Publishing and Presenting Clinical Research 2009 Week Four Warren Browner, MD, MPH

Today's agenda Review from last time Discussion Prettifying Talks and slides Your stuff (limitations)

T&F common opportunities Can’t tell what to expect from title or legend Unlabeled data Precision = excessive, too much, overkill Not clear what’s in the figure Not “worthy” of a figure

Discussion: Structure What you found (key findings, in words) and the strength of your convictions What the results mean Limitations Conclusions

What does it mean that A >B? Implications of your results – Clinical, scientific, methodological – Comparison with what’s known – Alternative explanations Anticipate concerns of reviewers and readers – What should happen next

Limitations If you could do it over… – Be reasonable: Don’t suggest a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial in 20,000 patients if it’s not appropriate Problems in design, sample, measurements, analysis, interpretation, and why these matter Alternatives that you did not address

Practice Segues These results are consistent with… Our result suggest… We believe our findings… Why might our results differ from…? We made several other observations…

Prettifying: Fonts Two per document or presentation – Serifs (doohickeys) for text – Sans serif for tables, figures, legends, headers Garamond, Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Bookman Arial Narrow, Arial, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Verdana Courier lines up vertically One line is under another

Prettifying Use the Insert, Symbol menu Greek letters (  Mathematical entries ( ±, ≈, ≠, ≥, ≤) Text that is both left- and right-justified is harder to read than left-justified text. The spacing is often awkward. Left-justified text is easier to read than text which is both left- and right-justified. The spacing is more natural.

It’s a Computer, not a Typewriter Delete underlining. Use bold or italic. Follow periods with only one space. – Two spaces. Are too many. Really – One space. Is just fine. Honest.

Making Slides A few easy lessons Do’s and don’ts

PowerPoint Rules Keep the distractions to a minimum – Colors, fonts, animation, graphics Minimum font size (this is 28) – This is 24 This is 20 – This is 18 This is still 18

More Rules Keep colors to a minimum (4-5 max) Don’t forget the color-blind (cross-hatch) 2-point lines minimum

Clues that Something is Wrong It takes more than 10 min. to make a slide You have 20 minutes to talk and 40 slides – One slide per minute

What This Slide Says I don’t have a point to make I do have too much time my hands I learned how to use animation You're going to have sit through it Now what was I trying to say?

Practicing the Talk First aim for overall message and time Then seek input about the slides – Fix slides as you do so Then about the talk – Get “style” comments in private

Always Spell check (F7) Then print slides (hand-out) and proof-read

The PowerPoint Show F5 = start; ESC = end; “X” enter = slide “X” During the show – B = blackout – W = whiteout – Next = Spacebar, right or up arrow, N, enter, or left click – Previous = Backspace, down or left arrow, or P

The Talk Itself Arrive early Meet the chairs Position friends in the front of the audience Bring a glass of water Don’t get spontaneous until you get good Chuck the laser pointer

Don’t Read Your Slides Reading slides is boring and turns people off Most will realize they don't have to pay attention to what the speaker is saying, and they will stop doing so People can also read faster than someone can speak (can’t you?) But don’t ignore what you’ve written

Responding to Questions ESL: “Thanks for your attention. I will try to respond to your questions, but English is not my first language. Please speak slowly and simply.” All: “I'm sorry; I don't understand your question. Perhaps we can discuss this after the session.”

Responding to Nasty Questioners Multi-part questions: – Answer what you want to – Then say “What was the other question?” Hostile or argumentative: – “Perhaps we can discuss this later. Next question?”

Physiology Limitations