Category archive: Medical writing

Plagiarism hurts

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Dreadful science reporting in the media Medical ethics Medical writing   6 Comments

First of all, for blindingly obvious reasons, I should acknowledge that the title of this blog post is not original. “Plagiarism hurts” was the title of an article in EMWA‘s journal The Write Stuff by Elise Langdon-Neuner, its editor-in-chief (page 13 of this issue, 1.6 MB pdf). I’m sure that Elise won’t mind me re-using her title, with proper attribution. Elise was kind enough to show me her article before she published it, and we had some interesting discussions about … Continue reading →

Internships available

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing News Recruitment   1 Comment

Are you trying to get a job in medical writing but finding it difficult without experience? We currently have internships available for bright and motivated individuals wanting to start a career in medical writing. You will be helping with a research project in medical writing, and seeing the day-to-day work in a medical writing company at first hand. All our recent interns have found full-time jobs in medical writing since doing internships at Dianthus Medical. Hours and timing of internships … Continue reading →

New Lancet policy on systematic reviews

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing Statistics   3 Comments

The Lancet have recently introduced an interesting new policy. They now require anyone submitting the results of research (not just randomised trials, apparently, but all research) to The Lancet to include a systematic review with their research. This can be a reference to a recently published systematic review, but if no such review exists, then the authors are required to do their own systematic review and report it within the paper. Now, the intention behind this idea is entirely laudable. … Continue reading →

Publication ethics: not just an industry problem

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing   Leave a comment

Much is written about ghostwriting in the medical literature. To be clear, ghostwriting is unethical, and pretty much everyone agrees about that. However, it seems to be a worrying trend that many of those who are most vocal in condemning it are guilty themselves of the practices they condemn. My last blog post mentioned Senator Grassley’s report on ghostwriting. It appears that he didn’t actually write the report himself, despite putting his name on the front. I have asked him … Continue reading →

Senator Grassley’s report on ghostwriting

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing   Leave a comment

Those who follow developments on ghostwriting in the medical literature will be aware that US Senator Charles Grassley has been an outspoken critic of the practice. He has just released a report into his 2 years of inquiries into medical ghostwriting. On the whole, much of what he writes is sensible, but there do seem to be a few ways in which he has slightly missed the point. The main thrust of his argument, which I wholeheartedly agree with, is … Continue reading →

Papers from the past

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing   Leave a comment

I am thrilled to see that the latest issue of The Write Stuff, the journal of the European Medical Writers Association is now published. It is always a fascinating read for those of us involved in medical writing, and although I haven’t yet got very far with the current issue, I’m sure it will be no exception. It certainly has some fascinating looking things in its table of contents, and  I am thoroughly looking forward to reading it over the … Continue reading →

A new record in biomedical publishing?

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing   3 Comments

I have just had a paper rejected from a journal so quickly that I think I may have set a new speed record. Continue reading →

New training dates announced

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing News   Leave a comment

We are pleased to be able to confirm the dates for our next public training courses in medical writing. Our 1-day introductory course will be on 17 September, and our 2-day course for healthcare professionals will be on 28-29 October. Continue reading →

EMWA conference, day 4

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing News Statistics   Leave a comment

Well, the EMWA conference is all over now, and I am safely back in London, having cunningly dodged the ash cloud by a rather small margin on both my outward and return journeys. The final day of the conference began with a plenary lecture about the importance of compliance with promotional codes, such as that by the ABPI, when writing materials that could be used for promotional purposes.  One of the great challenges in this area is that codes are … Continue reading →

EMWA conference, day 3

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Adam
Adam Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
and filed under Medical writing News   Leave a comment

It’s been a busy day at the EMWA conference today (well, technically yesterday now) without a spare 5 minutes to update the blog until now. The day began at 8 am with a plenary lecture on knowledge and information management. Some good hints and tips there, especially for the knowledge management wiki that we’ve recently set up at Dianthus. Then for the rest of the morning I sat in on Victoria Cairns’s workshop “statistical thinking for medical writers”. I’ll shortly … Continue reading →