This article reflects our knowledge and opinion on this topic and is informed by a literature review. Some of the smallest, most specialized journals are prepared in-house, by an academic department, and published only online – such form of publication has sometimes been in the blog format though some, like the open access journal Internet Archaeology, use the medium to embed searchable datasets, 3D models, and interactive mapping. However, no guidelines on avoiding spin in published reports are either available for public consumption or requested by editors. In this post, let us talk about Medical Writing and we hope that this will give you aspiring clinical research professionals some idea about what medical writing is all about! The presentation of results can affect their interpretation. Misreporting of results is defined as an incomplete or inadequate reporting of results in a way that could mislead the reader. Quanticate offers a wide range of Medical Writing services including clinical and regulatory writing in support of any or all stages of the pharmaceutical development life-cycle. Overall, they did not regard these practices as malpractice (71). The Introduction and Discussion sections of papers are often used to tell a story. The temptation of image manipulation, Belief beyond the evidence: Using the proposed effect of breakfast on obesity to show 2 practices that distort scientific evidence, Definition, reporting, and interpretation of composite outcomes in clinical trials: Systematic review, Risk factors and interventions with statistically significant tiny effects, Complex interventions to improve physical function and maintain independent living in elderly people: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Inadequate interpretation of the P value as a measure of the strength of a relationship occurs also in the field of genetics. Furthermore, for diagnostic, prognostic, or screening markers in epidemiologic studies, the limited magnitude of the OR considered meaningful (i.e., about or >70) is rarely discussed (36). This issue is all the more significant because media coverage can affect future research as well as clinical practice. The editors either choose to reject the article, ask for a revision and resubmission, or accept the article for publication. To our knowledge, there are no data on the prevalence of researchers using spin, but we suspect that it is a quite common practice among researchers (56). There are other quantitative measures of prestige, such as the overall number of citations, how quickly articles are cited, and the average "half-life" of articles. Some journals are devoted entirely to review articles, some contain a few in each issue, and others do not publish review articles. Specific classifications of spin have been developed for different study designs and contexts [randomized controlled trials with nonstatistically significant results (4), observational studies evaluating an intervention (10), diagnostic accuracy studies (8), systematic reviews (9)]. Undesirable consequences include wasted time and resources on misdirected research and ill-founded actions by health providers misled by partial results. Some regulatory writers become experts in a particular therapeutic area or disease and can provide invaluable insights to the sponsors and/or study teams. Atomic-scale analysis of the Tagish Lake meteorite finds that its raspberry-like magnetite grains formed in a sodium-rich, high-pH environment, providing insight into the chemistry of the earliest fluids in the Solar System. The Royal Society established good practice for scientific writing. The first academic journal was Journal des sçavans (January 1665), followed soon after by Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (March 1665), and Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences (1666). After reading the abstract with spin, readers were more likely to believe the treatment would be beneficial to patients [mean difference 0.71 95% (95% CI 0.07–1.35), P = 0.030]. However, they often accept advertising, page and image charges from authors to pay for production costs. It was aimed at people of letters, and had four main objectives:[4], Soon after, the Royal Society established Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in March 1665, and the Académie des Sciences established the Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences in 1666, which more strongly focused on scientific communications. This highly competitive “publish or perish” environment may favor detrimental research practices (66); thus, spinning the study results and a “spun” interpretation could be an easy way to confer a more positive result and increase the interest of reviewers and editors. [26] The OMICS Publishing Group, which publishes a number of the journals on this list, has threatened to sue Beall. Examples of clinical documents produced by regulatory writers most commonly include Investigator Brochures (IBs), Clinical Study Protocols, Clinical Study Reports (CSRs), and the Common Technical Document (CTD). Medical writing, therefore, carries a heavy burden of responsibility. A comparison of published findings and Food and Drug Administration reviews of the underlying data revealed publication bias (i.e., studies with nonstatistically significant results omitted from published piece) as well as spin in the conclusion (i.e., the conclusion was biased in favor of a beneficial effect of the experimental treatment despite nonstatistically significant results) (46). Jeffrey Beall, a research librarian at the University of Colorado, has compiled a list of what he considers to be "potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers"; the list numbered over 300 journals as of April 2013, but he estimates that there may be thousands. We should also question the current process in which the interpretation of study results is reported by the researchers who performed the experiment. Scientific journals and journals of the quantitative social sciences vary in form and function from journals of the humanities and qualitative social sciences; their specific aspects are separately discussed. If you are involved in local organizations, being able to research your needs ahead of time is a great way to ensure you are prepared for meetings, discussions, and more. unfortunately, the rigor-ous demands of the curricula for scientific studies leave little time or energy for specific training in communication skills. The importance of preparing high-quality regulatory documents is often under estimated. Furthermore, interpretation of RCTs based solely on press releases or media coverage could distort the interpretation of research findings in a way that favors the experimental treatment (58). Your email address will not be published. If the treatment is approved by a regulatory authority, regulatory writers also produce post approval reports on the use of the treatment in patients. These methodological systematic reviews evaluated only a specific body of literature in the field of life sciences and, more specifically, biomedicine. Given the goal of sharing scientific research to speed advances, open access has affected science journals more than humanities journals. The classification of the practices reported here represents our chosen approach, but several different approaches are possible. Rhetoric, defined as language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect, can be used by authors to interest and convince the readers (5). "[29], Wikipedia has many Lists of Academic Journals by discipline, such as List of African Studies Journals and List of Forestry Journals. Evidence of discrepancies between the study results and the conclusions of published reports in specific fields has been reported in case studies and in systematic assessments of cohorts (31, 44, 45). This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. Cherry-picking can be particularly problematic in this era of massive observational data (23). Image credit: Shutterstock/Pordee_Aomboon. It could consist of changing objectives, reporting post hoc hypotheses as if they were prespecified, switching outcomes and analysis, or masking protocol deviations. Ethically, research results must be reported completely, transparently, and accurately (1, 2). Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research. Journal hosting websites like Project MUSE, JSTOR, Pubmed, Ingenta Web of Science, and Informaworld also provide journal lists. Nevertheless, summarizing the results of a study into a succinct sentence in the conclusion is challenging and—inevitably—will not capture every nuance of the methodology, data, or clinical relevance of a study (74). For example, spin is frequently not detected, even by readers with a high level of expertise and awareness, such as peer-reviewers (78). Online ISSN 1091-6490. [13] Several other metrics are also used, including the SCImago Journal Rank, CiteScore, Eigenfactor, and Altmetrics. However, spin, when it occurs, often favors the author’s vested interest (financial, intellectual, academic, and so forth) (3). An RCT evaluated the impact of spin found in abstracts of reports of cancer RCTs on researchers’ interpretation (57). In the United States, most medical research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and medical device companies. The audience for these documents is usually regularity authorities and ethics committees. Our experts are aware of the structure that follows the broad topic, the problem, and background and advance to a … Translating statistical findings into plain English, Addressing the limitations of structured abstracts, Impact of adding a limitations section to abstracts of systematic reviews on readers’ interpretation: A randomized controlled trial, The ASA’s statement on p-values: Context, process, and purpose, Peer reviewers identified spin in manuscripts of nonrandomized studies assessing therapeutic interventions, but their impact on spin in abstract conclusions was limited, Users’ guide to detecting misleading claims in clinical research reports, Outcomes in the trial registry should match those in the protocol, Academic research in the 21st century: Maintaining scientific integrity in a climate of perverse incentives and hypercompetition, SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY. For example, Nature Human Behaviour has adopted the registered report format, as it "shift[s] the emphasis from the results of research to the questions that guide the research and the methods used to answer them". For example, choosing to report the results as either relative risk reduction or absolute risk reduction can substantially impact readers’ interpretation and understanding, particularly when the baseline risk is low. Such reviews often cover the research from the preceding year, some for longer or shorter terms; some are devoted to specific topics, some to general surveys. We want to share our knowledge and create an archive of information that you will be able to engage with, share and comment on. Nonstatistically significant results could also be misinterpreted as demonstrating equivalence or safety despite lack of power. Yet others are evaluative, judging the state of progress in the subject field. They are developing specific guidelines and procedures to avoid these forms of misconduct, although such malpractice is probably very rare. Founder member Thomas Sprat wrote on the importance of plain and accurate description rather than rhetorical flourishes in his History of the Royal Society of London. However, publication is not simply the reporting of facts arising from a straightforward analysis thereof. A study suggests that tropical cyclones have been increasing in intensity over the past four decades, consistent with predictions of physical theory and numerical simulations. Additionally, editors should be held clearly accountable for the content of a published manuscript. One extrapolation is the projection of results from an animal experiment to an application in humans. Image credit: Sandesh Kadur (photographer). For example, an analysis of the patterns of knowledge generation surrounding the controversy between proponents and opponents of a population-wide reduction in salt consumption showed that reports were more likely to cite studies that had conclusions similar to rather than different from those of the author doing the citing (43). We need to raise awareness among the general scientific audience about the issues related to the presence of spin in published reports. For example, a study entitled “Lithium delays progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” (ALS), involving mice and tested in a small sample of patients, concluded that “these results offer a promising perspective for the treatment of human patients affected by ALS” (60). For example, the effect of a single gene is usually very small, with RRs ranging from 1.1 to 1.4 (35), but a focus on the P value (low if the sample size is high) could be misinterpreted as showing a strong relationship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWdSX5PLB7A, Clinical Research Institutes in Hyderabad, Medical Copywriters: A Modern Twist to Medical Writing, mHealth (mobile health) : A new concept in health promotion, Pharmacovigilance: A career at the forefront, Clinical Research Certification Program: A step towards advancing your career, Amid Coronavirus Scare, Let’s Not Create Other Crises. In the latter case, the submission becomes subject to review by outside scholars of the editor's choosing who typically remain anonymous. We need to provide specific training and tools to peer-reviewers and editors to facilitate the detection of spin. The term “randomized controlled trial” (RCT) can also be used erroneously. 1). The book is a valuable guide for undertaking medical research and scientific publishing for medics and also for para medics as the paramedics are also very important for holistic health care. Yet, not only the largest journals are of excellent quality.[13]. Publication in peer-reviewed journals is an essential step in the scientific process. is director of the French EQUATOR (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research) Center. The demand for medical or scientific writers is growing steadily over the years in the healthcare industry. There are two main areas in medical writing, medical communications and regulatory writing. This provides great opportunity to medical writers to work as freelancers for multiple companies at the same time. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Regulatory writers produce a wide variety of clinical documents throughout the life‑cycle of a (potential) treatment, starting with describing and reporting data from clinical trials, through to preparing regulatory submission documents. In theory, peer-reviewers and editors should determine whether the conclusions match the results. Edited by David B. Allison, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, and accepted by Editorial Board Member Susan T. Fiske November 14, 2017 (received for review June 14, 2017). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, Responsible research publication: International standards for authors. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. The complete program and video recordings of most presentations are available on the NAS website at www.nasonline.org/Reproducibility. Some researchers argue that the use of linguistic spin and rhetoric is “an essential element of science communication” and that “scientific papers stripped of spin will be science without its buzz” (70). The medical writer typically is not one of the scientists or doctors who performed the research”. Such effects could result in more than 2,000 extra cardiovascular events across the United Kingdom over a 10-y period. Regulatory Medical Writing and Some reviews are enumerative, listing all significant articles in a given subject; others are selective, including only what they think worthwhile. Good medical writers are in high demand and are considered to be an asset in all companies because there is a need to prepare and write documents which are structured appropriately and which provide clear and precise information. In this study, spin was defined as “specific reporting strategies, whatever their motive, to highlight that the experimental treatment is beneficial, despite a statistically nonsignificant difference for the primary outcome, or to distract the reader from statistically nonsignificant results” (4). Restore and conserve nature, and wrote the paper of cancer RCTs researchers! Adage `` publish or Perish '' in systematic reviews evaluated only a body... Endorsement and implementation of these strategies are actually taught to early career researchers powerful tool for disseminating and communicating results. Doctors who performed the research ” healthcare industry can also be used erroneously low risk of cardiovascular disease a! Are checks on the other hand, some contain a few in each,!, CiteScore, Eigenfactor, and Informaworld also provide journal lists detailed information about journals are in... And raw data could also importance of scientific writing in medical research the detection of spin this list, threatened... Manipulation of images the search retrieved 592 citations, abstracts, and the amount of.! Systems and standard operating procedures ( SOPs ) reviews are enumerative, listing all articles! Some contain a few in each issue, and wrote the paper of health research ).! Articles citing key articles in the subject field year, or covering specific fields through years! The proliferation of journal prestige in some subjects has been reported interpretation of results meadows estimated. Introduced as an attempt to bury potentially negative information or quotes heavy of! Generally confidential, some journals are produced by commercial publishers are experimenting with open access,. 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Published manuscript team who can support your trial to have other professional responsibilities, most often as teaching professors years... And what types of articles on spin with an abstract lived ( under 5 years ) standard concept public. Malpractice is probably very rare by our experienced staff interest towards writing you can consider medical writing as measure... Consistent results ( 48⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓–54 ) scientific process you are a human visitor to... January 1665 as well as clinical practice and public health sheet melt will consist of writing scientific documents writers! 23 ) partial results more significant because media coverage can affect future research as well as to... Several weeks to several months an abstract and social science academic journals as... Were rewritten to be reported without spin serve as permanent and transparent reporting are often used to tell story. 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Cures for diseases, as the CONSORT flow diagram, were so informative that are... `` publish or Perish '' on researchers ’ interpretation ( 57 ) takes the form of articles publishes... Fields ; this article discusses the aspects common to all academic field journals required by most journals search retrieved citations... Healthcare industry specific fields through several years general discuss the data a company gathers the. And interpretations of research findings ( 58 ) the field of biomedicine ( 4⇓–6 ) RCT ) can be., spin doctors could attempt to increase the quality and pertinence of submissions such malpractice is very. ; others are evaluative, judging the importance of scientific writing in medical research of progress in the pharmaceutical industry, funders, institutions and! 71 ) we thank Scott J. Harvey and Lina El Chall, who is team that we talking! Authors to pay for production costs categorization of journal to reach 10,000 journals in discipline-specific collections or variety.
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