IMRaD – The opener!

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started”. ~ Mark Twain Manuscript writing and publishing have become mandatory in academia. From “publish or perish” to “publish in high-impact journals,” the roadmap to publishing has taken various dimensions. The editor and his/her team ultimately bear responsibility for all content published in an academic journal. They stringently screen and scan the manuscripts submitted, functioning like visa officers to approve/reject potential immigrants. The Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry (JISPPD) receives approximately 600 article submissions throughout the year and publishes four issues annually with a 10% acceptance rate. There are numerous papers that discuss scientific writing and publications of manuscripts and each journal provides guidelines for publications to be approved. The reason for writing this paper is to help the authors minimize errors and write better original scientific research papers. IMRaD format in scientific writing stands for the introduction, methods, results and discussion. This paper, the first in this series is the opener, and it deals with the part of research that should be written first – methods, results, and title; the second is the middle order that includes the introduction and discussion and the third part is the finisher with details on the conclusion, references, and abstract. The final one will be on “why rejections” from the editor’s perspective. Methods – What Did You Do? The method section should be the first part of manuscript writing as this is something which is already known and is foolproof. This section is the heart of the manuscript as it explains the procedures followed to answer the research question. The validity of the results obtained from a study depends on the methods, techniques, and tools used to generate the data. The key to the methods section is the precise amount of detail. If too elaborate, it might risk reading like a cookbook or a lab manual. If it is too brief, it cannot be replicated by the readers. This section is generally written in past tense as the study is already completed. The methods section should basically include the following subheads: Type of study or study design Institutional Review Board approval, Institutional Ethics Committee approval, written consent/Verbal assent. Registration in the Clinical Trial Registry of India. Main body Study subjects Interventions or exposures Outcomes measured. Statistical analysis Details and characteristics of the subject, exposure, and outcomes differ based on the type of study and the guidelines used – Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology or Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT). All the scientific details of the methods and statistical analyses based on the checklists of these guidelines have to be provided to complete this section. Example: “Dental caries status was assessed using DMF index and ICDAS 2.” It is not necessary to mention the details of known facts such as DMF index or ICDAS. Even if a slight modification has been done in the gold standard tool, details of how and why the changes were made have to be mentioned. (e.g.) Modified Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used with scores ranging from 0 to 3, instead of the VAS scale with scores 0–10 as it is difficult for a young child to understand the difference between the grades. Results – What Did You Find? The results of all the steps discussed in the methods section should be enumerated in the same order as mentioned. Hence, writing the results section is the easy second step in manuscript writing. This is the only section where an author is allowed to write in excess. This statement has to be understood with caution, as excess means adequate information and not providing redundant data. Results generally include text, tables, and graphs or figures. The three parts of the results have to be used with care to avoid repetition of the same information. Specifications on the maximum number of tables or figures to be used, as per the author’s instructions of the journal, should be kept in mind in preparing the manuscript. Example: “The results of the study are shown in Tables 1-4.” or “Characteristics of the population studied are shown in Table 1.” These statements can be avoided. Important information should be written as text, whereas tables can be used for presenting numerical data. Numerical data can include actual values and percentages mentioned in parenthesis. Tables should be self-explanatory with an apt title, and description of rows, columns, legends, and footnotes. Graphs, bar charts, and pie charts can be used to best depict the relationship between two variables. For an interventional study, a flowchart in the CONSORT checklist has to be presented. Example: “23 boys had dental caries” should be replaced with “Twenty-three boys had dental caries.” Start a sentence with words and not numbers. Numerals with units can be used to mention specific measurements (e.g.) 5 volts, 3 s, 1 m/s. Statistical data should include measures of central tendency along with its appropriate dispersion values (e.g.). Mean and standard deviation or median and range based on the normality of the data. Most journals specify the need for confidence intervals around the point estimate, and hence this information has to be provided. Probability values (P value) should not be mentioned as zero and any value <0.001 should be mentioned as P < 0.001. Title – Name of Your Work! A simple and lucid title has to be given to the scientific paper written. This can be done at a later point in time after the entire manuscript is complete. However, my recommendation is to make the title right after the methods and results section is written. The rest of the manuscript does not really contribute to the title of your work. A title should be relevant, interesting, catchy, and short but informative. The title should not be misleading or boring and must not include abbreviations and/or questions. The title must definitely include the correct study design for better acceptance in journals. PICOS format in the title can make it descriptive with adequate information on the population, intervention, comparator, outcomes measured, and the study design. Example: “Posterior preveneered stainless steel crowns: clinical performance after 3 years” can be rephrased as “Clinical performance of two posterior preveneered stainless-steel crowns – A randomized controlled trial.” Example: “Does acid etching enhance remineralization of arrested white spot lesions?” can be rewritten as “Effect of acid etching on the remineralization of arrested white spot lesions using two remineralizing agents – A randomized controlled in vitro trial.” A precise title is the best opener for a manuscript. JISPPD is opening its account this year with a new cover page giving it a fresh look. Editorial team is looking forward to helping our life members to publish their research with a higher acceptance rate in our journal. And for a new beginning, this issue is coming out with more articles as promised! JISPPD 2025; Volume 1 – The Opener!