Which section of a scientific manuscript should the inclusion/exclusion criteria fall under?

Which section of a scientific manuscript should the inclusion/exclusion criteria fall under?

• A. Methods
• B. Results
• C. Discussion
• D. Abstract

Answer: (A)

Inclusion and exclusion criteria are part of describing how the study was conducted. They define who was eligible to participate and who was not, which lays out the exact process used to select the study population. That procedural clarity belongs in the Methods section, where the design, setting, participants, and procedures are explained, so other researchers can assess validity and replicate the work. These criteria help readers judge internal validity and generalizability, and they often appear alongside a “Participants” or “Study Population” subsection. They aren’t placed in results, because results report what happened, not how participants were chosen; they aren’t in discussion, which focuses on interpretation, nor in the abstract, which provides a brief summary and typically cannot convey the full eligibility criteria. In trials, you may also see a CONSORT flow diagram showing how many were screened and excluded, but the actual criteria are described in the Methods.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria are part of describing how the study was conducted. They define who was eligible to participate and who was not, which lays out the exact process used to select the study population. That procedural clarity belongs in the Methods section, where the design, setting, participants, and procedures are explained, so other researchers can assess validity and replicate the work. These criteria help readers judge internal validity and generalizability, and they often appear alongside a “Participants” or “Study Population” subsection. They aren’t placed in results, because results report what happened, not how participants were chosen; they aren’t in discussion, which focuses on interpretation, nor in the abstract, which provides a brief summary and typically cannot convey the full eligibility criteria. In trials, you may also see a CONSORT flow diagram showing how many were screened and excluded, but the actual criteria are described in the Methods.