Paper preparation

Before writing the document, it is advisable to identify the journal where you want to publish and consult its guide for authors with the aim of designing the manuscript so that it adapts faithfully to the requirements of the journal, especially concerning the sections that the manuscript must incorporate, its length and the number of figures allowed.

Many magazines provide a template or style guide that incorporates their requirements for text length, number of images and graphics, text format, references, graphs, images, or tables, and more. You can find more information in Editorial Author Rules.

The most common structure in the academic world for organizing the writing of a scientific text is the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) standard. According to this rule, the article must include the sections Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, which are the core of the article.

In addition to these sections, the manuscript should normally contain other elements that will go before or after the core of the document. In general, it is structured as follows:

• Title: well written and clear, brief and at the same time informative. It is a very important part of the article, as it is how it will be displayed in the summary of journals and in the results of different search engines.
• Authors and affiliations: list of the authors who have participated (signature)  and their affiliations.
• Keywords: keywords that thematically identify the article. They are used to index it and make it more visible.
• Abstract: must synthesize the article including objective, methods, results, and discussion. Some journals require abstracts to follow a certain structure.
• Introduction: motivation and context of the study, includes a description of the background and a discussion of similar research and citations of pre-work publications (State of the Art).
• Methods: detailed description of how the work was carried out, with all the necessary information, so that any other researcher can reproduce the same study.
• Results: section where the results of the search are presented with tables, graphs, images, diagrams, and other elements of visual representation duly explained in the text.
• Discussion: analysis of the results of the study, comparison with previous work with relevant references and conclusions.
• Acknowledgments: section where the contribution of other people who cannot be considered authors can be recognized. All grants that have funded the project must also be included.
• Bibliographic references: list of all the bibliography consulted.

This is the most common composition of an article, but there may be others (inclusion of new sections, variation of others ...). These modifications depend on factors such as the journal, the tastes of the author himself or the topic of the work. For example, articles that contain research on living things should include an Ethical Statement.

Very technical and specific articles are often difficult to understand by people who are not experts in the subject. Good style requires that the document be concise, precise, and clear to make it easier for the reading public to understand and to avoid ambiguity.

It is recommended that the appropriate specific terminology be used and that the acronyms, which should be defined in the article, not be abused.

The most common language is English, and they are written in scientific language, simple with simple sentences. You also need to keep in mind what variety of English (British or American) is used by the magazine where you want to publish.

Publishers require that the work they publish be transparent and evaluable. The IMRaD structure allows the article to be analyzed and criticized, as anyone with knowledge of the subject can reproduce the study and validate whether it has obtained the same result. Another advantage of this structure is that the work is presented in an orderly and logical way, without incorporating unnecessary details and, therefore, the reader can easily find the information he is looking for in the different sections.

A text editor is the most widely used tool to create scientific articles. A text editor allows the author to create and edit a document in a specific format. There are currently three types of programs (information from Wikipedia): 

• Programs based on the concept of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get): the final form of the document is the one seen as the user is editing. Those programs use their own file formats or standards like OpenDocument (.odt) or Office Open XML (.docx). Examples: Microsoft Word, Apache OpenOffice Writer, LibreOffice Writer, AbiWord... 
• Systems of TeX typesetting and its byproducts like LaTeX: these programs create text files with printing files format like PDF or PostScript. Examples: Kile, Texmaker, TeXstudio, TeXworks.. LaTeX is extensively used due to its high typographic quality and because it allows the inclusion of other elements like mathematical expressions (equations, formulas...).
• Programs based on the concept of  WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean): they integrate the functions of the TeX and the WYSIWYG editors. Example: LyX. 

Many applications help researchers in the composition of an academic text allowing them to include mathematical elements, scientific citations, etc. In some cases they can also give a format to the document following the specific style required by a journal or editor. Some examples are: 

• Authorea: collaborative platform for research, writing and technical management of documents (MS Word, PDF, LaTeX...) and of data, code, video, figures, etc. in one place. It's also helps publishing academic research. Authorea has both a free version and a subscription version.
• Fidus Writer: online collaborative editor that allows the inclusion of scientific citations and formulas in texts and its formatting depending on where it's going to be published: online, printed book, ebook...  Fidus Writer provides free of charge its own code to be installed on a server.
• Manuscripts: free MacBokk application to edit text, equations, tables and figures.
• Overleaf: online collaborative LaTeX editor. Free and subscription versions available.
• SciSpace: online platform that gives support to the writing of academic texts, the inclusion of bibliographic citations and to the agreement to the format requirements of specific publishers:  EEE, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, Nature... Typeset provides the option of sending the work directly to the required journal. It is a subscription platform but provides a free version with a limited number of publications and bibliographies.  It includes an academic publications database (Discover section).
• Writefull: Tool to help using the correct language in the writing of scientific texts: selecting the precise terminology, improving the writing style in English, providing linguistic suggestions and detecting missing citations. It has  free and paying versions.

• More alternatives to both text editors and academic writing platforms can be found at software platforms like SaaSHub, AlternativeTo, etc. 
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE).
• Researcher Academy:  self-learning modules in English and Chinese about the different phases of the research cycle. 
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).