SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL COMMUNICATION Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effective Practice prepares readers to effectively communicate in professional scientific communities. The material in this book is firmly grounded in more than 500 published research findings and editorials by scientific writers, authors, and journal editors. Thus, this text provides the broadest and most comprehensive analysis of scientific writing. In addition, carefully selected and thoroughly annotated examples from the scientific and medical literature demonstrate the recommendations covered in the text. These real-world examples were carefully selected so that the scien- tific content can be understood by those without a detailed background in any particular scientific or medical field—thus clearly illustrating the content orga- nization and writing style. This text will prepare individuals to write and edit scientific manuscripts, conference abstracts, posters, and press releases according to journal and professional standards. Readers will also learn to conduct effec- tive searches of the scientific and medical literature, as well as proper citation practices. Scott A. Mogull is an Associate Professor of scientific and technical communica- tion in the Department of English at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. Previously he was an Assistant Professor at Clemson University where he focused on teaching scientific writing to science majors. His primary research focuses on scientific and medical communication and scientific communication ethics. He has published research in the fields of microbiology, technical communication, medical writing, and medical rhetoric. For nearly a decade, Mogull has worked in the biotechnology, biodefense, and molecular diagnostics industry as a scientific communicator, product manager, marketing manager, and coordinator of global technical information. Since 2008, he has been on the editorial board of Technical Communication Quarterly, the journal of the Association of Teachers of Techni- cal Writing (ATTW). He has a Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University, an M.A. in Microbiology from The University of Texas at Austin, and an M.S. in Human Centered Design and Engineering from the University of Washington. ( ATTW Book Series in Technical and Professional Communication Tharon W. Howard, Series Editor Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effective Practice Scott A. Mogull Plain Language and Ethical Action: A Dialogic Approach to Technical Content in the 21st Century Russell Willerton Rhetoric in the Flesh: Trained Vision, Technical Expertise, and the Gross Anatomy Lab T. Kenny Fountain Social Media in Disaster Response: How Experience Can Build for Participation Liza Potts For additional information on this series please visit www.attw.org/publications/ book-series, and for information on other Routledge titles visit www.routledge.com. ( SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL COMMUNICATION A Guide for Effective Practice Scott A. Mogull ( First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Scott A. Mogull to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mogull, Scott A. Title: Scientific and medical communication : a guide for effective practice / Scott A. Mogull. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Series: ATTW book series in technical and professional communication | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016048737 (print) | LCCN 2016049106 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138842540 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138842557 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315731438 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Communication in science. | Communication in medicine. | Technical writing. Classification: LCC Q223 .M5925 2017 (print) | LCC Q223 (ebook) | DDC 808.06/65—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048737 ISBN: 978-1-138-84254-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-84255-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-73143-8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/mogull ( This book is dedicated to my mother, who passed away from cancer during its writing. ( ( CONTENTS Series Editor Foreword by ix Tharon W. Howard, Series Editor Guest Foreword by xi Shelley M. Payne SECTION I Foundations 1 1 Effective Communication in Science and Medicine 3 2 Scope, Genres, and Audiences of SMC 13 3 Searching and Citing the Scientific and Medical Literature 28 SECTION II Writing Journal Articles 65 4 Communicating Research in Primary Journals 67 5 The Introduction Section 84 6 The Methods Section 115 7 The Results Section and Effective Presentation of Data 132 ( viii Contents 8 The Discussion Section 197 9 Summary Sections: Titles and Abstracts 218 10 Preparing a Manuscript for Submission: Cover Letters, Publication Ethics, and the Peer-Review Process 232 SECTION III Presenting Research at Conferences 249 11 Introduction to Scientific Conferences 251 12 Creating Scientific Posters 260 SECTION IV Communicating Research Findings with the Public and News Media 283 13 Public Communication Strategy and Ethics 285 14 Writing Press (News) Releases 295 Appendixes 306 Appendix A: Typesetting Greek Letters and Other Symbols in Microsoft Word 306 Appendix B: General Formatting Requirements for Research Manuscripts 308 Appendix C: Glossary of Terms to Describe Medical Research Studies 312 Appendix D: Creating Tables in Microsoft Word 316 Appendix E: Common Measurements and International System Units 323 References 325 Index 351 ( SERIES EDITOR FOREWORD Scott A. Mogull’s book Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effec- tive Practice is the fourth in the ATTW Book Series in Technical and Profes- sional Communication (TPC), and as its subtitle suggests, this book joins the other titles in the Series through the focus on providing readers with “useful and usable” information about the practice of TPC. Mogull’s book also joins Liza Potts’s Social Media in Disaster Response: How Experience Architects Can Build for Participation, T. Kenny Fountain’s Rhetoric in the Flesh: Trained Vision, Technical Expertise, and the Gross Anatomy Lab, and Russell Willerton’s Plain English and Ethical Action in its emphasis on demonstrating the social and cultural impact that the field of TPC is having on our world. Indeed, there are few areas in our society that are having a more direct and significant impact on people’s lives than are the practices of scientific and medical communication. By the middle of this century, the US Census Bureau is projecting that more than 1 of 5 Americans alone will be over the age of 65, nearly doubling today’s rates. And as popula- tions around the world age, the desperate need for clear, accessible, and above all actionable scientific and medical communication will almost surely increase in order to help medical professionals make informed decisions about how best to address the healthcare needs of an aging population. Yet, as Mogull points out in the opening of his book, “For more than 100 years, readers of scientific and medical journals have been criticizing the poor quality of writing” (p. 3). At a time when socio-economic forces are in urgent need of clear, logical, and focused prose, Mogull shows that “learning to communicate in science and medicine can be particularly challenging” because “novice scientists and writers often mimic the poor writing examples that they find in the literature and thus perpetuate poor writing throughout SMC [scientific and medical com- munication]” (p. 5). This book is, therefore, an important effort to step across (