Publishing in peer-reviewed journals is essential to the advancement of scientific research and the career development of researchers. In this talk, I will focus on the question: How can we improve our writing of research papers for professional journals (e.g., Landscape Ecology) to increase their readability and facilitate the process of their evaluation? Obviously, this is not a new question; nor do I promise to have revolutionary answers. The main goal here is to discuss several key issues on the organization of research papers-particularly on the structure of IMRAD (Introduction-Methods-Results-and-Discussion)-the predominant format of scientific writing. Specific examples will be provided to illustrate key points.
