ISEF FORMS - Research for Grade 10 - Powerpoint Presentation
Getting published.edinburgh feb2014.tg
1. Reporting research:
How to survive peer review & get published
2014 Edinburgh Clinical Research Methodology Course
Dr Trish Groves
Head of research, BMJ
& Editor-in-Chief, BMJ Open
2. Competing interests
• I am editor in chief of BMJ Open and Head of Research at the
BMJ, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BMA
• I chair the BMJ’s weekly manuscript committee meeting where
we decide which research to publish
• I helped to develop and, in some instances, coauthored some of
the published guidance that I’ll be discussing in this talk
• BMJ (the company) receives revenues from drug & device
manufacturers through advertising, reprint sales, & sponsorship
• I receive a bonus based partly on the financial performance of
the BMJ. The BMJ is an open access journal that charges author
fees for publication of research articles, as does BMJ Open
3. What I aim to cover
Research questions & study designs
Research ethics and publication ethics
How to write a research paper
Choosing a journal
Surviving peer review
4. Match the question & design
How/why/when
is it happening?
What’s
going on?
Can it/does it
work?
Population (P) Outcomes (O)
Interventions (I) or Exposures (E)
Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Oxford, UK www.cebm.net
7. 2013 Declaration of Helsinki
This covers:
• risks, burdens and benefits
• vulnerable groups and individuals
• scientific requirements and research protocols
• Research Ethics Committees
• privacy and confidentiality
• informed consent
• use of placebos
• post-trial provisions
• research registration, publication, dissemination of results
• unproven interventions in clinical practice
8. To get published in an ICMJE
journal:
• trials randomising human
participants to investigate the cause
and effect relationship between a
medical intervention and a health
outcome that commenced after 1
July 2005 must have been registered
prospectively, ie before enrolment of
any participants
• trials of other interventions ,
including health services and
behavioural interventions to
evaluate the effects on health
outcomes, that commenced after 1
July 2008 must have been registered
prospectively, ie before enrolment of
any participants
11. Who can be an author?
Based on substantial contributions to:
• conception or design of the work; or the acquisition,
analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and
• drafting the work or revising it critically for important
intellectual content; and
• final approval of the version to be published; and
• agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in
ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or
integrity of any part of the work are appropriately
investigated and resolved.
12. ICMJE definition of authorship: details
Authors
• should be able to identify which co-authors are
responsible for specific other parts of the work
• should have confidence in the integrity of the
contributions of their co-authors
• must fulfil the criteria; no one who fulfils the criteria
should be excluded
• participated sufficiently in the work to take public
responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Acquiring funding, collecting data, generally supervising group
do not alone constitute authorship
13. General guidance on writing papers
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform
Requirements For Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals
www.icmje.org
Reporting guidelines for research, at the EQUATOR network
www.equator-network.org
Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Oxford
www.cebm.net
BMJ advice to authors
resources.bmj.com/bmj/authors
18. Introduction
brief background for this audience
3-4 paragraphs only: mind the word limit
what’s known, and what’s not, about your research question
don’t bore readers, editors, reviewers
don’t boast about how much you have read
the research question
state it clearly in the last paragraph of the introduction
say why it matters
19. Methods
• like a recipe
• most important section for informed readers
• describe:
–
–
–
–
–
inclusion and exclusion criteria
outcome measures: define primary outcome(s)
intervention or exposure
randomisation/stratification
sample size calculation
• give references for lab/stats methods
• follow reporting guidelines
http://www.equator-network.org/
• describe measures to ensure ethical conduct
20. Results
• report results fully and honestly
– don’t cherry pick
– report primary outcome first
•
•
•
•
•
confidence intervals
essential summary statistics
leave out non-essential tables and figures
text (story), tables (evidence), figs (highlights)
don’t start discussion here
21. Structured discussion
Don’t simply repeat the introduction
• statement of principal findings
• strengths & weaknesses of the study
• strengths & weaknesses in relation to other studies
(especially systematic reviews), & key differences
• possible mechanisms & explanations for findings
• potential implications for clinicians or policymakers
• unanswered questions and future research
22. Abstract: general rules
Important
All authors must
approve it
Editors may screen by
abstract
for BMJ:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
structured abstract
usually 300-400 words
use active voice
p values need data too
%s need denominators
no references
trial registration details
23. Clear writing
Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech
which you are used to seeing in print [a cliché]
Never use a long word where a short one will do
If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out
Never use the passive where you can use the active
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a
jargon word if you can think of an everyday [English]
equivalent
Orwell G. Politics and the English language. 1946
25. Chipperfield L et al.
Authors’ submission toolkit: A
practical guide to getting your
research published.
CMRO. 2010;26(8):1967-1982.
26.
27. A person has a competing interest when
he or she has an attribute that is invisible
to the reader or editor but which may
affect his or her judgment
Always declare a competing interest,
particularly one that would embarrass
you if it came out afterwards
http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf
28. Misconduct in research and publication (U.S. ROI)
Fabrication: making up data or results and recording
or reporting them (through publication or presentation)
Falsification: manipulating research materials,
equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data
or results such that the research is not accurately
represented in the research record
Plagiarism: the appropriation of another person's
ideas, processes, results, or words without giving
appropriate credit
30. Selective reporting
“If one assesses the sins
they have ranked in terms
of their potential for harm
to patients, biased
reporting of research surely
has far more serious
practical consequences than
undeserved authorship or
plagiarism.”
Chalmers I.
Lancet 2006;368:450
Lancet 2006;367:1882-4
