S24
ISO69
Symposia
How to win friends and influence statistical referees!
A. Kelly. Department Practice,
-
Trinity
of Community Health College, Dublin, Ireland
ElSO90 Memorable mistakes Luiz Leite. Lisboa, Portugal In the course of several years as Editor of SkinCancer Journal, my staff and I have come across sentences in manuscripts that go from amusing to ludicrous, generally do to difficulty in translating technical and scientific papers into a foreign language. I was invited to share some of those funny pieces with you. rlSO91 Problems for nonenglish speaking author
publishing in English
Medical
Faculty,
Ankara,
Turkey
Writing reports of research is work, and hard work. Even scientists whose first language is English often have difficulty in expressing themselves clearly. English is not the first language of many authors who are obliged to publish in English, and they also may find it difficult to express their thoughts clearly and concisely. The topic of my talk in this symposium is scientific publication potentials in Dermatology in Turkey. I will try to reflect Turkey situation and problems for publishing. The summary of the limited data obtained from available documents will be given. According to our data, the field of Dermatology has been showing an increasing dynamic effect on publication potentials in our country. ElSO92 Keeping your reader interested Lawrence Charles Parish. Jefferson Centerfor International Dermatology, University,
Jefferson Philadelphia,
Infections
prose can then be savored. Most importantly, a medical paper need not be sleep producing.
& General
The perception amongst some clinical researchers that the statistical referee is the ‘opponent’ - and best avoided if at all possible - is unfortunate and unjustified. This may stem from the researcher’s own sense of insecurity where statistics are concerned. In point of fact, the essential task of a referee is to encourage good ‘statistical practice’ and discourage what I will term naivete’ in either study design, analysis or reporting. What does a statistical referee look for in assessing an article? We will consider a check list of do’s and don’ts with due regard to why these are important and hopefully shed some light on the referee’s thinking.
Meltem ijnder. Gazi University
Fungal
Medical College, Thomas Pennsylvania, USA
Jefferson
Presentations in dermatologic journals should be designed to stimulate, not to stupefy. Whereas once a traditional case report might be studied with gusto, no matter how verbose, a contemporary paper must first attract the reader and second keep his/her attention. A catchy title and a concise abstract will titillate the physician so that the subsequent succinct scientific
l-3SO93 Innovation in publishing M. Shahmanesh. England Abstract not available. I SO94 Publishing a scientific paper: The value of
scientific literature today
Tore110 M. Lotti. Dept. of Dermatology,
University
of Siena,
Italy
Dermatologists (and, general physicians) are crushed with an enormous amount of printed material, including peer-reviewed and controlled circulation Journals. It has been noted that the increase in scientific literature reflects not greater productivity but simply a larger number of scientists at work who will simply “publish-or-perish”. Most of the articles published in the medical literature are never cited; many of them are of less than optimal quality. About half of published articles contain statistical errors, and it has been estimated that 70% to 80% of publications are without any pragmatic significance. The information explosion is presently magnified by the use of computer networks and bibliographic and full-text databases, to an even greater degree to the point that coverage of all published material is impossible. Altering the “publish-or-perish” rules and writing more comprehensive rather than multiple small contributions are fundamental changes in the long-accepted policies in medical literature which cannot be post-poned any longer.
Fungal Infections ElSO95 Tinea capitis - An emarging problem in Europe?
R.J. Hay. St. John’s London
SE1 9RT,
Institute UK
of Dermatology,
Guy’s
Hospital,
Tinea capitis used to be a common problem in Europe until the development of griseofulvin coupled with widescale surveillance reduced the incidence of anthropophilic infections to low levels. In the past three years there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of anthropophilic infection in urban areas of the UK and there have been similar reports from other European countries. The organisms have been Trichophyton tonsurans, Microsporum audouinii and T. soudanense. In St. John’s the incidence of these infections has risen by a factor of 10 fold over 3 years. This reflects an underlying disease prevalence in South London primary school children of about 3%. The reasons suggested for this increase have been the difficulty of diagnosing the infection, reduction of surveillance and inappropriate treatments. Currently there is a Europe. wide survey under way to compare trends across member states of the EU.