American Medical Association Manual of Style : A Guide for Authors and Editors (AMA) (Hardcover)

by The American Medical Association (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This indispensable guide to style has long been the standard for publishers, advertising, and the medical community. This ninth edition features:

-Expanded chapters on legal and ethical concerns in publishing, statistical terms, and nomenclature

-An updated and expanded reference section

-A complete glossary of publishing terms

-A new typography section

-New policies for eponyms and numbers style

-A larger section pertaining to electronic referencing

-Broadened coverage of tables and figures

-Current information on electronic publishing and copyright issues

Product Details

• Hardcover: 660 pages
• Publisher: Williams & Wilkins; 9th edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0683402064
• ISBN-13: 978-0683402063
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #335,049 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A style manual you will rarely close, April 10, 2002

By	loce_the_wizard "loce_the_wizard" (Lilburn, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The specific goal of the American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors is to codify and collect the myriad instructions, rules, and dictums that AMA applies to the many journals, books, and other publications that are printed under its imprint. The more general goal, perhaps not stated, is to broaden the influence of those standards so they encompass more of the medical publishing community.

The book, developed by a committee of writers, editors, and publishers, is organized around five major categories, Preparing an Article for Publication, Style, Terminology, Measurement and Quantitation, and Technical Information. Each of these categories is, in turn, broken down into chapters that probe various aspects of each category. Finding information is easy, and the writers have used examples generously to make the points clear.

The first section, Preparing an Article for Publication, is, naturally slanted more toward authors and those who toil to prepare authors manuscripts for publication. There are many guidelines offering advice that ranges from preparing the abstract to preparing any of six different types of acknowledgments. Editors and copy editors would do well to review this chapter as well. The section on citing Web sites alone is crucial reading.

I suspect, but cannot prove, that many researchers will not read deeply beyond the opening chapter, feeling that the remaining sections are more the province of copy editors and journal editors. Perhaps there is some merit to that line of thinking, but all authors in the medical sciences would benefit from the copious advice here, and the better writers, Im sure, do follow the principles of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and usage set forth in the section on style. Common mistakes, such as confusing case and patient, redundancies, and the ever so ticklish topic of race/ethnicity are some of the many points discussed thoroughly.

The section on terminology is so mind-bogglingly detailed that all one can hope to do is remember that the AMA Style Guide will almost always have the answer if you have a question about an abbreviation (how many times is something mistakenly called an acronym instead of an initialism?), medical nomenclature (a huge chapter that is the heart of the book), or eponyms (which, thanks to this guide may now be a topic we can quit haggling over).

Measurement and Quantitation continue to be a bane for many writers and editors, though without delving too much into specifics, lets say that this section will answer most questions but not without careful reading and perhaps a look at the Chicago Manual of Style for a bit clearer presentation on this topic. The chapter on statistics, unique to this guide, notes how to express confidence intervals, confirms that the word Student in Student t test is capitalized (sorry, but this text editor on Amazon.com does not display the italic t), provides a list of statistical symbols and abbreviations, and offers valuable tips about displaying equations. And those examples barely hint at the wealth of information here.

A final section on technical information provides a thumbnail guide to good layout and design of printed materials, worthy sets both of copyediting marks and proofreading marks (which are no doubt often photocopied and posted in a visible location), an excellent primer on how to edit hard copy, and a glossary of publishing terms.

If you are a medical writer or editor, odds are that you already either have a copy of this guide or you borrow one from a colleague. If you are an aspiring medical communicator, you will need your own copy so you can mark in it, attach tabs, and leave open on your desk.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, comprehensive, and easy to use, August 2, 2005

By	K. Kellett (Bordentown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Manual is a complete guide to the AMA style and also an excellent grammar book. The topics are easy to find and the tables and lists are comprehensive. It is a great companion to The Chicago Manual of Style because it details the grammar preferred by the AMA and contains needed terminology. This is a necessary reference for medical publications proofreaders and editors.

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are an academic physician you cannot miss it!, August 12, 2007

By	Lemos Alessandro Asdrub "Alessandro Lemos" (Milan, Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The base to write a scientific paper. You can learn the most important criteria to conduct and write a scientific research according with international guidlines. It is the style!