Writing a Biomedical Research Paper

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Beginning a Manuscript

   Pages 1-4

3. The Title: Your Last Chance to Make a First Impression

   Pages 5-7

4. Writing an Eff ective Introduction

   Pages 9-13

5. Ensuring the Flow of Discourse: Conjunctions and Conjuncts

   Pages 15-17

6. Hedging Your Bets and Minding Your Modals

   Pages 19-23

7. Writing an Eff ective Methods Section

   Pages 25-29

8. The Passive Voice and I

   Pages 31-34

9. Writing an Eff ective Results Section

   Pages 35-38

10. The Special Case of Case Studies

    Pages 39-41

11. Writing an Eff effctive Discussion

    Pages 43-45

12. Is It a Discussion or a Systematic Review?

    Pages 47-48

13. Writing an Eff ective Abstract

    Pages 49-54

14. The Process of Manuscript Submission and Review

    Pages 55-59

15. Back Matter

    Pages 61-66

    PDF

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.

• Style
• biomedical research
• health
• wissenschaftliche Publikation

From the reviews:

"This is a practical guide to writing good, publishable biomedical manuscripts. … The audience includes biomedical editors, reviewers, and native and non-native English speaking colleagues. … This easy to read and understand book will be a valuable resource for students or others in writing successful manuscripts. … The book is filled with helpful hints for appropriate grammar, structure, and style in writing biomedical papers." (Vicki Ann Moss, Doody’s Review Service, Vol. 1147, 2008)

• Universitä du Quäbec à Trois-Riviäres, Trois-Riviäres, Canada

  Brian Stephen Budgell

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 of Malaysian Health Sciences Students. In: International Medical Education Conference; 2007; Kuala Lumpur: International Medical University; 2007. p. A41.

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