Publishing Your Medical Research Paper; What They Don't Teach You in Medical School [Paperback]

Daniel W. Byrne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0683300741 | ISBN-13: 978-0683300741 | Edition: 1st

Provides new and practical information on how to write a publishable paper. Written for the clinican rather than the statistician, the book presents the technical information needed. It also offers advice on how to get your paper published.

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Williams & Wilkins; 1st edition (January 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0683300741
• ISBN-13: 978-0683300741
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,412,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winner of 2 awards from the American Medical Writers Assoc., August 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Publishing Your Medical Research Paper; What They Don't Teach You in Medical School (Paperback)

Taking care of sick and injured patients requires special skills, obtained at considerable effort over many years. What about publishing research reports? Any author will tell you that completing and then publishing a research project requires an enormous amount of time and effort. The number of submitted manuscripts has increased more rapidly than the number of journals; at some of our strongest journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA, only about 10% of submitted papers are accepted. Clearly, a "wannabe" author needs any and every bit of help he/she can get.

Dan Byrne's attractive reasonably priced "Publishing Your Medical Research Paper" provides essential help for both the novice and the more experienced author. The book is unique in many ways. For example, some of the material was obtained from a questionnaire sent to reviewers - the best source of ideas and tips about how to submit a successful, competitive manuscript.

Both the overall big picture, and small, but important details are well covered. Several chapters focus on overall objectives. For example, chapter one summarizes ten key principles for success. Some are obvious, but easy to overlook.

"Invest ample time and money in planning."

As Dan Byrne suggests, you need to spend a lot of time thinking about your research problem and formulating a research plan before you do anything. Without a clear aim and a careful literature review, you are unlikely to succeed, or, if you do, you may simply duplicate previous work.

There is equal attention to small points, such as choice and effective use of graphics.

"You can reduce your graph on a photocopier to see how it will look. Edit the graph until it is as uncluttered and professional as possible."

Any experienced reviewer will tell you how important it is to submit a manuscript with clear writing, clear graphics, and a clear development of ideas. As the book points out, even if the idea is good, a poorly prepared, confusing manuscript is likely to be rejected simply because the reviewers and editors are unsure what the author is trying to say.

It is easy to develop a hostile attitude to reviewers and editors, especially when, after months of hard work your only reward is: "Dear___: I am sorry to inform you we are returning your manuscript entitled .... Because of tight space requirements, we are forced to reject many high quality papers such as yours...."

At such times it helps to remember that Dr. Rosalyn Yalow collected and framed all the rejection letters she received prior to eventual acceptance and publication of the paper for which she was awarded the 1977 Nobel prize in medicine. This book provides accurate, detailed information to authors so they will understand what reviewers and editors look for, and how they judge the quality of a manuscript.

The appendices, which take up about a third of the book, provide practical information to guide authors through the publication process. Having all this material in one place is a real time-saver. You will find the widely used "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals", a medical researcher's directory with extremely useful web sites, and the Helsinki declarations for biomedical research.

"Publishing Your Medical Research Paper" is a valuable tool that will guide researchers and authors through the entire research and publication process. Following the recommendations will greatly increase the strength of a manuscript and the chance for acceptance. One word of caution - many of the recommendations concern the early phases of research; to obtain maximum benefit from this book read it before rather than after completion of your project.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Publishing Your Medical Research Paper; What They Don't Teach You in Medical School (Paperback)

This book is an excellent and well-documented guide to the design of clinical trials, the analysis of data, and the construction of a high quality manuscript. Both the novice and the expert will derive many helpful suggestions from its content.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've seen on the market for writing a research paper, January 22, 2008

By 

M., Natalie (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Publishing Your Medical Research Paper; What They Don't Teach You in Medical School (Paperback)

Unfortunately no longer available at a regular price. I wrote my first paper with it. Easy to follow for people with no previous writing experience.