Original Research Articles Writing Guide

An observational study can have a flawless design and still stumble in peer review if the write-up leaves out how confounders were handled, how participants were selected, or how much data went missing along the way. STROBE guidelines exist to close that gap for cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional research. STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology, the checklist’s full name, gives authors a structured…

If you have ever finished a manuscript and wondered whether to share it before peer review, you have already been thinking about preprint servers. These platforms allow researchers to post their work publicly before — or alongside — formal journal submission, accelerating scientific communication in ways that traditional publishing simply cannot match. With major funders like the NIH now actively encouraging preprint deposition, and platforms…

In simple wordsMDPI is a large open-access publisher that is not predatory in the classic sense, because it runs real peer review and is indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. But some national bodies have downgraded many of its journals, most recently Finland in December 2024. So the safe rule is to check the specific journal, today, against the list your funder uses. If…

If you have ever discovered that you cited a retracted article in your research paper, you are not alone. With over 14,000 retractions recorded in 2023 alone — a new global record — and more than 9,000 additional retractions in 2024, the chances of unknowingly referencing a withdrawn study are higher than ever. Whether your manuscript is still in progress, under peer review, or already…