Is it Retracted? Check Before You Cite.
It’s rare, but it happens. A very small fraction (about 4 in 10,000) of peer-reviewed manuscripts are retracted – papers that are withdrawn from their original publication. Some are retracted …
How Medical Communicators Can Counteract Gender Bias in STEM
Did you know that 52% of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and medicine) fields report experiencing gender bias, while only 2% of men in STEM do? My colleague, Priyanka …
Updated Guidelines From ICMJE for Medical Publications
It’s December so that must mean another update from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on their guidelines for peer-reviewed medical publications. (The ICMJE guidelines are one of …
Less Text, More Pictures – Visual Abstracts
In the fast-paced world in which we live, it seems that nobody has time to read a full research article any more. With so much reading done on mobile screens …
Updated Publishing Guidelines – What’s New
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recently updated their guidelines for publishing in the scientific literature. The ICMJE guidelines, or as they’re more formally known “Recommendations for the …
Guidelines for Conference Materials
A group of colleagues working in the medical publications field just posted a preprint (not peer-reviewed) manuscript on Good Practice for Conference Abstracts and Presentations (GP-CAP). The paper works off …
Beware the Dark Side (of scientific publishing)
There are many reputable publishers and journals for peer-reviewed manuscripts, many of which offer open access publishing options (what is open access?). There are also many questionable journals out there (so-called “predatory …
New Position Statement on the Role of Medical Writers
The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), European Medical Writers Association (EMWA), and International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) today released a Joint Position Statement on the Role of Professional …
Why publication guidelines were made
Ah, times have changed. An article in JAMA Internal Medicine reveals the practices that led to the 1967 publication of a 2-part literature review on “Dietary Fats, Carbohydrates and Atherosclerotic …
Quick (and easy) ideas to improve your writing
Recently, an investigator came to me frustrated with the quality of scientific writing that was being produced by his laboratory members. At least a few times a year, I hear …