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(Volume: 2, Issue: 6)
What a research manuscript should not lack?
It is very normal that the researchers, who spent ample time on doing research and obtaining greater results, fail to disclose them in their manuscript being submitted to a journal. The result is- ‘No proper recognition for the well-performed research’ and ‘No research integrity’. Hence there are certain things that a research manuscript should not lack. Let’s have a glimpse at it.
An appropriate title, brief abstract, relevant keywords
The researchers should choose a manuscript title that most suits their research phenomenon, without unnecessary jargons. Following the title, a brief summary of the research, encompassing the objectives, problem statement, methodology and the yielded results or conclusions, has to be clearly provided. This is because the title and the abstract are the ones, which are first visible to an editor for easily obtaining the significance and originality of the research, without spending his/her precious time and effort. Moreover, they attract a researcher, who searches for an article with the matching keywords on the manuscript. A manuscript that lacks an appropriate title, brief abstract and relevant keywords will have less probability of getting into the peer-review process with less visibility or readability and reach among the research community.
An informative introduction
Research that does not accomplish a need is not valued. This section of the manuscript is important, as it gives the background of the research, giving answers to: (i) Why the research is being carried out? and (ii) What is the significance that it has on a problem at hand? It should also encapsulate the advancement being sought over the state-of-the-art systems, techniques or processes.
An extensive literature review
Without this section in the manuscript, no one will believe that the research is original and valid. This is because one cannot barely do research, only with a thought. He/ she should examine several relevant researches, which do support their research interest, before formulating a problem, making an objective or devising a methodology. Hence, the more appropriate articles being reviewed in this section, the more will be the reader’s trust on the originality and the usefulness of the research.
An in-depth explanation on the methodology
Each and every researcher will have their own way of approaching a research problem. On failing to detail the methodology, a researcher cannot express the uniqueness or the novelty of their methodology in solving the problem. The description on the methodology should be well-supported by adequate and appropriate illustrations, pseudocodes and mathematical models. Further, a vague explanation of a method will not be shown interest by the readers, ceasing further methodological improvements.
Experimental setup, results and discussion
This is the section of evidence, which reveals that the researcher’s methodology works well in eliminating an unsolved research issue and it is not a mere suggestion. The data collection procedures, the software/ hardware used, the experimental setup and the testing constraints have to be clearly addressed to recreate the same testing environment for yet another researcher with different methodology and same objective. The discussion on the results should be made in comparison to the results from the state-of-the-art methods to portray the dominance of the research over the others, maintaining the research integrity. The researchers can also share the source code accessibility details and the supplementary materials either publicly or on-demand through this section. Moreover, the usage of organized figures, tables and graphs at regular instances and their associated discussions will provide a legible delivery of the results to the readers.
A concise conclusion
This section is needed to point out the key findings of the research, its implications and the research guidance for the upcoming researchers in short. This section can be organized in such a way that it first reports the findings of the research, followed by the merits and the shortcomings of using the findings, its interpretations and the reasons for superior performance, and the future scope of the research.
References and Citations
It is utmost necessary to properly cite and include the references in the manuscript to prove the originality of the research and for maintaining research integrity. On submitting the manuscript to a journal, it should comply with the journal’s citation and reference style.
Acknowledgements
This section is a tribute to a person, university, a funding organization or similar other means, without which the research can never be possible. However, it also adds to the manuscript’s visibility among the research community.
Conflicts of interest:
A manuscript, prior to the submission to a journal, should include this section with a denial, so as to support blind peer review and research acceptance from a journal without any financial or personnel influence.
Contents with no plagiarism, grammatical or formatting errors
The manuscript should be free of any plagiarized contents, since it might question the credibility of the research. Additionally, the manuscript should be written in a well-organized way with adequate headings and sub-headings with no formatting errors or illicit grammar usage to retain readability and understandability of the manuscript.
Though a manuscript should not exclude the aforesaid manuscript standards, The Research Seer’s Rationale on “What a research manuscript should not lack?” is:
“Never Exclude Extensive Survey and Elaborate Methodological Discussion with Effective Results”
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