A step-by-step guide on how to write an ideal medical thesis
Categories Scientific Communication

A Step-by-step Guide on How to Write an Ideal Medical Thesis

What do you need to write a medical thesis?

Of course, a knowledge about how to conduct a research and how to pen down its results in an appropriate format.  Even if you are adept in clinical research, it doesn’t mean writing a thesis comes easily to you. A medical thesis has a structure that is important to follow.

So, here we provide a step-by-step guide on how to write an ideal medical thesis.

Step 1: Start your thesis with a suitable ‘Title’. The title is an intro to the contents of your thesis. An ideal title should be within 65 characters, devoid of all abbreviations and grammatical mistakes, and not contain stop words like ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘but’, etc.

Step 2: Next, write your thesis ‘Abstract’. An abstract is an introduction that tells the readers why you conducted the particular study.  What has already been done in the field, what were the gaps, and how you fill those gaps with your study?

To write an ideal abstract:

  • Give a brief background information about your topic
  • State the importance of the problem and what is unknown about it
  • Tell the readers about the objectives of your study clearly
  • Give references to the research papers written on your research topic. However, do not cite the well-known facts. For example, “Isaac Newton discovered gravity…”
  • Include no information other than the problem being examined

Step 3: After the abstract, follow it with the title ‘Method and Material’. Format this section as below:

  • Setting – the environmental conditions in which you conducted your research
  • Sample – what materials were used in research and details about the participants in the study
  • Inclusion and exclusion criteria – what factors were considered to include or exclude any participant in the study
  • Measurement tools – details about the methods and equipment used to measure the outcomes of the study
  • Independent and Dependent variables – what were the factors you controlled or changed during the experiment and what you measured as the outcome

Step 4: Write the “Analysis of Data“.

Step 6: Write the ‘Results’ where you will show the conclusion of your study.  You can present your results as a text, table, figure, or illustrative graphs, but keep in mind the aim of your study. Include no result that doesn’t satisfy the aim of your study.

Step 7: It is the most crucial step where you include the ‘Discussion’ of your results. An ideal discussion should include:

  • The principal findings of your study
  • Strengths and weaknesses of your study in relation to other studies in the field
  • A take-home message for the clinicians and policymakers
  • Questions that your study can’t answer to propagate further research

Step 8: Follow the discussion with the ‘Limitations of your study’

Step 9: At the end of your thesis, include your ‘References’. Track all your references so you don’t miss out on anyone.

Finally, the quality of your thesis depends upon the topic you choose, whether you opt for a purely scientific experiment or a clinical trial or a social research study addressing the experiences of the patients, etc.

Seek help from your mentor at every stage of clinical research as well as medical thesis writing. To be ideal, the study should be carried out ethically in compliance with the legal regulations.

Preclinical Study
Categories Preclinical Research

How to Design a Preclinical Study that makes a Difference?

Many preclinical studies are conducted and thousands of research papers are published every year. However, these publications fail to provide clear information on how the study was designed, conducted, and analysed. They lack the standards of scientific rigour and transparency in their reports. As a result, they lose their value in informing future scientific studies, designing drugs and making policy decisions.

In such a scenario, you can be a role model and increase the potential of your preclinical research by designing robust preclinical studies.

You must plan your experiment before starting. So, here are the tips on how to design a powerful experiment and detect biologically important results.

1) Minimize bias

There’s always the potential for bias when assessing the results of your study, especially if a subjective element is involved.

Therefore, perform the experiment in such a way that the researchers are “blind” to the division of the animals to treatment groups and mouse genotypes.

2) Housing and husbandry considerations

If you use mice with different genotypes in your study, generate similar housing conditions for all. This ensures comparable environment and maternal influences on your animal models.

3) Report your methods and results accurately

Check out Animal Research Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines to report your animal research completely and accurately.

Take these fundamental steps to develop robust preclinical studies that use mouse models of human diseases and make a difference in the world of clinical research.

Scientific Editing vs Language Editing
Categories Scientific Communication

How is Scientific Editing Different from Language Editing?

With a plethora of scientific editing services, you might wonder “What is scientific editing?”

As the name suggests, it is the editing of the scientific documents like research papers and medical manuscripts.

Majority of you hold an opinion that scientific editing means to correct the language errors in your research paper. Once you rectify the spelling mistakes, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation errors in your research paper, you are done.

But, what if we tell you are wrong? If you think scientific editing is just correcting the language errors in your research paper, you are mistaken.

If you correct only the language errors in your research paper, it is only a part and is referred to as the language editing. Language editing ensures that your written text is grammatically correct. However, scientific editing goes a step further to improve the logic of the written text, sharpen your arguments, and remove any lapses in reasoning.

Scientific editing improves your research paper in a way that communicates your ideas clearly and transparently to your target audience, making them understand your thoughts well.

So, how does scientific editing helps your research paper?

Scientific editing:

  • Clarifies the purpose of your research paper to the target audience
  • Removes the language errors
  • Improves the way you organise the information in the text
  • Checks the accuracy of the reported facts
  • Makes your paper easy and interesting to read

With so many benefits in hand, are you still stuck with only language editing of your paper? Think again!

Drug Formulations
Categories Formulation Research

What are the Secrets to Successful Drug Formulations?

Drug formulation is a process where various chemical substances are combined with the active drug to form a final medicinal product that is easy and safe for human consumption. It plays a pivotal role in the success of any pharmaceutical development program.

From the early stage preclinical studies to the late-stage clinical trials, formulation chemistry is used to design a safe and effective product. However, formulation chemistry is often overlooked during the early stages of drug development. Many companies delay their planning process to the later stages of drug development. This can lead to the costly delays or failure of pharmaceutical development programs.

In such a scenario, how can the commercial drug sponsors ensure a timely and cost-effective drug development program?

Here is the secret:

1) Ensure appropriate phase formulation

Whether you are developing a formulation for a preclinical or a clinical investigation, make sure that the dosage form is appropriate for the particular study phase. Consider the aim of each test and the characteristics of the active pharmaceutical ingredient.

For example, preclinical studies often use formulations in liquids or suspensions and are built for the animal they are being administered to. Since the animal’s gastrointestinal tract conditions can affect the performance of the formulation, it must be taken into account during the formulation development process.

Similarly, for clinical investigations, formulation development has to be more complex and appropriate for the human intake.

2) Have an integrated approach to save time and money

Effective formulations are necessary for all stages of drug development. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies can’t make design decisions on an ad hoc basis. They must centralize their formulation efforts around the needs of the specific phase of the study. Moreover, formulation development process must be supported by a comprehensive understanding of the physicochemical and biochemical properties of the study drug.

In simple words, know your active pharmaceutical ingredient early in the study. Greater your efforts to know the API, easier it will be to predict and plan for the potential development issues. Further, you will spend less time, resources and funding to solve the subsequent problems.

However, to ensure this information is used in the right way, there must be an open communication between the drug development teams. The pharmaceutical companies can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their projects by following an integrated approach towards formulation development.

A formulation scientist must work closely with the drug discovery teams during API development and ensure that formulation is always an integral part of the development process. In this way, formulation decisions will always be based on what you want to achieve through your study and the program as a whole.

So, the success of drug development programs depends on robust formulation strategies at every stage of the process. By using an early integrated approach to formulation development, pharmaceutical sponsors can reduce risk, maximize efficiency and ensure that the products reach patients in the shortest possible time.

How to Optimize your Medical Research Manuscript for Search Engine
Categories Scientific Communication

Medical Manuscript Writing – How to Write Search Engine Friendly Article?

Many journals now publish their articles online to increase their reach amongst the masses. A major part of their traffic comes from Google and other search engines. In such a scenario, you don’t have to write a medical manuscript favourable to the journal, but also to the search engines. The journals that publish the articles ensure their research content is visible and ranks high in the search results of Google and other engines. However, you can play your role by optimizing your medical research paper for the search engines, by helping people to find, read, and cite your work.

So, here are five tips to increase the discoverability of your medical article in the search engines.

1) Create a search engine friendly title

Till now, we have recommended writing a title that immediately tells the readers what your study is about. However, you should also optimise the title for search engines.

  • Include 1-2 keywords related to your topic. Place your keywords within the first 65 characters of your title.
  • Keep your title short, not exceeding 65 characters including spaces
  • Avoid using stop words in the title like a, an, the, am, is, can, and, but, or, if, then, etc.

2) Optimize the abstract of the manuscript

A good abstract is 150-200 words long, is well-structured, has a simple language, and reflects the key points and findings of your research. But, what if you have to write an abstract for the search engines as well?

  • Search engines normally display the first two sentences of your abstract. So, place all your important findings and keywords in the first two sentences of the abstract.
  • Use the keywords in your abstract, but don’t stuff them to make things complex. After all, the purpose of your abstract is to express the key points of your research in a clear and concise manner.

3) Use the keywords throughout your article

Besides the title and the abstract, use your keywords in the entire article as:

  • In your headings: Headings signal the search engines about the structure and content of your medical article, thus, increasing your rankings
  • Use keyword search tools like Google Trends and Google Adwords to search for the specific keywords
  • Check the keywords which other authors in your field use in their paper. Incorporate such keywords in your article
  • Use your keywords with caution. Let them flow naturally in your writing. Search engines hate too much keyword repetition or keyword stuffing and may penalize your article. This makes it difficult for the readers to find your article online

4) Be consistent

Maintain consistency throughout your paper regarding the spellings, language used, references, or author names.

5) Build links to your article

  • Promote your research on your social media channels and institutional sites by linking to your article. More the number of inbound links to your article, higher its value amongst the search engines.
  • Ask your colleagues to link to your article. Higher the number of links your article gets from the respected individuals/trusted sites, the more powerful will be its effect. However, don’t forget to return their favour by doing the same for their medical articles.

To increase the search engine visibility of your research paper, contact our medical article writing service expert.