The Methods template presents a common structure used as a way to engage readers of peer-reviewed articles. Of importance, the structure to be presented here is one among many structure that might work, but this is certainly not the only one.
The length of each section in this template is not stipulated, primarily because length will depend on the target journal and what might have been established as socially acceptable within that local scientific community. This means that all four text blocks presented below could be written in a single paragraph or in two pages.
This template contains multiple elements from the STROBE and SAMPL reporting standards.
- longitudinal or cross sectional
- prospective or retrospective
- previous studies
- part or the whole section can be in the last section of the Introduction, and where you place it is less important than actually including it
- Approval by Institutional Review Board
- Protected Health Information and 18 elements
- Sampling and target population
- How data were collected and organization in charge
- Data access
- Validation studies
- whatever you might be measuring
- observed risk factors
- interventions such as treatments
- Descriptive variables that are not potential confounders could be included in a separate sections
- Watch out for total number of tables and graphics, easy to overshoot
- Whenever possible, use graphics, with one main graphic corresponding to each main objective
- Describe your sample so that a peer or somebody will put your results to practice can evaluate whether your results actually match their own population
- Adjusted analyses to control for confounding and reduce bias
- Details about whatever models might be used: propensity scores, generalized linear models, survival models
- New but extremely important trend
- STROBE
- SAMPL
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