Abstract
Most medical writers cut their teeth on manuscripts, and these documents are often mistakenly believed to be ‘easy’ to write. However, the truth is that with all documents, they are easy to write badly but require skill and knowledge to write well. A quick scan of any journal will quickly (and depressingly!) reveal the sheer number of poor quality manuscripts in circulation.
Producing a high quality manuscript from a clinical study report can be even more challenging. Not only do writers have to deal with the report itself, which may be of “less than ideal” quality, but they then have to tease out the vital messages from what may be a tangle embedded in the report, and also juggle the team – all of whom may be pursuing their own agenda for the manuscript.
In this issue, Michael Riley gives us his top tips for navigating these tricky waters. With many years of experience honing the skills needed to produce clear, accurate and ethically sound manuscripts, Mike is ideally placed to lay out the pitfalls and suggest how to avoid them when writing manuscripts from clinical study reports. His article has something for every - one, even if you have been writing manuscripts for years.
It only leaves me to wish you the best wishes for the season – a happy and healthy 2017, and in the words of Irving Berlin “may your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white”.
Bestest.
Lisa
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References
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- Kallestinova ED. How to write your first research paper. Yale J Biol Med. 2011 Sep;84(3):181-90.
- Hopewell S, Dutton S, Yu LM, Altman DG. The quality of reports of randomised trials in 2000 and 2006: comparative study of articles indexed in PubMed. BMJ 2010;340:c723.
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