Information for Authors in the Health Sciences

Where do I start?

• The University of Colorado Libraries have an excellent tutorial called
  Publish, Not Perish: the art and craft of publishing in scholarly journals
• Usually, before writing your manuscript, you'll need to undertake a literature review. Librarians at the Kellogg Health Sciences Library can help with this. Please contact a librarian in your subject area.
• Consult some books on writing and publishing held in the Kellogg Library (See the bibliography below)

Where do I publish my paper?

• Search a database in your subject area (such as PubMed or CINAHL) to find articles on a similar topic to see which journals are publishing in this area/field.
• Check with other faculty members in your department
• Search Ulrich's Periodical Directory Online
  -- Among other things Ulrich's indicates whether a journal is refereed or not
• Check the impact factor of prospective journals in Journal citation reports
• Instructions for Authors in the Health Sciences for particular journals
• Information on publishers
• Open access journals: DOAJ; Biomed Central

Grant sources

• Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Funding Agencies and Deadlines (Dalhousie Office of Research Services)
• more...

Citing the literature

• American Psychological Association Publication Manual
• APA Quick Guide
• Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (Vancouver style)
• Journals that follow URM (Vancouver style)
• See more...
• Manage your bibliographies with RefWorks (Dal only)

Writing Resources

• Guide to Grammar and Writing
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Stedman's medical dictionary
• Credo Reference
• RefDesk.com

Copyright

• Dal Copyright Office
• Canadian Authors' Association Copyright Information

Other resources for authors

• American Medical Writers' Association
• Canadian Authors' Association
• Committee on Publication Ethics
• CONSORT Statement (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)
• Dalhousie's policy on human research ethics (Dalhousie Office of Research Services)
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors - Requirements for writing and editing for biomedical publication
• SPARC: The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals

Select Bibliography of titles on writing for the health sciences held at the Kellogg Library

• The complete guide to medical writing
  edited by Mark C. Stuart. London : Pharmaceutical Press, 2007.
• Getting research published : an A to Z of publication strategy
  by Elizabeth Wager. Oxford : Radcliffe Publishing, 2005.
• How to write & publish a scientific paper
  by Robert A. Day. Phoenix, AZ : Oryx Press, 1994.
• Writing and publishing in medicine
  Edward J. Huth. Baltimore : Williams & Wilkins, c1999.
• Writing for publication in nursing
  Marilyn H. Oermann. Philadelphia : Lippincott, c2002.