Effective writing and publishing scientific papers, part III: introduction

Today many editors (and reviewers) of empirical papers prefer short and focused introductions. The purpose of the introduction is to give the reader the essential information to understand why you did the study and to state the research question. It establishes the context of the work being presented by summarizing the relevant literature to date (with references) and the current views on the problem you investigated. The introduction must allow readers to understand the biological, clinical, or methodological rationale for your study.