Welcome back!
I happened to read Barbara Gastel's post titled 'What is the Right Reference Format?'. Interesting read.
"Different journals have different formats for citing references in text," she writes. Read her blog to get an idea of what she means.
She understands that it might have been easier to use one standard referencing format across different journals. But in reality, different journals use different styles. So what do you do as an author?
Read the instructions to authors carefully. Read some examples from the journal to get a hang of it.
Another thing you could try is this. Use a referencing library software for your next project. You can then change the referencing style with just a click of a button.
When you submit to the journal, you may have to send a document in plain text format. But you can always save a copy with the hyperlinks intact and change the style using the software if you ever need to submit the same article to another journal.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
My writers hate me, don't they?
Sometimes I make a document go back and forth to the writer so many times that I often wonder if they hate me for being so particular about changes I want in the document before it is sent to the client.
An article that should have been ready in a week's time took much longer...but phew, it is ready and looks fine to me!!
Dear writer, hate me if you will...but I want my client to love us for the work we deliver.
An article that should have been ready in a week's time took much longer...but phew, it is ready and looks fine to me!!
Dear writer, hate me if you will...but I want my client to love us for the work we deliver.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Medical Writing in India: the 2013 Survey
We are at it again!
Here's the form. You can fill it up from right here and submit if you haven't yet received an email from us. Please be very careful about not attempting this survey if you are not a medical writer in India.
In 2008, I had conducted a survey on medical writing in India. Part of the survey was presented that year at the 68th annual conference of AMWA.
It showed that unlike in the West, the medical writers in India were incredibly qualified. Over 90% of them were from the life sciences background...something you do not see in US or UK.
Is the trend changing? Are more and more people with journalism background entering the field? Where do most medical writers in India work? Are most of them on staff jobs or working as freelance? How much does as average medical writer in India earn? Are most medical writers in India males or females?
Help us find that out. Sauren and I are trying to figure out how the scenario has changed over the last 5 years. Please participate in this 10 min survey to help us understand the medical writing industry in the country better.
Here's the form. You can fill it up from right here and submit if you haven't yet received an email from us. Please be very careful about not attempting this survey if you are not a medical writer in India.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Tip #2: 'Sight', 'Site', or 'Cite'?
The Author AID "Sentence of the Week" for this week was:
When writing a journal article, be sure to site references correctly.
Reader's were asked to find at least 1 definite error in that sentence.
That got me thinking about publishing a post on the use of the three words, 'sight', 'site', and 'cite'. They all sound very similar but have totally different usages.
The correct word for the above example is 'cite', which means 'to mention' or 'to quote'. The correct sentence is:
When writing a journal article, be sure to cite references correctly.
'Site', on the other hand, means 'a place or location'. A 'website' is a location on the 'web' or the Internet.
The word 'sight' is used in relation to vision or seeing.
Here's an example:
What a beautiful sight! This is a good site for a family picnic. I remember it being cited on a hiker's website.
I hope you were able to detect at least 1 definite error in a sentence in this blog. If you did, I would love to hear from you.
When writing a journal article, be sure to site references correctly.
Reader's were asked to find at least 1 definite error in that sentence.
That got me thinking about publishing a post on the use of the three words, 'sight', 'site', and 'cite'. They all sound very similar but have totally different usages.
The correct word for the above example is 'cite', which means 'to mention' or 'to quote'. The correct sentence is:
When writing a journal article, be sure to cite references correctly.
'Site', on the other hand, means 'a place or location'. A 'website' is a location on the 'web' or the Internet.
The word 'sight' is used in relation to vision or seeing.
Here's an example:
What a beautiful sight! This is a good site for a family picnic. I remember it being cited on a hiker's website.
I hope you were able to detect at least 1 definite error in a sentence in this blog. If you did, I would love to hear from you.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
About a Forthcoming Medical Writing Workshop
I was going through the Scientific Agenda for a medical writing workshop I am attending. Thought you might be interested to hear about it.
This workshop is part of the 28th ICON Meeting conducted by the Indian Cooperative Oncology Network (ICON). The workshop in on Friay, the 5th of April, 2013 at Mumbai. There are several sessions on:
Click on the link below to read the full agenda.
Scientific Agenda of the Medical Writing Workshop at the 28th ICON Meeting
This workshop is part of the 28th ICON Meeting conducted by the Indian Cooperative Oncology Network (ICON). The workshop in on Friay, the 5th of April, 2013 at Mumbai. There are several sessions on:
- How to Write an Original Article
- Intricacies of Publishing
- PubMed Tutorial
- Workshop on Reference Management
Click on the link below to read the full agenda.
Scientific Agenda of the Medical Writing Workshop at the 28th ICON Meeting
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tip #1 Use a Citation Manager Software
In April this year, I am speaking to a group of oncologists in Mumbai about using reference software for their articles. Very few people in India currently use a reference software to manage their citations. But the trend is changing.
Last September I attended my first workshop on referencing software. Everyone present really loved the idea of having to do away with manual referencing.
I use the EndNote library (ENL) citation manager. The price of the current X6 version is around 250 USD. It may sound like too much for a writer in India. But once you use it you will absolutely love it. You will forget manual referencing forever. That's for sure.
Some friends of mine use RefMan. They find that really helpful.
A friend of mine uses the free software Zotero and says it is equally good. I haven't used Zotero. Cannot comment on it.
Here's a tutorial about ENL that I found awesome. This is just a 7 min video. There are longer ones available on YouTube for those interested in the details.
Here's my medical writing tip #1. Use a citation manager and know the difference. If you cannot afford a paid software right away, start with a free software. Once you get the hang of it, you might want to use a paid one for the additional support it provides.
How do you manage your citations? Have you switched to a software or do you find manual referencing comfortable? What software do you use? If you are using a software to manage references, we would love to hear your experiences.
Last September I attended my first workshop on referencing software. Everyone present really loved the idea of having to do away with manual referencing.
| Does working with reference and citations manually give you a headache? |
Some friends of mine use RefMan. They find that really helpful.
A friend of mine uses the free software Zotero and says it is equally good. I haven't used Zotero. Cannot comment on it.
Here's a tutorial about ENL that I found awesome. This is just a 7 min video. There are longer ones available on YouTube for those interested in the details.
Here's my medical writing tip #1. Use a citation manager and know the difference. If you cannot afford a paid software right away, start with a free software. Once you get the hang of it, you might want to use a paid one for the additional support it provides.
How do you manage your citations? Have you switched to a software or do you find manual referencing comfortable? What software do you use? If you are using a software to manage references, we would love to hear your experiences.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Medical Writing Workshop in Odisha
All India Medical Writers Association (AIMWA) recently conducted its first medical writing workshop in the eastern sector.
It was a two day workshop in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar (IIPH-B) with the support of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). The Indian Institute of Public Health is an initiative started by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). It is a new institute...only about a couple of years into its existence in Bhubaneswar.
Dr Sanghamitra Pati of IIPH-B and I got to meet through the Author AID forum. Soon, we realized that both Dr Pati and I wanted to do something for our state, Odisha in the form of scientific writing workshop. While I was on a personal visit to Odisha last summer, she invited me to speak on "Writing a Scientific Manuscript and Getting Published". This was during a workshop on Research Methodologies at IIPH-B. It was short talk of about half an hour.
Ever since then we had been wanting to conduct a standalone scientific writing workshop at Bhubaneswar or Cuttack. Without a partial funding by ICMR, I am not sure we could have arranged for such a successful workshop.
IIPH-B offered its conference room as the venue. They also managed all the logistics. AIMWA helped in arranging for speakers on various topics.
The topics we touched upon during the 2-day workshop included:
It was a two day workshop in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar (IIPH-B) with the support of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). The Indian Institute of Public Health is an initiative started by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). It is a new institute...only about a couple of years into its existence in Bhubaneswar.
Dr Sanghamitra Pati of IIPH-B and I got to meet through the Author AID forum. Soon, we realized that both Dr Pati and I wanted to do something for our state, Odisha in the form of scientific writing workshop. While I was on a personal visit to Odisha last summer, she invited me to speak on "Writing a Scientific Manuscript and Getting Published". This was during a workshop on Research Methodologies at IIPH-B. It was short talk of about half an hour.
Ever since then we had been wanting to conduct a standalone scientific writing workshop at Bhubaneswar or Cuttack. Without a partial funding by ICMR, I am not sure we could have arranged for such a successful workshop.
IIPH-B offered its conference room as the venue. They also managed all the logistics. AIMWA helped in arranging for speakers on various topics.
The topics we touched upon during the 2-day workshop included:
- Medical Writing Basics
- Ethics in Scientific Writing
- Preparing for Publication
- Writing an Original Research Article
- Literature Search
- Referencing Styles and Software (demo)
- Writing a Narrative Review Article
- Writing a Case Report
We wanted to limit the seats to 25. But there was such an overwhelming response that we had to accommodate 40 participants. We hope to come back to Odisha again soon with a more extensive workshop that focuses on limited topics.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)