This presentation is based on an article written by Mr. Ameen Abbass Ameen titled: Writing for Medical Journals Published in:Postgraduate Doctor Middle East Vol 10 Number 5 Pp 306-311. For many doctors, writing for medical journals is a tedious duty but you have to get over it as it is an important part of career development for the ambitious in medicine. The secret to successful writing is to have something to say, to say it well, to follow the principles of scientific composition and to choose the right journal for the article.The home message is: DO NOT BELIEVE PEOPLE WHO TELL YOU THAT WRITING IS EASY!

1. WRITING FOR MEDICAL
JOURNALS
PROFESSOR
ABDULSALAM Y TAHA
School of Medicine
University of Sulaimani
Iraq
1
https://sulaimaniu.academia.edu/AbdulsalamTaha

2. Important Note
This presentation is based on an article written
by
Mr. Ameen Abbass Ameen
entitled:
Writing for Medical Journals
Published in:
Postgraduate Doctor Middle East
Vol 10 Number 5
2 Pp 306-311

3. Introduction
• I do not set myself up as an authority in
medical writing and may not be capable of
writing fine English.
• I will simply express my own views, point the
way for beginners to follow by giving hints and
general guidelines which I have found helpful
in writing papers.
• Hence, this is a trial to smooth over some of
the difficulties, hoping that people will agree
3 with me and finds this article useful.

4. • Editors reject badly prepared
manuscripts and attempt to improve
those accepted so that a journal may
retain its high standards.
• Writing, like any other practical art,
cannot be learned wholly from
books or in the classroom, but
requires experience.
• It is believed to be more beneficial
for the author than the reader as it
widens one's understanding of any
clinical condition: it can make boring
subjects interesting and it
establishes the personality.
• The best teachers are one's own
more experienced colleagues.
In the Middle East,
as in most of the
developing
countries, little has
been done to
improve medical
writing as nowhere
in our educational
system are
students taught
how to write.
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5. Introduction…
• For many doctors,
writing for medical
journals is a tedious
duty but you have to
get over it as it is an
important part of career
development for the
ambitious in medicine.
• The secret to successful
writing is to have
something to say, to say
it well, to follow the
principles of scientific
composition and to
choose the right journal
for the article.
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6. • After you have decided: the first question to be answered is
( what has been done before?) so, start looking at some papers
that have already covered an aspect of the work you intend to
study by going through the relevant journals that deal with your
work.
• Next, consult the Index Medicus of the last three or four years to
complete your list of previous works.
• The librarian or an expert colleague could help you make use of
the index if you are not familiar with it.
• The librarian may be able to produce a few more key references
or will get you copies of the articles you need either in the available
Journals or as photocopies from the Royal Society of Medicine, BMA
or the British Library Lending Division. The National Library of Medicine
in the USA also has a computer system of information retrieval based
on the Index Medicus known as (Medlars).
• The advice and help from your expert colleagues is invaluable .
They may know similar work going on elsewhere and may be able
to suggest short cuts or indicate the snags in a particular approach.
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7. • Next, find a statistician
before you do any work
that brings in figures.
• It is no good doing the
work and then presenting a
statistician with a mass of
figures and asking him to
work out p and x2 if the
results are not suitable for
valid analysis.
Good style
implies the
use of
language
which conveys
the writers
meaning
clearly.
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10. • The well known rules for writing
clear, correct English are: choose the
correct word, prefer the single
word, use the active rather than the
passive voice, and use short, simple
sentences. Write with nouns and
verbs and not with adjectives and
adverbs.
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16. TABLES AND
FIGURES
• FOLLOW THE
INSTRUCTION
GIVEN BY THE
JOURNAL YOU
INTEND TO SEND
YOUR ARTICLE TO.
● FIGURES SHOULD BE USED SPARINGLY
AND FOR DEFINITE PURPOSE. MOST
GRAPHS AND HISTOGRAMS CAN BE
BETTER EXPRESSED AS TABLES.
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● Tables should present facts in
the clearest possible way; they
should not repeat information that
is already in the text. If your paper
has only one table you should not
number it and should refer to it in
the text as the table. Otherwise each
table should be numbered. Every
table should be typed on a separate
sheet and should have a title.

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19. References
• References must be
relevant and, on the
whole, recent.
Sometimes you need to
quote a reference you
have read about in
another article but are
unable to read the
original. Here you
should be honest and
mention both sources.
● There are two basic styles
for referring to references. The
Harvard style quotes the names
and year in the text, as in the
following example:
Ameen AA and Illingworth R. D.,
Anti-fibrinolysis in the preoperative
management of subarachnoid
haemorrhage due to ruptured
intracranial aneurysm. Journal
of Neurology, Neurosurgery
and Psychiatry. 44, 220-26 (1981).
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24. Which journal?
This depends on
several factors:
1. The general quality
of your article and the
prestige of the journal
in which you intend to
publish.
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33. DO NOT BELIEVE
PEOPLE
WHO TELL YOU
THAT WRITING
IS EASY!
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