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There are a myriad of helpful tools, guidelines and resources for medical writers available on the Web, many of which we refer to frequently in the course of our work with clients. Below are links to a few of our favorites; this list changes and grows over time so please check back frequently.

Working ethically with professional medical writers:

Author! Author! Who Should Be Named in a Published Study? An Ethics Case Study. This is an interesting, CME-eligible American College of Physicians Ethics Case Study that explores potential authorship and conflict-of-interest disclosure issues. Written by Sheryl Mitnick, RN, MPH and Michael Werner, JD. It was released by MedscapeCME on 12/31/2009 and is valid for credit through 12/31/2010.

Goodbye ghostwriters: how to work ethically and efficiently with professional medical writers. Wooley K.L., CHEST 2006; 130:921–923.

What should be done to tackle ghostwriting in the medical literature? Peter C. Gøtzsche, Jerome P. Kassirer, Karen L. Woolley, Elizabeth Wager, Adam Jacobs, Art Gertel, Cindy Hamilton, PLoS Medicine, February 2009

Checklist for authors using medical writers: a practical tool to discourage ghost writing.  Karen L. Woolley, Elizabeth Wager, Adam Jacobs, Art Gertel, Cindy Hamilton, PLoS Medicine, February 2009

Helpful tools for medical writers:

Guides and Guidelines

CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) Guidleines aim to improve and standardize the reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The CONSORT 2010 Statement page includes the statement, a helpful checklist and the 2010 CONSORT Explanation and Elaboration Document.

Submitting manuscripts to biomedical journals: common errors and helpful solutions. This section-by section checklist was created to help authors improve their chances for publication by correcting some of the most common mistakes seen by editors and reviwers. By: Claire Johnson, DC, MSE and Bart Green, DC, MSE, Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, January 2009.

The Web site for the Inernational Committee of Medical Journal Editors contains a wealth of information about publishing, including ethical guidelines regarding authorship, and a new, uniform disclosure form for potential conflicts of interest. Unfortunately the form appears to work only with Firefox or Internet Explorer, running Adobe Acrobat Reader. At the time this was posted, Mac Safari/Preview were not compatible with the form.

Another set of standards is the Good Publication Practice Guidelines (GPP-2) for Pharmaceutical Companies. Updated in November of 2009, these are published by the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP). The recent changes were made in response to evolving standards of authorship and contributorship in the ethical communication of medical research.

For a complete list of the major biomedical research reporting guidelines for reporting research methods and findings, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives: By Organization page.

Associations

American Medical Writers Association. The mission of this organization is to promote excellence in medical communication. We have found it to be an invaluable resources for networking, continuing education and professional development.

National Association of Science Writers. This association is for journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, science-writing educators, and people who write and produce films, museum exhibits, and other material intended to inform the public about science and technology.

Colorado BioScience Association. Fostering relationships and providing advocacy to support Colorado's growing bioscience industry cluster.

Advice and Inspiration for Scientists in Career Transition

Jeanne recently published an article in the "Career Insights" section of ASBMB Today, offering some advice and a personal perspective on transitioning from bench science to an alternative career. Click here to read "Jump, Don't Fall into Your Career Transition," which can be found on page 34 of the magazine.

Favorite Books for Medical Writers

How to Report Statistics in Medicine by Tom Lang. A great guide to interpreting statistics from clinical studies, and reporting them properly.

How to Write, Publish, and Present in the Health Sciences, also by Tom Lang. Many helpful tips for effective scientfic communication.

Reference

National Center for Biotechnology Information

PubMed. More than 19 million citations for biomedical articles from MEDLINE and life science journals.

Journal of the American Medical Association Manual of Style (subscription required)

Council of Science Editors. Formerly the Council of Biology Editors, publishes "Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers."

Medline Plus. Consumer-oriented medical dictionary, encyclopedia, drug and health information

Farlex Free Medical Dictionary. A quick online reference, sourced from The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Second Edition and Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Care Consumers.

Business Tools, Software and Resources

At Biolexica, we use a lot of interesting apps and software to boost our productivity and efficiency. Some of our favorites are listed here (we have no financial stake in any of these, we're just a happy customer!). Most offer free trials so check them out:

Bookends by Sonny Software. Like EndNote and Reference Manager, but easier to use and less expensive (Mac).

iAnnotate PDF for iPad, by AJI. A PDF reader and annotation tool which, together with Bookends and DropBox, turns the iPad into a paperless platform for reviewing and managing the many literature references associated with large writing projects.

Scrivener by Literature & Latte. A powerful, non-linear content-generation tool that makes it easy for writers to compose and structure long and difficult documents. Originally developed for novelists and screenwriters, it's also great for complex technical writing projects.

Harvest by Iridesco. Time tracking and billing software (ASP/subscription model) from Iridesco. Flexible, easy to use and indispensable for tracking time spent on projects.

FirstEdge Small Business Accounting Software by MYOB. For Mac users, a nice alternative to other well-known, PC-focused financial management software.

Default Folder X for Mac by St. Clair Software. Great productivity tool helps save and organize files effortlessly and open  folders with minimal navigation clicks. Default Folder X makes Mac OS X's Open and Save dialogs work quickly with custom keyboard shortcuts and pop-up menus that speed navigation of your folders and open Finder windows.