Scientific Writing Knowledge Hub

Know the Product

2 min read

Why you need to understand the product

Most drafting slows down — or is difficult to get started — because you don’t really know what you’re aiming for. Yes, you know you need to write a journal article. But what does that actually mean? What is this thing you’re trying to build?

Tldr

Science is interpretation, and interpretation requires trust. Trust requires visible structure—clear logic at section, paragraph, and sentence levels.

The purpose of a journal article

It’s not just sharing results. A journal article disseminates knowledge. That’s more than just presenting numbers.

Knowledge is our current best interpretation of all available data1 — your own experiments plus what others have found. With the emphasis on interpretation: you’re not sharing the truth — you’re simply making a case for your interpretation of the data.

Writing the Results? That’s interpreting your raw data. Writing the Discussion? That’s interpreting your results. Everything is interpretation.

So you’re not simply stating facts. Your goal is to convince the audience that your interpretation is the most likely one given the evidence. And that requires trust.

Building trust

You can’t just say “I measured it right.” Readers need to verify your logic: Did you ask a clear question? Did you use appropriate data? Do you actually answer the question you asked?

But reviewers have finite working memory. That means it’s easier for them if you make it easier for them to follow your reasoning. If your logic isn’t visible — if they can’t easily see the path from question to data to answer — they’ll conclude you don’t know it either.

That’s why you need to follow a structure they expect. Sure, IMRaD is obvious: you introduce your work in the Introduction, discuss it in the Discussion.

But your readers expect more than that — the hidden backbone underneath. Here’s what building trust looks like at every level of the paper, zooming in from the overall IMRaD structure to sentence-level details:

  1. IMRaD sections
  2. Introduction logic
  3. Discussion arguments
  4. Supporting your arguments
  5. Paragraph structure
  6. Readability
  7. Language conventions
  8. Citing Etiquette

Footnotes

  1. Even evolution is just our current best interpretation the data. ↩

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