Preparation of a scientific paper on clinical laser research or applications: pitfalls and how to avoid them

It is said that clinicians today learn less and less about more and more until they end up knowing nothing abouteverything, whereas researchers learn more and more about less and less until they end up knowing everything aboutnothing. This is a phenomenon which is slowly creeping into the field of clinical applications and basic research in lasersurgery and laser therapy. This trend is definitely to be discouraged, as it will effectively narrow the scope of bothclinicians and researchers at a time when the scope needs to be expanded just as appropriate applications in lasersurgery, and bona fide applications for laser therapy are also expanding. "Publish, or be damned" is a well-knowndictum in the heady halls of academe. Unfortunately, for many of the papers which are submitted on laser applicationsbut which do not reach the pages of the target journal, and indeed for some papers which are published elsewhere byjournals which should know a little better, or should at least have done their homework, the saying should perhaps beamended to; "Publish and be damned," meaning that the papers actually do more harm than good to the cause of lasersin medical science.Key words: How to write a scientific paper, ideal scientific research, article lay-out, material and methods, type oflaser, dosageCorrespondence address