Page 236 - English for Writing Research Papers

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13.4 Where is the Abstract located?

A typical first page of a research paper for publication in an international journal
contains the following headings, generally in this order:
1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Highlights
4. Key words

Not all journals require Highlights and Key Words.

13.5 What are ‘highlights’?

Some journals require you to write between three and five bullet points reporting the

core findings of your paper. The ‘instructions to the author’ (see Sect. 13.7 ) will tell
you how many bullets and how many characters per bullet. For example, the high-
lights of the paper in 13.1 could be:

Ⴇ We surveyed grammatical, structural and lexical errors in 120 medical

articles.

Ⴇ Badly written articles correlated with a high rejection rate.
Ⴇ On equal scientific merit, a badly written article will have less chance of being

accepted.
Ⴇ Rejection may be due to language errors, though editors may not identify this

as the cause.

Ⴇ We suggest the introduction of standardized guidelines in scientific writing.

The Highlights are generally located immediately below the Abstract and immedi-
ately above the Key Words.