Style issues 1. Faux pas for our journal submissions

I always thought that a diphthong was what Borat wore on the beach, until I discovered editing for Anaesthesia...

With some assistance from my fellow Anaesthesia editors, I have curated a short guide to issues of style in your submissions to Anaesthesia and Anaesthesia News that I’d like to share with you to gain some traction. We will take you on an ongoing journey and drill down to some low hanging fruit in the epicentre, just to get the optics right, and then go on to some more granular details, to grow the content. But note, we’re not aiming to monetise this, but keep a level playing field in the infrastructure with no outsourcing.

Anaesthesia is the official journal of the Association of Anaesthetists; Anaesthesia News is its newsletter. Anaesthesia largely takes clinically-applicable reports rather than basic science, has a quick turnaround time and, for accepted manuscripts, the individual handling editor has a considerable input into helping authors towards an easily-readable end-product. Although the requirements for ‘science’ and ‘news’ are different, there are some common aspects to writing style and technique.

Anaesthesia and Anaesthesia News encourage submissions within their own particular remit. We want to hear what you have to say – this article will hopefully help you to say it simply and clearly.

Anaesthesia journal

Like an exam question, it’s worth reading the instructions – every journal will have the author guidelines in a prominent place.

Use simple language. Patients are not ventilated, but lungs are. Patients have diabetes, they are not diabetic patients.

‘End-tidal carbon dioxide waveform analysis was monitored to ensure a tight seal was achieved between the parturient and facemask’ [1]. The parturient was applied to the facemask? NMBAs (neuromuscular blocking agents) are different from muscle relaxants (which include propofol, remifentanil, benzodizepines, volatile anaesthetic agents, etc.) Anaesthesia doesn't like abbreviations. Better to use names, for example ‘propofol group’ and ‘thiopental group’ rather than ‘Group P’ and ‘Group T’. Multiple non-standard abbreviations are very difficult to keep track of after several pages, especially reading a pdf document where one can’t use highlighters, sticky labels, folded page corners or chewing gum to go back to where they were first defined.

Anaesthesia doesn’t like artificial acronyms – best just keep it simple [2]. Incidentally, the ‘SATiRe’ study is a real thing, not an April 1st story.

• What is the difference between epicentre and centre?
• Data. There are many data – it’s a plural noun (single = datum; datum doesn’t mean going out for the evening with someone you fancy). 
• Parameter. This is a boundary, or a ‘quantity defining a theoretical model’ [3]; not something you have measured - which is a variable. 
• Authors usually refer to incidence, but often mean prevalence. 
• Administer not administrate. 
• Regimen not regime.
• Foetus: this is obsolete in the UK, and was based on incorrect etymology. The little one is a fetus. Also it’s a caesarean (two e’s and three a’s). 
• Parturients are women in labour, the word does not apply to any/ all pregnant women. 
• Check whether you know the difference between a noun and an adjective [4] (triple whammy here, they were nulliparous women not primigravid).

Set your Word ‘language’ (in ‘Tools’) to UK English, not US English.

Please be sparing with gold standards, paradigm shifts and holy grails.

We are working on a grammar programme that will turn any old doggerel into mellifluous prose that will outshine Jane Austen, and leave Editors-in-Chief smiling in their biers, or their beers, as appropriate. Until that is achieved: before you submit, ask someone else to proof read your work – preferably someone with experience in writing scientific English.

Some personal foibles from the Editor (you may think that I am a bit of a dinosaur, but I don't mind –every 6-year old loves dinosaurs, right?):

• Appendectomy: in the UK we have an ‘ic’ in there. 
• Surgery / surgeries: in the UK we perform operation(s). 
• Emergent = something that is emerging. Emergency is a situation where we need to get our ass into gear, hopefully with minimal braying. 
• Dilatation: do you dilatate a pupil? or a stricture? ….thought not.

So there we are, it’s good to go and oven ready, all our ducks are in a row and you can take ownership. With the best will in the world, if this article doesn’t impact your processes and leverage some change in terminology it will likely mitigate your submission chances with extreme prejudice. However, if you find this selection challenging and wish to double down and weaponize a response, I hear what you say and I’m on it, we can talk offline in a wash up meeting and progress this matter.

P.S. there are very helpful books if you really want to drill down into the subject of medical writing [5, 6] or punctuation [7].

Mike Kinsella
Editor of Anaesthesia News and ex-Editor of Anaesthesia journal

With helpful contributions from my fellow Anaesthesia journal Editors.

References 

1. Shippam W, Preston R, Douglas J, Taylor J, Albert A, Chau A. High-flow nasal oxygen vs. standard flow-rate facemask preoxygenation in pregnant patients: a randomised physiological study. Anaesthesia 2019; 74; 450-6. 
2. Weale J, Soysa R, Yentis SM. Use of acronyms in anaesthetic and associated investigations: appropriate or unnecessary? - the UOAIAAAIAOU Study. Anaesthesia 2018; 73; 1531-4. 
3. Altman DG, Bland JM. Variables and parameters. British Medical Journal 1999; 318: 1667. 
4. Doherty A, El-Khuffash A, Monteith C, et al. Comparison of bioreactance and echocardiographic non-invasive cardiac output monitoring and myocardial function assessment in primagravida women. British Journal of Anaesthesia 2017; 118: 527-32. 
5. Goodman NW, Edwards MB. Medical Writing: A Prescription for Clarity. 4th Edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 
6. Gastel B, Day RA. How to write and publish a scientific paper. 8th Edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 
7. Truss L. Eats, shoots & leaves. London: Fourth Estate, 2009.

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