Guest editorial

Relevant aspects of scientific report writing

Due to the increase of the researches carried out in Brazil, there are a growing number of papers submitted to publication in both Brazilian and foreign journals. Therefore, it is expected that, at some time of the career, the dentist faces the necessity to write a paper or be interested in this task, even if not engaged in academic career.

To write a scientific paper is the same as to create a work of art. Both demand inspiration, original ideas, technique knowledge, tools for its construction, and media for its propagation. Consequently, this task is not always simple, especially if there is a lack of organization in its accomplishment. In this context, this editorial is intended to discuss the most important aspects of scientific papers writing.

The journal's editors are constantly searching for concise and objective studies, which summarize the findings in a simple way, as well as, comprise the maximum of information within the minimum space. Additionally, the journals prefer to publish papers that offer a new contribution to literature and are well structured according to their norms. In order to reach that, the author needs to introduce, motivate, and convince the reader of the presented techniques and results' relevance, applicability, and reproducibility.

Prior to the article writing onset, some question should be answered regarding to the chosen issue; publication purpose; targeted reader; what is necessary to write (which should be the focus? what should be revised? what should be detailed?); and finally, in which journal the material should be published. A scientific study is performed aiming to test new hypothesis, validate past knowledge, or apply new materials/procedures searching for innovation. It is necessary to adequate the text language to the targeted reader, that is, clinicians or academic community.

A scientific report aiming to publication presents, basically, the following structure: title, abstract, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and references. The goals and studied hypothesis are described in the text beginning; generally, they are composed of more than one sentence within another paragraph, at the ending of the introduction section, in which more details about the examined parameters will be provided. Hypotheses are the preconceived suppositions of the results, based on past knowledge, which will be evaluated. They are not the introduction section purpose, but they are the basis for the methodology. It is possible that they anticipate the results. After the objective and hypothesis are defined, the next step is to describe the methodology, providing enough details to allow the experiment replication, such as: study's design explanation, sampling aspects, tables, figures, details about the used devices, statistical and experimental evaluation methods, etc.

Following, the study's title is established. This should be concise, clear, and precise. The title is the article's main reference, drawing the reader's attention and reflecting the text content. Preferably, the title should contain items capable of being researched (key-words), without abbreviations. One should avoid titles displayed as a question, because they do not demonstrate a scientific character.

Then, introduction can be written. First, however, it is necessary to establish the report's context, problem definition, and the limitations of the existent solutions, finalizing with the study's objectives. Introduction section demands the aforementioned topics exhibition in a logical sequence, which facilitates the reader conduction to the investigation objective and explains why the study is relevant. A well-written introduction is essential and it is based on answering the what, why, and how questions. It should include only the necessary information to help the reader to understand the research's purpose, enabling the recognition of the study's interesting data, which will supplement the reader's previous knowledge. Formal writing is indispensable.

Since the introduction and title are defined, as well as, the objectives and methodology is described, the results' description and discussion followed by the report's conclusion are the next sections to be constructed. The results should be clear, short, and only refer to the obtained data. Interpretations are not drawn in this section; only the relevant data are described by using tables and figures to represent the obtained data better. The verbal (textual) presentation of each used figure is included. All data must present the statistic comparisons.

The discussion section explains and interprets the obtained results. This section can be initiated by reaffirming the question that conducted the experiment. Following, each one of the previously suggested hypotheses are referred, in order to make explicit if the results proved or invalidated them. Inside the discussion section, the reasons of and speculations on the found data are pointed out. Additionally, these are compared with literature data. When appropriated, these results are correlated. Also, tendencies are searched, providing the findings' significance and determining the study's limitations.

Following that, the conclusion section is written. This is based only on the study's objectives. It is not recommended that the results be repeated, as well as, speculations be drawn, at this section.

After constructing all these aforementioned sections, the abstract is the last section to be written, because as the name implies, it summarizes all the information in the report. This acts as the advertisement; or as a trailer movie, being the preview of the text. The abstract shows the idea of what will be provided by the report. It must draw the reader's attention and interest in order that the reader seeks for the detailed information by reading the text. The abstract should not contain bibliographic references. It is important that the abstract be written within a single paragraph; only the information or conclusions inside the text are mentioned. Generally, the abstract is limited by a number of words. Preferentially, it is structured in a format comprising the researched problem, objectives, methods, results, and conclusion.

The reference section is one of the most important aspects of the paper. In this topic, original sources are always used. It is essential that the references be correct, complete, and specific, including only those relevant for the study. The authors' instructions of each journal must be followed. Also, all references must be cited within the text.

Finally, some precautions should be taken prior scientific paper writing, such as to avoid using very long sentences, word's misspelling and grammatical errors, literal translation or copy, illegible images and tables, unnecessary information.

I am sure that if all these aforementioned steps are followed, the task of scientific paper writing would become easier and more enjoyable.

PhD, MSc, Gisele Maria Correr Nolasco
Titular Professor of the Dentistry School; Master
Course in Clinical Dentistry
Positivo University