here (once your article has been accepted for publication).

Writing the article

Writing a journal article is not unlike writing an essay or thesis chapter. The same basic rules of academic writing apply. By planning what and how you will write, and how you will incorporate data/evidence, your article is more likely to be cohesive, well organised and well written.

Even if you are developing an article from an existing essay or thesis chapter, spending some time on planning is essential. Some authors like to begin with a ‘mind map’. A mind map contains a central theme, argument or premise. The writer will then create ‘branches’ extending from the central theme. These may be topics or subthemes that are included in the final article. If they are substantial, they may constitute a new article. Mind maps operate like brainstorming sessions, in which you allow a free flow of ideas from your mind, through your pen or keyboard to paper or screen. These ideas can then be organised into logical patterns of related subthemes and you can then begin assembling evidence (research, references and quotations) to support the arguments under each theme.

Figure 1: A simple mind map for essay writing

A plan can be as simple as a list of subheadings with notes and supporting information, from which you will construct and write the paragraphs of your article. Using the minor themes from your thesis can also enable you to develop several articles on topics you were unable to develop more fully in the thesis.

Once you have developed a detailed plan for your article, the writing can begin. A journal article is normally written for an already informed audience. While the rules of clear writing and exposition still apply, you can safely assume that people who read your article in a journal are familiar with the terminology, methodologies and theoretical positions of your discipline. This means that you can ‘jump right in’ to a topic, stating your position or argument immediately and strongly.

This guide assumes you have already completed your research and thus amassed a large number of notes, thoughts and more or less developed ideas, along with detailed and appropriate citations to support your contentions, relevant and appropriate quotations, data or other forms of evidence that you have collected, images you may wish to include, and any other material relevant to your article. This is the raw material you will, using your plan, write up into a publishable journal article. Now we will look at a few important aspects of writing that you should consider.

Grammar, spelling and punctuation

For a guideline to standard and acceptable grammar, you may like to consult resources such as the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers , an Australian government publication that covers aspects of writing, editing and publishing in Australia. It is very important that you review whether the journal you are submitting to uses American or British spelling and punctuation conventions, as these can differ significantly. Reviewing and editing your own work to ensure grammatical consistency prior to submission is essential: this should be considered part of your writing practice and approached accordingly. Be on the lookout for instances of mixed tenses (especially the present and past tenses), clumsy sentences with too many clauses, the incorrect use of common punctuation marks such as apostrophes and commas, or the overuse of capitalisation (avoid capitalising the names of theories and job titles in particular). Ensure your spelling is consistent by using the ‘Find’ tab to search for easily misspelt words, especially regarding British/American conventions. Vary your sentence lengths and structure to maintain your readers’ interest. Some academic work falls into the trap of using sentences that are too long or complicated, or using a less-familiar or longer word when a simple one will do.

Tone and register

Tone and register refer to the style and ‘voice’ of your writing. In most academic contexts, your writing style should err on the formal side (unless you are submitting to a journal that promotes innovative or creative approaches to writing). Avoid contractions, colloquial, gender-specific (unless relevant), racist or offensive language. However, within the constraints of formal academic language, it is important that you develop your own style and ‘voice’. Read the authors that you admire the most, both for their research and for their writing. Note what you like about their writing style. While academic writing needs to communicate clearly, it can also be vibrant and elegant. In addition, it should be compelling, understandable and effective. Remember that articles are reader-centred (Soule, Whiteley and McIntosh 2007, p. 15), so your objective should always be to engage the reader with your language. As stated above, most readers of your article will be familiar with your discipline; nevertheless, it is better to avoid overloading readers with discipline-specific jargon.

The major elements of an article

Introduction.

The introduction’s importance may seem obvious, but all writers can benefit from a reminder of the importance and centrality of good introductions to an academic journal article. The introduction does just that: introduces your topic, theme or research question, outlines your general theoretical or methodological approach and places your article within the context of a larger academic debate or field. Here you can expand on your title and subtitle, making your contentions explicit and clarifying the data or evidence you have used. Some humanities or social science articles will include a brief literature review in the introduction; a social science writer may also include an explicit research aim or objective (this is less common in the humanities). As with the abstract, it is sometimes more beneficial to write the introduction after you have written the main body.

The main body is where you present, in appropriate detail, your main arguments, themes and contentions, all thoroughly grounded in evidence, close analysis and clear, compelling writing.

With both the humanities and social sciences, the paragraph is an article’s main organising principle. Each paragraph should contain one main theme and be of at least four or five sentences, and a logical flow should exist between and among your paragraphs. Humanities articles will often not use the more obvious subheadings common to the social sciences, such as ‘Data Collection’, ‘Analysis’ or ‘Results’. While humanities articles are less subject to these subheading conventions, the effective use of subheadings can clarify and identify your ideas and enable readers to navigate easily through the text (Soule, Whiteley and McIntosh 2007, p. 19). While an article should not contain the explicit signposting expected in undergraduate essays or even graduate research theses, it is still useful to use transitions and opening sentences to indicate what each paragraph’s main theme is, and how it fits into the overarching theme of your article.

By focusing on one main original idea or contention in your article and making explicit statements about your article’s contribution to the existing scholarship, you will grab the attention of journal publishers, and hopefully peer reviewers and subsequent readers. If you have information that is not directly related to your main argument but is still important, use footnotes or endnotes (depending on the journal’s own style). Use direct quotations strategically and judiciously and translate foreign-language quotations if your article is written for an English-language journal.

The conclusion is not just a summary of what has preceded it. A (good) conclusion will complete or make whole your article’s arguments and analysis by referring to what you have written. It will include a summing up of your main contention, but it will also offer and clarify to your reader a new way of looking at the theme or problem you have been discussing. As Eric Hayot notes, ‘a good ending is also a beginning’ (Hayot 2014, p. 107): good endings open new pathways for both readers and writers of academic work. The conclusion can be the most difficult section of an article to write; as such, it is likely to consume relatively more of your time than even the introduction. It is important to finish strongly; however, you should resist the temptation to make unfounded, sweeping or radical claims in your conclusion.

References and citations

It goes without saying that referencing and citations should be done thoroughly and correctly. If you are undertaking or have completed your thesis, you will be familiar with when to use citations and how to construct your reference list/bibliography. In general, it is best to be citation-rich for journal articles. Each journal will use a specific referencing style—either one of the main styles in common use (APA, Chicago, MLA) or a modified version of their own. Refer to the journal author guidelines for more information on this issue.

Other requirements

It is vital that you follow the style and referencing requirements for your chosen journal to the letter.

Remember that many journals will require you to obtain permissions for any images you may wish to use, including payment of fees to whichever institution holds the copyright.

• Australian Government Printing Service 2002, Style Manual for Editors, Writers and Printers , 6th edn, Snooks & Co.
• Hayot, E 2014, Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities , Columbia University Press, New York.
• Soule, DPJ, Whiteley, L & McIntosh, S (eds) 2007, Writing for Scholarly Journals: Publishing in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences , eSharp,  http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_41223_en.pdf

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How to write a journal article review: Do the writing

• What's in this Guide
• What is a journal article?
• Create a template
• Choose your article to review
• Read your article carefully

Do the writing

• Remember to edit
• Additional resources

Start to write. Follow the instructions of your assessment, then structure your writing accordingly.

The four key parts of a journal article review are:

To complete this section of the review think about: 1. The purpose - why was the article written 2.  The methodology  - what method did the authors use to gather their information and reach their conclusions e.g. literature review, interviews, a case study etc.  3. Their findings – what were the results or findings of their research 4. Conclusions – what conclusions or recommendations did the author(s) come to about their research.   Example of part of a summary     , ‘The enduring appeal of learning styles’ highlights the lack of evidence regarding the educational value of applying a particular ‘learning style’ to an individual learner. It shows that the continued use of matching learners to a learning style only serves to perpetuate ‘stereotyping and harmful teaching’ (p.5). 3. A critique, or a discussion about the key points of the journal article. A critique is a discussion about the key points of the journal article. It should be a balanced discussion about the  strengths and weaknesses of the key points and structure of the article. You will also need to discuss if the author(s) points are valid (supported by other literature) and robust (would you get the same outcome if the way the information was gathered was repeated). Example of part of a critique The author has defined the concept of learning styles and has put the practice of applying learning styles to individuals into both its educational and cultural context. Scott then argues her case, by way of evidence and citing a 40 year study, that by attributing a ‘learning style’ to an individual only serves to label and stereotype the learner, rather than enhance their learning experience. Furthermore, this research has been able to highlight inadequate levels of research into the ‘relationship between instructional design of learning material and learning styles’(p.9). In addition, it has found inadequate levels of research into the claims made that by teaching to a learner’s ‘style’ higher educational outcomes can be achieved. Therefore, Scott has successfully used current literature and the results of a 40 year study to produce an argument that is robust and valid. 4. A conclusion - a final evaluation of the article 1. Give an overall opinion of the text. 2. Briefly summarise key points and determine if they are valid, useful, accurate etc. 3. Remember, do not include new ideas or opinions in the conclusion. In conclusion the journal article ‘The enduring appeal of ‘learning styles’ by Catherine Scott presents a well balanced, robust and valid discussion about the value of matching a learner with a particular learning style. The author’s use of current literature...... The strength of the article........yet it does not provide.......... Overall,...... Pathways and Academic Learning Support << Previous: Read your article carefully Next: Remember to edit >> Last Updated: Apr 27, 2023 4:28 PM URL: https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/how-to-write-a-journal-article-review How To Write a Journal: Step-By-Step Discover how to write a journal quickly and easily in our step-by-step guide. I’ve kept journals in various forms on and off for twenty years. Journal writing is a skill that asks for commitment, practice, and honesty. It’s also a perfect practice for creative and successful people. And anyone can do it! This article walks through how to write a journal step-by-step and includes some advanced tips. It pairs nicely with our list of journal writing topics . But first, why even bother with journaling? The Benefits of Journal Writing 1. journaling cultivates a daily writing habit, 2. journaling documents your life, 3. journaling tackles self-doubt, 4. it’s cheaper than therapy, 5. it cultivates personal growth, 6. journaling is a type of writing practice, step 1: pick a time for journaling, step 2: select a topic to write about, step 3: journal for a pre-determined period, step 4: don’t stop to edit , step 5: explore your thinking, step 6: stop and tidy up, step 7: review your journal entries regularly, keeping multiple journals, how to find time for journal writing, journal writing tools and resources, what do you write in a personal journal, how do you structure a journal, what is an example of a journal, what is the purpose of journal writing, journaling resources. Journaling is a great pursuit for writers and creatives. I’ve journaled for years and recommend it to many writers. It’s easy to start a daily journaling practice, and it doesn’t take much time. But why should you keep a journal in the first place? To answer that question, let’s explore how some famous journal writers approached this craft. Anytime, I avoid writing because I’m tired, bored, or devoid of ideas, I remind myself of the importance of discipline. Almost every writer I’ve read about sacrificed to pursue their work. They rose early or worked late into the night and they wrote because they had to and not just when they felt the hand of inspiration. Like many famous journal writers, Virginia Woolf kept hers with a pencil and paper. She recorded entries every morning until the early afternoon. She wrote about her routine, her ordinary moments : “I generally write with heat and ease till 12.30 and thus do my two pages. So it will be done, written over that is, in 3 weeks, I forecast from today” Cheever bemoans his lack of discipline throughout his journals. However, in an entry written shortly before his death in 1982, he recognizes he possessed this essential and departing personal strength that comes with adhering to a writing routine. “I have climbed from a bed on the second floor to reach this typewriter. This was an achievement. I do not understand what has happened to the discipline, or character, that has brought me here for so many years,” he writes. Yes, discipline is important, but not at the cost of day-to-day life. For a long time, I thought there was nothing more important than filling a blank page with sentences. Now, I spend time running, reading, traveling, meeting friends, and sitting quietly . I do other things that aren’t writing. And I’m OK with that. Even if you’ve found a passion, side-interests are essential. When you’re in danger of burning out, taking time to pursue a side-interest will stoke the embers of what inspires you. Woolf chronicled her long walks while Cheever wrote dozens of entries about swimming, cycling, and meeting friends. “I do have trouble with the dead hours of the afternoon without skating, skiing, bicycling, swimming, or sexual discharges or drink,” he writes. The Russian writer Nabokov had little time for eating, socializing, or drinking coffee with friends. Instead, he loved to solve chess problems and study butterflies. Both of these interests informed his work; his novel, Zashchita Luzhina (The Luzhin Defense), features an insane chess player. He writes in his memoir: “And the highest enjoyment of timelessness…is when I stand among rare butterflies and their food plants. This is ecstasy, and behind the ecstasy is something else, which is hard to explain. It is like a momentary vacuum into which rushes all that I love.” Self-doubt is a problem for many writers. They worry about what others will think of their ideas and stories. Years ago, I didn’t like writing articles like this one. I worried about how people will perceive me, and if I’ll upset or offend anyone. I learned from Virginia Woolf’s journals that many writers are insecure about their work. However, criticism can help writers improve their craft. She writes: “What is the use of saying one is indifferent to reviews when positive praise, though mingled with blame, gives one such a start on, that instead of feeling dried up, one feels, on the contrary, flooded with ideas?” Cheever wasn’t one for paying too much attention to his critics. He rarely re-read his works or reviews about them. That said, even Cheever occasionally dreamt (worried) about how people saw him. He writes in his journal: “…and last night I had a dream that a brilliant reviewer pointed out that there was an excess of lamentation in my work.” One way to overcome insecurity is to practice expressing gratitude. I try to do this by thanking those who take the time to read or even share my work, and by appreciating that writers today have more places to express themselves than before. Several years ago, I became a father for the first time. It was a happy time but after my son was born, I dreamt about death and how my life would end. I knew I wasn’t depressed but I worried there was something wrong with me. Then a friend (also a recent father), confessed the same thoughts. As we get older, it’s natural to consider mortality and death. To pretend death doesn’t exist is to live in ignorance of the bond we all share. There are echoes of death in Woolf’s, Cheever’s, and Nabokov’s memoirs, and these authors taught me it’s unnatural to avoid considering our place in the world. In the opening pages of Speak Memory, Nabokov unpacks the notion of time as a single linear event. He challenged the reader to see not just the endpoint of life, but the beginning of life as well. He writes: “….my mind has made colossal efforts to distinguish the faintest of personal glimmers in the impersonal darkness on both sides of my life.” In short, journaling is good for your well-being and mental health. Journaling is a good way of exploring your ideas, opinions, and inner beliefs. Through this habit, you can mark accomplishments and failures and also reflect on important life lessons. You could: Set goals and track your progress towards these goals Review your setbacks and move past them Marking accomplishments and failures The journals of Cheever, Woolf, and Nabokov taught me that keeping a journal helps identify negative patterns, thoughts, and behaviors. Woolf writes about her depression at length. In 1934, she describes the period after she finished her experimental novel The Waves . “I was, I remember, nearer suicide, seriously, than since 1913.” John chronicles his alcoholism at length in his journal and towards the end of his book, it’s hard not the feel the same sense of relief as he does upon finally becoming sober. If you want to learn how to write a journal, I don’t want to be too morbid and put you off. The journals of these authors aren’t all filled with dark life lessons and lamentations. Sometimes, these writers express gratitude. Nabokov writes at length about his love for his mother and father, his son, and Russia of old. And I’ve yet to read a more powerful personal mission statement than Cheever’s aspiration for the blank page: “To write well, to write passionately, to be less inhibited, to be warmer, to be more self-critical, to recognise the power of as well as the force of lust, to write, to love.” Writer’s block describes feeling uninspired and having no great ideas to write about. Thankfully, you don’t need to worry about that while journaling. After all, your journal ideas and entries are for you and you alone. Simply, turn up for a few minutes at the same time each day and jot down what you’re thinking or doing. It’s also helpful for: Articulate your arguments and ideas privately Reflect on recent lessons from your personal or professional life Chart your progress towards your goals Reflecting on your to-do list or creative projects Even if you don’t turn journal entries in public works, reading back on older entries from your own life is entertaining and revealing. How to Start Writing a Journal: 7 Easy Steps You don’t have to be a writer to learn how to journal. To practice journaling, write a short entry at the same time of day, every day. If that sounds like too much work, try once a week. If you want to learn how to start a journal on your computer, use a dedicated journaling app like Day One. It’s built for digital journaling and supports images and videos as well. Alternatively, create a password-protected file using Word, Pages, or another writing app on your computer. Ideally, it should sync with a service like Google Drive so you don’t have to worry about losing entries. With that in mind, follow these steps: Open your journaling tool of choice, close the door, and relax. If you have one to hand, pick a single journal writing prompt. Eliminate any distractions including your phone and social media. It’s easier to follow a journaling habit if you stick to it at the same time every day. A journal entry works well if it’s about a single topic, e.g. your daily routine, creative projects, or a personal problem. That said, there are no rules. Free write if you have to. Often the biggest challenge with creating a journaling habit is figuring out what to write about. You can start a journal entry in several different ways. Here are some creative things to write about in a journal: What you did yesterday You plans for today An inspiring book, film or album Lessons from a course you took How you’re feeling An argument you had A memory from you past Progress towards a goal A problem at work or in your persona life Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way, advocates keeping morning pages. These are a great way of starting a journal entry . All you have to do is get up, sit down at your desk and write a stream of consciousness entry first thing. Set a timer for twenty-five minutes. If that’s too long, aim for five minutes. Consistency is more important than duration. Depending on what’s happening, you may have time to write longer journal entries at the weekend or evening time. Oh, and keep writing! While writing a journal entry, don’t stop to edit yourself or edit for punctuation until the buzzer sounds. Editing and journaling are different activities. Also, journal entries are for you alone, so it doesn’t matter if you write a stream-of-consciousness . Allow for negative thoughts, expressive writing, and random ideas to make their way into your journal entries. Reflective journaling is a type of therapy and a window into the soul. So, don’t hold back. When the timer sounds, re-read your journal entry and tidy it up. Then, move on with your day. Review your journal entries and writing process once a week, month, or quarter. Past entries should inform future entries. I don’t recommend revising old entries much though, beyond fixing typos and grammar errors. It’s easy and unhelpful to judge an old version of yourself. When in doubt, write a new entry. I’ve kept various journals on and off since I was fifteen years old. These days, I record a personal journal containing the types of entries you would expect to find in someone’s journal or diary, i.e. it’s about my day-to-day life. I write 200-300 word entries every morning and a longer entry at the weekend. It’s kind of like my morning pages (an idea advocated by Julia Cameron). I also record a professional or business journal . Here, I write about how this blog and my work is progressing. I also describe the challenges I’m having and what I’m working on. Finally, I keep a type of Zettelkasten in Day One, which acts as a repository of ideas and information I come across for future writing projects. Here, I record snippets and other information from books I read, courses I take and talks I watch. I also include the links and write a reaction to these. This journaling habit gives me more source materials for future articles. For example: This Zettelkasten or Slip box contains dozens of entries about writing advice from creative masters like John Cheever and Virginia Woolf. I used a few of them for this article! If you want to learn more about the Zettelkasten method, check out my podcast interview with Sacha Fast . I won’t lie; if you want to keep writing a journal, you must commit to the practice. Some people who want to keep a journal say they find the process time-consuming, that they forget to write regular entries, and that it can become a chore. These are valid concerns for journal writers. I spend several hours each week on journal writing. However, if you’re new, start with five minutes a day, ideally in the morning before you forget. Wake up early if you have it. If you’re experiencing these problems, accept that there will be times when you don’t or can’t write. Instead, remember the benefits of journal writing and that no one needs to read or see this work (i.e. it doesn’t have to be perfect or even polished). You don’t need to keep more than one either. I’ve shared how I practice journal writing in case it helps. Using Journal Writing Prompts Some mornings it’s hard to write while tired and under-caffeinated. So I created a personal list of journal writing prompts and used those for a long time. Day One app contains daily journal writing useful prompts. I also like taking pictures of my phone while out and about and using these to start writing entries faster. Sometimes, I just write up what I did yesterday. I occasionally use TextExpander for OS X ( Phase Express is a Windows alternative) to write entries faster. These are text-expansion apps that turn keyboard shortcuts into snippets of text that I use for my entries. For example, when I type “; journal”, TextExpander pastes the following questions into my personal journal: How am I feeling right now? What are my plans for today? What did I read/listen to? How did I help my family? When I type “; blog”, Textexpander pastes the following questions: What did I do yesterday? What lesson did I learn? What could I have done better? What one thing must I focus on this week? I use a semi-colon to prevent Textexpander from inadvertently creating this text while I’m working on something else. These questions serve as writing prompts . When I see them appear on the page, I spend less time thinking about “what I want to write” and more time answering these questions. You can also find several dozen journal writing prompts in my book Yes You Can Write! A notepad: you can’t beat the classics! Day One : a dedicated app for Mac and iOS users Journey: a diary app for Android The Daly Stoic Journal by Ryan Holiday: Packed full of journaling prompts, I keep a copy on my desk The Early Morning Pages by Julia Cameron: a guide to writing in the early hours A password-protected file: nosey-parkers, keep out! Onenote or Evernote: both are useful if you like tagging entries WordPress: you can password-protect your entries Yes You Can Write! Speak Memory If you want more, check out Anthony Metevier’s post How To Keep A Journal And Remember More and also my detailed guide on Medium. FAQs on How to Write A Journal You can write whatever you want as each entry is for you alone. Some good topics include what you did yesterday, goals, your to-do list, and personal or professional challenges. Journal entries typically don’t require much structure. However, it’s a good idea to date your entries so you can understand your journal’s chronology. The novelist John Cheever’s journals and Virginia Woolf’s journals are both good examples worth reading. Journal writing enables you to clarify your thinking, work through negative emotions and record your daily life. It’s also a form of writing practice. The Best Journals to Buy Diary Vs Journal: What’s The Difference? Adam Jelic interview , the creator behind MiGoals journals You have exceeded your limit for simultaneous device logins. Your current subscription allows you to be actively logged in on up to three (3) devices simultaneously. click on continue below to log out of other sessions and log in on this device., how to write a journal article. In this blog post, we share tips from editors and outline some ideas to bear in mind when drafting a journal article. Whether you are writing a journal article to share your research, contribute to your field, or progress your career, a well-written and structured article will increase the likelihood of acceptance and of your article making an impact after publication. Rose Wolfe Emery  Academics normally learn how to write while on the job, suggests Michael Hochberg. This usually starts with “the dissertation and interactions with their supervisor. Skills are honed and new ones acquired with each successive manuscript.” Writing continues to improve throughout a career, but that thought might bring little solace if you are staring at a blank document and wondering where to start.  In this blog post, we share tips from editors and outline some ideas to bear in mind when drafting a journal article. Whether you are writing a journal article to share your research, contribute to your field, or progress your career, a well-written and structured article will increase the likelihood of acceptance and of your article making an impact after publication. Four tips for writing well Stuart West and Lindsay Turnbull suggest four general principles to bear in mind when writing journal articles:   Keep it simple : “Simple, clear writing is fundamental to this task. Instead of trying to sound […] clever, you should be clear and concise.”   Assume nothing : “When writing a paper, it’s best to assume that your reader is [subject] literate, but has very little expert knowledge. Your paper is more likely to fail because you assumed too much, than because you dumbed it down too much.”   Keep to essentials : “If you focus on the main message, and remove all distractions, then the reader will come away with the message that you want them to have.”   Tell your story : “Good […] writing tells a story. It tells the reader why the topic you have chosen is important, what you found out, and why that matters. For the story to flow smoothly, the different parts need to link clearly to each other. In creative writing this is called ‘narrative flow’.”   “A paper is well-written if a reader who is not involved in the work can understand every single sentence in the paper,” argues Nancy Dixon. But understanding is the bare minimum that you should aim for—ideally, you want to engage your audience, so they keep reading.  As West and Turnbull say , frankly: “Your potential reader is someone time-limited, stressed, and easily bored. They have a million other things to do and will take any excuse to give up on reading your paper.” A complete guide to preparing a journal article for submission Consider your research topic Before you begin to draft your article, consider the following questions: What key message(s) do you want to convey? Can you identify a significant advance that will arise from your article? How could your argument, results, or findings change the way that people think or advance understanding in the field? As Nancy Dixon says: “[A journal] editor wants to publish papers that interest and excite the journal’s readers, that are important to advancing knowledge in the field and that spark new ideas for work in the field. Think about the journal that you want to submit to Research the journals in your field and create a shortlist of “target” journals before writing your article, so that you can adapt your writing to the journal’s audience and style. Journals sometimes have an official style guide but reading published articles can also help you to familiarise yourself with the format and tone of articles in your target journals. Journals often publish articles of varying lengths and structures, so consider what article type would best suit your argument or results.  Check your target journals’ editorial policies and ethical requirements. As a minimum, all reputable journals require submissions to be original and previously unpublished. The ThinkCheckSubmit checklist can help you to assess whether a journal is suitable for your research. Now that you’ve decided on your research topic and chosen the journal you plan on submitting to, what do you need to consider when drafting each section of your article? Create an outline Firstly, it’s worth creating an outline for your journal article, broken down by section. Seth J. Schwartz explains this as follows: Writing an outline is like creating a map before you set out on a road trip. You know which roads to take, and where to turn or get off the highway. You can even decide on places to stop during your trip. When you create a map like this, the trip is planned and you don’t have to worry whether you are going in the correct direction. It has already been mapped out for you. The typical structure of a journal article Make it concise, accurate, and catchy Avoid including abbreviations or formulae Choose 5-7 keywords that you’d like your journal article to appear in the search results for Summarize the findings of your journal article in a succinct, “punchy”, and relevant way Keep it brief (200 words for the letter, and 250 words for the main journal) Do not include references Introduction Introduce your argument or outline the problem Describe your approach Identify existing solutions and limitations, or provide the existing context for your discussion Define abbreviations Methods  For STEM and some social sciences articles Describe how the work was done and include plenty of detail to allow for reproduction Identify equipment and software programs Results  For STEM and some social science articles Decide on the data to present and how to present it (clearly and concisely) Summarise the key results of the article Do not repeat results or introduce new discussion points Acknowledgements Include funding, contributors who are not listed as authors, facilities and equipment, referees (if they’ve been helpful; even though anonymous) Do not include non-research contributors (parents, friends, or pets!) Cite articles that have been influential in your research—these should be well-balanced and relevant Follow your chosen journal’s reference style, such as Harvard or Chicago List all citations in the text alphabetically at end of the article Sharing data Many journals now encourage authors to make all data on which the conclusions of their article rely available to readers. This data can be presented in the main manuscript, in additional supporting files, or placed in a public repository. Journals also tend to support the Force 11 Data Citation Principles that require all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Permissions Permission to reproduce copyright material, for online publication without a time limit, must also be cleared and, if necessary, paid for by the author. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder are usually required to be made available to the editors. Learning from experience Publishing a journal article is very competitive, so don’t lose hope if your article isn’t accepted to your first-choice journal the first-time round. If your article makes it to the peer-review stage, be sure to take note of what the reviewers have said, as their comments can be very helpful. As well as continuing to write, there are other things you can do to improve your writing skills, including peer review and editing. Christopher, Marek, and Zebel note that “there is no secret formula for success”, arguing that:  The lack of a specific recipe for acceptances reflects, in part, the variety of factors that may influence publication decisions, such as the perceived novelty of the manuscript topic, how the manuscript topic relates to other manuscripts submitted at a similar time, and the targeted journal. Thus, beyond actively pursuing options for any one particular manuscript, begin or continue work on others. In fact, one approach to boosting writing productivity is to have a variety of ongoing projects at different stages of completion. After all, considering that “100 percent of the shots you do not take will not go in,” you can increase your chances of publication by taking multiple shots.   Rose Wolfe-Emery, Marketing Executive, Oxford University Press SPONSORED BY  Get Print. Get Digital. Get Both! Add comment :-, comment policy:. Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language. Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted. Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media. If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate. 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