Video: Research Paper Writing Demystified: Q&A with Raffaella Gozzelino

Writing a research paper is not a simple task. But it can be simplified, provided you know how to approach it systematically. In this video, you will find expert advice to help you confidently write the Results section and Discussion section of your research paper—plus so much more! 

Dr. Raffaella Gozzelino (Asst. Professor, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal) answers questions asked by researchers like you on one of our live webinar training sessions. Here are the excerpts. 

Q: In this age of AI, how do you strike a balance between staying authentic and not being left behind? How can I safely use AI in research writing?
A: AI is a powerful tool we can use to improve our writing, but it does not substitute for our creativity. Machines have not yet taken over our brains! So please do use it as a tool. Maintain your creativity in terms of structure, in terms of what you want to use as a take-home message, and what you want to describe. Use AI to improve your sentences. But know that there are many journals that would like to know whether you used AI or not. And it’s not a matter of excluding your paper or rejecting your paper, but it’s a matter of acknowledging. You need to clarify how AI was used. Always be sure to first draft your manuscript so you can continue being authentic and then use AI to simply improve it.  

Q: How would you divide the methods section based on paragraphs, study design selection criteria, statistics?
A: There are many journals that already provide you with instructions. The more you read literature, the more you adopt the formats that have been already published. For instance, in the case of a cell biology study, the first thing you put are cells; primary cells, cell lines, reagents, how you isolated the protocol, how you maintained the culture, and how you treated them. So, these are details that the paragraphs should cover. Observe the graphs and think: “How did I get this graph?” “What did I use?” “Which is the protocol I used?” “Which are the cells I used?” “How did I isolate them?” You then start writing the methods section.  

Q: How to avoid plagiarism in the methods section, especially when some methods are reported in many papers using all expressions possible?
A: The editors are mostly lenient when checking the methods section. But remember that regardless of only three to four words in some expressions that always remain the same. But the sentence would need to be constructed in a different manner. However, there is more tolerance by the editors because it is a formal section. Plagiarism is more of a concern in other sections, like the introduction, the results, or the discussion.  

Q: I’m writing the discussion session of my qualitative research. I provide about three specific excerpts from the dataset for my teams. At the end of each I provide a discussion of about two paragraphs. Is this acceptable?
A: Yes, but pay attention to the specific rules that you are bound to. In the discussion you always need to start narrow. So, provide the discussion about the datasets and then open it up a bit more. You finish the section with a general concept. But remember that it depends on the journal that you would like to submit to, because some journals merge the results in the discussion. So do look at papers that are in the journal that you want to publish and try understanding how it can be applied to your paper. This will allow you to describe the discussion section well.  

Q: I’m writing a review paper and have made a descriptive table to show different studies, but it’s really confusing in the discussion section as the table is already descriptive. What should I mention in the discussion section?
A: The review paper is a different topic because it does not contain many results. It contains tables, and it might contain some results. But in the discussion, what you really need to emphasize is why your review is important. Why is your review different from others found in the literature? Frame the response to this in the context of general knowledge. So, you can refer to the table, but you don’t need to interpret the table. What you need to do is to say why your table is different from someone else’s table and which is the gap that fits better.  

Q: Any suggestions for websites where we can change the format or resolution of our figures?
A: There are several software tools that can help you. Adobe Illustrator is one such tool. And then you can manipulate the resolution in Photoshops as well. But remember that you can change filter settings if it’s in the entire figure. Do not do it just for specific pieces because the first thing that the journal will do is to check if you manipulated the figures. So, be careful with figure filters like brightness or contrast. If you are in doubt, request the service of a specific expert. And I would like to remind you that there are tools from Editage that are friendly to use, especially for students and new researchers, such as the graphical abstract services and Mind the Graph (MTG).  

Q: The information on how a patient is recruited is the first sentence in the result section or is it more appropriate in the methods section?
A: This can be added in the methods section because how you recruit patients is a methodological procedure, and you also need to insert ethical compliance. Do not forget that. Otherwise, your paper will immediately be coming back to you requesting that information.

Q: As a PhD student, how many publications are expected before submitting dissertation?
A: This depends on the requirements of your university. I encourage you to explore this with your university because it varies from state to state and from university to university.  

Q: We always write the paper with the following sections: results, discussion, and conclusion. In the conclusion section, we plan to include the theoretical implication, practical recommendation, and research limitations. What should be done where there is no institutional review board?
A: This structure depends on the instructions for authors. When there is no institutional review board to get ethical clearance, then you need to check whether there is a state government board that might give you clarity on that. Sometimes a university does not have an internal board, especially small universities, but they need to refer to governmental regulations such as animal models and review models. 

Q: I’m always confused by how much of results I can bring into the discussion.
A: You don’t bring results; you bring interpretation into the discussion section. Results are to be written separately, unless the journal recommends combining the two sections. Even then, the results are only interpreted in the discussion section. 

Q: Do you write the introduction and the abstract last?
A: The answer is “No” for the introduction, but “Yes” for the abstract. Remember that the editors receive a lot of manuscripts per day. Therefore, you need to provide the best argument possible in the abstract for convincing the editor to send your manuscript for publication.