The authors share the benefits of their almost 40 years of experience in establishing careers as freelance medical writers, providing tips for anyone interested in the profession.
The first edition of this book (titled “The Clinician’s Guide to Medical Writing”) has become a standard in its field and remains an indispensible reference for any clinician, academic physician, or health professional who wishes to hone their writing skills. However, since its publication in 2004, significant changes have taken place in the way medical professionals communicate with each other and the world. Medical Writing: A Guide for Clinicians and Academicians, 2e retains all of the fundamental writing advice of the first edition and has been expanded to include two brand new chapters: How to Write a Research Protocol (including why a research project needs a written protocol, elements of the research protocol and common problems) How to Write a Grant Proposal (including sections on government and private grant funding sources, what you need to know about grant writing, and elements of a successful grant proposal) New information is also included throughout the book on becoming a successful writer, medical tables and figures, conflict of interest and disclosures, how to review a scientific article, statistical analysis, “pay-to-publish” journal publishing, electronic submission of manuscripts, issues in medical publishing and the future of medical writing and publication. New appendices address commonly encountered research and statistical terms and memorable aphorisms regarding writing, medical and otherwise.
This book is for the clinician who wants to write. It is for the physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner who sees patients and who wants to contribute to the medical l- erature. You may be an assistant professor aspiring to p- motion or a clinician in private practice who seeks the personal enrichment that writing can bring. If you are new to medical writing or even if you have been the author of some articles or book chapters and seek to improve your abilities, this book can help you. Who am I that I can make this assertion and write this book, both fairly presumptuous? Here’s my reasoning. As a practicing physician, writing has been my avocation; unlike the authors of many other writing books, I am not a journal editor. Over 14 years in private practice and 26 years in a- demic medicine, I have written all the major models described in this book: review articles, case reports, edito- als, letters to the editor, book reviews, book chapters, edited books, authored books, and reports of clinical research st- ies. Most have been published. Not all. Perhaps my most signi?cant quali?cation is not that I have managed to p- duce a lengthy curriculum vitae. In my opinion, what is more important for you, the reader, is that I have made all the errors. That’s right, the mistakes.
Co-authored by a leading ophthalmology researcher and a professor with fifteen years of experience teaching writing in the biomedical sciences, The Biomedical Writer addresses ways to use psychology and neuroscience to equip researchers and clinicians with an understanding of how effects like priming, primacy, recency, framing, and apparent paradoxes can make or break your articles and grant proposals. The Biomedical Writer covers everything from making sentences readable, effective, and memorable to working with collaborators under unforgiving deadlines. Going far beyond the basic structure and content of manuscripts and proposals, this guide to writing in biomedicine also focuses on topics that include handling negative results and the most important and neglected step in submitting manuscripts to journals.
A document may be based on accurate medical and scientific information, follow guidelines precisely, and be well written in clear and correct language, but may still fail to achieve its objectives. The strategic approach described in this book will help you to turn good medical and scientific writing into successful writing. It describes clearly and concisely how to identify the target audience and the desired outcome, and how to construct key messages for a wide spectrum of documents. Irrespective of your level of expertise and your seniority in the pharmaceutical, regulatory, or academic environment, this book is an essential addition to your supporting library. The authors share with you many years of combined experience in the pharmaceutical and academic environment and in the writing of successful outcome-driven documents.
A guide through the maze of the pharmaceutical research and development process, Medical Writing in Drug Development fills a gap in the libraries of technical writers, college instructors, and corporate professionals associated with the pharmaceutical process. As it discusses critical information, such as strategies and techniques pivotal to crafting documents for drug development, it also overviews drug research, document types, the roles of professional writers, and information technology. In no time at all, you will be creating persuasive technical documents, building complex facts into coherent messages, and contributing to the effective marketing of new products with promotional pieces that meet legal and ethical standards. Medical Writing in Drug Development helps medical writers and scientific, regulatory, and marketing professionals develop a working knowledge of the technical documents crucial to successful drug research. New and seasoned professional writers alike will benefit from the book's detailed discussions of: using abstracts, slides, and posters to present up-to-the-minute research how patient-education materials, health-economic assessments, and electronic journals provide ongoing challenges in medical writing a dossier approach that expedites regulatory submissions for international drug development structural constraints and rhetorical approaches toward regulatory documents presenting intricate information in scientifically unbiased, yet technically convincing language the effects of electronic publishing, computer graphics, and related technology on the practice of medical writing within pharmaceutical research Practical as a foundation text for undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in pharmaceutical or medical technical writing, Medical Writing in Drug Development will help you develop practical strategies for handling journal manuscripts, conference materials, and promotional pieces. No other text will clarify the main aspects of the pharmaceutical research and development process while offering you insight on the key issues dominating the healthcare arena.
This book guides medical researchers through all stages of transforming their scientific data and ideas into a published paper. Many researchers in medicine, including the life sciences and health sciences, struggle to get their research written and published. Manuscripts are typically rejected and/or sent back for revisions several times before ever being published. One reason for this is that researchers have not received much instruction in the specific subjects and skills needed to write and publish scientific medical papers: research methodology, ethics, statistics, data visualization, writing, revising, and the practicalities of publishing. Instead of wasting the reader’s time discussing trivialities of punctuation, spelling, etc., this book tackles all the major scientific issues that routinely lead to manuscripts getting rejected from the journals. The section “Preparing” covers the range of methodological, ethical, and practical aspects that researchers need to address before starting to write their paper. The section “Analyzing” reviews commonplace problems in the statistical analysis and presentation, and how to resolve those problems. The section “Drafting” describes what to write in all the various parts of a paper (the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Abstract, etc.) The section “Revising” explains and illustrates how to improve the writing style of any manuscript. The section “Publishing” discusses how to navigate the peer review process and all other practical aspects of the publishing phase. This book draws on the author’s decade of experience as an independent medical writer and research consultant, but it is not written merely as the personal opinion of yet another expert. The entire book is grounded in the existing scientific and scholarly literature, with extensive references and a lengthy annotated bibliography, so readers can quickly obtain more information on any aspect they want. Thus this book provides a more evidence-based, scholarly account of how medical scientific papers should be written, in order to improve medical communication and accelerate scientific progress. After reading this entire book cover to cover, medical researchers will know how to write better quality medical papers, and they will be able to publish their work in better journals with less time and struggle. This book is essential reading for anyone conducting research in clinical medicine, life sciences, or health sciences.
This book presents must-know facts generally not covered in “How To” books about medical writing. Every medical writer, whether a beginner or veteran, needs answers to questions many might not even know to ask. How does your personality type influence your writing behavior, and what can you do to make writing easier for you? What should you ask before agreeing to co-author an article for publication or write a book chapter? What are some of the current issues regarding copyright and plagiarism that authors may face? What has research discovered about the quotations and references found in journal articles? What do you need to know about open access journals and predatory publishers? Dr. Taylor tells some surprising truths about medical publishing, including possible sources of peer review bias and some alarming influences on what ends up in print. He also relates little-known stories about renowned medical writers such as Sir William Osler, William Carlos Williams and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the origins of some of medicine’s classic publications. What Every Medical Writer Needs to Know provides information vital for every health care professional who aspires to write for others to read: academicians and practicing physicians; nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants; and professional medical and scientific writers.