Research articles are the most important way to broadcast science among the specialized journals. Many of the articles submitted to publication in Horticultura Brasileira follow established guidelines, but show format problems, such as size (too long or too short), abstracts in Portuguese and English different in content and size, lack of proportion among the article sections, excess of tables and figures or inadequate size of illustrations. A survey on ten articles published in 2000 and 2001 by Horticultura Brasileira, Fitopatologia Brasileira, HortScience and Plant Disease journals showed an interesting statistical tendency, considered here as an "ideal" article for size and format. The following averages were obtained: title, 14 words; author number, 4; institutions, 2; keywords (in English and Portuguese), 3; abstract (in English and Portuguese), respectively 202 and 200 words; introduction, 470 words; material and methods, 640 words; results and discussion, 890 words; number of cited articles, 24; number of tables and figures, 2-3; number of published pages, 5. This proportion can only serve as a model or a practical guide considering the size and the format of a scientific article. An adequate presentation of an article and a good scientific quality can speed the publishing process, and please more readers.
scientific writing; format; structure
