The structure of a research article: IMRaD

One of the themes that we will keep returning to in our discussions is that the community of science has tools that you can use to access the body of research literature on massage. One of those tools is the structure of a research article, often referred to as IMRaD, for the parts of the article, indicated by headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion.

You can think of these sections as the "skeleton" of the paper: the organizational structure which holds the report together. Knowing that structure will help you navigate the paper, as well as knowing what to expect.

Introduction: the author explains "what" and "why"--"what" research question is being investigated (the "hypothesis"), and "why" this is an important issue.

Example: all examples are from Shor-Posner 2004, which we are about to look at in more depth:

"Why" (motivation):

In developing countries, where antiretroviral medication are not yet readily available to slow disease [meaning: HIV/AIDS] progression, massage therapy may have the potential to provide an important, safe, and sustainable form of immuno-stimulation.

"What" (research question):

The present study investigated the effectiveness of massage therapy in enhancing immune status in HIV-1 infected children living in the Dominican Republic, who are particularly vulnerable to rapid disease progression due to the limited access to antiretroviral therapies, prevalence of malnutrition, and increased risk of opportunistic infection.

Methods: "how" the researchers investigated their research question.

Example (don't sweat the details of unfamiliar terms and statistics now; we will talk about them in more detail. For the moment, just skim the paragraph to get the overall idea.):

The intervention design involved randomization of eligible, consented HIV+ children (n = 54) to receive either: massage therapy (20 minutes, twice weekly, for 12 weeks), or a friendly visit. The massage sections were conducted by trained nurses and followed a structured protocol of moderate pressure stroking and kneading of muscles, using a non-scented oil. Children in the friendly visit control group met with the nurse/therapist for a 20-minute session (reading, talking, quiet games) twice weekly for 12 weeks.

Results: raw numbers or other measurements of "what happened". Analysis of the results is not performed in this section; that comes next, in "Discussion".

Example (again, we'll get to all the unfamiliar terms and stats; for now, you should just get the idea here that it is a report of what the researchers observed):

Changes in mean CD4 cell count differed significantly (p < 0.03) from baseline to the last day of the 12-week study period for the massage vs. the control group.

Discussion. "what does all this mean?"--the authors discuss the results they got from the study, and interpret for us what they think it means. Additionally, they discuss limitations of their study, or problems they encountered, and they also make recommendations for future research in the same area.

Examples:

Interpretation, with study limitation:

The compelling findings of this study, while based on a small sample size, indicate for the first time that massage therapy appears to have a positive impact on immune function in HIV+ children not receiving antiretroviral medication.

Recommendation:

Restoring and preserving immune function is a key component to successfully managing HIV-1 disease, and the role of massage therapy in maintaining immunocompetence and preserving CD4, CD8, and CD3 lymphocytes may offer hope to the thousands of children worldwide without access to antiretrovirals, or who may not benefit from antiretroviral treatment.

All of this is kind of theoretical at the moment, but we will put it into practice when we start on the Shor-Posner 2004 article, and you will see how the IMRaD skeleton holds the body of the research together.

And now, at this point, if I have done my job properly, you are saying to yourself, there is a lot of material there, and I do not yet understand every detail of it, but I can see that there is a basic structure there, and I will get all the details to put on that structure--there is nothing there that is so difficult that I cannot understand it with guidance.

If, on the other hand, the task looks difficult and overwhelming, then I have not explained it well enough--because, while there is a lot of material here, we will work through it together. By the time we are done, these ideas will not be unfamiliar to you anymore, and you will have the tools to access the massage research literature.