Writing a Biomedical Research Paper

This book is organized as a guide to writing a biomedical research article, focusing on the writing and submission of manuscripts for research articles. Chapters are arranged according to the sequence of tasks in creating a successful research article.

All of us in biomedicine understand the urgency of getting experimental results into print as quickly as possible. Yet this critical step in the cascade from research conception to publication receives almost no attention in our formal training. It is as if we have been put to sea without a compass. Our collective failure to achieve widespread literacy in our own language Biomedical Language seriously impedes the important process of d- seminating new biomedical knowledge and thereby improving the human condition. It is also a significant personal concern for researchers and clinicians in the highly competitive, publish-or-perish environment of c- temporary academia. Of course, if we are clever or lucky enough to come up with that Nobel Prize-winning discovery, great science will carry the day and we are likely to get published even if our writing is fairly horrid. But most of us who publish are bread-and-butter scientists. We compete for space in journals which may only accept 10% or 20% of the submissions that they receive each year. For us, convincing, engaging writing will make the difference between being published or rejected, or at least it will make the difference between being published on ? rst submission or having to go through a number of revisions (or journals). None of this is to propose that good writing can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Scienti? c content is the sine qua non of biomedical writing.

Focuses very precisely on the biomedical research article. Biomedical language is quite different in many respects from general English and other scientific dialects, and so biomedical language deserves to be treated separately Deals with research articles, the publications which biomedical scientists have to produce in order to keep their jobs Derived largely from analyses of biomedical corpora. Hence, the advice offered is evidence-based rather than opinion-based, and is derived from examination of successful biomedical writing, i.e. that which has been published in peer-reviewed journals Web-based resources are available for exercises Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Dr. Budgell is a career neuroscientist with more than 30 journal publications and a half-dozen book chapters to his credit. He has also edited textbooks, and a recent encyclopedia on neuroscience. His interest in biomedical and health linguistics developed from experiences assisting colleagues, especially in Japan and China. To this end, he has collaborated in assembling and conducting linguistic analyses of collections of the literature of nursing, public health and midwifery. His funded research in this area has led to the creation of the web-based Centre for Biomedical and Health Linguistics to assist teachers and learners. The Centre's open-access resources are available at http://www.bmhlinguistics.org

Recent publications and conference presentations related to his research include:

Budgell B, Miyazaki M, O'Brien M, Perkins R, Tanaka Y. Developing a corpus of the nursing literature: a pilot study. Japan Journal of Nursing Science 2007;4:21-25.

Millar N, Budgell B. The language of public health - The language of public health a corpus-based analysis. The Journal of Public Health 2008;16(5):369-374.

Perkins R, Budgell B, Miyazaki M, O'Brien M, Tanaka Y. Assessing Biomedical English Competency: A Fair, Valid, Sensitive, and Approach. In: International Medical Education Conference; 2007; Kuala Lumpur; International Medical University; 2007. p. A39.

Budgell B, Miyazaki M, O'Brien M, Perkins R, Tanaka Y. Our Shared Biomedical Language. In: International Medical Education Conference; 2007; Kuala Lumpur: International Medical University; 2007. p. A17.

Tanaka Y, Miyazaki M, Budgell B, O'Brien M, Perkins R. Developing A Corpus Of The Nursing Literature - A Pilot Study. In: International Medical Education Conference; 2007; Kuala Lumpur: International Medical University; 2007. p. A29.

Periera C, Budgell B. Assessing the Biomedical Literacy and English Language Skills ofMalaysian Health Sciences Students. In: International Medical Education Conference; 2007; Kuala Lumpur: International Medical University; 2007. p. A41.

Inhalt
Beginning a Manuscript.- The Title: Your Last Chance to Make a First Impression.- Writing an Eff ective Introduction.- Ensuring the Flow of Discourse: Conjunctions and Conjuncts.- Hedging Your Bets and Minding Your Modals.- Writing an Eff ective Methods Section.- The Passive Voice and I.- Writing an Eff ective Results Section.- The Special Case of Case Studies.- Writing an Eff effctive Discussion.- Is It a Discussion or a Systematic Review?.- Writing an Eff ective Abstract.- The Process of Manuscript Submission and Review.