Interlude: Journal Choice, Post vs After, and Jargon
I have exciting news! We reached an important milestone this past week. More than 500 people have joined the Redwood Ink community! I am delighted to have so many scientists, clinicians, and other academics who want to learn more about writing through this newsletter.
Do you know anyone who might be interested in joining our community? If so, please forward this email and ask them to join.
Now onto my latest curated round-up of the best tips, tools, and resources...
💌 Round-up
💻 From My Desk
How to Choose the Right Journal for Your Manuscript
Choosing a journal can be challenging for prospective authors. Where they publish can affect their professional reputation, funding opportunities, and career advancement. With these tips and resources, you can ensure you have the best chance of publishing in the best possible journal.
Why “Post” is Not a Synonym for “After”
Correct word usage can reflect your knowledge and professionalism. Lately, I've noticed more authors are incorrectly using the word post as a synonym for after. Read on to discover the difference between these terms and ensure you are using them correctly in your writing.
👓 Reading
The 17 Kinds of Hyphens You Must… Wait, Seriously, 17?
This article is educational and entertaining. "Hyphens are like little screws that hold words together. Now, if you’ve ever gone to a hardware store to buy screws, you know that there are a lot of different kinds of screws. But hyphens?"
Acknowledging professional writing support in publications – are we doing enough?
"...medical writers [and editors] should be personally acknowledged if they have: made a substantial contribution to drafting the outline or full first draft of a publication, or provided a substantial intellectual contribution to publication development."
Are You Confused by Scientific Jargon? So Are Scientists
"...papers containing higher proportions of jargon in their titles and abstracts were cited less frequently by other researchers. Science communication — with the public but also among scientists — suffers when a research paper is packed with too much specialized terminology...."
Does Your Office Have a Jargon Problem?
"...jargon sometimes functions like a fancy title, a conspicuously displayed trophy, or an expensive, branded watch — people use it to signal status and show off to others....[In the study], participants were significantly more likely to use the high-jargon pitch when they were in the lower-status condition."
Publishing at any cost: a cross-sectional study of the amount that medical researchers spend on open access publishing each year
"Medical researchers in 2019 were found to have paid between US$0 and US$34676 in total APCs [article processing charges]. As journals with APCs become more common, it is important to continue to evaluate the potential cost to researchers...."
🎧 Listening
All About Grants Podcast: Diversity Plans for Conference Applications
"The diversity plan is going to allow applicants to really focus on strategies to increase overall diversity in all aspects of the conference, including selection of the organizing committee, the panelists, [and] composition of the audience..."
iTunes | MP3 | Transcript
🧰 Tools
MeSH Database
The MeSH Database was designed to improve searches by eliminating (or accounting for) variant terminology used for the same concept. If you work in biomedical research, this tool is a great resource to help you use indexed words in your title, keywords, and other aspects of your manuscript.
💬 Quote
"A research journal serves that narrow borderland which separates the known from the unknown." – Prasanta Mahalanobis
💭 Thoughts
It's not what keeps you up at night, it's what gets you up in the morning.
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
