A Methods or Design Paper describes in detail the study design, i.e., the research methods and data sources, of a proposed study.

The study design is the basis of the research project, i.e. the detailed plan of a particular study. After the research topic has been defined, the specific research question is formulated. The methods of the planned study are usually derived from this, such as the type of study, the design of the data collection, the determination of the evaluation and the presentation of the results.

Medical writing refers to the writing of medical texts, while scientific writing describes much more generally the writing of scientific texts from a wide variety of research areas. Medical writing can therefore be understood as a special thematically limited area of scientific writing.