AAPM&R-RPC: Resident’s
Research Packet
Presenting Your Work
Once you have finished your research project, you will,
hopefully, want to share your results with the rest of the medical/scientific
community. There are three ways to present your work: posters,
presentations and publication.
Posters
The
objective of a poster display is to present research in a way that facilitates
interaction between the presenter and the audience. Poster presentations are a
great way of sharing your work with people interested in the topic, as well as
learning what others are doing in similar fields. In general, it is easier to
get posters accepted at meetings than platform presentations; this makes
posters a good avenue for presenting pilot data.
Posters
should be simple and easy to read from a distance of ten feet. A large title
with type about two inches tall should be at the top of the poster, and
general text should be about one half inch tall. Try to make the content of
your poster flow from top left to bottom right so that it is easy to scan.
Some people choose to make their posters in outline form for the sake of
simplicity. Bold sub-headings and simple figures with clear concise legends
are useful. At least 50% of the poster area should be figures or tables. For
more tips on how to make a good poster, see the article in Appendix E.
Presentations
Presentations
are the oldest form of sharing research. The goal of the presentation is to
present research in an interesting, accurate and reasonably thorough
manner. Try to tell a story outlining the important details; do not
just read a scientific paper. Audio-visual aids (i.e., slides or overhead
transparencies) can be very helpful in presenting data and keeping the talk
interesting. They can also be confusing and tedious if not used well, so try
to keep them simple. For text slides, shoot for no more than 6 lines of text
apiece. Similarly, tables should be used to highlight specific points, not
present reams of data. Figures should be clear and well labeled.
Slides
are the most commonly used visual aids. There are now a number of computer
programs available (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance, Harvard
Graphics) to help you make attractive, professional slides yourself. Text can
be written and formatted with the program or imported from other computer
files. Type should be 24 to 60 points in size to ensure readability. Tables,
figures and even pictures can be imported from other files or scanned into the
computer program. Once the slides have been developed on the computer, a
floppy disk containing the slide files is sent to a developing facility where
the actual slides are made. Most universities and many photo shops can make
slides in this manner. A number of mail order businesses also provide this
service. However, slides made in this manner can be expensive ($2 to $8 per
slide depending on where they are made and how fast they are needed), but for
formal presentations to one’s peers, they are well worth the expense.
For those
of you still not up to the computer age, don’t fret. Typed or even
handwritten text can easily be brought to your university’s medical media
department or to the private businesses. They can then generate slides to your
specifications. This process will usually carry an additional charge and an
extra trip to the shop to proof the slides before they are actually developed.
But once again, it will be worth the effort for a good presentation.
Publications
Publishing
a paper is the most lasting form of sharing research and reaches the largest
audience. There are usually a number of appropriate journals for any type of
research, but be careful where you submit your manuscript. Make sure that the
journal is peer-reviewed and well read by the audience that you are trying to
target. Ask around to see which are considered to be the better journals in
your area of interest. If you have done research in a very small field that
does not have obvious journal choices, do a literature search to see where
similar work is being published. And you should always turn to your research
advisor, mentor, or faculty to get additional advice.
Publishing
in medical journals can be very competitive. You need to write a good paper to
show off your good research. An excellent, short paper by Deborah Saltman, MB,
BS, MD, on how to write medical research manuscripts has been included as
Appendix E to get you started. For more comprehensive assistance, see the
references listed below. When submitting your paper to a journal, pay close
attention to their specific manuscript preparation instructions. These
instructions can be found in the individual journals. The instructions are
often listed monthly; thus, the weekly journals will include their
instructions every fourth issue, the monthly journal in each issue, etc., so
flip through the most recent issues once you decided where to send your paper.
Writing in the proper format is of utmost importance; otherwise, the journal
will just have another reason to reject your paper. And always remember to
submit a cover letter to the journal’s editor(s) stating the title of your
paper, listing all of the authors (if more than one, each has to sign this
letter indicating they have read the manuscript), and indicating that your
paper has not been accepted for publication elsewhere.
Getting
research papers published can be a long and difficult process. When a paper is
submitted to a journal, the editor usually has two and sometimes three
“experts in the field” review the paper. They will write comments about
the paper and rank it. Depending on these reviews, the editor will either
accept the paper, accept the paper with revision or reject the paper. The
better journals accept fewer than 50% of manuscripts submitted and, of those
accepted, almost all are accepted with revision. It generally takes three to
four months for manuscripts to be reviewed and a couple of additional months
to have the revised paper reviewed. When the paper is accepted in final form,
there is usually a six to twelve month wait before it is finally published. Be
patient and be persistent. If revisions are requested, do only what you think
is appropriate (some of the comments or requests by the reviewers may simply
be wrong) and write a very thorough letter addressing each reviewer’s
comments in detail. If your paper is rejected, don’t feel bad. Most papers
are rejected on the first submission. Read your reviews and see how you can
improve your paper. Then try again. Consider your first manuscript submission
a learning process; you will learn a lot. Good luck!
References on Medical Writing
-
Day RA. How to
write and publish a scientific paper.
5th ed. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press; 1998.
-
Fishbein M.
Medical writing: the technic and the art. 4th ed.
Springfield, IL: CC Thomas; 1972.
-
Huth EJ. How to
write and publish papers in the medical sciences. Baltimore, MD: Williams
& Wilkins; 1990.
-
Huth EJ. Medical
style and format: an international manual for authors, editors, and publishers.
Philadelphia, PA: ISI Press; 1987.
-
Sherman TA, et
al. Modern technical writing. 5th ed.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.; 1990.
-
Weiss-Lambrou R.
The health professional’s guide to writing for publication.
Springfield, IL: CC Thomas; 1989.
-
Zeiger M.
Essentials of writing biomedical research papers. 2nd ed.
New York: McGraw-Hill; 2000.
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