Content and Organization of a Manuscript chapter 1

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Content and Organization of a Manuscript (chapter
1)

• Ilham Elsaleh

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Authors should consider the following before
writing for publication

• The quality of their of their own research.
• Evaluating the content and its importance
  contribution to the field.
• The scientific publishing tradition.
• Author should be familiar with the criteria and
  standards that editors and reviewers use to
  evaluate the manuscript.

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Characteristics of the articles.
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Authorship

• People who make a primary contribution and are
  responsible for the data, concepts and
  interpretation of the results of the published
  work .

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Types of articles.

• Reports of empirical studies.( introduction,
  method, result and discussion).
• Review articles. (critical evaluation which
  summarizes previous investigation, defines and
  clarifies problems, etc.).
• Theoretical articles. (focus on research to
  advance theory in any area of psychology.
• Methodological articles.( more focused on the
  methodological approaches)
  

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Before beginning to write think about

• Length, headings and tones of the manuscript.
• There is a typical length for an article in the
  journal( 1 printed page 4 manuscript pages).
• Use headings to convey the sequence and level of
  importance and to help the reader understand the
  article organization.
• you need to think about the style of your
  writing.( present the information in an
  interesting way)

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Parts of the Manuscriptreports of empirical
studies.
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1.Title page

• Title (centered, upper ½ of page)
• Authors name (below title)
• Institutional affiliation (below authors name)
• Manuscript page header (upper right corner, 1st 2
  or 3 words of title, 5 spaces, then page )
• Running head

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Example

• Header (5 spaces) Page number (1 inch margin)
• Running Head
• Title ( summarize main idea, 10 to 12 words)
• Name( byline)
• Institution( where conducted the research)

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Running Head

• Abbreviated title
• Maximum 50 characters including letters,
  punctuation, and spaces
• Left-justified below manuscript page header

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2.Abstract..

• Brief comprehensive summary of the purpose,
  method, results and conclusions of the study. It
  has its own page.
• Accurate
• Self-contained
• Concise and specific.
• Non-evaluative
• Coherent and readable

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Example

• Schedule-Induced Attack 2
• Abstract
• Although aggression has repeatedly been
  observed in mousetraps in the field , the
  variable controlling the aggression has not
  previously been identified. The purpose of the
  present study was to determine whether aggression
  in mouse traps could be induced by an
  intermittent schedule of reinforcement. The
  necessary condition for concluding that attack is
  schedule-induced is that more attack occurs
  during exposure to an intermittent schedule of
  reinforcement (e.g. food) than in its absence.

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3. Introduction.

• 1. Introduce the problem
• 2. Develop the background
• 3. State the purpose and rationale.

Opens the body of the paper as a summarization
of relevant arguments, data, and information The
introduction describes our research statement. We
do not label the introduction because it is
clearly identified by its position in the paper.
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Schedule-Induced Attack 3
Example

• Schedule Induced Attack in Mouse Traps
• Behavior Modification of Inanimate Objects
• The introduction begins on the page
  following the abstract. The introduction is
  never labeled. This is where you present the
  logic and background research that suggested this
  study. The general problem area is mentioned in
  the first paragraph, followed by a brief review
  of the relevant published findings.
  

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4. Method The method section provides
information critical to the replication of your
study. Method is centered above the section.
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Method consists of

• Identify subsections Each subsection label is
  left-justified and italicized.
• Participants or subjects sometimes are human.
• Apparatus what equipment and material (s) were
  used in conducting the study. If no equipment
  was used, as in most survey studies, this section
  may be labeled Materials.
• Procedure this describes how the study was
  conducted, i.e. what the researchers did and what
  the
• participants/subjects were asked to do did

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5. Results.

• Summarize the data collected and the statistical
  or data analytic treatment used.
• For such purpose, you can
• Use tables and figures.
• Statistical presentation
• Informally adequate statistics
• Statistical power
• Statistical significance
• Effect size and strength of relationship

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6. Discussion

• It includes interpretation of your results in
  relationship to your hypotheses/predictions and
  to related studies. You should note any flaws,
  limitations, and alternate conclusions that have
  not been ruled out. We use the present tense in
  this section.

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• 7. Multiple experiments
• You might have several experiments in one paper,
  always include general discussion of all the
  integrated work after the last one. (organize
  with labeling)
• 8. References
• Each retrievable source cited in the essay must
  appear on the reference page, and vice versa.
• 9.Appendix
• It is included in the article only if it is used
  to help readers understand and evaluate the
  study. full explanation and description for stuff
  can not be included in the body of the article)

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10. Author Notes
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Header page numberAuthor
Notes
Example

• The author identifies the departmental
  affiliation of each author, identifies sources or
  financial support and provides a forum for
  authors to acknowledge colleagues professional
  contribution.

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At the end

• Think about the quality of the presentation,
  evaluate the content and the organization of your
  manuscript.