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Services Research & Policy

How to write a good research paper

Julie Glanville, Kate Light and Lisa Stirk
J Health Serv Res Policy 2008 13: 127
DOI: 10.1258/jhsrp.2008.007174

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 What’s on the web

How to write a good research paper

There are numerous websites that aim to help students write If you would like to alert readers to useful web pages or suggest
research papers but it is necessary to look a little further to topics for this column, please send details to:
find websites that are relevant to researchers wishing to
publish in peer-reviewed journals. Here we review sites that Kate Light
address scientific writing style, present guidelines for reporting Information Officer
trials and other studies, and provide access to submission Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
requirements for individual journals. Additionally, we list University of York, York YO10 5DD UK
some other relevant sites. (Email: KL9@york.ac.uk)

Instructions to Authors in the Health remain live to a PDF that is still available but out of
Sciences date. For instance, the link to Occupational Therapy
News is for a PDF of the planned themes for 2006,
http://mulford.meduohio.edu/instr/index.html
however, the website for Occupational Therapy news
contains more up-to-date information regarding
planned themes.
Although the main aim of the site is to provide
instructions for individual publications, there is also a
selection of useful links to general authorship resources.
For example, there are links to the CONSORT state-
ment (for the reporting of randomized controlled
trials) and the SPARC site (how to secure your rights
as an author).
Despite the occasional out-of-date link ( perhaps
inevitable in such a fast-moving field), this is a useful
site for details of submission requirements for particular
journals. Additionally, the facility to do simple keyword
searches may generate titles of which you were unaware.

This site is produced by the Mulford Library at the

University of Toledo. It is easy to find from the Mayfield Handbook of Technical and
Library’s home page (under ‘additional resources’). It Scientific Writing
provides links to web pages and PDFs that contain http://phoron.net/mayfield/home.htm
instructions to authors provided by individual journals.
This is a useful resource for those who wish to ensure the
best chance of acceptance by adhering to the guidelines
and house style of the chosen publication. While many
people are aware of the requirements of the journals
to which they most often submit, this is a useful resource
when approaching unfamiliar journals.
There is a browsing facility that enables you to view an
alphabetical list of journals, as well as a search facility.
The search facility allows you to type in the title of the
journal or, if this is not known, a separate box allows
for simple keyword searching. The search engine
assumes a phrase search if more than one word is
entered. Boolean searching is not available. Given the
nature and size of the site, this simple approach to
searching is, however, perfectly suitable. Although aimed at a general technical and scientific
Currency is important with a site of this kind. It is not audience, this web-based full-text guide has a lot to
obvious how often the links are checked and, inevitably, offer health and social science writers. It describes how
some links are out of date. This is a particular concern to approach writing, considering the audience and
for the links to PDFs as it is possible for a link to the purpose of the document. It also provides a

DOI: 10.1258/jhsrp.2008.007174 J Health Serv Res Policy Vol 13 No 2 April 2008 127
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What’s on the web
step-by-step approach to organizing a document and
considers issues of grammar and style. It is a thorough
‘how to’ guide with lots of useful practical examples
and sections devoted to specific document types.
The website structure resembles a book with access via
a table of contents. It is also possible to pursue trains of
thought through the site using the hypertext links. An
index option is always available at the top of each page
and searches the whole website. For example, using
the index to look up ‘split infinitives’ produced a page
describing the use of infinitives and offering advice on
the acceptability of splitting infinitives, with examples.
Although the site may not look sophisticated, the
extensive content and clear examples should prove
useful to most writers.
EQUATOR Network
http://www.equator-network.org/
The EQUATOR Network is a new research quality
improvement initiative which seeks to enhance the
reliability of medical research literature by ‘promoting
transparent and accurate reporting of health research’.
It brings together developers of reporting guidelines,
medical journal editors and peer reviewers, research
funding bodies and others with an interest in improving
the quality of research publications and of research
itself. Its aim is to develop into a global organization cov-
ering all areas of health research.
The EQUATOR Network is funded by the UK’s NHS
National Knowledge Service and National Institute for
Health Research. EQUATOR’s Executive Group com-
prises experts in research methodology, reporting and
editing from the UK, Canada and the USA.
The website aims to bring together a number of key
resources aimed at authors, editors and developers. It
contains a digital library of health research reporting,
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How to write a good research paper
including guidance on reporting different research
designs, such as systematic reviews and randomized con-
trolled trials. This includes external links to resources
such as the CONSORT statement on reporting RCTs
(http://www.consort-statement.org/) and the STROBE
initiative on reporting observational studies in epide-
miology (http://www.strobe-statement.org/).
An extensive links page on the site directs the user to
additional information on reporting research, guidance
on scientific writing, editorial organizations and guide-
lines, publishing organizations, copyright information,
research ethics and conferences.
As EQUATOR was only established in March 2006,
much of the site is currently still under development.
It does however include a search facility, which will be
essential for what promises to be a wide-ranging, exten-
sive and extremely useful site for all involved in report-
ing medical research.
Selected additional websites
† International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors
http://www.icmje.org/
A site dedicated to the Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
(which was originally produced by the Vancouver
Group). Includes a section on ethics in the conduct
and reporting of research.
† The Council of Science Editors
http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/
Various resources for authors, including CSE’s White
Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal
Publications, and links to websites dealing with
writing style.
† Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines
† SciDevNet: How do I?
http://www.scidev.net/ms/howdoi/index.cfm?pa-
geid=100
A series of articles about scientific communication.
Includes sections on writing scientific papers and
submitting papers to journals.
† How to write a paper in scientific style and format
http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/
writing/HTWtoc.html
† Medical Writing Centre
http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/8452/la_id/1.htm
Julie Glanville, Kate Light, Lisa Stirk
Information Service,
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination,
University of York,
York YO10 5DD, UK