Some Other Structures for Journal Articles

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Last week’s post discussed the IMRAD structure for journal articles (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). It noted that an article’s content in this structure resembles an hourglass: wide, than narrow, then wide again.

This post received several comments. One comment included this question: “Barbara, what are the other smart formats apart from IMRAD?”

Several common formats exist for journal articles. Some journals require a specific format, at least for some types of articles. Let me mention a few common formats.

One format consists of the IMRAD sections and then a conclusions section. This format could be called IMRADC. If an article doesn’t have a separate conclusions section, often the last paragraph of the discussion provides conclusions.

In some journals or papers, the methods section appears at the end. This format could be called IRDAM. Also, in some journals, details about the methods appear in the figure captions. I’m not sure what abbreviation to use for this structure.

Some articles have a combined results and discussion section. The author states one result and discusses it, then states another result and discusses it, and so forth. General discussion or a conclusions section may follow. Perhaps this format could be called IMRADRADRAD . . . C.

Other journal articles, especially in the humanities, have a format like that of an essay. In this format, the authors may organize the content in the way that they consider most logical. Some articles in this format have subheadings.

Do you know of other structures for journal articles? If so, please note them in a comment.

Until the next post—

Barbara