Q: Could you explain the structure of a report?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

You may be referring either to a scientific research report (or simply, research report) or a clinical case report. Here’s a brief explanation of each with the structure.

Research report

A (scientific) research report is a report written about a study conducted as a part of a high school or college program. It is similar to a journal article, which is written when pursuing scientific research as a career or as a part of doing a PhD. Both follow the IMRaD structure, that is, Introduction > Methods (and Materials) > Results > Discussion.

A few points to note:

  • The Introduction contains various sub-sections such as background, rationale, problem statement, and literature review. However, it’s not necessary to have them as explicit sections. Instead, you could divide the Introduction into several paragraphs.
  • The Discussion typically includes the conclusion(s), unless you wish to have the conclusion(s) as a separate section.
  • At the end, you have sections for references and bibliography (as needed).
  • You may need to write an abstract (or summary), which comes right at the beginning.

Here are a few helpful resources:

Clinical case report

A clinical case report is a report of a medical case study, which is a detailed exploration and explanation of a patient facing a challenging medical condition, with respect to diagnosis, treatment, or recovery. It has a similar structure to a journal paper, with a few differences:

  • The Introduction provides a detailed background of the case, usually more than the background would for a regular journal article.
  • There is no Methods (and Materials) section.
  • The Discussion page is as detailed or more than regular journal articles. This actually is the focus of the report, with the details of the case being discussed and explained in great detail. For the same reason, this also discusses existing literature, that is, what relevant literature says about certain aspects of the case.

To know more about clinical case reports and their structure, you may refer to the following resources:

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