Manuscripts

Manuscript is the term researchers use while writing what they hope will become a peer-reviewed research article. Peer-reviewed research articles are the staple for advancing research across many scientific fields. Today, these research articles (once accepted for publication by a research journal) are available online in a PDF format and can be shared almost immediately as a PDF document with anyone who has internet access (see earlier module for information on literature searches). Research articles can be used to document the efficacy of new treatments, highlight new findings related to how humans process information, or share data on almost any other topic imaginable. After you and your faculty member have worked on a research project, you might write a manuscript and submit it to a research journal for consideration. The process of writing the manuscript can vary depending on how many other people contributed to the project. Sometimes students will write the first draft and faculty members will provide feedback for revisions or sometimes the team of researchers takes a divide and conquer approach, where each team member writes a section (i.e., background, method, results, discussion), and then the sections are pieced together for all to edit further. In either case, it is important to keep in mind that all writing is a draft that will be refined countless times before it is submitted to a journal. While writing an article is a serious task, your faculty member does not expect the first draft to be perfect. As you get started, you can ask for examples, guidance, help from the librarians, the university’s writing tutors/center, and of course, your faculty and other team members. After the article is submitted to the journal, it may take months to receive feedback, and often the peer reviewers suggest further revisions before the article is published. Ultimately, working on peer-reviewed research can be an effortful but rewarding endeavor. You are contributing to science!