Research reports/ Writing a research abstract or research manuscript

Research reports
A research report is a document that summarizes the study including research questions, need of the study, methodology, relevant findings, interpretation and implication of the findings.
Types of research reports
A research report describes what was studied, how it was conducted and what was found. Researchers can communicate their research findings through various ways such as theses and dissertation, books, presentation at conferences and journal articles.

• Theses and dissertation

Most masters and doctoral degrees are granted on the completion of a study that is described in a theses or dissertation.

• Books

A research can be published in books under related topic.

• Presentation at conferences

There are two methods to present a study in the conferences: oral and poster presentation. Oral report of the study is to be presented with in allotted time (10-20 minutes) with visual displays summarizing their studies and proceed to discuss between researcher and conference attendees. During poster presentation, the researcher displays the summary of the study on the poster and can ask questions to help them better understand how they were conducted or what the findings mean.

• Research journal article

Research journal article are reports in professional journals that summarize an investigation. The researcher has to condense a lot of information about the study purpose, methods, findings, interpretation and clinical significance into a short report. The research articles are reviewed by blind peer reviewers who make recommendation about whether the article should be accepted, rejected, revised or reviewed. These are usually blind reviews, the reviewers are not told the name of researchers and the researchers are not told the identity of the reviewers.
Method of writing a manuscript for publication

General instructions

1. Identify a journal (national/international) which is indexed, peer reviewed and has ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) number.
2. Send an email or letter to the publisher by enquiring any need of article and give a detailed summary of your research.
3. If they replied, you have to go through general instructions to authors given in the journal regarding abstract, content, bibliography style and way of submission (online or post). Prepare a manuscript and send it for publication.

Content of research journal article
Research reports begin with a title (less than 15 words) conveys the nature of the study. In qualitative study, the title includes phenomena and group under investigation and in a quantitative study, the title indicates independent and dependent variables and population under study.

Research report often consists of 8 sections: AK-IMRAD-B. Abstract and Key words-Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion-Bibliography.

• Abstract

Abstract is a brief description of the study placed at the beginning of the journal article. The abstract has to be written with in 100-200 words by summarizing the key features of the study such as research questions, methods, results, interpretation and implication for nursing practice.

• Introduction

The introduction part introduces the topic to the readers, points out the need of the study. The introduction usually describes the phenomenon, concepts, variables, statement of purpose, objectives and tested hypothesis. A brief description of the review of related literature can give under the introduction part so that readers can understand how the study fits in with previous findings and can assess the contribution of the new study.

• Method section

The method section communicates what methods the researchers used to achieve research objectives. In quantitative study, the method section describes the subjects, the research design and data collection methods. In qualitative study, this section provides information about research setting, context of the study, sampling methods and data collection procedures.

• Results section

This section presents research findings, often with tables and figures that highlight main results. In quantitative study, the researcher provides basic description information for the key variables, using simple statistics. It also describes the name of the statistical tests used, the value of the calculated statistic and its significance. The most important information is whether the results of the statistical tests were significant. If a researcher reports that the results have statistical significance, it means that, based on the statistical test, the findings are probably valid and replicable with a new sample. For example, if a report indicates that a finding was significant at the 0.05 level, this means that only 5 times out of 100 would the obtained result be spurious or 95 times out of 100, similar results would be obtained in new studies.
Both the researchers and readers can have a high degree of confidence but not total assurance that the findings are reliable. In qualitative reports, the researcher organizes the findings according to the major themes and sub themes with direct quotes from the study participants. It also presents researchers emerging theory about the phenomena under study.

• Discussion

In the discussion, the researcher draws conclusions about the meaning and implications of the findings. It also consists of interpretation of results and implications. It can be included with possible study limitations such as sample deficiencies, design problem, errors in data collection and weakness in statistical analysis.

• References

It can be concluded with a list of books, reports and journal articles that were referenced in the text of the report.
The style of research journal articles
The researcher concentrates on four factors while writing an article for publication. 

• Compactness – The space of journal is limited. Hence, authors compress ideas and concepts into a short space. In qualitative study, important supporting quotes can be included.

• Jargon – The authors use research terms that are part of the reader’s vocabulary.

• Objectivity- Quantitative researchers avoid subjective description of the results, express in numeric forms. But, qualitative reports are personal and subjective ideas are written in conversational style.

• Statistical information- The researcher maintains the accuracy of the statistical reports and explains it in simple way to the readers, who do not have strong mathematic interest or training.

Reading and summarizing research reports
Tips to read and sumarize reports are:
-read it frequently whether you understand or not
-highlight the important portions
-read it slowly
-if you do not understand, read it frequently till you get the idea of author
-refer in detail about unfamiliar terms and concepts
-do not be scared of statistical information
-when you attain a reasonable level of comprehension of research reports, next step is to write a brief synopsis of the study. A synopsis summarizes the purpose of the study, research questions, methods, findings, its interpretation and implication of practice.
Critiquing research reports
A research critique is a careful, critical appraisal of the strengths and limitation of a study.
The aspects of the critique are:
-Is the problem significant to nursing?
-Is it sound theoretically?
-Are the methods appropriate?
-Did the researcher interpret data with rationales?
-Were the rights of the subjects protected?
-Is the report clearly written, grammatical and well organized?
A critique on the clinical ability of a study focuses on whether findings are accurate, believable and clinically meaningful. If the findings can not be trusted, it makes a little sense to incorporate them into nursing practice.