Writing a Scientific Paper

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Citation Guidelines

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Welcome to the Guide on Writing a Scientific Paper!

The goals of this guide are to:

Provide essential information on writing a scientific paper.
Help users access essential resources through the Calder Library.

This guide is intended for affiliates of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Jackson Health System. It may also be helpful to anyone who is writing a scientific paper, though some resources are limited to UM/JMH users per licensing agreements.

You may navigate this guide by using the links on the Table of Contents at the left or by using the Tabs on top of each page.

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Subject Guide Editor

Barbara M. Sorondo

Head of Learning, Research, and Clinical Information Services

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Louis Calder Memorial Library

Department of Learning, Research, and Clinical Information Services

Email: reference@miami.edu
Phone: 305-243-6648
Ask a Librarian: http://calder.med.miami.edu/librarianask.html

More Writing Help

Scitable by Nature Education
Website sponsored by Nature journals to provide help in writing scientific papers. You must register for free at the website.

Create Your Researcher Profile

ORCID @ UM
Information on creating and using an ORCID iD at the University of Miami. Your ORCID iD is a unique identifier for researchers that provides a persistent digital identifier to distinguish you from all other researchers.

Setting up your free ORCID account takes only minutes. Once you create your account, you can use it to keep track of all your scientific papers.

How to Write a Scientific Paper

The resources listed below might be useful as you begin writing your scientific paper.

Writing the Scientific Paper
This writing guide was produced by the Colorado State University. It provides guidelines for the different parts of the paper.
Infographic: How to write better science papers
This "Infographic" and short article was written by Natalia Rodriguez, from Elsevier Publishers. it provides tips for "writing research articles people will want to read." (Posted on 15 May 2015)
How to write your first research paper
This article was written by Elena Kallestinova in Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine (2011). The paper presents guidelines on how to initiate the writing process and draft each section of a research manuscript.
Purdue Online Writing Lab: Writing a Literature Review
Information on what a literature review is and where, when, why, and how to write one from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
Writing a Narrative Biomedical Review: Considerations for Authors, Peer Reviewers, and Editors
Analyzes the main steps in writing a narrative biomedical review and considers points that may increase the chances of publication success.

When Writing Your Paper

The Introduction:

Objective of paper is clearly defined: Provide a sentence or two discussing the focus of the paper. Why is this topic important?
Background information on disease / condition has been included: Provide a few sentences about the disease / condition. Give basic information about the type of disease, common symptoms, etc.
Statistical information about the disease / condition provided (such as incidence, prevalence, etc.): Information could be incidence, prevalence, number of cases in the United States, or other relevant statistics. Is this a common disease/ condition? Is it rare? You may find this information in your articles. The Northeast Ohio Medical University's Health Data and Statistics library guide may also be helpful.
Background information on the two drugs or treatments is provided: Provide a few sentence on the drugs. Discuss things like pharmacologic category or mechanism of action. How do the drugs differ from each other? Provide a few sentences describing treatments. How do treatments differ from one another?
Note: A (narrative) review article can be a good resource for information for the introduction and discussion sections of the paper. The review article could cover the following topics: the disease or condition; one or both drugs; one or both treatments, etc. This article does not need to be a systematic review.

Research Article:

Objective of study provided: What was the clinical question? What was the focus of the article?
Hypothesis of study given: Provide a sentence of two on the hypothesis. It may be discussed as the intervention versus the comparison in the article.
Clinical research design of the study described: Is it a randomized control trial? A cohort study? Is there blinding?
Sample size provided: What was the sample size? What population is this study targeting?
Inclusion/exclusion criteria provided: Summarize the criteria stated in the article. Remember that this can influence the applicability of the research to a general patient population.
Methods described: Describe briefly the general methods utilized by the study.
Results described: Describe results found for primary and important secondary outcomes
Important statistical results discussed: Discuss all important statistical results for primary and important secondary outcomes. This includes p values (non-significant too), etc.
Conclusions of authors summarized: Provide a few sentences summarizing the authorsâ conclusions for the study.

Discussion:

Research Article critiqued: Critique the article. Provide evidence to support your critique of the article
Strengths and weaknesses given: Provide a few sentences describing the strengths and weaknesses of the study
Importance of the topic to medicine / pharmacy: Briefly describe the importance of this topic to medicine / pharmacy. How will these articles impact out knowledge about the topic?
Future trends in medicine / pharmacy: What is in the future in medicine / pharmacy for the treatment of this disease / condition?
Note: A (narrative) review article can be a good resource for information for the introduction and discussion sections of the paper. The review article could cover the following topics: the disease or condition; one or both drugs; one or both treatments, etc.

These are general guidelines which must be discussed with your professor.

Ideas for Paper Topics

Scientific Paper Topics
A list of topics for scientific papers by specialty.

These are only ideas for paper topics, you are not limited to these topics. You may choose your own paper topic as long as it meets the criteria listed in the guide.

General Information on Paper Topics

You will have the choice of one of the following topics for your literature review (see the drop down list for paper topic ideas). Your paper will discuss current research and look for future trends. You will need to compare two medications or treatments in regards to some aspect of treatment of a disease or condition.

Comparing a drug to a placebo is NOT allowed for the paper. You could write about comparing Lipitor to diet and exercise for treating high cholesterol (comparing a drug to another treatment). The topic can look at drugs to treat the disease / condition in general or some specific aspect of the disease (such as breast cancer rather than just cancer in general). Medical students can also compare two non-pharmacological treatments. At the end of this guide is a list of possible topics. You are not limited to these topics. You may choose your own topic if you like.

An example of a topic is: Comparing rosuvastatin to atorvastatin for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. I would like a review article to give background information for the paper introduction so I chose:

Schachter M. Chemical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of statins: an update. Fundam Clin Pharmacol. 2005;19(1):117-25.

Your review article may focus on one or both the drugs/treatments or the disease/condition. It may provide you with background information for the introduction and discussion sections of your paper. It does not need to be a systematic review or meta-analysis.

I would also need to choose one of the two research articles that compare rosuvastatin to atorvastatin.

Jones P, Hunninghake D, Ferdinand K, Stein E, Gold A, Caplan R, et al. Effects of rosuvastatin versus atorvastatin, simvastatin, and pravastatin on non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoproteins, and lipid ratios in patients with hypercholesterolemia: additional results from the STELLAR trial. Clin Ther. 2004;26(9):1388-99.

Qu H, Xiao Y, Jiang G, Wang Z, Zhang Y, Zhang M. Effect of atorvastatin versus rosuvastatin on levels of serum lipids, inflammatory markers and adiponectin in patients with hypercholesterolemia. Pharm Res. 2009;26(4):958-64.

The two research articles are both randomized control trials and both compare rosuvastatin to atorvastatin to treating hypercholesterolemia.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism may lead to the failure of the assignment and the course. You are expected to cite articles within the text of the paper and in the literature cited section of the paper. Quotation marks should be placed around small direct quotations. The quotations must also be cited within the full text of your paper.

Plagiarism.org

Style Guide

Citing within the Text

There are multiple citation styles. In medicine, the most used style is the American Medical Association (AMA) style, available in print format and also online: AMA manual of style : a guide for authors and editors (NY: Oxford, 2007).

The following journal articles are examples of the citation-sequence system.

Superscript number system
Number within parentheses method

For more help citing resources within the literature cited section of the paper, see the Citing Resources library guide.

Citation Managers

Citation Managers are used to organize citations, add references to your paper as you cite them, and to create bibliographies in multiple publication styles. The University of Miami supports the following citation managers:

EndNote

EndNote is a downloadable bibliography and database manager that enables you to: (1) collect citation information from databases, websites, and more; (2) organize citations in folders; and (3) use the citations in EndNote to create in-text citations and bibliographies. University of Miami authorized users can download EndNote at http://it.miami.edu/a-z-listing/endnote/index.html

RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based bibliography and database manager, used to easily create personal databases of imported references from text files or online databases, that facilitates reference storage, retrieval, formatting for publication, and sharing of folders or databases. Available to University of Miami authorized users. Find additional login information at the Calder Library website eDatabases.

Mendeley Institutional Edition

Mendeley Institution Edition is a reference manager and academic networking resource. It allows users to create a fully-searchable library in seconds, cite while writing, share full text documents within user’s Mendeley network, and read and annotate PDFs on any device. Available to University of Miami authorized users. Find additional login information at the Calder Library website eDatabases.

AMA Style Citation Generator

AMA Style Citation Generator
Good for generating journal and book citations. Does not provide full citations for websites, please use another resource. This online tool enables you to generate a journal article citation from the PubMed Identification Number. Citation is in AMA style. Easy to alter to NLM style if needed.

Research Guides

Writing a Scientific Paper

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Citation Guidelines

Barbara M. Sorondo