Copyediting Medical Content Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com #ACES2017

Overview What is medical editing? What is medical content? What editing tools do I need? What else do I need to know? How can I learn more? #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

What is medical editing? Editing of materials related to medicine and health Good medical editors have Solid basic editing skills Strong attention to detail Good editorial judgment Interest in medicine and science #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

What is medical content? Journals Books Individual articles Funding proposals Clinical practice guidelines White papers Slide decks Informational brochures Regulatory documents Web content CME courses Course review materials General health articles Disease-specific information #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Medical content areas Medical research http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1613683 Medical marketing http://betheconnection.harvoni.com/ Patient education http://www.harvoni.com/ Medical education http://www.accme.org/find-cme-provider

Medical research Publication type: Journals Books Individual articles Funding proposals Clinical practice guidelines Audience: Medical researchers Clinical practitioners Who hires editors? Publishing services companies Individual authors Medical centers Associations Contract research organizations Editing tools: Word Excel #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Medical marketing Publication type: White papers Slide decks Web pages Informational brochures Regulatory documents Audience: Clinical practitioners Patients Government regulators Sales teams Who hires editors? Medical marketing companies Pharmaceutical companies Medical device manufacturers Contract research organizations Tools: Word PowerPoint Acrobat or Acrobat Reader #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Patient education Publication type: General health articles Disease-specific information Web content Audience: Patients and their families General interest readers Who hires editors? Medical centers Advocacy associations Web content providers Tools: Word #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Medical education Publication type: CME modules Review summaries Audience: Clinical practitioners Medical students Who hires editors? CME providers Publishing companies Professional associations Medical centers Tools: Word Online editing software #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

What editing tools do I need? Software: Word Excel PowerPoint Acrobat or Acrobat Reader Web browser Stedman’s Medical/Pharmaceutical Spellchecker add-on for Word Style: AMA 10th edition http://www.amamanualofstyle.com/ Stedman’s medical dictionary http://www.stedmansonline.com/ Merriam-Webster 11th edition https://www.merriam-webster.com/ #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Other resources Some free file-handling tools: Send large files WeTransfer, https://wetransfer.com/ Unlock PDF files for annotation FreeMyPDF, http://www.freemypdf.com/ Scan for plagiarized text PlagScan, https://www.plagscan.com/ Check readability level StoryToolz, http://storytoolz.com/readability #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Other resources Some medical content tools: PubMed database of biomedical literature https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ ClinicalTrials.gov registry of biomedical clinical trials https://clinicaltrials.gov/ US National Library of Medicine, “Help Me Understand Genetics” https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer HUGO gene nomenclature database http://www.genenames.org/ #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

What else do I need to know? #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

What else do I need to know? Medical terminology Structure of research content Reporting results References Publication ethics #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Medical terminology Nomenclature (see AMA chapters 14 and 15) Humanizing language (see AMA 11.1, “case”) Victimizing language (AMA 11.10.4) Regulatory language English as a second language Author queries #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Structure of research content IMRDC: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion Author guidelines http://www.nejm.org/page/author-center/home Levels of evidence http://www.cebm.net/oxford-centre-evidence-based-medicine-levels- evidence-march-2009/ #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Reporting results Statistics (see AMA 20.9 and 20.10) Tables Figures Abstract http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1613683 Supplementary materials #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

References Reference format Index Medicus (eg, N Engl J Med) Bellmunt J, de Wit R, Vaughn DJ, et al. Pembrolizumab as second-line therapy for advanced urothelial carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2017;376(11):1015-1026. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1613683 Index Medicus (eg, N Engl J Med) PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28212060 Impact factor #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Publication ethics Author contributions Acknowledgment of substantive contributions Disclosure of funding support and conflicts of interest Plagiarism Predatory publishers Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) http://publicationethics.org/ #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

How can I learn more? Style AMA Manual of Style free quizzes and answer keys online http://www.amamanualofstyle.com/page/style- quizzes;jsessionid=3BA43F7E9C8D205AC714D2838A9C617B ACES 2012 handout: “How to Learn a Style Guide in 10 Days” http://nola.copydesk.org/wp-media/styleguide2012.pdf EditorMom blog: “How to Teach Yourself AMA Style” http://editor-mom.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-teach-yourself- ama-style.html

How can I learn more? Associations American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) http://www.amwa.org/ AMWA New Medical Writers Toolkit http://www.amwa.org/medwritertoolkit Council of Science Editors (CSE) https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/ National Association of Science Writers (NASW) https://www.nasw.org/ Association of Health Care Journalists http://healthjournalism.org/ #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

How can I learn more? Certifications Editor in the Life Sciences (ELS) from the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) http://www.bels.org/ Medical Writer Certified (MWC) from AMWA http://www.amwa.org/certification #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

How can I learn more? Some certificate programs AMWA certificates http://www.amwa.org/certificates University of California San Diego Extension medical writing certificate https://extension.ucsd.edu/ University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies medical writing and editing certificate https://grahamschool.uchicago.edu/ #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com

Copyediting Medical Content Thank you! Please feel free to contact me with comments and questions following the session. Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com #ACES2017 / Jeni Crockett-Holme, ELS, jeni.crockett-holme@amnet-systems.com