Editorial Guidelines page

From WiserWiki

[edit] A note about these editorial guidelines

Like most of the WiserWiki, these editorial guidelines are created and mantained by the community. Feel free to edit and improve upon these guidelines as you wish.

[edit] Guide to Wiki Markup

To enter normal text, simply click on "edit", type in some text, and click on the "Save" button.

To enter bold text, enter three single quotes, like this:

'''bold text'''

To enter italic text, enter five single quotes, like this:

'''''italic text'''''

An internal link to another wiki page, like this link to the Main Page, is entered by putting two brackets around the text on either side, like this:

[[Main Page]]

An external link to another website, such as Wikipedia, can be entered like this:

[http://www.example.com link title]

A Level 2 heading is created by two equal signs on either side of the text, like this:

== Headline text ==

[edit] WISERWIKI STYLE GUIDE

[edit] Careful Language

Be sure not to explicitly offer medical advice. While the general legal language linked to by every page on this Wiki makes it clear that this wiki does not offer legal advice, better safe than sorry.

Also, be sure to remember that this information may be used by other doctors in their work. Strive to not leave half-finished articles or comments which could be misunderstood. Instead, make small, complete changes which enhance a particular article.

[edit] Article Length

In general, keep new articles to only two to three sections, with each section about two or three paragraphs in length. Brevity is important; it is better to have one concise article on a topic that is referenced throughout the WiserWiki than to have several sections covering the same information.

[edit] Audience

In general, the audience for your work will be other medical professionals. However, keep in mind that there will be lay readers of what you write. If at all possible, strive to write in a manner that both conveys the full complexity of your ideas, but is also intelligible to the average lay person.

[edit] Naming Conventions

In general, do not start a new article on the same topic unless you are referring to a sub-topic. Keep new article titles as short as possible, while maintaining accuracy.

Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary (30th ed.) is standard for medical terms and has other useful features, including lists of conversion tables, laboratory tests, and units of measure in its appendices; American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.) is standard for nontechnical terms; for words not listed in the Book Style and Word List for each project, use the preferred (first listed) usage in these dictionaries. Drake and Drake, Saunders Pharmaceutical Word Book is the standard for drug names.

[edit] WORD FORMS

1. Adjective endings (-ic or -ical): ic

Exceptions: empirical, grammatical, mathematical, paradoxical, prototypical, psychological, spherical, stereotypical, symmetrical, theoretical

Words whose -ic and -ical forms have different meanings: classic vs. classical, economic vs. economical, electric vs. electrical, historic vs. historical

2. Latin and foreign words (italic or roman): roman if in American Heritage Dictionary (e.g., café au lait, idée fixe, Weltanschauung)

Exceptions: italic if not found in American Heritage (e.g., curandero, fuerza)

3. Eponyms (possessive or plain): variable depending on field of study, author preference

Do not use possessive

with cell names (Merkel cell)

with names of stains (Gram stain)

with names of tests (Wasserman test)

with names of equipment (Foley catheter)

when name follows an article (the Cushing syndrome, not the Cushing’s syndrome)

when names are hyphenated (Gram-Weigert)

when names refer to places, not persons (Lyme disease)

4. Prefixes and suffixes (closed or hyphenated): closed unless hyphenated in American Heritage or Dorland's

Exceptions:

double consonants (non-nursing) and double vowels (anti-inflammatory), but see American Heritage and Dorland’s for exceptions (preexisting, reestablish)

-like words: hyphenate words of more than one syllable (rabbit-like) or when word ends in the letter “L” (gel-like); use an en dash if the root is more than one word (tree branch–like)

double prefixed words (sub-subcategory)

to distinguish homographs (unionized vs. un-ionized)

before a capital letter (sub-Saharan Africa, pre–Salk vaccine era)

5. Genus and species designation (italic/roman; cap/lc): ALWAYS italic. Genus is spelled out at first mention, may be abbreviated at subsequent mentions; use full name on first use of new species even if it follows another species of the same genus (e.g., Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes, not Streptococcus pneumoniae and S. pyogenes). See AMA Manual of Style, 9th ed., pp. 447-453 for further examples; see AMA Manual of Style, pp. 455-463, for treatment of viruses.

6. Greek:

Letters

Use Greek letters in most instances (check Dorland’s).

Use USP Dictionary as a guideline for drug names that contain Greek letters.

Words

Okay in some traditional usages (e.g., alpha cell, beta cell, beta-blocker) (check Dorland’s)

[edit] USAGE

1. Abbreviations/Acronyms (note punctuation and plurals): Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary (30th ed.) is the standard for acronyms; if not in Dorland’s, use Sloane’s (4th ed.).

General

• Spell out term and introduce acronym at first mention in a chapter; if a chapter has distinct subchapters, acronym can be defined in each subchapter. If a term is mentioned early in the chapter but discussed in depth later, the acronym does not have to be introduced at first mention.

• Do not abbreviate a term used fewer than 5 times unless it is exceptionally long or cumbersome.

• Spell out acronyms and abbreviated terms in chapter titles, heads, and table titles unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.

• Okay to give an abbreviation for a spelled-out term even if you never use the abbreviation in the text (for instructional purposes).

• If the term is plural, use the plural version of the acronym (e.g., white blood cells, WBCs).

• Use small caps for AM/PM and BC/AD.

• Do not use periods with acronyms (e.g., MRI, ECGs).

Laboratory and clinical tests

A good source, in addition to Dorland’s, is Norbert W. Tietz, Clinical Guide to Laboratory Tests, 3rd ed.

Pulmonary function values

See AMA, 9th ed., pp. 464-467 for examples.

2. Race: American Indian or Native American or specific name of tribe (Apache, Sioux); Asian or Asian American or specific group, if known (Chinese American); black or African American (if known); Hispanic or Latino(a) to be used only as adjectives; Latin American, Hispanic American, or specific group, if known (Cuban American, Puerto Rican); Pacific Islander (Melanesians, Micronesians, Polynesians); white (not Caucasian)

Avoid use of “nonwhite”; use “people of color” or “multiracial”

3. Sexism (leave or change): ALWAYS change

4. Italic, boldface uses and quotation marks (e.g., headings, emphasis):

• Use italics for introduced terms (The term obstructive refers to . . .), words used as words (Find the word occupation and fill in . . .), and occasional emphasis.

• Quotation marks can be used for common words used in a technical sense, for translations of non-English words (The Greek polis [“city-state”] . . .), and for coined words.

5. Caps and lower case:

Headings (esp. prepositions; hyphenated words)

• Do not cap articles, coordinate conjunctions, and prepositions unless they occur as the first or last word of a head (e.g., The Types of Bone in the Skeletal System, An Overview of a Nursing Plan, Surgery with and without Anesthesia, Drugs from A to Z, Words To Live By, For Your Information)

• Cap both elements of a temporary compound (i.e., one that would not be hyphenated otherwise) and both elements of a coordinated term: Complement-Fixing Antibody, Drug-Induced Parkinsonism, Twentieth-Century Writers, Well-Known Authors, Blue-Green Leaves, Acid-Base Balance; Edge-to-Edge Occlusion

• Cap only the first element of a compound word that is ordinarily hyphenated (i.e., hyphenated in the dictionary): Cul-de-sac Infections, Twenty-first Century, Anti-inflammatory Drugs, Self-conscious Students, So-called Diseases, X-ray Sickness, Follow-up Examination

• At the beginning of a sentence, in a subhead, or in a table heading, cap the first word following a lower-case Greek letter, a numeral, a symbol, an italicized chemical prefix, or a small-cap letter: 3?-Phosphate; ?-Blocker; cis-Platinum; L-Dopa; 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine

Types, groups, etc.

Do not cap the following: factor, grade, group, phase, series, stage, type

6. Weights and measures (note abbreviations, punctuation, metric or conventional):

Text

Use Dorland’s as standard

g mg ?g

feet pound(s)

L dL mL

m mm ?m

second(s) msec minute(s) hour(s) day(s) week(s) month(s) year(s)

Tables and figures (if different)

sec min hr day wk mo yr

7. Statistics

P

P ? .05 [space around symbols when there are elements on both sides]

(>5 cm) [no space when there is nothing to the left of the symbol]

N, n (N refers to total population, n refers to sample size [a subgroup of N]) (see p. 579 of AMA, 9th ed., for examples)

Spell out “greater than,” “less than,” “approximately,” and similar terms when in nonparenthetical text; use the symbols for these in parens and in tables

[edit] PUNCTUATION

1. Serial comma (yes or no): ALWAYS yes

2. If a superscript system is used for citing references in text, the superscript number precedes em dashes, colons, and semicolons but follows periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation marks. There should be no extra space after the comma that separates multiple reference numbers (e.g., . . . in these studies.22,45,68)

3. Set hyphens (not en dashes) in figure, box, and table numbers (Fig. 3-5, Box 4-1, Table 5-4) and in ranges of numbers (e.g., 55-57, 1960-1976, 50-55%,

15-20? C).

4. Use the overall context of the material to determine whether to italicize quotation marks and parentheses. If the material being enclosed is all italic, italicize the quotation marks or parentheses, e.g., "no justice"; (Homo sapiens). If the material being enclosed is a combination of roman and italic type, use roman type for the quotation marks or parentheses, e.g., "no justice"; (the preferred term is Homo sapiens).

5. Delete periods in academic, medical, and honorary degrees (PhD, MD, FAAN).

[edit] NUMBERS

1. Numbers (show ranges if needed):

Use numerals for ages and all units of measure

Range

Use “to” in text and parens and hyphens in tables

Age

Use numerals: 2 years old; 2-year-old boy; 5- to 15-year-old boys; patients in their 20s; patients older [younger] than 45 years (not over [under] 45 years)

Below 10

Spell out (except age, units of measure): two messages; one person; but if sentence combines numbers above and below 10, use numerals for both (Between 4 and 15 people. . .”)

fivefold, 1.5-fold, but day 1 of study

10 and above

Use numerals: 10 400 6000 1.5 million 20-fold 6- to 12-fold from 5 to 10 mL a 10- to 12-week period

Angles

20 degrees; 20-degree flexion

Money

$1 billion to $2 billion

Fractions

piece fractions (½)

one half of the majority (n.); one-half day (adj.)

Ordinals

second; 10th; first to ninth vertebrae; 1st to 11th ribs

Spell out in heads

Time

2-hour interval; 9-o'clock position; day 15; days 5 through 10; 0.5 hour; 2 decades; 3 centuries; August 1992; 1903-1905

6 PM 1500 BC

Ratios

Use slash for acronyms, colon for numbers, and

-to¬- for words

CD4/CD8 2:1 signal-to-noise ratio

Temperature (C or F; show spacing)

38? C; 98.6? F; from 5° C to 10° C

Four (plus) digit

No comma in 4-digit numbers unless in table columns for alignment purposes

8443 10,356 3 million 4.6 billion 1.2 ? 106

Percentage

Five percent of the . . .

. . . was observed in 50%

70% to 90% of the patients

Decades

mid-1980s; 20th century

[edit] DRUGS

1. Dosage (note punctuation): change cc to mL

Text

• IM, ID, IV, SC, PO, NPO, SL okay in text and tables; note that, for example, IM can stand for “intramuscular” or “intramuscularly” but not both in the same chapter.

• Okay to use more than one virgule (e.g., 3 mg/kg/day)

• Spell out bid, tid, qhs, and the like in text (e.g., aspirin, 2 mg/kg three times daily)

6-g dose; once-daily administration; sulfamethoxazole, 800 mg PO every 6 hours

Table

bid, q2h, tid OK

2. Drug reference: generic (Trade Name)

diazepam (Valium); provide a generic name if only the trade name has been given; do not add trade name each time generic name is mentioned.

Do not use ?, ?.

Source of names, if special

Drake and Drake, Saunders Pharmaceutical Word Book

[edit] FIGURES AND LEGENDS

Art

1. Labels (U/lc; Initial cap only): For new art or redrawn art, initial cap only, then lc; if figure contains two levels of heads, the first level can be all caps. Pick-up art will not be altered except to fix errors of fact or spelling.

Text

1. Figure callout and part designation:

• Spell out “Figure” in text when not used in parens. If a part is included in the callout, it should be set as a roman cap (Fig. 3-5A) (Figs. 3-5 and 3-6) (Figs. 3-5 to 3-8) (Fig. 3-5A-D) (Fig. 3-5A and B).

Figure 3-1A shows three fractures. . .

Figure 1-3A to C illustrates the . . .

Figures 1-4 and 1-5 show . . .

• The word “see” should be used for all subsequent parenthetical citations of a figure after the first citation. If a figure is mentioned out of order (prematurely), “see” should also be used (see Fig. 3-5A).

Legend

1. Part designations:

Part designations and the comma that follows should be set boldface roman; if the part designation is in parens, it should be boldface, but the surrounding parens should be lightface:

A, Radiograph of the liver (L), showing lesions (arrows) and leakage (arrowhead) from . . . B, Evidence of tumor metastasis (top) from . . .

Anteroposterior (A) and lateral (B) views of the . . .

Lateral radiographs (A and B) and a CT scan (C) show . . .

2. Style for abbreviations, arrows, etc.:

• Abbreviations/acronyms or letters used to designate terms should be spelled out either at first mention in the legend, e.g., “The anteroposterior (AP) view shows the esophagus (E) and the unidentified foreign object (FO). . .” or in the abbreviations section of the legend.

• Abbreviations are presented in alphabetical order following the text of the legend and preceding the credit line. The list of abbreviations is not in parentheses. AV, atrioventricular; BP, blood pressure; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus.

• Other location elements in illustrations and their modifiers should always be italicized: arrow, arrowheads, circle, dashed line, filled square, curved arrows.

3. Credit line (general form; include courtesy line):

Follow the style used for references. The credit line should be the last item in the legend and should be in parentheses. If a part designation is included, it and the following comma should be boldface. Any parentheses in the credit line itself should be changed to brackets.

(From . . . .)

(A, From . . . ; B, from . . . .)

(A-D, From . . .)

4. Other elements

Magnifications should be expressed as x200 (no space after multi sign). Stains can be abbreviated if they are mentioned frequently, as in pathology books (e.g., H&E, ?400), but should be spelled out otherwise.

[edit] TABLES

1. Footnotes (order; * or numerals, letters): *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶; then double these: **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ||||, ¶¶. All set superscript and closed up to the first item in the footnote. Exception: When a table has many footnotes and they have already been styled using an alphabetical letter system (a, b, c, etc.), do not convert the letters to symbols.

2. Abbreviations: The same general style as that used for figures and legends should be used but because of limited space, more acronyms and abbreviations are acceptable as long as they are defined or are too common to define (e.g., DNA). Abbreviations should be in alphabetical order.

3. Source line: Follow reference style, as for figure credit lines, but credit line should not be in parentheses. When the data used to create the table are from 3 or more sources that are listed in the reference section, the credit line can read as follows: Data from references 1, 5, 8, 25.

4. Order of elements in table footnote: (1) superscripted notes, (2) abbreviations, and (3) credit line.

[edit] REFERENCES

In general, to make a citation appear, simply insert ^[1] around the citation.

1. Text citation (superscript; au/year): varies by project

• If superscript used, superscript number precedes em dashes, colons, and semicolons but follows periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation marks. There should be no extra space after the comma that separates multiple reference numbers (e.g., . . . in these studies.22,45,68)

• If a series of 10 or more reference numbers are cited together (a range [1-5] counts as one number), delete them from the text (add an asterisk in their place) and create a footnote that reads as follows: *See references 1-5, 15, 18, 34-36, 41, 45, 51, 58, 61-68, 72, 81, 86.

2. General guidelines: Guidelines for styles 1A and 1B but not for style 2 (APA):

• Minimal punctuation, all roman type (unless genus and species name).

• Page range or single page both okay if consistent throughout chapter.

• Use AMA state abbreviations (e.g., Minn for Minnesota, Pa for Pennsylvania); do not use US Postal Service abbreviations in references. See AMA Manual of Style, pp. 282-283, for list of state abbreviations.

• The following cities need NO state or country identification: United States: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis; Foreign: Amsterdam, Basel, Beijing, Belgrade, Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Geneva, Kiev, Leningrad, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, Naples, Oslo, Oxford, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Tokyo, Toronto, Turin, Uppsala, Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich

• Use short form of publisher’s name (e.g., WB Saunders, not WB Saunders Company, HarperCollins, not HarperCollins Publishers Inc.).

• Use Index Medicus for style of journal name, as some have changed over the years (e.g., Br Med J now BMJ).

3. Listing: Examples are provided for three styles that are acceptable. Note that in the APA style (style 2), all authors are always listed.

Article

1A Smith JJ, Reed EG: New tuberculosis drugs: An update. N Engl J Med 354:23-43, 1996.

1A Smith JJ, Reed EG: New tuberculosis drugs: An update [abstract]. N Engl J Med 354:23, 1996.

1B Smith JJ, Reed EG: New tuberculosis drugs: An update. N Engl J Med 1996;354:23-43.

2 Klimosky, R., & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA and the hiring process in organizations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 45(2), 10-36.

2 Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449.

2 Regier, A. A., Narrow, W. E., & Rae, D. S. (1990). The epidemiology of anxiety disorders: The epidemiologic catchment area (ECA) experience. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 24(Suppl. 2), 3-14.

Book

1A Clemente CD: Bones and Joints, 5th ed. Philadelphia, [or colon] WB Saunders, 1988.

1A Clemente CD: Bones and Joints, vol 4, 5th ed. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1988.

1A Smith IM, Carter PP, Walker PG, et al: Bones of the Foot, vol. 2. In Clemente CD (series ed): Bones and Joints, 5th ed. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1988.

2 Mitchell, T. R., & Larson, J. R., Jr. (1987). People in organizations: An introduction to organizational behavior (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

2 Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color: Psychological interventions with minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

2 Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

2 Koch, S. (Ed.). (1959-1963). Psychology: A study of science (Vols. 1-6). New York: McGraw-Hill.

2 Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1991). Estimated resident population by age and sex in statistical local areas, New South Wales, June 1990 (No. 3209.1). Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Author.

Chapter in book

1A Jones EE, Reed IM, Driver WS, Prince HN: Vincristine—recent reports. In Wall IH, Samuel EG (eds): Drugs in Cancer Therapy. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1995, pp 155-178.

2 Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive mechanism in human memory. In H. L. Roediger III & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), Varieties of memory & consciousness (pp. 309-330). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Newspaper article

1A Bloom FE: Neuropeptides and other mediators. New York Times, July 18, 1998:C1, C10.

2 Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.

Unpublished title

1A Bloom FE: Neuropeptides and other mediators. J Immunol (in press).

1A Clemente CD: Bones and Joints, vol 4, 5th ed. Philadelphia, WB Saunders (in press).

2 McIntosh, D. N. (1993). Religion as schema, with implications for the relation between religion and coping. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Thesis or dissertation

1A Jones RK: History of the Smallpox Vaccine [thesis]. Chicago, University of Chicago, 1994.

2 Almeida, D. M. (1990). Fathers’ participation in family work: Consequences for fathers’ stress and father-child relations. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Unpublished paper presented at a meeting

1A Smith IL, Parker EH: Progress in formulating an AIDS vaccine: Recent reports. Paper presented at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Society of Pharmacologists, Dec 14, 1996, Las Vegas, Nevada.

2 Lanktree, C., & Briere, J. (1991, January). Early data on the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSC-C). Paper presented at the meeting of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, San Diego, CA.

U.S. government report

1A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Pressure Ulcers in Adults: Prediction and Prevention (AHCPR Publication No. 92-0047). Rockville, Md, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services., 1992.

2 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1992). Pressure ulcers in adults: Prediction and prevention (AHCPR Publication No. 92-0047). Rockville, MD: Author.

Web sites

1A FDA on line: Available at http://www.fda.gov/

4. Order of entries (numerical or alphabetical): varies by project. If alphabetical, the following order of entries should be specified on the book style sheet:

• when there are multiple entries by same single author (e.g., chronologically early to late or late to early?)

• when there are entries by two authors and the first author is the same (e.g., alphabetically by the second author? chronologically early to late or late to early?)

• when there are entries by same first author and two or more additional authors (e.g., alphabetically? chronologically?)

5. Use of et al:

• Four or fewer authors: list all authors.

• Five or more authors: list first three authors, then et al.

• In APA style, et al is never used; always list all authors.

6. Form for text mention of book, chapter, article:

In the book Progress in Immunology, Smith argues that . . .

Jones’ article “Enterobacter bacteremia,” which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, described . . .

7. Journal abbreviations (Index Medicus or Other):

• Index Medicus

• In APA style, journal titles are never abbreviated

CROSS-REFERENCES

1. Page or heading

• Try to avoid cross-references to specific pages.

For further discussion, see “Differentiation of T Lymphocytes.” [for a section in the same chapter]

. . . (see “Differentiation of T Lymphocytes”).

. . . (see page 203).

. . . (see pages 141-143).

• Avoid using “above” or “below.” Use “discussed earlier (later),” “mentioned previously,” “listed subsequently,” “discussed in the previous (following) section,” or something similar.

2. Chapter

. . . (see Chapter 203).

. . . (see Chapter 203, Colon Cancer).

For further discussion of this issue, see Chapter 203.

3. References

For a review of this topic, see reference 17.

. . . (see also references 17, 19, 25).

4. Figures

Figure 3-1A shows three fractures. . .

(see Fig. 3-1A).

The word “see” should be used for all subsequent parenthetical citations of a figure after the first citation. If a figure is mentioned out of order (prematurely), “see” should also be used.