Editing Scientific journal (section)

==Types of articles==
{{further information|Scientific paper}}
{{see also|Academic publishing#Categories of papers{{!}}Categories of academic articles}}
{{morerefs|section|date=February 2025}}
[[File:Philosophical_Transactions_Volume_1_frontispiece.jpg|thumb|Title page of the first volume of the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]'', the first journal in the world exclusively devoted to science]]

There are several types of journal article; the exact terminology and definitions vary by field and specific journal, but often include:
*'''Letters''' (also called ''communications'', and not to be confused with ''letters to the editor'') are short descriptions of important current research findings that are usually fast-tracked for immediate publication because they are considered urgent.
*'''Research notes''' are short descriptions of current research findings that are considered less urgent or important than ''Letters''.
*'''Articles''' are usually between five and twenty pages and are complete descriptions of current original research findings, but there are considerable variations between scientific fields and journals—80-page articles are not rare in mathematics or [[theoretical computer science]].
*'''Supplemental articles''' contain a large volume of tabular data that is the result of current research and may be dozens or hundreds of pages with mostly numerical data. Some journals now only publish this data electronically on the Internet. Supplemental information also contains other voluminous material not appropriate for the main body of the article, like descriptions of routine procedures, derivations of equations, source code, non-essential data, spectra or other such miscellaneous information.
*A '''target article''' in a journal is one which argues a case, to which other authors submit a commentary or a response. There may be a final response from the author of the target article.<ref>[[Taylor and Francis]] Author Services, [https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-your-research/writing-your-paper/different-types-of-research-articles/ Different types of research articles: A guide for early career researchers], accessed on 16 February 2025</ref><ref>Asprem, E., [https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/20/2/article-p163_1.xml Editorial] in ''Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism'', Brill, published on 1 July 2020, accessed on 17 February 2025</ref> See, for example, [[Alison Gopnik]]'s article ''How we know our minds: The illusion of first-person knowledge of intentionality'' in the journal ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences'', Volume 16, Issue 1 (1993), which was one of a pair of "target articles" to which other responses were published in the same volume.<ref>Cambridge Core, [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/issue/AF58F6A2BB28E3B84B2654521154A072 Behavioral and Brain Sciences: An International Journal of Current Research and Theory with Open Peer Commentary], Volume 16, Issue 1 (March 1993), accessed on 17 February 2025</ref>
*'''[[Review article]]s''' do not cover original research but rather accumulate the results of many different ''articles'' on a particular topic into a coherent narrative about the state of the art in that field. Review articles provide information about the topic and also provide journal references to the original research. Reviews may be entirely narrative, or may provide quantitative summary estimates resulting from the application of [[meta-analysis|meta-analytical methods]].
*'''[[Data publishing|Data papers]]''' are articles dedicated to describe datasets. This type of article is becoming popular and journals exclusively dedicated to them have been established, e.g. ''[[Scientific_Data_(journal)|Scientific Data]]'' and ''[[Earth_Observation|Earth System Science Data]]''.
*'''[[Video paper]]s''' are a recent addition to practice of scientific publications. They most often combine an online video demonstration of a new technique or protocol with a rigorous textual description.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jove.com/|title=JoVE - Peer Reviewed Scientific Video Journal - Methods and Protocols|website=jove.com|access-date=6 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322165712/https://www.jove.com/|archive-date=22 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://videonauka.ru/|title=Научный журнал "Видеонаука"|website=Scientific journal "Videonauka"|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311184031/http://videonauka.ru/|archive-date=2016-03-11}}</ref>

The formats of journal articles vary, but many follow the general [[IMRAD]] scheme recommended by the [[International Committee of Medical Journal Editors]]. Such articles begin with an ''[[Abstract (summary)|abstract]]'', which is a one-to-four-paragraph summary of the paper. The ''introduction'' describes the background for the research including a discussion of similar research. The ''materials and methods'' or ''experimental'' section provides specific details of how the research was conducted. The ''results and discussion'' section describes the outcome and implications of the research, and the ''conclusion'' section places the research in context and describes avenues for further exploration.

In addition to the above, some scientific journals such as ''Science'' will include a news section where scientific developments (often involving political issues) are described. These articles are often written by [[Science journalism|science journalists]] and not by [[Scientist|scientists]]. In addition, some journals will include an editorial section and a section for letters to the editor. While these are articles published within a journal, in general they are not regarded as scientific journal articles because they have not been peer-reviewed.