Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A completed IMRaD-structured (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) write-up of a clinical trial's results, submitted to a medical journal's editorial system and currently out for peer review, is a manuscript. It stays a manuscript through however many rounds of reviewer comments and author revisions the journal requires.
- Is an instance
A humanities scholar's finished article on a historical topic, submitted to a university press journal along with a cover letter and formatted per the journal's author guidelines, is a manuscript from the moment of submission, regardless of field — the term is not specific to STEM or IMRaD-structured work.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A working draft that two co-authors are still editing between themselves, with no submission to any journal or venue yet planned, is typically called a draft, not a manuscript, in most journal and funder usage — the term implies the document has entered, or is about to enter, an external editorial process.
- Not an instance
A preprint posted to a server such as arXiv, bioRxiv, or medRxiv is a distinct concept: some preprints are also, simultaneously, in submission as a manuscript at a journal, but the preprint itself — a publicly posted, unreviewed version — is not what editorial systems mean by "manuscript," and not every preprint is ever submitted anywhere as one. See CASRAI's <a href='/dictionary/term/preprint'>preprint</a> entry for the distinction.
- Not an instance
In library, archival, and historical usage, "manuscript" often means something entirely different — a handwritten or unpublished historical document held in a special collection. That older, non-research sense of the word is unrelated to the journal-submission meaning defined on this page, and readers researching that sense should look to archival-science rather than scholarly-publishing sources.
Editorial commentary
Research administrators, journal editorial staff, and researchers use “manuscript” as a precise stage marker in the publication lifecycle, not as a loose synonym for “paper” or “article.” Getting the boundary right matters for practical reasons: many funder and institutional policies (for example, NIH and other public-access mandates) attach specific obligations to specific stages — typically to the author accepted manuscript, the peer-reviewed version accepted by a journal but not yet copyedited or typeset — and using “manuscript” loosely to mean any of these stages can lead to depositing the wrong version, or missing a deposit deadline that is defined relative to acceptance.
Where “manuscript” sits in the publication lifecycle
A typical progression looks like: draft → manuscript (submitted, then under review, then through one or more revision rounds) → accepted manuscript → author accepted manuscript (post-peer-review, pre-copyedit) → version of record (the final, published, typeset article). “Manuscript” specifically covers the submitted-through-under-review portion of that timeline. A preprint can run in parallel to any point in this timeline — some fields and journals explicitly permit posting a preprint of a manuscript that is simultaneously under journal review, while others restrict or prohibit it, so authors should check target-journal policy before posting.
Structure
Most manuscripts in the sciences follow, or adapt, the IMRaD pattern (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion), a structure the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations describe in detail for biomedical journals; many social-science and humanities fields use related but not identical conventions. CASRAI’s guide to manuscript writing walks through each section — title, abstract, methods, results, discussion, and the disclosures and formatting a manuscript needs before submission — in the practical order authors typically draft them.
Related process
Once submitted, a manuscript enters editorial and peer review, coordinated by the corresponding author on behalf of the author team. CASRAI’s manuscript submission process guide covers what happens between submission and an editorial decision.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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"description": "<p>A <strong>research manuscript</strong> is the complete, submission-ready written account of a study — background, methods, results, and discussion (or the equivalent structure for the field) — that an author submits to a journal, conference, or other venue for editorial and peer review, before it has been accepted, copyedited, or published. The term marks a <em>stage</em> in the publication lifecycle, not a content type: the same underlying work is a manuscript from first submission through any round of revision, and stops being called a manuscript once it is accepted and moves toward publication, at which point more specific terms apply — <a href='/dictionary/term/author-accepted-manuscript'>author accepted manuscript (AAM)</a> for the peer-reviewed, accepted-but-not-yet-typeset version, and <a href='/dictionary/term/version-of-record'>version of record (VoR)</a> for the final published form. A document only counts as a research manuscript if it is (a) a structured, complete write-up of original research or scholarship, and (b) has been or is intended to be submitted somewhere for editorial evaluation. A rough draft circulated only among co-authors, or a <a href='/dictionary/term/preprint'>preprint</a> posted to a server outside any journal's review process, are related but distinct in most editorial and funder usage — see the counter-examples below.</p>",
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