"Not everything we publish is true."

"Through our elaborate peer review process, we do everything we can to make sure that a scientific study is solid and that the conclusions are supported by the data, but much of what is published in journals eventually turns out to be wrong."
--British Medical Journal,June 13, 1992

The Literature of Scientific Research:

Where does it come from?

Where does it go?

1. Starting a Research Project

   • Curiosity
   • Recognizing a Potential Question

   
   
   

2. Finding What is Already Known

   • Read related articles
   • Tools for finding articles
     • Index Medicus
     • Science Citation Index
     • Biological Abstracts
     • Computer databases
     • Other indexes, etc.

   
   
   

3. Designing the Research Project

   • State the hypothesis
   • Choose the appropriate methodology
   • (Don't forget practical aspects--money, lab space, equipment, etc.)

   
   
   

4. Conducting the Research

   • Collecting the data
   • Analyzing the data
   • Drawing conclusions

   
   
   

5. Publishing the Results

   • Choose appropriate journals
   • Read their guidelines for authors
   • Write the manuscript
   • Submit the manuscript to the chosen journal

   
   
   

6. Completing the Cycle

   • Editor reads manuscript
   • Editor sends manuscript to panel of reviewers
   • Reviewers evaluate the project for merit, accuracy, clarity, etc.
   • Editor accepts (or rejects) the article
   • Journal prints accepted article
   • Scientists read the article and agree, disagree, or question

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Return to the Writing for Publication file.

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