Whats New in the AMA Manual of Style, 10th Edition

1
Whats New in the AMA Manual of Style, 10th
Edition?

• AMWA Presentation
• June 30, 2007

Stacy Christiansen, MA AMA Manual of Style
Committee and Director of Manuscript Editing, JAMA
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Companion Web Site
http//www.amamanualofstyle.com
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Full-text e-book the plan

• Links for all cross-references within the manual
  and from index to text
• Links from journal articles cited to the article
  whenever possible (PubMed?)
• In glossaries, links from terms in definitions to
  those terms that are included in the glossary
• All URLs live
• FAQs searchable and linked to the relevant
  section in manual
• Content fully searchable
• Updates provided to subscribers, at least once
  annually

4
More ideas for e-book

• Units of measure table chapter 18 linked to
  calculator function, to perform calculations
  using conversion factors shown
• Icons used for items on which policy has changed,
  with link to new policy description
• Tip of the month feature for subscribers
• Ability to compose and save annotations and mark
  frequently used sections
• Bookmarking
• Retention of search history
• We welcome other suggestions

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New and improved

• The manual has grown from 660 to 1032 pages
• The index is far more comprehensive (and online)
• More useful running heads with actual section
  terms
• New chapter on medical indexes
• 4 new subsections in Nomenclature (psychiatry,
  molecular medicine, ophthalmology, radiology)
• Manuscript Preparation chapter broken into 3
  chapters (chapters 2-4), with more content on
  each chapter Manuscript Preparation, References,
  Visual Display (figures, tables, boxes)

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Why is the book so beefy?

• Nomenclature chapter 130 pages in the 9th
  edition and 247 pages in the 10th
• Legal/Ethical Considerations 85 pages in the 9th
  edition and 175 pages in the 10th edition (eg,
  patient confidentiality, scientific misconduct,
  editorial freedom, author/editor responsibility,
  registration of clinical trials, open access)
• Information about the online world (eg,
  electronic references, submission of digital
  images) has been added throughout the book

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Editorial freedom JAMA

• In early 1999, JAMA editor fired by the AMA, who
  accused him of interjecting the journal into a
  major political debate by timing the publication
  of a related article.
• As a result, staff considered quitting, authors
  threatened not to submit, reviewers threatened
  not to review, and some people cancelled
  subscriptions.
• JAMA worked with publisher AMA to create a
  Journal Oversight Committee to establish the
  journals editorial independence, future editors
  reporting relationships, and how that person
  could be hired, fired, and evaluated. The JOC is
  a 7-member committee of 1 member of AMA senior
  management, 1 member from outside the AMA with
  publishing business experience, and 5 members
  representing the scientific, editorial,
  peer-reviewer, contributor, and medical
  communities.

8
Editorial freedom NEJM

• Later in 1999, NEJM editor fired by MMS for
  objecting to the societys plans for reuse of the
  journals content and co-branding of the journal
  name with other information providers over which
  he had no control or authority.
• Same fallout as for JAMA
• Editors negotiated with MMS a set of principles
  to maintain the journals editorial independence
  and the editors authority and responsibility for
  all content, editorial policies, and use of the
  journals content, name, and logo.

9
Editorial freedom CMAJ

• Early 2006 CMAJ editor-in-chief and another sr
  editor fired by CMA, presumably for series of
  run-ins and conflicts over editorial independence
  (story on lack of access to plan B, story
  criticizing Canadian public health official).
• Journal and association also agreed to governance
  plan like JAMAs that addresses editorial freedom
  and reporting structure of editors

10
Clinical trial registration

• Trial Registration As a member of the
  International Committee of Medical Journal
  Editors (ICMJE), JAMA requires, as a condition of
  consideration for publication, registration of
  all trials in a public trials registry that is
  acceptable to the ICMJE and that requires the
  minimum registration data set as described by the
  ICMJE. Acceptable trial registries include the
  following
• http//www.actr.org.au
• http//www.clinicaltrials.gov
• http//www.isrctn.org
• http//www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp
• http//www.umin.ac.jp/ctr
• References
• DeAngelis CD, Drazen JM, Frizelle FA, et al.
  Clinical trial registration a statement from the
  International Committee of Medical Journal
  Editors. JAMA. 20042921363-1364.
• DeAngelis CD, Drazen JM, Frizelle FA, et al. Is
  this clinical trial fully registered? a statement
  from the International Committee of Medical
  Journal Editors. JAMA. 20052932927-2929.

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Open access

• Unrestricted use of publication content
  (BioMedCentral peer review but no edit Public
  Library of Science (PLoS) both)
• Advantages unlimited online access globally,
  improved visibility, potentially more citations
• Disadvantages can cost authors, institutions, or
  other funders anywhere from 615 to 1775 for
  BioMedCentral and 2500 for PLoS
• More than 200 open-access medical journals

12
Open access at JAMA

• Delayed open access model
• After 6 months at JAMA all content is free
• Immediately upon publication at least 1 article
  per issue is free, as well as Express papers

13
New style policies

• Updates in policies on group authorship, listing
  of contributions of all authors
• More detailed and stringent guidelines on
  financial disclosure, role of the sponsor,
  funding/support
• Table footnotes now lowercase superscript
  letters, not symbols (eg, asterisk, dagger)
• Line art now sentence-style capitalization, not
  title-style capitalization, except on the axes
• State names spelled out except in full street
  addresses and in references (for location of
  publisher), where 2-letter abbreviations will be
  used and for space in tables figures

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Group authorship
15
Author contributions

• Each author is asked to identify how she/he has
  contributed to the work
• Two methods of identifying contributions
• Ask authors to self-identify contributions
  (Lancet, BMJ)
• Provide a checklist of various contributions
  (Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, Archives
  Journals, Radiology)
• Helps enforce integrity of author role
• Anyone else should be listed in acknowledgment

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Contribution Checklist

• I have made substantial contributions to the
  intellectual content of the paper as described
  below
• 1. (check at least 1 of the 3 below)
• conception and design
• acquisition of data
• analysis and interpretation of data
• 2. (check at least 1 of 2 below)
• drafting of the manuscript
• critical revision of the manuscript for
  important
• intellectual content
• 3. (check at least 1 below)
• statistical analysis
• obtaining funding
• administrative, technical, or material
  support
• supervision
• no additional contributions
• other contributions (specify)________________
  _______________________

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Financial disclosures

• From the JAMA authorship form
• I certify that all my affiliations with or
  financial involvement, within the past 5 years
  and foreseeable future (eg, employment,
  consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or
  options, expert testimony, grants or patents
  received or pending, royalties) with any
  organization or entity with a financial interest
  in or financial conflict with the subject matter
  or materials discussed in the manuscript are
  completely disclosed in the Acknowledgment
  section of the manuscript.
• As published
• Financial Disclosures None reported.
• Financial Disclosures Dr Jones has served as a
  paid consultant to Wyler Laboratories. Dr Jacques
  owns stock in Wyler Laboratories. Drs Smith and
  Brown reported no financial interests.

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Funding/support and role of the sponsor

• Funding/support can include, among other things,
  grant support and funding, provision of equipment
  and supplies, and other paid contributions.
• Funding/Support The Women's Health Initiative
  program is funded by the National Heart, Lung,
  and Blood Institute, National Institutes of
  Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
  The study drugs were supplied by Wyeth Research
  (St Davids, Pa).

• Funding/Support This work was supported by NIH
  grants to General Clinical Research Center
  (M01-RR00125) and Dr Caprio (R01-HD28016 and
  R01-HD40787), Yale University School of Medicine,
  and an unrestricted gift from the McPhee
  Foundation, Bristol, Connecticut.
• Role of the Sponsor The National Institutes of
  Health and the McPhee Foundation played no role
  in the concept or design of the study in the
  acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the
  data in the drafting or revision of the
  manuscript or technical support or supervision
  of the study.

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Table footnotesFormerly used symbols ?
but was limited to a maximum of 9
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New table footnotesAlphabetical superscripts
mean 26 footnotes possible without duplication,
order easy to remember
21
Capitalization in line art then
22
Capitalization in line art now
23
State abbreviations

• 9th edition
• US State, Abbreviation Postal Code
• Territory,
• or Possession
• Alabama Ala AL
• Alaska Alaska AK
• Arizona Ariz AZ
• Arkansas Ark AR
• California Calif CA
• Colorado Colo CO
• Connecticut Conn CT
• Delaware Del DE
• District of
• Columbia DC DC
• Florida Fla FL

• 10th edition
• US State, Postal Code
• Territory,
• or Possession
• Alabama AL
• Alaska AK
• Arizona AZ
• Arkansas AR
• California CA
• Colorado CO
• Connecticut CT
• Delaware DE
• District of Columbia DC
• Florida FL

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• In full street addresses for Canada, the province
  name will be a 2-letter abbreviation
• Jr and Sr will no longer be set off by commas (to
  match III and IV)
• Journal references will include the issue number
  (consonant with PubMed)
• Journal names will be abbreviated in accordance
  with the abbreviation used at the time the
  article was published (eg, Br Med J)
• Units of measure policy has been modified (no
  longer a preference for SI units or dual
  reporting)

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Electronic references early release

• Article published online ahead of print
• Jackson N, Krol E, Author S, et al. Restrictions
  on chocolate intake associated with mood
  published online ahead of print June 29, 2007.
  J Choc Stud. 20071(6)150-154.
  doi10.1010.choc0629.
• If its in the time frame between online and
  print (ie, not paginated into an issue yet),
  everything is the same except there is no
  citation
• Jackson N, Krol E, Author S, et al. Restrictions
  on chocolate intake associated with mood
  published online ahead of print June 29, 2007.
  J Choc Stud. doi10.1010.choc0629.

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Electronic references online only

• Some journals publish content that only appears
  online
• Locke J, Shepard J, Jarrah S, et al. Effect of
  social isolation on survivors. J Soc Exp.
  200710. http//www.lost.com/isolation/2007.
  Accessed June 1, 2007.
• Note just year and volume given, then URL and
  access date. If possible, also give date posted.

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Electronic references Web sites

• Prefer only sites that wont disappear, leading
  to broken links in online articles
• Some journals require printout of online
  citations so all content is captured
• All links checked through editing, production, up
  until posted online. JAMA does not have resources
  to continually go back and check reference links.
• E-mail is a personal communication and must be
  listed in the text, not cited as formal
  reference. Permission must be obtained from
  e-mail writer.

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Units of measure

• For laboratory values reported in JAMA and in the
  Archives Journals, factors for converting
  conventional units to SI units should be provided
  in the article. In text, the conversion factor
  should be given once, at first mention of the
  laboratory value, in parentheses following the
  conventional unit.
• The blood glucose concentration of 126 mg/dL (to
  convert to millimoles per liter, multiply by
  0.055) was used as a criterion for diagnosing
  diabetes.

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Units of measure tables figures
Table footnote
Figure legend
30
New Terms in Correct and Preferred Usage

• analog/analogue
• association/relationship
• attenuate/attenuation
• cadaver/donor
• chief complaint/chief concern
• contrast/contrast agent/contrast
  material/contrast medium
• erectile dysfunction/impotence
• fasted/fasting
• global/international
• glycated hemoglobin/glycosylated hemoglobin
• hyperintense/hypointense
• impaired/intoxicated
• operation/surgical procedure/surgeries/surgery
• prostitute/sex worker
• survivor/victim

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Medical indexing

• Chapter provides guidance on alphabetical listing
  and sorting, especially in tricky terms like
  those that start with Greek letters and various
  prefixes
• Recommends lowercase main entries (and stylebook
  index follows this) and saves caps for proper
  nouns, abbrevs
• Provides examples of formatting style (eg,
  indented vs run-in subcategories) and
  cross-references

32
Nomenclature additions

• Ophthalmology
• OS, OD, OU
• Glossary of common ophth terms, including disc,
  lasers, visual acuity, and visual field
• Psychiatry
• DSM expansions and nomenclature
• Axis diagnostic categories
• Radiology
• Terms from MRI, ECG resource list

33
Spacing in equations

• Thin spaces should be used before and after the
  following mathematical symbols , , lt, gt, , ,
  , , , , , , , n, ?, ?, ?, and .
• Exception is if its not really an equation, then
  set close to the value
• Temperature of 10C
• Patients were grouped by age as lt35 years, 35-65
  years, and 66 years.

34
P values pp 888-889

• P values should be expressed to 2 digits for
  Pgt.01, whether or not P is significant. When
  rounding a P value expressed to 3 digits would
  make the P value nonsignificant, such as P.049
  rounded to .05, the P value can be left as 3
  digits. If Plt.01, it should be expressed to 3
  digits.
• The actual P value should be expressed (P.04),
  rather than expressing a statement of inequality
  (Plt.05), unless Plt.001. Expressing P to more than
  3 significant digits does not add useful
  information to Plt.001, since precise P values
  with extreme results are sensitive to biases or
  departures from the statistical model.
• (Exception genetics papers)

35
More P values

• P values should not be listed simply as not
  significant or NS, since for meta-analysis the
  actual values are important and not providing
  exact P values is a form of incomplete reporting.
  Because the P value represents the result of a
  statistical test and not the strength of the
  association or the clinical importance of the
  result, P values should be referred to simply as
  statistically significant or not significant
  terms such as highly significant or very highly
  significant should be avoided.

36
And still more P values

• JAMA and the Archives Journals do not use a zero
  to the left of the decimal point, since
  statistically it is not possible to prove or
  disprove the null hypothesis completely when only
  a sample of the population is tested (P cannot
  equal 0 or 1, except by rounding). If Plt.00001, P
  should be expressed as Plt.001 as discussed. If
  Pgt.999, P should be expressed as Pgt.99.

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Eponyms still no s

• Continued policy of nonpossessive form
• Stedmans, CSE manual support
• Dorlands internally inconsistent but moving to
  nonpossessive
• Exceptions given, such as St Johns wort and
  organization names (Alzheimers Association)
• If possible, best to use noneponymous terms
  (polycystic ovary syndrome vs Stein-Leventhal
  syndrome), but depends on reader familiarity.
  Good to present both terms at first mention.

38
Glossary of publishing terms

• New additions, particularly techie
• bandwidth
• blog
• doi
• DTD
• e-mail
• FAQ
• spam
• Web browser
• XML

39
Typography

• Discussions of design, layout, formatting, fonts,
  sizes, spacing, and typefaces
• Examples of use of
• bold (headings, citations, in tables)
• italics (titles of books or journals, genus and
  species, genes, some statistical terms)
• small caps (am and pm, some chemical prefixes)

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How Can I Contribute?

• We value your input on
• the 10th edition
• any errors you find (in second printing now with
  errata incorporated)
• ideas for an e-book (workbook/exercises?)
• Contact stylemanual_at_jama-archives.org