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02_How to Set the Background of Your Article, Write Rationale and Objective(s)? — Transcript

by NPTEL-NOC IITM · 1,891 words · 310 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00So, we'll now start discussing about
0:03how to write the introduction part of
0:05your manuscript.
0:06Okay?
0:07So, the objective of this session is
0:09that write the introduction of the
0:11article, which is your manuscript. If
0:13you see this
0:15uh the research life cycle
0:17uh you can clearly see that it uh starts
0:19from identifying the data needs
0:22till to uh the dissemination of the
0:24findings where it will again identify
0:27the data needs and the cycle flows on.
0:30Uh my previous speakers would have told
0:32the same way how the research cycle goes
0:34on and it clearly reflects the way that
0:38you are communicating to your audience
0:40what actually your scientific study
0:43means it.
0:44The classical way of communicating your
0:47scientific study is writing a
0:49manuscript. And in this writing the
0:51manuscript, it also travels the same
0:54pathway of the research cycle.
0:57And this particular session, I will be
0:59focusing very clearly about writing the
1:03introduction part of it.
1:05When I say writing the introduction part
1:06of it, it contains three major parts.
1:10The first part is about identifying the
1:13data needs and as well as spelling out
1:16the research question. It originates
1:17from that particular part of the
1:19research cycle and it ends the
1:22introduction ends with a formulating the
1:25study objectives and writing it clearly.
1:29So, we will be discussing that
1:31when you are writing the introduction
1:33part of the manuscript, how you are
1:35converting these processes of the
1:37research cycle into a communication of
1:41why this is very, very important.
1:44The same Bradford Hill questions about
1:47uh particular research why did you start
1:50this research?
1:51What did you do while doing this
1:53particular research? And what did you
1:55find that? And what does it all mean?
1:59All these questions has to be answered
2:01in your scientific communication.
2:04Especially, the classical IMRaD format
2:07captures these questions. It try to
2:10answer these questions. And when you are
2:12communicating it, you have to answer the
2:14same. So, if you see the introduction,
2:18methods, results, and discussion,
2:20the introduction part and should answer
2:23the question, why did you start this
2:26particular research? So, that is what
2:29you have to communicate.
2:31And manuscript being a scientific
2:33communication, you need to clearly make
2:36it sure that
2:38you are communicating to the audience
2:40that what made you to start this
2:43particular topic, why you are so
2:45interested, is it really important, and
2:48how that is going to lead to the next
2:51part of the manuscript. So, the clear
2:53linkage has to be there.
2:55So, when we say communication, these
2:57linkages matters a lot.
3:00So, that's why the classical mistake
3:03which we usually do are very classically
3:06they say the immediate turn off of a
3:09scientific manuscript is starting like
3:12disease X is a global public health
3:15problem.
3:16It is not the right way to do that. The
3:18best way to start is that disease X is
3:22the say the 10th leading cause of the
3:24mortality of all causes of death. This
3:27is the right way of saying that. So, you
3:30can start either mentioning about the
3:33way it ranks that this is really
3:36important, or by some means of a numeric
3:39or an indicator to make the audience
3:41feel this is an important problem.
3:44That's why you have chosen that.
3:47And when we say there are certain dos
3:50and don'ts while writing the
3:52introduction part of the manuscript. Let
3:55me first say what are the important
3:57do's, okay?
4:00The manuscript in the introduction part
4:02of the manuscript always have a zoom in,
4:04which means I classically say it is a
4:07funneling down approach. General to a
4:10specific, broader to the narrow, the
4:13most important part of this particular
4:16manuscript. So, basically you are trying
4:19to build the most important
4:21communication objective you are trying
4:23to revolve around the message in your
4:25manuscript.
4:27Second,
4:28it the introduction part should
4:30critically review what is known and what
4:32is unknown. This is very important
4:35because you need to have a sufficient
4:38knowledge and understanding about this
4:40particular subject by reviewing the
4:42literature, by knowing what are all the
4:44scientific facts about this particular
4:46area of interest where you are
4:48conducting this research, and you are
4:50building it slowly in your manuscript
4:53writing that bridging that these are all
4:55the facts which I know, these are all
4:56the facts which I don't know. That's why
4:59I try to answer in this particular gap
5:01an element of it. You are flagging this
5:04gap. That's the most important part,
5:06drives attention to the particular
5:08reader.
5:09And make this flow very natural, not
5:12hard stop like that, so that you are
5:14trying to tell the study has to be done
5:17and that's what I did this particular
5:18study, which is going to answer this
5:21particular unknown gap.
5:24And always end the introduction part
5:26with the objective and document the all
5:29the facts which you are trying to say in
5:31the manuscript, either the known facts
5:34or some of the unknown facts with new
5:37references. There are most important
5:40don'ts in the introduction.
5:42What are all the don'ts? The mistakes.
5:45So, I always say that when you say the
5:48mistakes, these are all noise,
5:50distractions for a reader. In a
5:52scientific communication, when you write
5:55endlessly filling the pages, for
5:57example, some three or four paragraphs
6:00of 20 or 30 lines about describing that,
6:03yes, for example, hypertension is a
6:05problem, hypertension causes this, this
6:07is the most important crucial public
6:09health problem, again and again talking
6:11the same message will not drive the
6:13reader to have an attention. And also
6:16these are all distractions. That's the
6:18most important common mistakes which has
6:20been happening while writing the
6:22manuscript. The second is that
6:24undocumented statements.
6:27Most important part here, a manuscript
6:29is a scientific communication. When we
6:31say scientific communication, this
6:33should be based on facts, which means
6:36you are very much sure when you whatever
6:38you are going to state a line or a
6:39statement in that. Never ever have your
6:42own kind of an assumed opinions in that.
6:46That's undocumented statements will
6:48cause lot of noise. Third, focus
6:52exclusively on burden of the diseases.
6:55Basically, epidemiologically,
6:57scientifically, it is better to state
7:00the burden of diseases with the
7:02classical indicators.
7:05Either in terms of mortality or in terms
7:07of morbidity. When you say in terms of
7:09morbidity, you can take the indicator of
7:12the prevalence. And if it is a classical
7:14acute one, you can term it with an
7:16incidence. Or if you are very much sure
7:19that this is the most important cause of
7:21death, you can say by means of mortality
7:24indicators. That's an another important
7:27thing. Then, review the literature too
7:30much of details. That means, whenever
7:32you are going to say about a particular
7:34fact, you no need to bring all the facts
7:37you know, or 10 or 15 references telling
7:40the same facts again and again, it is a
7:42big noise.
7:44The most important problem is
7:47plagiarism. So, cut and copy paste from
7:50previous article, even though it is a
7:53known fact, is generally not recommended
7:57and it is discouraged. And providing
8:00excessive irrelevant historical details
8:02from multiple other facts also, it is
8:05totally unnecessary. Saying that, for
8:07example, when you want to talk about a
8:10particular infectious disease, talking
8:12start from the history of the infectious
8:15disease, a particular infection, is not
8:18going to help a lot. The effective way
8:21of writing an introduction is, as I said
8:23by already, that it is a zoom-in
8:26approach or funneling down approach.
8:28Broader to narrow. And to be very
8:31specific. So, I'm just giving a kind of
8:34an a suggested guideline here how you
8:37can structure your paragraphs. For
8:39example, the first part of that your
8:42introduction can tell about what is
8:44known and unknown of that particular
8:47area of interest. The area of interest
8:49can be a disease. The area of interest
8:52can be a clinical condition. Or the area
8:54of interest can be a a collection of a
8:56diseases or the syndrome. And these
8:59elements should make it properly with
9:02the due facts. And why this is very
9:05important, this will give you a clarity.
9:08The second part of your introduction can
9:10be spelled out that why this is very
9:13important in your region.
9:16When you say dengue is a global public
9:18health problem,
9:20and when you want to say that that this
9:22is the one of the leading cause of the
9:23vector-borne diseases,
9:25but in your region, why this is
9:27important?
9:28That you have to bring this a specific
9:31part of it, why you did this particular
9:33study on this area in your specific
9:36location or a geographical location.
9:38Next is local representation of this
9:41issue. When you are conducting this in a
9:43sale like tertiary care setting,
9:45then you need to say that that this much
9:47number of cases, this much number of
9:49complications have been faced by your
9:53clinical setting or at your tertiary
9:55care hospital setting, then you can
9:57spell it out why what made you to really
10:00think about this particular problem.
10:02And finally, the objectives of the
10:04study.
10:05So, we will have a detailed discussion
10:07in the forthcoming lecture that what
10:09actually
10:10this is going to connect to the methods
10:12part of it and as well as results and
10:15finally to the discussion. So, I give
10:17some examples of writing a very good
10:20introduction. Say, this is by Watson and
10:23Crick. They published in Nature in 1953.
10:27It's an award-winning introduction. You
10:29can say that I'm just reading out. We
10:32wish to suggest a structure for the salt
10:35of deoxyribose nucleic acid. This
10:39structure has novel features which are
10:42of considerable biological importance.
10:45That's it.
10:46It clearly says the intention,
10:49why this is very important, and what is
10:52the objective of presenting this
10:54particular structure, and what are all
10:56the importance of while doing this in
10:59the forthcoming. It's just in two
11:00sentences. It brings out a lot of
11:03clarity. A recently published article,
11:07say like in JAMA, I'm just giving this
11:09another example. I'm not going to read
11:11entirely.
11:13There's a very good example I have seen
11:14recently. It has this the same elements
11:17which I had discussed. Which tells about
11:20the known and the regional issue of most
11:22important part here is myocarditis. Why
11:26myocarditis is important? And then it
11:28brings about an unknown local issue
11:31which is recently mRNA vaccination have
11:34been introduced against COVID-19. While
11:37introducing that, what are all those
11:39effects of this particular vaccinated
11:42individuals leading to myocarditis? And
11:44then they link it to an objective that
11:47they are presenting a case series
11:49to develop the those who have developed
11:52probable hypersensitivity myocarditis,
11:55and they are trying to explain the
11:57clinical features in this paper.
12:00It's a very classical way of telling
12:02about the broader to the specific
12:05simpler, where it is going to be broader
12:07to the specific
12:09funneling down approach.
12:11The take-home message for writing an
12:13introduction is that
12:15introduction explains why you started
12:18this research, number one.
12:20Number two,
12:21it needs four important sentence linked
12:24to number one,
12:25background of this issue, number two,
12:28gap in the knowledge of this particular
12:30issue, number three, the research
12:32question, why actually you did this, and
12:36it has to it should have the linkage
12:38with the study design of your research.
12:42Thank you.

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