Author: Ángel Hernando Gómez – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion
Without detracting from the rest of types and formats of articles -all of them valuable in their own genre and for the type of readers to which they are intended for- one must take into account that i
n order for an article to be considered as scientific it must have a series of characteristics and respond to a reason. Although these do not always have to be experimental, you can try to inform about new knowledge, it is needed to deal with a research report or scientific communication.
The scientific article has a series of characteristics, among them, the fact that it has to be original (it communicates for the first time the result of a research), that is, to contribute something new to the field of study in which the subject matter is inserted. The results presented must be valid and reliable, must be written in a clear and precise language and, above all, use a methodology with instruments and procedures that have been proven to be scientifically valid, regardless of whether the research carried out follows a quantitative, qualitative or mixed methodology.
The scientific article must pass through a review process, so the journal in which it is published must be a peer-reviewed scientific journal that uses an external review system by experts (peer-review), prior to acceptance and publication of the manuscript, which helps guarantee the relevance of the article and the value of its contribution.
We also should take into account that the scientific article has as a main objective to share the obtained results, through the research carried out, with the scientific community so that these can be known and contrasted. To do this, all the necessary information must be clearly stated in the body of the manuscript, which allows us to reproduce the results that have been found.
The scientific article reports the results of a research; therefore, it must follow a standardized structure of scientific manuscripts (standard of scientific writing), as set out in the IMRyD format (Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion) for the organization of the scientific article between the researchers. This standard of scientific writing must be followed in all its aspects both regarding to the structure and the content and references of the manuscript, since what is done is to expose a research report that has writing standards that are very explicit within the academic world.
In short, there are many types and formats of articles: theoretical, opinion, review articles, studies, reviews, intervention reports, replies to previously published articles, interviews, research reports, etc. But for an article to be considered as scientific it has to fulfill the characteristics that previously have been exposed and be a research report or scientific communication.
