GUIDELINES FOR TECHNICAL WRITING IN BIOMEDICAL

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In industry, as well as in the academia, written reports and multimedia presentations are the most important means of informing other people about your work.

Good work that is reported badly may be misunderstood, or simply ignored.

Motivation: Why Teaching Technical/Scientific Editing ?

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Every supervisor in the industry and academia has strong views on what constitutes a well-written report, and each is different.

Therefore you should expect to get conflicting advice on this subject, and you should be prepared to change your style to meet different requirements.

Technical/Scientific Editing

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Scientific Journals

Biomedical Engineering is a young discipline, developing very rapidly

The frontier and state-of-the-art knowledge can therefore be found in Scientific Journalsrather than in textbooks

New scientific knowledge is added every day!

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Scientific Journal Reports

for these reasons, the introductory lectures of this course are concerned with

-reviewing the structure of a scientific article

-searching for information in journal articles

the standard article structure will be discussed as a model for scientific writing

the acquired skills are expected to be useful while writing the final project of this course as well as while submitting literature survey reports, laboratory reports and other technical reports during the course of study

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Is the paper important?

Will the paper add enough to existing knowledge?

Does the paper read well and make sense?

The Peer Review Process

Aimed to ensure the quality of Research Journal Articles

Each manuscript that is submitted for publication is sent by the editor to at least two expert reviewers, for evaluation

The reviewers submit a written report to the editor generally referring to the the following questions:

Based on these reports, the editor should decide whether to accept the manuscript for publication

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NOTICE THAT MOST INTERNET JOURNALS AND REPORTS DO NOT FOLLOW A PEER REVIEW POLICY

THEREFORE, A SCIENTIFIC REPORT SHOULD BE BASED ON JOURNAL ARTICLES THAT WERE EVALUATED IN A PEER REVIEW PROCESS RATHER THAN ON INTERNET PUBLICATIONS

The Peer Review Process (cont.)

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Report Sections

Title PageABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMETHODS (or APPARATUS or PROCEDURE)RESULTSDISCUSSIONCONCLUSIONSRECOMMENDATIONS (Optional)REFERENCESAppendices (Optional)

Standard Structure of Scientific and Technical Reports

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Example:

Short Abstract Published in the Proceedings of an International Scientific Conference

Title

Introduction

Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

References60

Reports will be expected to contain a title page, abstract, introduction, methods or experimental apparatus and procedure, results, discussion, conclusions and recommendations, references and appendices sections

You do not have to use these particular headings and, in fact, you are encouraged to be more creative

Report Sections (cont.)

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Identifies the purpose and main features of the reportStates the main conclusion(s) quantitativelyMay state recommendationsIs written in non-technical languageIs briefShould be written lastNOTE: It is not usual to use I , we or you in any part of a report. Use passive voice instead

ABSTRACT

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Generally consists of three partsBACKGROUND INFORMATION

start the paper with general statements defining the field and problem to explain what you are talking about

SCOPEstate the focus of your work within the general field described above, detailing what has been done so far, with reference to the up-to-date literaturestate explicitly what was NOT done, or done improperly, in the previous literature, that justifies the present work

OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT WORKlist the specific goals of your work

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INTRODUCTION

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METHODS

Examples of what should be included:schematic diagram of equipment.list of all chemicals/drugs/medications used and approximate quantities.a table of experimental conditions.a step-by-step procedure that someone else can follow.

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RESULTS

presents the evidenceresults of tests, facts as compared to arguments, details, data.

summarizing figures or tables should appear in here.

can be written in different orders, e.g.- chronological order- subject order

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The results should be presented and explained clearly. Do not assume that the reader is going to analyze your results: YOU must do that.Explain the results: why are they as they are; is there agreement between theory and practice (if not why not, can the theory be modified to work better); what could be done differently; what other experiments need to be done (why) ?

DISCUSSION

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re-state the major conclusions drawn in the Discussionshould be given in order of importance (most important first)should NOT be supported by any new information (at this stage)

CONCLUSIONS

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should be strong and convincing

again, there should be nothing new in this section; like the conclusions, the recommendations are a summary of points in the main part of the report.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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OTHER PARTS (if needed)

Title PageTable(s) of Contents (not necessary here)ReferencesAppendices

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Why Referencing ?fulfils your moral obligation to give credit where credit is duetells reader who was the originator of an idea or expressiontells reader where the cited works can be found (for retrieving more information)

REFERENCES

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What Needs Referencing ?direct quotations of someone else's wordsparaphrases of someone else's wordsideas derived from someone elseresearch data and theories, if not widely known and very generally used (e.g. Newton Laws)illustrations (tables, graphs, etc.) taken from other sourcesNOT general information / common knowledge

REFERENCES (cont.)

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How to Reference ?

Use "Author - Date" system

In "References" or "Works Cited" section:list all works cited (and only works cited) alphabetically by last name of the first author

REFERENCES (cont.)

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References: Examples

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In text of document:

References: Examples (cont.)

The rise of the human foot s arch may affect its shock absorption capacity (Saltzman and Nawoczenski, 1995).

Smith et al. (1999) has pointed out that ...

According to NIH projections (NIH Annual Report, 1999), ...

Many texts on technical writing provide examples of proper documentation (see, for example, Hirsch, 2000)

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Failure to Cite Literature Reports using Appropriate Referencing is PLAGIARISM

REFERENCES (cont.)

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Should be numbered sequentially from the beginning of the report, e.g., Fig. 1: A Schematic Diagram of the Experimental Apparatus .Must be referenced in the text of the report: The force plate and related equipment used in this lab are shown schematically in Fig. 1.Do not fit excel trend-lines to measured data points unless for a specific purpose.

FIGURES

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Should be located close to (but always after) the point where they are discussed in the text of the report.The title of a figure should appear BELOW the figure describe the figure clearly. Fig. 3: Temperature versus time is inadequate.All axis must be labeled clearly, including units.

FIGURES (cont.)

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Example Figures

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Should be numbered sequentially from the beginning of the report: Table 1: The Conditions of Each Experiment .

Must be referenced in the text of the report: The experiments conducted here included a range of temperatures and flow rates. See Table 1 for the details.

TABLES

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Should be located close to (but always after) the point where they are discussed in the text of the report (as with Figures).

The title of a table should appear ABOVE the table and describe the table clearly. All columns and rows must be labeled clearly, including units.

TABLES (cont.)

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Example Table

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I. Bly, R.W., and Blake, G., Elements of Technical Writing, Pearson Higher Education, 2000; ISBN: 0020130856.

II. Hirsch, H.L., The Essence of Technical Communication for Engineers: Writing, Presentation, and Meeting Skills, IEEE, 2000; ISBN: 0780347382.

III. Zeleznik, J.M., Benson, P., and Burnett, R.E., 2000, Technical Writing : What It Is & How to Do It, Learning Express, 2000; ISBN: 1576852679.

Literature for Improving Writing and Editing Skills

Exact Science and Engineering Library, Tel Aviv University

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MEDLINE is a database service managed by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM).

It provides access to over 11 million medical, life science and biomedical journal article citations, back to the mid-1960's.

More than 4000 different journals are indexed.

The service includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

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What is MEDLINE ?

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How to Access MEDLINE ?

MEDLINE can be accessed freely through the World Wide Web, for example, via

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

http://research.bmn.com/medline

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

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MEDLINE searching is easy, just enter search terms in the query box, and press the Enter Go or click Go.

How to Search MEDLINE ?

You may enter one or more terms (e.g., vitamin c common cold) in the query box and MEDLINE automatically combines (ANDs) significant terms together.

The terms are searched in various fields of the citation.

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How to Search MEDLINE ?

Search Results

Article TitleAuthors

Journal Title Year, Volume, Issue & Page No.

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How to Search MEDLINE ? (cont.)

How to search for Author Names ? enter the name in the format of last name plus initials (no punctuation), e.g., smith ja, jones k. A name entered using this format will search in the author field.

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How to limit your search ? Click Limits from the Features bar to limit your search to specific age group, gender, or human or animal studies. Limits also allows you to restrict to publications in a specific language, and to specific types of articles such as review articles.

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Note:

If you select a limit and either run a search or move to another screen, a check will appear in a box next to Limits on the Features bar to indicate that limits have been selected.

To turn off the limits before you run your next search, click on the box to remove the check.

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Tip: you may limit your search to REVIEW articles for obtaining a more general survey on the issue under investigation

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Note:

The search instructions found at

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query/static/help/pmhelp.html#Index

are pretty helpful and are a very good place to start experiencing with MEDLINE.

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The assignment will not only familiarize you with MEDLINE - a very important tool at your disposal -but is also intended to develop some skills of digging in the libraries.

You will need the experience acquired during preparation of this assignment when carrying out your final project in this course.


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Homework Assignment

Science Citation

http://wos.isiglobalnet.com/

Science Citation Index is another important scientific database.

It allows to count how many times was a specific journal article(published after 1988) cited by later articles, in order to evaluate its importance and impact.

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OBJECTIVE

Development of a digital database of medical cross-sectional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images of the female and male human bodies, for applications in clinical medicine and biomedical research

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The Visible Human Project has its roots in a 1986 long-range planning effort of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It foresaw a coming era where NLM's database services would be complemented by libraries of digital images, accessible via high speed computer networks

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Acquisition of transverse CT, MR and cryosection images of representative male and female cadavers has been completed.

The male was sectioned at one millimeter intervals, the female at one-third of a millimeter intervals.

Details on this project could be found at:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html

http://www.madsci.org/~lynn/VH/tour.html

The Visible Human Project of the US NLM is the creation of complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the normal male and female human bodies.

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CT of the Head

MRI of the Knees

Cryosection of the Head

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Transverse (X-Y) Coronal (X-Z) Sagittal (Y-Z)

Planes of Section

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The original setions were cut in the transverse plane.

The body was frozen to preserve the tissues and organs.

Sections were 'shaved' off the frozen block in micro-thin layers to expose underlying tissues.

A picture was taken and another thin layer was removed to exposemore of the body.

The process of cutting through one plane obviously ruins the possibility of obtaining sections in the other two planes (coronal and sagittal in this case).

The digital information from the transverse images was thus processed by computational methods to create a 3D matrix of the body from which coronal and sagittal sections could be generated.

How the sections were made...

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These coronal (bottom) and sagittal(right) animations go through the entire body. These coronal and sagittalimages were produced using computational image reconstruction

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3D Reconstructions

skin surface

pelvis

skull

thorax

colon

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On-Line Visible Human Viewers

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http://www.dhpc.adelaide.edu.au/projects/vishuman2/

http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/GrossAnatomy/vhp/Visible.htm

http://www.dal.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/manscan.pl

http://vhp.med.umich.edu/RegionalB.html

seehttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/applications.htmlfor additional viewers and browsers

Some recommendedOn-Line Visible Human Viewerscan be found at

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The wealth of scientific information and academic knowledge accessible via the Web is virtually limitless.

Getting to it, however, is proving more complicated and time-consuming by the day.

Motivation: Why Teaching Efficient WWW Data Search ?

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SEARCH ENGINES

A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found.

Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Alta Vista and Google that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web.

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SEARCH ENGINES (cont.)

Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible.

Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document.

Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithmto create its indices such that ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.

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http://www.google.com

SEARCH ENGINES (cont.): GOOGLE

highly recommended due to its efficient indexing and relevance classification algorithms which search the keywords by their context (and not necessarily by their prevalence of appearance)

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SEARCH ENGINES (cont.): ALTA VISTA

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http://www.altavista.com/

extremely rich indices and versatile, high option abilities for advanced search & search limitations

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How to search for Multimedia Resources ?Digital Images, Digital Videos, Digital Sound

use the advanced image/video/audio search options

Example: Alta Vista

SEARCH ENGINES (cont.): others

YAHOO http://www.yahoo.com/

EXCITE http://www.excite.com/

LYCOS http://www.lycos.com/

MSN http://www.msn.com/

HOT BOT http://hotbot.lycos.com/

WEBCRAWLER http://www.webcrawler.com/

ASK JEEVES http://www.askjeeves.com/

try using different search engines to explore their sensitivity to terms in specific field or discipline

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http://www.scirus.com/?c

SPECIALIZED SEARCH ENGINES

SCIRUS - limited for scientific information only!

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covers MEDLINE, many medical information web site, university web sites etc.

SPECIALIZED SEARCH ENGINES

MEDWEB - limited for medical information only!

http://WWW.MedWeb.Emory.Edu/MedWeb/

MedWeb is a catalog of biomedical and health related web sites maintained by the staff of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University 115

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Technical information and specifications can also be found in the manufacturer s web site

* Note that the information provided by sources of this type maysometimes be diverted due to commercial interests

For example, comprehensive reviews on Medical Imaging Technology can be found at the web site of Philips Medical , one of the major manufacturers of this equipment

http://www.medical.philips.com/news/publications/medica_mundi/index.asp

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The final project involves writing a chapter for an electronic textbook on biomedical engineering.

Each chapter will be written by a group of two to three students, and will be based on a specialized area of biomedical engineering or one of the body's systems or senses.

Projects will be written as Word Documents and/or Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and will contain links to images (or movies, and even sound, if appropriate).

Reports may be submitted in Hebrew or English, and are limited to 15 pages maximum.

BEST PROJECTS WILL BE PRESENTED IN THE COURSE WEB SITE !

Final Project

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Specific instructions will be distributed in class