Interlude: Excellence, Integrity, and Popular Papers

Do you often wish that you could write the perfect first draft?

Many authors strive for perfection in their writing. Personally, I think "perfect" is unattainable for any draft, let alone a first draft.

The word "perfect" suggests that something is completely free from faults or defects. And I believe that there is always room for improvement, even if we don't see how in the moment.

Have you ever read something that you felt proud to publish only to discover a typo or other error you wish you could fix? I sure have.

So rather than strive for perfection in your writing (and life), strive for excellence. Do the very best you can do.

Now for this week's round-up...

💌 Round-up

🎉 Featured

​Most Popular Papers​
​I was delighted to discover that my article, "Inclusive Language Matters: Recommendations for Health Care Providers to Address Implicit Bias and Equitable Health Care," is among the top five most popular papers downloaded from the Journal of Maine Medical Center.

...Oh, and if you want to learn more about inclusive language, you can enroll in my Inclusive Language Course—for free!

👓 Reading

​Notice to research community: Use of generative artificial intelligence technology in the NSF merit review process​
"To safeguard the integrity of the development and evaluation of proposals in the merit review process, this memo establishes guidelines for its use by reviewers and proposers:

• NSF reviewers are prohibited from uploading any content from proposals, review information and related records to non-approved generative AI tools.

• Proposers are encouraged to indicate in the project description the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop their proposal."

​Author reports of potential conflicts of interest: room for improvement​
“Inaccurate author disclosures continue to be an issue in medical publishing. A recent study shows that most authors fail to report, or under-report, ‘potential conflicts of interest’.”

​Detecting generative artificial intelligence in scientific articles: Evasion techniques and implications for scientific integrity​
“AI detectors have low efficiency, and simple modifications can allow even the most robust detectors to be easily bypassed. The rapid development of generative AI raises questions about the future of scientific writing but also about the detection of scientific fraud, such as data fabrication.”

💭 Thoughts

Be brave enough to write a bad first draft.

Be humble enough to refine it.

📝 Experiment

The next time you sit down to write, add the statement “Strive for excellence, not perfection” to the header of your document. Then as you write the draft, you will get gentle reminders to focus on doing your best.

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal