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