The introduction, methods, results and discussion (IMRAD) structure: a Survey of its use in different authoring partnerships in a students' journal
2011

Survey of IMRAD Use in Student Journal Articles

Sample size: 209 publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Oriokot Loraine, Buwembo William, Munabi Ian G, Kijjambu Stephen C

Primary Institution: Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Hypothesis

The composition of authoring teams affects the use of the IMRAD style in a university student journal.

Conclusion

The study found a trend towards more student-only authoring teams and less use of IMRAD formatting in articles published in the journal.

Supporting Evidence

  • 48.3% of articles were authored by faculty only teams.
  • 41.1% were authored by student only teams.
  • 6.2% were authored by student-faculty teams.
  • 33.5% of papers used the IMRAD format.

Takeaway

The study looked at how students and faculty worked together to write articles, and it found that students are writing more on their own but not using a standard writing style as much.

Methodology

A retrospective audit of journal publications over 18 years, analyzing author affiliations and use of IMRAD formatting.

Limitations

Poor journal publication record keeping and difficulty identifying authors due to abbreviated names.

Participant Demographics

Authors included both students and faculty from Makerere University College of Health Sciences.

Statistical Information

P-Value

p<0.01

Statistical Significance

p<0.01

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1756-0500-4-250

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