Abstract
Medical writing shares some technical issues with other scientific publications. These include the use of tables, presenting data in some sort of list, which may contain a number of columns. Figures can enrich a medical article or book chapter, and there are technical guidelines to be followed. Copyright concerns and obtaining permission for borrowed material can be frustrating for medical authors, although there are sources available with images in the public domain. Facts must be referenced and citations must be presented in a prescribed manner.
Increasing organization in the field of medicine, as in every other field of human endeavor, has raised the level of contributions to medical literature. Far too often, however, physicians still prepare their contributions with a striving and agony and delay comparable to the delivery of human progeny by one untutored in the refinements of obstetrics.
—American physician and author Morris Fishbein (1889–1976) [1]
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Fishbein M. Introduction. In: Medical writing. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Blakiston; 1955.
Journal of the American Medical Association. Instructions for authors. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/instructions-for-authors#. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. http://icmje.org/recommendations/. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
Journal of Neurology. Instructions to authors. http://www.springer.com/medicine/neurology/journal/415. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
New England Journal of Medicine. Author Center: new manuscripts. http://www.nejm.org/page/author-center/manuscript-submission. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
Taylor RB. Family medicine: principles and practice. 6th ed. New York: Springer; 2003.
Internet4Classrooms: Excel-create a chart/graph. http://www.internet4classrooms.com/excel_create_chart.htm. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright basics. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf. Accessed 4 Mar 2017.
National Library of Medicine. Images from the history of medicine. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/?f%5bdrep2.isMemberOfCollection%5d%5b%5d=DREPIHM. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
United States Copyright Office. Chapter 1: subject matter and scope of copyright. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
Wikimedia Commons Images. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Taylor, R.B. (2018). Technical Issues in Medical Writing. In: Medical Writing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70126-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70126-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70125-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70126-4
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)