title: Writing a surgical paper.
abstract: A personal view is presented of the steps required to take a surgical paper from the drawing board to a finished manuscript that will be accepted for publication. The process starts with an appropriate choice of material, followed by selection by the most suitable journal and then slavish attention to its Instruction for Authors. The following order is suggested for writing the manuscript: Methods, Results (including tables and figures), Discussion, Introduction, Summary, References and Title Page. The final stage of correcting, improving and shortening the finished manuscript is probably the most important, and additional contributions by co-authors or other colleagues are especially valuable.
authors.affiliation: Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D018156:Journalism, Medical