Interlude: Word Count, Biographical Sketches, and Co-Authorship

Here's my latest curated round-up of the best tips, tools, and resources on scientific and medical writing.

💌 Round-up

💻 From My Desk

10 More Ways to Reduce Your Word Count in Academic Writing
As an academic author (regardless of your field), you will face the challenge of meeting a word, page, or character limit in your writing. I love this challenge and have already shared some of my tricks for cutting the word count. This article has become overwhelmingly popular, so I put together a list of even more ways to reduce the word count of your writing.

These Terms Best Describe Death in Your Scientific and Medical Writing
When some authors describe death, they use mild or indirect words to avoid words that might seem too harsh or direct. Although these substitutions may be preferred in social situations, direct language is preferred in the sciences. This article describes which words are best to use when describing death in biomedical research.

👓 Reading

Upcoming Changes to the Biographical Sketch and Other Support Format Page for Due Dates on or after May 25, 2021
The NIH is updating the format of biographical sketches for both non-fellowship and fellowship applications. This article outlines the specific changes that go into effect next week. If you would like some help revising your biosketch to meet the new requirements, please reach out.

How to Handle Co-authorship When Not Everyone’s Research Contributions Make It into the Paper
"We conclude that the ICMJE and other organizations interested in authorship and publication ethics should consider including guidance on authorship attribution in situations where researchers contribute significantly to the research process leading up to a specific paper, but where their contribution is finally omitted."

Plain-Language Summaries: An Essential Component to Promote Knowledge Translation
"At times, it might be challenging for researchers to make their work available [and] open for interpretation by the non-scientific audience, including patients, as it could lead to misinterpretation of their work. However, misinterpretation of scientific information should be considered as an opportunity by the researchers to understand and clarify the questions that arise among non-scientific readers."

Gender Disparity in the Authorship of Biomedical Research Publications During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Observational Study
"Our findings document a decrease in the number of publications by female authors in the biomedical field during the global pandemic. This effect was particularly pronounced for papers related to COVID-19, indicating that women are producing fewer publications related to COVID-19 research. This sudden increase in the gender gap was persistent across the 10 countries with the highest number of researchers."

The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
"The PRISMA 2020 statement...includes new reporting guidance that reflects advances in methods to identify, select, appraise, and synthesise studies...this article...present[s] the PRISMA 2020 27-item checklist, an expanded checklist that details reporting recommendations for each item, the PRISMA 2020 abstract checklist, and the revised flow diagrams for original and updated reviews."

🎧 Listening

All About Grants Podcast: Loan Repayment Program - An Overview
"If a researcher can commit to performing research for at least two years in areas that NIH considers to be absolutely mission critical, then we can commit to repaying up to $50,000 per year of their qualified educational debt as well as covering resulting federal taxes..."
iTunes | MP3 | Transcript

🧰 Tools

Storytoolz
This website is my favorite tool to assess readability, especially if I am working on a lay summary. I like this tool because it measures readability with several formulas, so you can get a more accurate estimate of the readability of your writing.

💬 Quote

“Be grateful for every word you can cut.” – William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well
 

💭 Thoughts

The right solution might be expensive, but the wrong one costs a fortune.

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal