Interlude: Adaptability, Credibility, and Reliability

I love trail running. And a few months ago, I set a goal to run a half marathon (self-supported).

This isn't a new goal for me. I've trained to run a half marathon a few times and was sidelined by aggravating old injuries or getting new ones (I had no idea how much I used my toes until I broke one!).

This time around, I took things slower to avoid injuries. But a few weeks before my planned half marathon, I lost a loved one, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to stick to my training schedule in the coming weeks. So a few days later, I extended my planned 11-mile run to a half marathon. And I completed it!

Why am I sharing this story?

Because when we set goals—running, writing, or otherwise—and make plans to achieve them, things may not go exactly as planned. We need to be flexible and agile so that we can adapt to the situation. And even if a task or goal may take longer than expected, or we need to speed up the timeline, we don't have to give up. We can still accomplish our goals.

“One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.” – Jack Penn

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

💌 Round-up

🎉 Featured

3 Common Phrases That Tarnish Credibility in Medical Writing​
I'm thrilled to share my latest publication in the AMWA Journal. In the article, you'll learn three common phrases that can tarnish your credibility—and how to fix them to make your credibility shine.

👓 Reading

Use of AI Is Seeping Into Academic Journals—and It’s Proving Difficult to Detect​
“If researchers use these generated responses in their work without strict vetting or disclosure, they raise major credibility issues. Not disclosing use of AI would mean authors are passing off generative AI content as their own, which could be considered plagiarism. They could also potentially be spreading AI’s hallucinations, or its uncanny ability to make things up and state them as fact.”

​Accuracy of Chatbots in Citing Journal Articles​
"Because GPT-4 cites some fake journal articles, they must be verified manually by humans; GPT-3.5–cited references should not be used...When asked why it returned fake references, ChatGPT explained that the training data may be unreliable, or the model may not be able to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources."

💬 Quote

“When one gets reports from scientists, engineers and technicians whose credibility by all common standards is high and whose moral caliber seems to preclude a hoax, one can do no less than hear them out, in all seriousness.” – J. Allen Hynek

📝 Experiment

The next time you read one of the 3 phrases that damage credibility, pause and notice how you think and feel after reading those words. Do you notice a hint of skepticism? Or a glimmer of doubt?

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal