Writing and publishing research articles

The purpose of this article is to assist family medicine researchers in writing organized and concise articles. While the basis of any good article is the quality of the study it describes, the chances of the article being published and communicating results effectively to readers can be improved through effective writing. The IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format is used to instruct authors as to the contents of an article. Suggestions for improving the writing and publishing of articles include: outline the article, format the article for submission in the style specified by the journal, obtain reviews from coauthors and colleagues, and use an editor.