An original research manuscript should not exceed 4000 words excluding abstract and references.
Word count should be stated in the title page.
Introduction
- Typically consists of one page and introduces the topic to your reader
- Should answer two key questions: What is the paper about? Why is it worth being read and published?
- Provide your hypothesis and the purpose of your study. This is a mandatory part at the end of the introduction
- Arrange your paper from basic to more complex
Materials and Methods
- Meticulously describe the study design which can ideally serve as an instruction for the readership to redo the study
- Create a clear story line. This section links the introduction with the results. Hence, it should be structured from basic to more complex. Clarify the type of study done
- Proceed with a clear description of your study sample such as the exact number of patients or subjects included. When dealing with patients’ basic demographics such as mean age ± standard deviation, gender, body mass index, alignment information and other important variables should be given here
- A clear flow chart should allow the reader to understand how many patients were screened, how may were excluded and how many finally included for this study. It also needs to allow the reader to judge a possible bias in patient selection
- Add detailed description of tests and experiments done for experimental studies and description of outcome instruments used for clinical studies. In case a novel methodology is applied, a more detailed description is required. If standard methods are applied it is only necessary to refer to these
- For all measurements done inter- and intra-observer reliability needs to be tested and presented and should be done by at least two independent blinded observers twice with an interval of six weeks
- A statement that ethical approval was obtained from the local ethical committee or institutional review board approval should be included
- When a study involves cadaveric specimens, authors should provide pictures of the set-up to help the reader understand how the study was done. In addition, if the study involves dissection of specimens, authors should provide pictures that could help understand and replicate the study
- For clinical studies, state that informed consent was obtained by each patient or subject in the study
- Final paragraph should consist of a proper and complete description of the statistical methodology used. First you have to state which and how the data was presented. Include the exact description of tests used and differentiate parametric from non-parametric tests. The level of statistical significance needs to be reported as p-value. Generally, it is considered to be p<0.05
- Sample size calculation needs to be presented in all clinical studies
Results
- Should be brief and concise showing only the results. Do not interpret your results, simply describe what you have found
- Organise them in the same logical order and structure as previously reported in material and methods
- No referencing is allowed
- Do not duplicate results in text and figures, tables or graphs
- When writing the results of a cadaveric study authors should provide pictures showing the results to the reader. Pictures should have the necessary quality so the results can be easily appreciated
Discussion
- Should put your findings into the context of current literature
- Start with a sentence such as “The most important findings of the present study were…”
- Compare your findings with relevant previous studies
- Do not duplicate your results
- Provide a comprehensive list of all limitations in your study
Conclusions
- Should not be more than one or two sentences long
- Should provide a summary of results and discussion
- Clinical implications of the findings should be highlighted
- Explain why the study is significant to the research world
- It is also possible to provide an outlook of future research direction
- DO NOT write further investigation is needed or announce future studies that might not be completed