Interlude: Handwriting, Citation Cartels, and Fonts Hanging OutInboxSearch for all messages with label Inbox

In this digital era, you might be surprised to learn that the pen is mightier than the keyboard when it comes to your memory.

According to a new study, writing by hand can improve your spelling and memory recall. In the study, the research team found that brain connectivity patterns were more elaborate when writing by hand than when typing on a keyboard.

I've experienced this phenomenon firsthand. And several studies, including this one and this one, found that handwriting notes in your own words enhances your learning and understanding.

That's why I still write morning pages every day, keep a notepad and pen on my desk, and use printed checklists with notes sections while I work.

Do you still put pen to paper? How has it helped your learning and memory?

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

💌 Round-up

🎉 Featured

​Understanding Authorship in a Changing World​
I was delighted when the American Medical Writers Association invited me to help develop an authorship guide for medical writers. In this article, you can learn about the different types of authorship, the role of medical writers in authorship, and case studies that can help you navigate difficult authorship situations. Pair this article with my Best Practices to Guide Decisions of Authorship and Author Order in a Research Manuscript, and you'll have everything you need to determine authorship for your team.

👓 Reading

​Citation cartels help some mathematicians—and their universities—climb the rankings​
"Cliques of mathematicians...have been artificially boosting their colleagues’ citation counts by churning out low-quality papers that repeatedly reference their work. . . These so-called 'citation cartels' appear to be trying to improve their universities’ rankings, according to experts in publication practices. 'The stakes are high—movements in the rankings can cost or make universities tens of millions of dollars'...."

​Use of plain language summaries in anaesthesia journals​
“We found that only 30% of anaesthesia journals had easy-to-read summary articles, and only three of these were aimed specifically at non-medical/lay readers. This suggests that while some journals are starting to adopt plain language summaries, there is still a significant gap in making research accessible to a broader audience. Additionally, while there has been an increase in the publication of plain language summaries over the last decade, we found that these were mostly not published as open access.”

…Oh, and if you want to learn more about crafting plain language summaries, check out our Lay Summary Fundamentals course.

🖥️ Watching

​Fonts Hanging Out​
In this clever Instagram reel, you can watch a fun take on what a conversation might be among a group of fonts. As a fan of sans-serif fonts (particularly Helvetica), I had a good chuckle. I hope it adds a moment of fun to your day.

📝 Experiment

The next time you want to cite a reference, pause to ask yourself what your intentions are in citing that reference. Are you self-citing just to increase your citation count? Are you citing another researcher because you think they might be a reviewer for the journal? Or are you citing a reference that meaningfully supports your work and interpretations?

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal