Journals publish different types of articles, and being familiar with these different article types can be helpful for researchers. These different types include articles such as original research, clinical trial, review articles, short reports or letters, case studies, meta-analyses, and methodologies. The details of some of the most common articles are presented below:
Original research: This type of article presents detailed studies that report data from original research, and these articles are the most common. Various journals may use different terminologies, such as original article, original paper, research article, or article, for this type of article. These articles include the hypothesis, background study, introduction, methods, results, interpretation of findings, and discussion. An original research article is written by the researchers who have actually conducted the said research.
Review articles: These articles present an analysis of a certain topic by summarizing, evaluating, and comparing the existing literature and provide a view on the problems faced in the particular field and recommendations for future studies. These articles do not present any new data, but they do present a novel perspective on the topic.
Case report/studies: Case studies report meticulous and detailed analysis of a particular case involving a person, group, or situation. These articles spread awareness among researchers about the possibility of the occurrence of a particular phenomenon. In medicine, case reports are often used to report previously unknown or emerging pathologies observed in real patient cases during medical or clinical practice.
Methodologies or methods: Novel experimental methods, tests, or procedures are reported in this type of articles. The methods introduced can either be completely new or an enhancement of a previous method.
Short reports or letters: These are brief reports of data obtained from original research, which can interest many scholars and can lead to further research in a field. These reports are relatively short and sometimes are called brief communications.
Clinical trial: These articles report the experiments performed or observation done during clinical research. They report the studies conducted on human participants and are designed to find the answers of some specific questions. These papers describe the implementation, methodology, and results of studies that are usually performed with large patient groups. The format of clinical trial papers is useful for experienced researchers.
Meta-analysis: These articles present a statistical analysis of the results of multiple studies that have investigated the same topic or phenomenon but have reported different findings. These papers help determine the most accurate result by using different methods from statistics. These papers assess different studies based on the same topic.