Writing your paper | Author Services

Guidance, developments, news, and ideas for Taylor & Francis authors

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Everything you need

to know to prepare

and write an eective

research paper

Writing

your paper

INTRODUCTION 4

Writing your paper checklist 5

WHERE TO START 6

Make sure you’ve selected the journal you want to submit to 6

Understand your target journal’s instructions for authors 7

What information is included in the instructions for authors? 7

Understand the editorial policies and standards of reporting 8

Think about the four A’s: aims, audience, awareness, and articulation 9

ARTICLE STRUCTURES AND FORMATTING 10

Study your target journal 10

IMRAD: Standard structure for a STEM journal 11

Structuring review articles 11

Using standard article templates 12

Format-free submission 12

CHOOSING KEYWORDS AND WRITING FOR SEO

Using keywords 13

Writing your article with search engine optimization in mind 14

1. Create a search engine friendly title 14

2. Optimize your abstract 14

3. Use keywords throughout your article 14

HOW TO WRITE YOUR MANUSCRIPT:

a step-by-step guide 16

Prepare tables and gures (if required) 16

Write up the literature review (if required) 17

Write the method 17

Write up your results 18

Write the discussion and conclusions 19

Write the introduction 20

Write the abstract 21

Create a compelling title 22

REFINING YOUR WRITING:

how to create an eective, compelling paper 23

Communicating your ideas eectively 23

Make sure you’ve stuck to the point 23

Don’t be afraid to explain further 23

Ensure you’ve included your unique standpoint 24

State your case with condence 24

Rening your language and grammar 24

Need help? Contact our Editing Services 25

FINALIZING THE DETAILS:

from authorship to competing interests 26

Authorship 26

Standards of reporting 27

Competing interests 27

What is categorized as a competing interest? 28

Use of third party material 29

Patient and study participant consent 29

Using mathematical scripts and special characters 29

CONSIDERING ETHICS: a nal submission checklist 30

GLOSSARY 31

WHERE TO NEXT? 32

Contents

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

No matter which subject area you specialize in, publishing

the results of your research is a critical part of your

academic career. But writing an academic paper can feel

like a daunting task – there’s nothing worse than staring at

a blank screen after all.

This guide will take you through all the stages of writing

your paper, from preparation and structure, through to

writing each section of the paper, and beyond.

By following the advice and guidance here, you’ll be able to

produce a paper that’s a great t for your chosen journal.

Introduction

WRITING YOUR PAPER CHECKLIST

Choose your target journal

Understand the journal’s instructions for authors

Familiarize yourself with editorial policies and standards of reporting

Consider the four A’s: aims, audience, awareness, and articulation

Determine your article structure

Choose your keywords and learn how to write for SEO

Write up your manuscript:

Prepare tables and gures (if required)

Write up the literature review (if required)

Write the method

Write up your results

Write the discussion and conclusions

Write the introduction

Write the abstract

Create a compelling title

Edit and rene your completed manuscript

Check the editorial policies and instructions

for authors to ensure you’ve included

everything required by the journal

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Choosing

a journal

You’re

published!

Production

Peer

review

Making

your

submission

STEPS TO

PUBLICATION

Writing

your paper

Where to start

You’ve completed your research and now it’s time to write it

up. But where do you start? Here we’ve laid out the rst four

critical steps to help you begin your write-up the right way.

What information is included in the instructions for authors?

The instructions for authors include all the essential information you’ll need

to know before you submit your article, for example:

General guidelines, like which online submission system you

need to use, and which languages the journal publishes in

Word count

Formatting and whether article templates can be used

Style guides

Specic policies relating to the journal, such as clinical trial registry

or ethics compliance

Open access options

By following these guidelines you’ll know your article is in exactly the right format

for submission and includes everything the editorial board would like to see.

You can nd the IFAs for any Taylor & Francis journal on the journal’s

home page via Taylor & Francis Online.

To help you with this

crucial step, take a

look at our guide on

selecting the right

journal for your

research.

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Make sure you’ve selected the journal you want

to submit to

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to start writing up your

research without rst choosing the journal you want it to be published in.

How you write your paper, from the style and structure to the audience you

should have in mind while writing, and even the article length, will depend on

which journal you’re targeting. Choosing the journal before you start writing

also means you can tailor your work to build on research that’s already

been published there. This can help editors to see how a paper adds to the

‘conversation’ in their journal.

Understand your target journal’s

instructions for authors

Once you’ve chosen your target journal, you need

to understand what they’re looking for in papers

submitted to them. And the rst place to look is the

instructions for authors (IFAs). These are an individual

set of requirements for a journal that help guide

potential authors to construct their article in the

correct way and prepare it for submission.

They will tell you exactly what the journal’s editorial

board expects to see in articles submitted to the

journal. And the IFAs will also include details of specic

processes to follow to ensure there are no problems

during production should your article be accepted.

For peace of mind and to submit in condence, consider using

Taylor & Francis manuscript formatting service. This will help

you focus on your research and save valuable time.

Understand the editorial policies

and standards of reporting

Individual journals will have their own editorial policies which can

cover everything from how they conduct peer review to the process

for submitting your article.

It’s important to familiarize yourself with the journal’s own policies,

but in addition, you may need to review the policies of the publishing

group. For example, at Taylor & Francis, we have a number of

editorial policies that apply across our whole portfolio of journals.

Editorial policies will clearly lay out the standards of reporting

expected by the journal/publisher, as well as covering everything

from ethics standards to use of third-party material. We’ll go into

some of the key ones in more depth later.

By understanding what’s expected by both the journal and

publisher, you’ll be able to write your paper to meet those

standards from the outset.

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Think about the four A’s: aims, audience,

awareness, and articulation

It’s important to consider these four areas right at the start of the

writing process:

Aims – Your published article may help attract funding

for your next research project, boost your prole and the

reputation of your institution, and importantly, help to

further knowledge in your eld and have a wider societal

impact. Identify your aims and keep them in mind when

writing your paper and use them to guide your decisions.

Audience – You need to have a clear idea of your target

audience – for example, fellow researchers, practitioners,

policymakers – so you can tailor your paper to meet their

needs and expectations. This might inuence your decisions

on the type of article you choose to write, the language you

use, and which journal you choose to publish in.

Awareness – Being aware of existing research, political

debates, and current policy issues will help you ground your

work in the context of the wider landscape. It’ll also help you

with referencing other work wherever appropriate.

Articulation – Plan out a logical structure for your article, so

you can develop your ideas clearly and concisely. Consider

writing your introduction and conclusion last, once your key

points have become clear. (We’ve got more tips on article

structure and a step-by-step writing process coming up.)

Depending on your subject, research focus, journal choice,

and any number of other considerations, the type of article

you write could vary widely.

STEM research articles tend to follow a similar structure,

while Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) articles vary. You

could also be considering writing a review article, case study,

technical note, or case report.

Given this variation, there’s no set formula for structuring

your article. But we’ve provided some hints and tips

here to get you started.

IMRAD: Standard structure for a STEM journal

If you’re writing a STEM article, the chances are that the journal will use the

‘IMRAD’ structure for standard research articles. IMRAD covers the structure

of the body of the research manuscript (after the Title and Abstract). This

consists of:

This consists of:

Introduction

Method

Results

And

Discussion and Conclusions

Not all journals use these section titles in this order, but most published

STEM articles have a structure similar to IMRAD.

Structuring review articles

A review article, also called a literature review, is a survey of previously published

research on a topic. A good review article will give an overview of current thinking

on the chosen topic and, unlike an original research article, won’t present new

experimental results. As a result, review article structure is a little dierent.

While review articles can vary, a typical review article will include:

Abstract

Introduction

Literature review

Critical discussion

Conclusions

Article structures

and formatting

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

For some in depth tips on writing

review articles take a look at the

dedicated page on our website.

Get in-depth technical feedback on

your article from a team of scientic

editors using Taylor & Francis

scientic editing service.

Study your target journal

The best way to determine how to

structure your article is to study your

target journal. Look through the

journal’s instructions for authors,

as discussed above, but also read

through back issues of the journal.

This will enable you to review how

other articles like the one you intend

to write are structured.

Using keywords

When you submit your article you’ll often need to include keywords. These will

be used to index your article on the journal or publisher’s website, as well as on

search engines like Google Scholar.

These keywords will help others nd your article quickly and accurately – think

of them as the labels for your article. And keywords aren’t just about improving

your article’s discoverability, a strong correlation exists between the online hits

an article receives and the subsequent number of citations it receives.

So picking your keywords wisely is worth your while.

But how do you choose your keywords?

Think about how you search for articles yourself and what words or

phrases you put in.

Think about your own article and what keywords are most relevant to the

focus of your work.

Once you’ve drawn up a shortlist, try searching with them, to ensure

the results t with your article and so you can see how useful they

would be to others.

You can also check and compare specic keywords

on Google Trends to see which are the most used.

If you’re still unsure, check the keywords

used in your eld’s major papers.

Format-free submission

An increasing number of Taylor & Francis journals allow format-free

submission. This means that, as long as you use a consistent citation

format and include everything necessary for review, you can submit work

without needing to worry about formatting your manuscript to meet

that journal’s requirements. The instructions for authors for your chosen

journal will tell you whether it operates format-free submission.

Using standard article

templates

Although many journals have basic

elements of style in common, each journal

can have its own specic formatting. This

denes how an article will look when it is

published online or in print.

To make this easier, journals often provide

templates (for example in Word or LaTeX).

Using a template will immediately help you

determine how to structure your article

correctly. Many of our journals have templates you can simply download.

You can nd links to these on your chosen journal’s homepage on Taylor

& Francis Online under the instructions for authors. Each version of the

template has its own instructions le, which explains how to save and use it.

Choosing keywords

and writing for SEO

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Create a search engine friendly title

It’s vital to incorporate your most relevant keywords in

your title. This will mean your article is more likely to be

included in the results for relevant online searches. Ideally,

it should include 1-2 keywords related to your topic, and

these keywords should be within the rst 65 characters of

your title so that they’re visible in the search engine results.

Optimize your abstract

To have the maximum impact in search engines, you should aim to place

essential ndings and keywords in the rst two sentences of your abstract.

Only the rst two sentences normally display in search engine results, so if

you make them enticing and keyword relevant, it should encourage people

to click through and read further.

In addition, you should aim to repeat your keywords 3-6 times

within your abstract. But try to do this naturally, as the purpose of

your abstract is to express the key points of your research, clearly

and concisely.

Use keywords throughout your article

Keywords aren’t just important in your title and abstract.

You should aim to ensure you use them consistently

throughout your article. In particular, if you’re able to

incorporate keywords into headings, this will help search

engines to understand the content and structure of

your article.

However, make sure you let keywords ow naturally

and in a contextual way. Search engines dislike too

much keyword repetition, known as keyword stung,

and may ‘un-index’ your article if it seems keywords

are being repeated without context.

Writing your article with search engine optimization in mind

Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines drive a huge amount of trac to

journal articles. Journals and their publishers do a lot of work behind the scenes on

search engine optimization (SEO), but you can also play a crucial role in optimizing

the search results for your article. Ultimately, this will help more people to nd,

read, and cite your work.

But how can you write for SEO? Here are some tips...

Clear and concise title

built around keywords.

temporary immunity

KEYWORDS:

Malaria model

protected travellers optimal control

cost-eective analysis

Modelling malaria dynamics with

partial immunity and protected

travellers: optimal control and

cost-effectiveness analysis

ABSTRACT

Abstract

A mathematical model of malaria dynamics with naturally acquired

transient immunity in the presence of protected travellers is

presented. The qualitative analysis carried out on the autonomous

model reveals the existence of backward bifurcation, where the

locally asymptotically stable malaria-free and malaria-present

equilibria coexist as the basic reproduction number crosses unity.

The increased fraction of protected travellers is shown to reduce

the basic reproduction number signicantly. Particularly, optimal

control theory is used to analyse the non-autonomous model, which

incorporates four control variables. The existence result for the

optimal control quadruple, which minimizes malaria infection

and costs of implementation, is explicitly proved. Eects of

combining at least any three of the control variables on

the malaria dynamics are illustrated. Furthermore, the

cost-eectiveness analysis is carried out to reveal the most

cost-eective strategy that could be implemented to prevent

and control the spread of malaria with limited resources.

Modelling malaria dynamics with partial immunity and protected travellers:

optimal control and cost-eectiveness analysis by S. Olaniyi, K. O. Okosun,

S. O. Adesanya & R. S. Lebelo is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Keywords used

throughout

the abstract in

a natural way,

without aecting

readability.

Five keywords

highlighting the

main points covered

in the article

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Every article is unique – and as discussed, the structure of your

article and the sections it includes will depend on both the type

of article you’re writing and the subject of study. For example,

Humanities and Social Sciences articles may be less likely to

include tables and gures or materials.

However, there are several standard sections that many researchers

need to tackle when writing a manuscript. We’ve laid these out

below – in the order in which you would normally write them –

with hints and tips for making the most of each section.

Write up the literature review (if required)

Literature reviews aren’t always required, but often form an

important part of Humanities and Social Sciences manuscripts.

Typically, you would expect a literature review to:

Discuss what’s already known about the topic of the article

Identify gaps in current knowledge

Present your approach to addressing those gaps

As you write, make sure to follow these tips:

Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main

points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.

Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers

– add your own interpretations, discussing the signicance of ndings

in relation to the literature as a whole.

Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources.

Bring it all together: draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Writing a review article?

Don’t forget that as well as the advice in

this guide we also have some specic tips

for review article writing on our website.

How to write

your manuscript:

a step-by-step guide

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Prepare tables and gures (if required)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words – and you could say the same

for a table or gure in a manuscript. They are often the most impactful and

ecient way to present your results.

Tables and gures should present new information rather than duplicating

what is in the text. And readers should be able to interpret them without

reference to the text (although you will need to refer to them in the text).

When creating tables and gures for your article, make sure to check the

journal’s instructions for authors and editorial policies, which may stipulate

on layouts, use of color, and a number of other formatting points.

In particular, it’s important to consider the size of each table or gure and

whether it will t on a single journal page. If the table is cramped in a

Microsoft Word document, it will

undoubtedly be dicult to represent

it clearly on a journal page. If this is the

case, you could consider splitting the

data into two or more tables.

Take a look at our guidance on creating

tables, for more information on layouts

in Taylor & Francis journals.

Write the method

The method section (often ‘methods

and materials’ in STEM) provides the reader

with all the details of how you conducted your research.

A good way to start this section is to check the instructions for authors for

your target journal to see whether they state any requirements on how it

should be presented. It’s also worth reviewing previously published

papers in the journal or sample reports on the journal website.

When you come to write your method section, you should:

Use subheadings to separate dierent methodologies

Describe what you did in the past tense

Describe new methods in enough detail that another

researcher could reproduce what you’ve done

Describe established methods briey

and include a reference where

readers can nd more detail

State any statistical tests

and parameters

Showcase your research with

high-quality artworks that meet

your journal’s requirement with

Taylor & Francis artwork

preparation service.

Write up your results

In the results section, you’re ultimately

responding to the question ‘what have

you found?’

To write an eective results section,

follow these tips:

Simply state what you found, but do

not interpret the results or discuss

their implications.

Only include representative results that are essential for your discussion

points. However, remember that many journals oer the possibility of

adding supporting or supplemental materials, so use them freely for data

or ndings of secondary importance.

Use subheadings to separate the results of dierent experiments/

methods.

Present your results in a logical order – this will usually be in order

of importance, not necessarily the order in which you carried out the

research.

Use the past tense to describe your results, but refer to any gures and

tables in the present tense.

Don’t duplicate data among gures, tables, and text. As mentioned earlier,

you don’t need to repeat the information contained in a gure or table.

Simply use the text to summarize what the reader will nd in the table, or

mention one or two of the most important data points.

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Write the discussion and conclusions

These sections are aimed at answering the question: what do

your results mean? In other words, they should be an interpretation

of your results.

To write an eective discussion and conclusion, follow these tips:

Discuss your conclusions in order of most to least important.

Compare your results with those from other studies – for

example, are they consistent with other ndings? And if not,

you should also discuss why that might be the case.

Talk about any inconclusive results and explain them as best

you can. You can also suggest additional experiments needed

to clarify the results further.

While it may seem counterintuitive, it’s important to briey

describe any limitations of your study. This shows reviewers

and readers that you have considered the weaknesses of your

research. Doing this will make a positive impression with editors

and reviewers, as it makes it clear that you have an in-depth

understanding of your topic and can think objectively about

your research.

Discuss what your results may mean for researchers in the same

eld as you, researchers in other elds, and the general public.

How could your ndings be applied?

Explain how your results extend the ndings of previous studies.

If your ndings are preliminary, suggest future studies that need

to be carried out.

At the end, state your main conclusions once again.

Write the introduction

It’s simpler to introduce and summarize something you’ve already written

than something that doesn’t exist yet. So, while you may be tempted to write

the introduction rst – after all, it’s the start of your article – you’ll actually

nd it much easier to write it once the main body of your article is complete.

Your introduction should provide readers with the background

information needed to understand your study and the reasons

why you conducted your experiments.

A good introduction should answer the following questions:

What is the problem to be solved?

Are there any existing solutions?

Which is the best?

What is its main limitation?

What do you hope to achieve?

First, write the background and follow the

below tips for including appropriate citations.

Citations should be:

Well balanced: If experiments have found

conicting results on a question, make sure you

cite studies with both kinds of results.

Current: Every eld is dierent, but you should aim to cite references

that are not more than 10 years old if possible. Although be sure to cite

the rst discovery or mention in the literature even if it was more than

10 years ago.

Relevant: This is the most important requirement. The studies you cite

should be strongly related to your research question.

Once you have provided background material and stated the problem

or question for your study, tell the reader the purpose of your study.

Usually, the reason is to ll a gap in the knowledge base or to answer

a previously unanswered question.

The nal thing to include at the end of your introduction is

a clear and exact statement of your study aims. And a brief

sentence or two on how you conducted the study.

Write the abstract

Your abstract is the selling pitch of your article. This is where researchers can

get a quick insight into your research and decide whether to read and cite your

content or look elsewhere. So it’s worth spending time to get it right.

Think about abstracts for other researchers’ articles that you have read in the

past. What qualities would encourage you to read the full article? What would

put you o? Consider these factors when creating your own.

An abstract should focus on:

What your research is about

What methods have been used

What your main ndings are

Each journal will have its own word limit for abstracts which you’ll nd in the

instructions for authors, but approximately 100–200 words are what you’ll

have to work with. Check the guidelines before you start writing.

The key rules for writing your abstract are:

Accuracy is crucial. Whatever you argue or claim in the abstract must

reect what is in the main body of your article. There’s no room for

hyperbole.

The abstract must be self-contained, without abbreviations, footnotes,

or incomplete references. It needs to make sense on its own.

Finally, it’s important to note that there’s a signicant dierence between

original research papers and review papers when it comes to abstracts:

For original papers, you should introduce your research, describe your

methods and procedures, and summarize your ndings.

For reviews, you must rst state the primary objective of the review, the

reasoning behind your choice, the main outcomes, and results of your

review. Then cover the conclusions that might be drawn, including their

implications for further research, application, or practice.

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

6 7

Reminder: Don’t forget about keywords

when writing your title and abstract.

See the keywords and SEO section on

page 13 for more information.

Create a compelling title

Your title is your rst (and possibly only) opportunity to attract a reader’s

attention. And don’t forget that the rst readers are the editors – it needs to

capture their attention too.

A good title should be concise, accurate, and informative. It should tell the

reader exactly what the article is about and it should also help make your

article more discoverable.

It’s also important to try to make your title understandable to readers from

outside your eld and avoid abbreviations, formulae, and numbers. This

will help increase the potential audience for your article and make it more

accessible to readers with a dierent native language.

Communicating your ideas eectively

First drafts often tend to be written in quite a ‘train of thought’ manner.

This is no bad thing – it helps to get everything down on paper (so to

speak). But it’s important to then review everything you’ve written to

ensure that the core messages of your research aren’t getting lost.

Here are our key tips for ensuring your core ideas and ndings are clear:

1. Make sure you’ve stuck to the point

The strongest papers usually have one point to

make. They make that point powerfully, back it up

with evidence, and position it within the eld. Review

your article with this in mind and make changes if

you feel that point has got lost along the way.

2. Don’t be afraid to explain further

You’re so familiar with your area of research that some things which may seem

obvious to you, might not seem so to your reader. Review your paper and

consider whether you’ve fully explained yourself – particularly when describing

your methods. Even better, you could ask a colleague who isn’t directly involved

with your research to give it a once over so they can point out anything they

don’t understand.

Prepare

tables and

gures

Write up

the literature

review

Write the

method

Write up

your results

Write the

discussion and

conclusions

Write the

introduction

Write the

abstract

Create a

compelling

title

SUBMISSION

REMEMBER THE STEPS...

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Rening your writing:

how to create an eective,

compelling paper

Completing the rst draft of your manuscript is a big milestone.

But it’s certainly not the nish point. The making of a really good

article is eective reviewing and editing, to ensure your ideas

and ndings are communicated clearly throughaout.

In this section, we’re going to take you through a whole host of tips on rening and

editing your paper to ensure you’re communicating eectively and your paper is

written in a way that enables it to reach the widest possible audience.

4. State your case with condence

It’s easy to add caveats to your work – for

example, to fend o imagined criticism –

but this can make your case less impactful

unnecessarily. Review what you’ve written

and ensure you’ve put across your key points

condently and unambiguously.

Rening your language and grammar

The way you write your article can make all the dierence to how it will be

received, both by your target journal editors, reviewers, and – hopefully –

readers. And it’s important to think about all your potential audiences when

reviewing your writing.

For example, if researchers or practitioners outside your eld may read

your article, it’s worth reviewing it with them in mind. Will they

understand the terms you’ve used, the references you’ve

made? If not, you’ll need to explain them further.

It’s also important to remember that not everyone

reading the paper will be a native English speaker, so

using ‘owery language’ or overcomplicated sentences

could make things very dicult for them to understand.

We’ve put together the following tips to help you rene

your writing…

Keep sentences short and simple – if you nd yourself using comma, after

comma, after comma, your sentence is too long. Ideally, you should be

able to read a sentence out loud without having to pause for breath.

Express one main point per sentence – more ideas mean more complex

sentences. Don’t get sidetracked.

Front-load your sentences – put the most important information at the

beginning of your sentence, where scanning readers are likely to see it.

Build every paragraph on one idea or topic – when you change to another

idea or topic, start a new paragraph. (It’s also worth bearing in mind that

shorter paragraphs are generally easier to read, especially online.)

Check your use of technical language – ask yourself whether someone

unfamiliar with your research would understand the technical terms you’re

using.

Avoid using initials and acronyms, and always explain them if you do

use them – unless an acronym is so commonly used that it’s likely to be

understood by a wide range of audiences (e.g. DNA), don’t use it without

explaining it rst.

Clear out the ‘deadwood’ – ‘deadwood’ refers to a word or phrase that can

be omitted or simplied without a loss of meaning. Removing it shortens

and claries your copy. Some examples:

– very unique

– added bonus

– currently underway

– a large number of studies many studies

– adequate number of measurements enough measurements

3. Ensure you’ve included your unique standpoint

Have you communicated your unique point of view to stand

out? You may be building on a concept already in existence,

but you still need to have something new to say. Make sure

you’ve said it convincingly, and that you’ve made it clear you

fully understand – and have referenced – what has gone before.

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Need help? Contact our Editing Services

Take the extra step to make sure your manuscript meets the

highest academic standard with our pre-submission manuscript

preparation services. These include English language editing,

translation with editing, scientic editing, manuscript formatting,

similarity check, and technical review.

Visit our Editing Services website to nd out how to support

your publication.

You should be familiar with the editorial processes and

policies of your target journal at this point. But when you’ve

completed the nal draft of your manuscript, it’s important

to check it back against these processes and policies.

While every journal and publisher may have varying guidance, below we’ve

highlighted a few key areas that you need to pay particular attention to.

(For reference, you can nd Taylor & Francis’ portfolio-wide

Editorial Policies on our website.)

Authorship

Prior to submission, the authorship

list and order on your article

must be agreed between all listed

authors. And you must also agree

on who will take on the role of

the corresponding author. It’s the

responsibility of the corresponding

author to reach a consensus with all

co-authors regarding all aspects of

the article, including the authorship

order, and to ensure all correct

aliations have been listed.

Find out more about

our authorship policies.

Competing interests

A competing interest, also known

as a ‘conict of interest’, can

occur when you (or your

employer or sponsor) have a

nancial, commercial, legal, or

professional relationship with

other organizations, or with the

people working with them, that

could inuence your research.

Full disclosure of any competing

interests is required when you

submit your paper to a journal.

Standards of reporting

We mentioned these right at the start

as something you’d need to adhere to

while writing up your research. Now’s

the time to revisit them and ensure

you’ve covered o all requirements.

Research should be communicated

in a way that supports verication

and reproducibility. Standards of

reporting encourage researchers to

provide comprehensive descriptions

of their research rationale, protocol,

methodology, and analysis.

Find out more about

our standards of reporting.

Finalizing the details:

from authorship to

competing interests

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Use of third-party material

Third-party material refers to anything included in

your article which is owned and held in copyright by a

third party. This includes – but is not limited to – any

proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material,

including data, audio, video, lm stills, screenshots,

musical notation, and any supplemental material.

Most journals will require that you obtain written

permission to include such third-party material in your

article, although there may be some limited exceptions.

Find out more about

our policies on using third-party material.

Patient and study participant consent

All journals will have policies regarding patient and study participant consent.

At Taylor & Francis, we ask all authors to follow the ICMJE requirements on

privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants.

This means that when you submit an article to one of our journals, you’ll need

to conrm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person’s parent

or legal guardian) in any research, experiment, case study, or clinical trial

described in your paper has given written consent to the inclusion of material

pertaining to themselves. It must also state that they acknowledge they cannot

be identied via the paper, and that you have fully anonymized them. Where

someone is deceased, you’ll need to ensure you have written consent from

their family or estate.

There’s more information, including a ‘consent to publish’

form which you can use, on our website.

Using mathematical scripts and

special characters

Your target journal and/or publisher will usually have

guidance on how to use mathematical scripts and

special characters within your manuscript, so make

sure you’ve followed these correctly.

Take a look at our guidance on mathematical scripts

and special characters.

What is categorized as a competing interest?

Competing interests can be nancial or non-nancial in nature.

Examples of nancial

competing interests include

(but are not limited to):

Employment or voluntary

involvement.

Collaborations with advocacy

groups relating to the content of

the article.

Grants from an entity paid to the

author or organization.

Personal fees received by the

author/s as honoraria, royalties,

consulting fees, lecture fees,

testimonies, etc.

Patents held or pending by the

authors, their institutions or

funding organizations, or licensed

to an entity whether earning

royalties or not.

Royalties being received by the

authors or their institutions.

Stock or share ownership.

Benets related to the

development of products as an

outcome of the work.

Examples of non-nancial

competing interests include

(but are not limited to):

Receipt of drugs, specialist

equipment, tools, computer

programs, digital applications,

etc or access to data repositories,

archival resources, museum

collections, etc by an entity

that might benet or be at a

disadvantage nancially or

reputationally from the published

ndings.

Holding a position on the boards

of industry bodies or private

companies that might benet or

be at a disadvantage nancially or

reputationally from the published

ndings.

Writing assistance or

administrative support from a

person or organization that might

benet or be at a disadvantage

from the published ndings.

Personal, political, religious,

ideological, academic and

intellectual competing interests

which are perceived to be relevant

to the published content.

Involvement in legal action

related to the work.

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

If there are no competing

interests to declare, you

should include a statement

to the article to conrm that

there are no relevant nancial

or non-nancial competing

interests to report.

Visit our website for

more information on

competing interests.

Term Denition

article templates Journals often provide article templates (for example in Word or LaTeX) to help you

submit your article in the right format.

authorship Authorship refers to dening the authorship of your article. For example, prior to

submission, the authorship list and order on your article must be agreed between

all listed authors. And you must also agree on who will take on the role of the

corresponding author.

competing interests A competing interest, also known as a ‘conict of interest’, can occur when you

(or your employer or sponsor) have a nancial, commercial, legal, or professional

relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them, that

could inuence your research.

editing services Editing services can be used by researchers to support them in rening and editing

their manuscript to get it ready for publication.

editorial policies A set of guidelines from the journal and/or publisher that clearly lays out the

expectations of the journal/publisher with regards to standards of reporting, ethics,

use of third-party material, authorship, and more.

format-free

submission

An increasing number of journals allow format-free submission. This means that,

as long as you use a consistent citation format and include everything necessary

for review, you can submit work without needing to worry about formatting your

manuscript to meet that journal’s requirements.

Google Scholar A publicly available search engine, providing a simple way to broadly search for

scholarly literature, including articles, theses, books, and abstracts.

Google Trends Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search

queries in Google Search across various regions and languages.

HSS Humanities and Social Sciences

IFAs see ‘instructions for authors’

instructions for

authors

An individual set of requirements for a journal that help guide potential authors

to construct their article in the correct way and prepare it for submission. Also

abbreviated to IFAs.

keywords Keywords are ideas and topics that dene what your content is about. In terms of

search engine optimization, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into

search engines to nd the content they’re looking for.

literature review A literature review is a scholarly paper (or section of a paper) that presents the

current knowledge on a topic.

search engine

optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) in relation to research articles is the process of

optimizing a paper so that it can easily be found on search engines like Google or

Google Scholar.

standards of

reporting

Standards of reporting encourage researchers to provide comprehensive

descriptions of their research rationale, protocol, methodology, and analysis.

This means research is communicated in a way that supports verication and

reproducibility.

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

supplemental

material

Supplemental material can mean anything – from tables to datasets, lesets to

presentations, video to audio les – which is included as a supplement to your main

article.

third-party material Third-party material refers to anything included in your article which is owned and

held in copyright by a third party.

Be clear on authorship

Have you included all the contributors to your article (in the right order),

and are your acknowledgements up-to-date? Agree with your co-authors

which journal you are submitting to, and tell them when you submit.

Declaring any interests

Make sure you’ve declared any funding, and

the role of the funder, in your cover letter.

Upholding standards

Describing experiments or procedures? Make sure you include

warnings of any hazards that could be involved in replicating

these (including any instructions, materials

or formulae you’ve mentioned). You’ll also

need to cite any relevant standards

or codes of practice, and include

a reference to them.

Double check your data

Using datasets gathered by

someone else? Check you have

permission to use them in your

work. Plus, if a statistician helped

with data analysis make sure you

acknowledge this.

Avoid plagiarism (and self-plagiarism)

Have you checked you’ve cited your own, and others’,

work correctly? You’ll also need to have written

permissions for any reproduced gures or tables.

Who checks?

Editors and reviewers

will look for similarities

to other published articles,

as part of the peer review

process. CrossCheck is used

by Taylor & Francis to check

papers against a database

of over 40 million

published articles.

One at a time

Remember to submit your article to just one journal at a

time, so it is only ever being considered by one editor and

one set of reviewers. If you decide you want to send it to

another journal, you can always withdraw your paper.

Agreement

makes getting

published easier

Disputes on authorship can

slow down peer review and

publication, so make sure

decisions have been made

together and everyone

is aware.

Transparency

is essential

Relevant interests and

relationships that could be

seen as inuencing your

ndings (whether nancial

or otherwise) must always

be declared to the journal

editors, reviewers or

readers.

Evidence you’ve

followed procedure

National and international

procedures govern

experimentation on people and

animals. Statements of ethical

approval, trial registration and

informed patient consent will

all be needed with your

submission.

Include

everything: check the

instructions for authors

Some journals may need

supplemental data to be

submitted along with your

article. Check the journal’s

instructions for authors

to make sure you’ve

including everything

you need.

Considering ethics:

a nal submission checklist

AUTHOR SERVICES Writing your paper

Glossary

Guidance, developments, news,

and ideas for Taylor & Francis authors

@tandfonline

TaylorandFrancisGroup

Taylor & Francis Group

authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com

Now you’ve nished your article, what do you do next?

Why not take a look at our other researcher guides to

help you with navigating the submission process and

promoting your published work.

Choosing a journal

Research impact

Article submission and peer review

Visit Author Services for everything you need to know

about submitting your article to a Taylor & Francis journal.

Where to next?