Scientific Writing
How to Write a Case Report Abstract: Structure and Examples
Clinicians writing a first case report often reuse the research abstract template and lose the reader by the second line. Here is the structure that w...
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Directive Academy
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Scientific Writing
Sample Size Calculation and Power for Small Clinical Studies
Small studies get called underpowered, and retrospective power cannot answer the charge because it only restat...
Directive Editorial Team · 6 min
Peer Review
Coercive Citation: When a Reviewer Asks You to Cite Their Work
A revision asks you to add a block of references by one author group. How to separate a genuine reading sugges...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Scientific Writing
Multi-Centre Study Agreements: Settle Data and Authorship First
A collaboration can run through recruitment smoothly and still collapse at drafting, because nobody agreed who...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
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Scientific Writing
Figure Version Control: Managing Figures Across Revision Rounds
By the third revision round a figure can have been regenerated more than once. Give every rendering an identity you can read off the filename, and rec...
Peer Review
Ethical Use of AI in Peer Review
Pasting a manuscript you are reviewing into a chatbot is a confidentiality breach — one many reviewers commit without realising. Here is where AI can...
Editor Resources
Special Issues and Guest Editors: How They Work and What to Check
A well-run special issue gathers the best current work on a topic. A badly run one has become a favourite vehicle for paper mills. Here is how to tell...
Research Integrity
Author Name Changes and Correcting the Published Record
Names change — through marriage, divorce, transition, or transliteration. For years the only route was a public correction notice. Better practice now...
Open Science
How to Cite Data, Software and Code
You would never use another author's figure without citing it — yet datasets and analysis code are used every day with nothing more than a thank-you....
Scientific Writing
Reporting Sex and Gender in Research: The SAGER Guidelines
Treating "sex" and "gender" as the same word has produced decades of incomplete medicine. The SAGER guidelines set out how to report both properly — a...
Scientific Writing
Accessibility in Scientific Publishing: Making Your Paper Readable by Everyone
Roughly one in twelve men has a colour-vision deficiency, and thousands of researchers use screen readers. A few deliberate choices make your paper us...
Open Science
Reporting Negative and Null Results
A study that finds nothing is not a failed study. Leaving null results unpublished distorts the evidence base — and writing them up well is a genuine...
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