results prof jorrit gerritsen beatrix children’shospital universitymedical center groningen
TRANSCRIPT
RESULTS
Prof Jorrit GerritsenBeatrix Children’sHospital
UniversityMedical Center Groningen
It is easier to assemble and to analyseall the dataBEFOREwriting the paper, than during the process.
BEFORE STARTING WRITING THE PAPER
Decide on:o the key conclusions of the paper o the important message you want to put acrosso Do you have all the data and figures to prove this.
Preparation:o If possible, give an informal ORAL presentation of the work before you start to write the paper. This way you will clarify the story you want to tell and can anticipateobjections or misunderstandings that must be addressedin the text. It also focuses you on the importance of your findings
KEY CONCLUSIONS AND MESSAGE
Preparation• Assemble draft tables and figures and lay
them out in order on a table or desk• Decide about the key points to be presented,
and write them out. Thereby focus on the hypothesis tested.
• Decide on a format, this strongly influences the style in which you write a manuscript:– Short papers for Nature, Science, etc.– Long papers with abstract, introduction, methods
and materials, results, etc for most journals.
General rules• Start with results section directly after the
patients (materials and methods)• Function: to present your key results, without
interpretation, in an orderly and logical sequence using both text and illustrative materials (Tables and Figures)
• Make subheadings of the results, for example:– General information about patients includes, male,
female, age ranges, etc.– Specific outcomes: Lung function; bronchial
hyperreactivity; effects corticosteroids, etc.– Make tables and figures and present them in the text
of the results section
General rules (II)• The results section should be organized
around a series of Tables and/or Figures sequenced to present your key findings in logical order
• Important negative results should be reported• Do not re-use tables or figures from previous
publications (double-publication)• Style: – Write concisely and objectively– Use past tense
General rules (III)• The body of the Results section is a text-based
presentation of the key findings which includes references to each of the Tables and Figures. – The text guides the reader through your results
stressing the key results which provide the answers to the question(s) investigated.
– Text provide clarifying information with reference to each Table and/or Figure individually and in sequence (see numbering sequence), and clearly indicate for the reader the key results that each conveys.
– Key results depend on your questions, they might include obvious trends, important differences, similarities, correlations, maximums, minimums, etc.
Problems to avoid• Do not reiterate each value from a Figure or
Table – present only the key results or trends that each conveys
• Do not present the same data in both a Table and a Figure – this is considered redundant and a waste of space and energy. Decide which format shows the best the result and go with it.
• Do not report raw data values when they can be summarized as means, percents, etc.
Example SaileshKotechaSpirometric lung function in school-age children. Effect of
Intrautering growth retardation and catch-up growth. AJRCCM
• Participants’ characteristics are shown in Table 1. From 14,049 live births, 7,394 had lung spirometry at 8 - 9 years of age. After exclusions of preterm births of less than 37 weeks, multiple births, deaths, and non-whites, 5,770 remained, with 576 classified as IUGR and 3,462 as control subjects. From the IUGR group, 430 showed catch-up growth and 146 did not, with 94 remaining below the 10thcentile.
Figure 1 SaileshKotechaSpirometric lung function in school-age children. Effect of
Intrautering growth retardation and catch-up growth. AJRCCM
Figure 1 SaileshKotechaSpirometric lung function in school-age children. Effect of
Intrautering growth retardation and catch-up growth. AJRCCM
roundoff
units
Example SaileshKotechaSpirometric lung function in school-age children. Effect of
Intrautering growth retardation and catch-up growth. AJRCCM
• Subheadings:– IUGR Defined by birthweight– Effect of IUGR defined by birthweight on
childhood lung function– Effect of catch-up growth defined by weight on
lung function in childhood– Effect of symmetric or asymmetric IUGR, defined
by PI in the IUGR Group defined by birth weight on childhood lung function
– Bronchial responsiveness
Figure 2 SaileshKotechaSpirometric lung function in school-age children. Effect of
Intrauterine growth retardation and catch-up growth. AJRCCM
units
Conclusions• Resultsand Methods are the most important
sections of a manuscript and should be completed before starting with all other sections
• Start with tables and figures before writing down the results
• Focus on the initial hypothesis and be sure that the answer can be found in this section
• Most times only a very small percentage of the load of results can be used