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How many types of research articles

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K M Atikur Rahman
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Researcher should know how many types of

research article
KM Atikur Rahman

Global society is constantly transforming and experiences diverse problems every day.
Research activities offer primary pavement to generate new knowledge and answer the
arising problems. The article works as research products with the changes of global
concurrent issues. Social stagnancy driven away through research works yielding
innovative concepts and approaches toward human dynamism. A research article is
conducted following some scientific arrangement to avoid inaccuracy and prejudice. A
research article is divided into seven types of papers suited to the difference of problems
and methods (each item regarded as a publication).

1. Review article
2. Original Article
3. Book chapter
4. Book review
5. Conference abstract
6. Short communications/note
1. Review article

The importance of review articles in social and health sciences is increasing day by day. A
review article surveys and summarizes priory published papers, rather than reporting new
facts or investigation by primary data or empirical study. Review articles are, sometimes,
called survey or overview articles. Academic publications that specialize in review papers
are known as survey journals. The central and fundamental reason to writing a review item
is to build a readable synthesis of the best resources available in the literature. Although
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the idea of writing a review is attractive, it is essential to employ time identifying the
research questions. Good survey techniques are critical because they provide an unbiased
point of view for the reader regarding the existing literature. There is a unanimity that a
re-examination paper should be written in a systematic manner. Review articles are
divided into two categories as narrative, and systematic reviews.

Narrative reviews are authored in an easily readable structure and allow the weight
of subject matter within a large scale. However, in a systematic survey, a detailed and
complete literature surveying is made on the selected topic. Systematic reviews are
considered as gold standard articles as they contain lesser engagement of author’s bias.
Systematic surveys might be divided into qualitative, and quantitative reviews.

Author should review 30-150 research papers to the preparation a review article-
a good systematic review need to more articles up to 150-whereas narrative one demands
to overview 30-40 papers. 5,000 to 8,000 words are enough narrative and 6,000 to 12,000
words are good for systematic article. Systematic paper explores new scientific findings
with accuracy, developing a new conceptual or theoretical or methodological approach.
Whereas narrative one just analyze or synthesize or summarize a number of existing
research studies.

Structure of systematic review article

PRISMA statement- A 27-item checklist

Title Identify the article as a systematic review, meta-

analysis, or both
Summary Structured summary
Introduction Rationale
Methods Objectives
Protocol and registration
Eligibility criteria
Sources of Information
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Survey
Study selection
Data collection process
Data items
Risk of bias in individual studies
Summary measures
Synthesis of outcomes
Risk of bias across studies
Additional analyses
Results Study selection
Study characteristics
Risk of bias within studies
Results of individual studies
Syntheses of results
Risk of bias across studies
Additional analyses
Discussion Summary of evidence
Limitations
Conclusions
Funding

2. Original article

An original research article is an elaborate arrangement of study work written by the

scientists based on primary resources. The original article is the valued most scientific
work that offers the most valuable sources of academic literature. Some mentors may
refer to these as scientific research papers or as empirical research. Empirical research
project starting in or based on observation or experience research; capable of being
examined or disproved by observation or experiment. Data derived from laboratory
experiment or field interview with interview schedule or survey questionnaire.
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Such type of article can be conducted in quantitative or qualitative or mixed-

method approach. Quantitative work done by numeric data collected
using lab experiment or questionnaire survey and results would also be numeric. Again,
qualitative one can be text data gathered from the field using interviews, observation, and
group discussion. Their results will be produced in textual
format producing a theory or concepts. This means a theory-based article is the
representation of a qualitative paper. On the other hand, model, simulation, method, and
methodological approach can be explored in the numeric article. An original article is
less long than a review one. Generally, it consists of 5,000 to 10,000 words. Such type of
work aims to test hypothesis in the eye of particular parameter as significant or not.

Organization of original article

Title
Abstract
Introduction, objectives, methods, findings, and application of findings
Key words
5-10 key words (those terms should be selected as key words which are mostly used in
title, abstract and introduction section)

Introduction

One to two pages (up to 1,000 words for an introduction) would be discussed of basic
problems closely connected to the dependent variable of the title sentence. Why the topic
or title is selected, the definition of key terms mentioned in the title, and the prime
objective of the study should be stated in the introduction.

Literature review

Exploring gaps, review the recent (five years) quality articles from bran journals, literature
should be searched by dependent variable of the title. Sub-headings can be used for the
review tasks.
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Research questions and thus hypothesis development

Research questions will be followed by study gaps and the hypothesis should be based
on research questions. Do, what, and how are for quantitative and why is for a qualitative
article.

Sampling strategy

Data validity and reliability (that is proved using correlation, chi-square test, kappa test,
Cronbach’s Alpha, and thematically approach) depend typically on scientific sampling
techniques. The probability is more reasonable than non-probability sampling.

Data collection method

A structured questionnaire (Five to 7-point scale) is reasonable for quantitative and semi-
structured interviews, participant observation, focus group discussion, ethnography,
existential methods, and visual collection is good for a qualitative study. Field surveys or
interviews, online or email or telephone, and social media surveys are useful means of
data accumulation. APP based data collection is easier and efficient and sometimes, from
home, someone can collect primary data applying a digital toolkit.

Data analysis technique

Digital tool-based data analysis is getting popularity more among scientists than a manual
one. For example, IBM SPSS, R, nVIVO, and MATLAB. Digital data collection and thus
analysis make research easier and accurate. A research toolkit is essential for a researcher.

Results presented with proper interpretation

Results should be specific means research question or hypothesis-oriented. The very small
or very large data table makes a study unclear or ambiguous. Independent variables that
represent to answer the dependent variable of the research question should merely be
presented. All variables or result units of a presented in table should be interpreted.
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Discussion

The discussion section will purely be on key findings presented in the table or figures. We
have to discuss the studies already published to identifying whether the findings are new
or not. If they are proved new or inconsistent results, they will be accepted as new
contributions in academia. Only the findings of published papers should be searching out
for discussion, and this is enough.

Limitations

Obviously, an author should add limitations to his study, which assure and convince
reviewers about. Reviewers can be clarified about the strengths and weaknesses of the
study.

Conclusions

Key findings have to be stated as the orderly and concise answers to research questions.
How the key findings are significant to academia or policy issues, should evidently be
mentioned. How model or simulation or theory are proved, ought to be stated
argumentatively.

 Declaration information (e.g. acknowledgement)

 References
 Supplementary information (data set, additional tables, figures)
3. Book chapter

Some writer is passionate to write a book chapter or a book- that is like a review paper
usually needs to be an invitation from editor. The book editor will select the writing topic
and approach desired. Book editing is a daunting task, which set plans, recruit authors,
and brings the work to a successful end. An author can write a book chapter of his own
that may offer funs, but he has to sell his ideas to the editor.
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Research institutions or universities and publishing houses publish books inviting

chapters from authors. The leading book publishers include Penguin Random House,
Hachette Livre, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, Springer Nature, Wiley, Oxford
University Press, Bonnier Books, etc. AbeBooks, Amazon.com, Angus & Robertson, Alibris,
Angus & Robertson, Barnes & Noble, Better World Books are globally topped online book
sellers. Books are presently being produced and sold in different format like printed,
eBook, PDF version, Kindle format.

Interesting book Chapter requires:

 A book may be between 5 and 20 chapters; but, it is reasonable to be 10-chapter-

book
 A single idea for a book
 Eye-catching, concise, and understandable title
 Around 4,000 words to be average for good book chapter; but it should be
included all information as readers desire
 Less than 1,000 and over 10,000 words do not meet audience needs

Good book is a complete guideline to scientists whereas a single article offers a specific
issue.

4. Conference abstract

Conference abstract represents a critical skill to write for young researchers. It is a

summarization of a full paper by which one has to take part in a conference getting
accepted for presentation as this is seizing invited at first. The audience and organizer
justify the full study only by reviewing the abstract. Hence, it is critically significant to be
clear, focused, and inclusive. It needs writing followed by some skillful techniques or
formulas.

The conference abstract should be between 300 and 500 words in a single
paragraph. But the summary of a full paper might be less than 200 words. What is the
organization or how to write a good conference abstract? Let’s discuss this here.
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Conference abstract gets published as an article or a book chapter by the organizer after
conference held.

Structure of a conference abstract

Background Methods Findings

Problem Research Policy

statement questions implication

Rationale Objectives Conclusions

What is the research topic, where and when to research would be stated in
the background. To what problems you are trying to solve in the study, ought to be
mentioned as a problem statement. And what is the benefits of the study or the
importance of findings to solve the specific difficulties, should be written about. Sampling
strategy, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques can be described in
methods part. Findings would merely be the key findings or key contributions, not the
results.

5. Book review

A book review obtains the brief report of a book that satisfies researchers or students
extracting the key information or concepts from at a glance. The extracted information
may help somebody to read the whole book or not. Mainly popular, best-selling, or
academic reference work needs to be a good review. Such type of report represents short
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writing of fewer than 1,000 words comprising 4-7 small paragraphs. The majority of the
journals regularly publish book reviews grasping wide numbers of authors and readers.

Structure and writing tips of book review

Introduction

Title, author, subject-matter should be described in the introduction part. Background,

insights of problems/subject-matter, objectives of the book can elegantly be written.

Author profile

Who is the author and what represents his institutional background with educational and
research achievements must be stated here? Interested areas of the author including his
usual study or writing approach have to be briefed with. It is substantial to describe the
writer’s purpose in writing the book.

Book format

Table of contents, list of tables and figures are to be inserted in the review work. Number
of book chapters and sections and their headings have to be described herein. After that,
summary of references or bibliography and index are to be stated in book report.

Content

Preface, introduction, and conclusions should briefly be written. The summaries of all
chapters have to be stated paragraph-wise. One paragraph can contains one chapter
summary. Book review must seek the answer of author’s purpose of the book, neat and
clean writing, key points or suggestions for reader. Comparison with same other subjects
and major mistakes should be clearly traced out for correction in future edition.

This is an analytical or persuasive report which does not follow the strict template or rules
but reviewers or writer should cover all issues.
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6. Short note

Short note is such type of review article that fill the gap of recently published original one.
Most of the original articles place one or two further research questions at the end which
is addressed by short note. Furthermore, limitations or the gaps of findings of a research
paper are filled up in short note. It is composed of less than 3,000 words in 3-7 pages. A
short note divided into introduction, thesis, body or analysis, conclusion. Regularly
journals publish these articles as publication items. Short note also has to be new finding.

Template of short note

Title---- abstract--- key words--- introduction--- main body--- conclusions---

references.

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