AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors: Special Online Bundle Package Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)At long last, the 10th Edition of the AMA Manual of Style is finally available, and I am happy to say it was worth the wait. As an editor who has worked in medical journals, scientific Web sites, and an agency specializing in pharmaceutical advertising, I found the 9th edition to be, at times, a bit dated and not as easy to navigate as I would have hoped. Most of those problems have been resolved in the 10th edition, as well as the inclusion of some new information that I didn't even know I was missing until I found.
The following is a list of changes in the new edition of the style guide that I found particularly helpful and relevant, and will hopefully be a quick go-to guide when you're debating whether to buy the new version or hold fast to the 9th edition.
- The section on Correct and Preferred Usage has moved from Chapter 9 to Chapter 11 and includes a wealth of information that was not in the previous edition. There is more information about the difference between race and ethnicity and when it's relevant to include sexual orientation in a scientific manuscript.
- An extended section on electronic references (3.15, 63-72). This new info is highly relevant considering since 1998 (when the 9th edition was released) there have been a number of innovations with the Internet and a number of authors choose to use the Web as sources of information.
- The section on manuscript preparation is vastly improved and expanded (Ch 4). It includes more information on the different types of tables and figures as well as new guidelines for the use of symbols and footnotes.
- Of particular interest to journal editors, there is more information on authorship requirements, conflicts of interest, sources of funding, and copyright and permissions basics (Ch 5).
- The section on capitalization demonstrates that, not only can the AMA editors laugh at themselves, but that they're also familiar with the lyrics of Coolio (eg, There is no party like a West Coast party because a West Coast party doesn't stop. 10.3, 375). The section on capitalization also includes newer terms like iBook and eBay that are more relevant to modern writing (10.8, 380).
- In terms of grammar, some of the rules that always give editors trouble are more explicitly outlined and in more detail. There's a longer section on the use of that and which (7.2, 318), which I still have to look up occasionally. A final ruling on the health care vs healthcare debate (always 2 words, per AMA, 11.1, 395). And more specific rules on false/parenthetical plurals and sentences with compound subjects (7.8)
- A change in the use of states in references. All will use postal codes now, instead of the former abbreviations (14.5, 451-455).
- An expanded section on international currency (18.5.12, 817-819).
- The section on terminology has been expanded to include information about different specialties, including psychiatry, ophthalmology, and obstetrics (Ch 15). This section also includes a new chart with human viruses that is expanded and easier to navigate (15.14.3, 762-767).
- There is a more comprehensive copyediting section, including information on editing numerical information (21.1, 907; 23.1, 929-933).
- And finally, and most importantly for all newer medical editors and writing, there is a more informative resources guide with professional organizations aimed at scientific writers and editors as well as grammar and editing resources (25, 967-976).
As a whole, I'm very pleased with the new edition of the AMA style guide, and can't wait to incorporate the new changes into my own work.

Click Here to see more reviews about: AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors: Special Online Bundle Package

The AMA Manual of Style is a must-have guide for those seeking to publish research findings and anyone involved in medical or scientific publishing. But more than just a style manual, it offers guidance on how to navigate the dilemmas that authors, researchers and their institutions, medical editors and publishers, and members of the news media who cover scientific research confront on a daily basis. Written by an expert committee of JAMA and Archives editors, this 10th edition thoroughly covers ethical and legal issues, authorship, conflicts of interest, scientific misconduct, and intellectual property, in addition to preparation of articles for publication, style, terminology, measurement, and quantification. Now with an online component! The online subscription is activated by entering an access code number bound into the back of the book.Customers who purchase the Special Online Bundle Package receive the hardcover 10th edition, as well as a one-year subscription to the Online Edition.

Get 31% OFF

Click here for more information about AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors: Special Online Bundle Package

Read More...

Incidental Findings: Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Dr. Ofri's first book of essays, "Singular Intimacies," was a soul-searching, thought-provoking self-portrait of becoming a doctor at a busy, inner-city hospital, New York's Bellevue. Ofri is still at Bellevue as an attending physician and editor of the Bellevue Literary Review.
This second reflective and graceful book of essays ranges over her experiences since - from far-flung temp positions during a post-qualifying travel break to her own rude awakening as a patient during her first pregnancy. But the bulk of the book revolves around Bellevue; the month-long rotations on hospital wards and the ongoing clinic practice which is her base. In the hospital rotations her interaction with a patient is intense, but finite. She prefers the clinic where the people are less sick, but the relationship is ongoing.
The book opens with Ofri's first experience as a patient dismayed by a busy doctor's delivery of fear-inducing news, the intimidation inherent in the relationship, and the medical professional's casual use of jolting jargon, like "high risk." In one of the last essays, she delivers her baby and discovers the reality of being an ordinary patient:
"I had no idea how much shame and humiliation are part of the experience: from the horrid gowns that never cover enough, to the exposure of some of the most private and embarrassing bodily functions, to the smells and sights which one is forced to wallow in, to the helplessness and inability to assert one's control." Ofri does get to exert control though, when eventually she succumbs to the temptation to throw her weight around - "I am an attending physician on faculty here" - and service improves dramatically.
She describes an ordinary chaotic day in the clinic, capped with anguish when she discovers an elderly Chinese man has a brain tumor and the language barrier prevents her from offering comfort or even information. There's lots of that - the problems of communicating in a place that encompasses so many immigrants. Communications problems do not always stem only from the lack of language interpreters, but also from cultural gulfs.
Ofri is no saint and she's often driven to the edge by frustration - too little time, too many demands, unsympathetic patients. One woman, always accompanied by her young daughter as translator, is a non-compliant, depressed hypochondriac whose arrival fills Ofri with teeth-gritting dread. Until a simple query from the daughter opens her eyes to the real pain that reverberates through the woman's family.
Ofri's treatments often stray outside medical boundaries. She negotiates ways for immigrant children to stay in school rather than accompany non-English speaking parents to the clinic; tutors a boy for the SAT test because her best recommendation for his long-term health was "to take the SAT and get into college."
Issues of poverty, helplessness, dignity and medical ethics dominate. A number of essays deal with terminal issues, two at length. In the first, "Living Will," a man with numerous debilitating health issues stops taking essential medication and lands in the emergency room. Once there, he allows emergency personnel to bypass his living will and ventilate him. This is either a panicky instinct from a man who can't breathe or the spark of a will to live. Like most doctors, Ofri decides the man really wants to live and helps to treat his depression and equip him with a modicum of dignity and usefulness.
The second essay is a bit more invasive. Elderly Mrs. Binet, also with multiple problems, decides to quit dialysis, in effect announcing her will to die. The resident in charge accepts this decision as does Ofri initially, but then she has second thoughts. What terminal illness does the woman have? None. Her life is a misery of pain, pills, procedures and complications, but she is not terminal. Ofri visits the woman and gently but insistently persuades her to postpone death while the doctors work harder on her pain problems. Although the case ends with Mrs. Binet going to the nursing home she so wanted to avoid, Ofri recalls the pleasure she took in eating a meal. Whether she did Mrs. Binet any favors is something with which the reader may quibble.
Ofri is compassionate and painstakingly moral. She is keenly aware of how the structure of her job distances her and insulates her from the poverty, cultural differences, fears and illness of her patients. She takes to heart the lessons they have to teach her, and works to remember that the very fact of illness is a handicap, and the position of being a patient is a disadvantage.
Ofri's intimate, anecdotal prose conveys wonder, humility and pride. For the duration of each essay her struggles are ours and - most of the time - the reader will applaud her judgment. Ofri's books contribute greatly to a dialogue on the doctor-patient relationship that only grows more urgent and difficult as medical treatments advance and doctors grown more specialized.
Portsmouth Herald

Click Here to see more reviews about: Incidental Findings: Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine

Get 60% OFF

Click here for more information about Incidental Findings: Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine

Read More...

Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This collection of wide-ranging and thoughtful essays is a wonderful resource for anyone doing research or teaching in this area. I particularly liked the essay on Margaret Sanger and her short propaganda film career, a valuable contribution to film scholarship and women's history. Friedman has assembled a remarkable group of contributors; this volume is much needed and will not disappoint.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media

Medicine and the media exist in a unique symbiosis. Increasingly, health-care consumers turn to media sources—from news reports to Web sites to tv shows—for information about diseases, treatments, pharmacology, and important health issues. And just as the media scour the medical terrain for news stories and plot lines, those in the health-care industry use the media to publicize legitimate stories and advance particular agendas. The essays in Cultural Sutures delineate this deeply collaborative process by scrutinizing a broad range of interconnections between medicine and the media in print journalism, advertisements, fiction films, television shows, documentaries, and computer technology.
In this volume, scholars of cinema studies, philosophy, English, sociology, health-care education, women's studies, bioethics, and other fields demonstrate how the world of medicine engages and permeates the media that surround us. Whether examining the press coverage of the Jack Kevorkian–euthanasia controversy; pondering questions about accessibility, accountability, and professionalism raised by such films as Awakenings, The Doctor, and Lorenzo's Oil; analyzing the depiction of doctors, patients, and medicine on E.R. and Chicago Hope; or considering the ways in which digital technologies have redefined the medical body, these essays are consistently illuminating and provocative.Contributors. Arthur Caplan, Tod Chambers, Stephanie Clark-Brown, Marc R. Cohen, Kelly A. Cole, Lucy Fischer, Lester D. Friedman, Joy V. Fuqua, Sander L. Gilman, Norbert Goldfield, Joel Howell, Therese Jones, Timothy Lenoir, Gregory Makoul, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, Faith McLellan, Jonathan M. Metzl, Christie Milliken, Martin F. Norden, Kirsten Ostherr, Limor Peer, Audrey Shafer, Joseph Turow, Greg VandeKieft, Otto F. Wahl

Get 4% OFF

Click here for more information about Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media

Read More...