12/15 YES!: Abstract Art: Writing an Abstract That Will Get You Noticed - and Accepted

Transcript

• 00:00This is Martin who you're going to
• 00:02hear from today Co administrate and
• 00:05direct the yes Yale Educator series.
• 00:08So we're so excited to have you as
• 00:12you know with the combination of
• 00:14educator development series that
• 00:17are ideally appealing and useful
• 00:19for people whether you're teaching
• 00:21in the clinical setting or the pre,
• 00:24pre clerkship clinical setting.
• 00:28And Andreas today has a great
• 00:31one that's not only I think this
• 00:34is probably applicable to any,
• 00:35any faculty or resident.
• 00:36So we're great that you're here.
• 00:38It has to do with professional
• 00:40development skill of scientific or or
• 00:44other scholarship writing of abstracts.
• 00:47So I'm just going to briefly
• 00:49introduce Andreas Martin,
• 00:50for those who may not know him,
• 00:52but he's the Riva Ariela Rico,
• 00:56pardon, no,
• 00:57professor of child psychiatry
• 01:00at the Child Study Center.
• 01:03And he is also the medical director
• 01:06of the Children's Psychiatric
• 01:07Inpatient Service at the Yale
• 01:09New Haven Children's Hospital.
• 01:11And he's been part of the Center for
• 01:16Medical Education for a long time and has,
• 01:22I think it was maybe just three years ago.
• 01:24Andreas,
• 01:24you can tell me I'm wrong about
• 01:27when you ended up finishing
• 01:28your doctoral degree in medical
• 01:31education from the Netherlands.
• 01:33He's also the Editor in Chief and chief
• 01:36of the Journal of the American Academy
• 01:39of Child at Adolescent Psychiatry.
• 01:41Or was until 2017.
• 01:44And I'm really excited.
• 01:46I've been enjoying learning from him.
• 01:48So we're all going to be excited to be
• 01:51better abstract writers 50 minutes from now.
• 01:55Andreas,
• 01:55turning it over to you.
• 01:57Amen. Thank you, Dana.
• 01:59And it's such a joy working with with Dana.
• 02:03So to get CME credits,
• 02:06please go ahead and text that
• 02:08number to that phone.
• 02:10We're also going to put
• 02:11it in the in the chat.
• 02:15OK. And the rest of the of
• 02:16that says that I don't have
• 02:18any conflicts of interest.
• 02:19I'm not paid by abstracts of
• 02:21America to give this talk, so
• 02:25OK, So what are the learning
• 02:27objectives today? First,
• 02:29and this might seem strange at first,
• 02:31but I hope that by the end of today
• 02:33you will be able to differentiate an
• 02:36abstract as a summary of a paper,
• 02:38which I would argue is a bad
• 02:40thing from seeing a paper as
• 02:43an as an expanded abstract,
• 02:45which I would argue is a good thing.
• 02:48Hopefully this will become clear. Next
• 02:54the commandment to all of us abstract
• 02:57writers finding ways of shedding,
• 02:59of of shedding the fluff and becoming
• 03:02understated in our writing abstracts.
• 03:07Finally, to be sure to incorporate
• 03:10basic elements of writing and PGH,
• 03:14here stands, I'll describe it further.
• 03:16Stands for problem gap hook,
• 03:19which is a strong heuristic to
• 03:22writing including that and to
• 03:25include elements of epidemiology,
• 03:28problem, population, exposure,
• 03:31comparison, outcome, and time.
• 03:34And this is not just for epidemiology papers,
• 03:38it's for the great majority of papers,
• 03:41and something that's near and dear to my
• 03:43heart and my current research I write.
• 03:45I do mostly qualitative research,
• 03:47so there are a couple of things
• 03:49that are slightly different when
• 03:50it comes to qualitative research,
• 03:51and I'll point those out.
• 03:55I love this quote from Pascal,
• 03:5717th century, who said I'm sorry
• 03:59that I wrote you such a long letter,
• 04:02but I didn't have time to write a short one,
• 04:05and there's great wisdom in that.
• 04:07Writing short is really hard.
• 04:10Another 17th century genius, Doctor Seuss,
• 04:14said that short is better than length
• 04:19and they were all on to something.
• 04:24Now let let's get into this philosophical
• 04:2717th century quill on hand mindset and I'm
• 04:30going to ask you to do a mind experiment,
• 04:32a thought experiment as we move along.
• 04:35And that is, think of your last
• 04:39abstract that you wrote, imagined,
• 04:41or are imagining right now,
• 04:44or revisited or wrote.
• 04:45It'll be helpful to have a template
• 04:47in your mind of an abstract.
• 04:49So if you have written a lot,
• 04:52you'll have many of those.
• 04:53If you are just getting started
• 04:55and writing them, that's fine,
• 04:57you can just follow that mental sketch.
• 05:00I think that if you do this,
• 05:01you will get the most out of
• 05:03our next minutes together.
• 05:06The outline for the talk today is 3 parts.
• 05:091st, why bother?
• 05:10You know what's a big whoop Dee Doo with
• 05:14abstracts and why does it matter anyway?
• 05:17The second one is the content of
• 05:19an abstract and this is where we're
• 05:21going to spend most of our time.
• 05:23What is the anatomy and the Physiology of
• 05:26an abstract and how can we optimize it?
• 05:29And finally,
• 05:30we're going to close by a review of a
• 05:33dozen tips to write a compelling abstract.
• 05:36We will have covered most of this
• 05:40by the time that we get there.
• 05:44OK, so context. Why?
• 05:46Why bothering?
• 05:47Why does it matter?
• 05:49Let me show you an X-ray of your brain
• 05:52and mind and how we read papers.
• 05:55So this is how not to read a paper.
• 05:57But of course it's how we all usually
• 06:00read papers and this is what happens.
• 06:02So this here is a paper.
• 06:05Doesn't matter the content,
• 06:07but as soon as you open the paper,
• 06:09your brain does this magical thing in
• 06:12which everything goes Gray and you stop
• 06:15paying attention because it's too scary,
• 06:19detailed.
• 06:20It's no good.
• 06:23Instead you go to the introduction,
• 06:25which in essence is a glorified
• 06:26letter to the editor.
• 06:28So already someone is trying to brainwash
• 06:31you to tell you how wonderful their work is.
• 06:34Then when it comes to the methods,
• 06:36you simply skip those.
• 06:38They're impenetrable.
• 06:40They have some Greek letters.
• 06:43You don't know what a log linear model is.
• 06:45You don't care.
• 06:46You skip it.
• 06:50The result's the same thing. You skip it.
• 06:52You know the tables are busy,
• 06:53the figures are hard to make sense of,
• 06:56so you're skipping most of it.
• 06:57And you get to your discussion
• 06:59and read parts of it because
• 07:01it's in English, not in Greek.
• 07:03But in some ways it's not the
• 07:05right thing because shouldn't
• 07:07you be making your own decision?
• 07:09And shouldn't you be reading your own paper?
• 07:12So that's how we usually read papers.
• 07:14But this is a key thing related to today.
• 07:18Oh, and the disclosures, you know,
• 07:20why should I care about disclosures?
• 07:22But this is what we can do and usually do.
• 07:25And that's what the abstract is
• 07:27the most powerful part of a paper.
• 07:29It's overwhelmingly the only
• 07:31part that is read.
• 07:33It's a part in which you can
• 07:35connect with your audience.
• 07:37And even though it is absolutely critical,
• 07:41all too commonly we just leave
• 07:43it as the very last thing to do.
• 07:45It's an afterthought and we
• 07:47don't really pay the attention
• 07:49that it that it deserved.
• 07:54So let's get into what
• 07:56is it that can help us?
• 07:59So the first thing is that whatever
• 08:01else you do, don't leave your
• 08:02abstract as as an afterthought.
• 08:04Don't leave it to the end.
• 08:06The corollary of this is
• 08:09get to your abstract first,
• 08:12and even as you're moving along,
• 08:15and if you have a scientific idea,
• 08:16try to think of what this
• 08:18abstract would be like.
• 08:19It doesn't have to be all 250 words,
• 08:21it can just be a couple of lines that
• 08:25start putting shape into your paper.
• 08:28So why should you bother?
• 08:30Well, these are some of the
• 08:31functions that an abstract does.
• 08:32It persuades someone to read your paper.
• 08:36We're going to have another
• 08:38Yes session in January.
• 08:39Looking at posters and a poster
• 08:41really is a glorified abstract,
• 08:43and they serve the same function.
• 08:46You want to persuade someone to connect,
• 08:49to engage scientifically
• 08:51with you in an abstract.
• 08:53You also want to cover the
• 08:54high points of your study.
• 08:55You don't want to be an
• 08:57encyclopedia and cover everything.
• 08:58You want your abstract to help you be
• 09:01findable in computerized databases.
• 09:06At a more cognitive level,
• 09:10an abstract really helps you
• 09:12clarify your own thinking,
• 09:13because if you can't abstract it,
• 09:16you really can't write it.
• 09:18It goes back to Pascal.
• 09:19If you think that
• 09:22that you can write a big paper
• 09:25without being able to summarize
• 09:26that there's something wrong.
• 09:27So the the tightness of it is very,
• 09:29very important.
• 09:30And the last point that often gets
• 09:32forgotten is that you become a
• 09:33better critic of your own work,
• 09:35but you also become a better
• 09:38reviewer of others work.
• 09:40Many of us don't love to review,
• 09:42but it's part of belonging to
• 09:45a scientific community where
• 09:47you do review and especially
• 09:49after you have been published,
• 09:51enjoy the the toils and share the toils,
• 09:56right.
• 09:57So you you have to give back in in
• 10:00academia and to do so as a better
• 10:03reviewer will really be helpful and help you.
• 10:06If you're interested in becoming
• 10:08part of a journal,
• 10:09if you want to be part of
• 10:11a program committee,
• 10:11if you want to become more
• 10:13actively involved in your society,
• 10:14etcetera,
• 10:15etcetera,
• 10:19who cares? Well, there's this dude.
• 10:23Who cares? So this is most of
• 10:26us coming with our pencil head
• 10:28as supplicants to an editor.
• 10:30Please take my paper.
• 10:32And if you haven't been rejected by
• 10:34a journal, it only means one thing.
• 10:36It means that you haven't been
• 10:38submitting enough, right?
• 10:41Rejection is part of the game,
• 10:43but over time, you want the signal
• 10:45to noise ratio to get better.
• 10:46You want to be approved,
• 10:48accepted more and more,
• 10:50and an abstract is going to help
• 10:52you so that Mister Erase your Head
• 10:53doesn't send you to the garbage bin.
• 10:55Once again,
• 10:56this point is absolutely critical.
• 10:59I was an editor in chief for 10
• 11:01years and the only thing that we
• 11:04have editors read is abstracts.
• 11:06It's only at a much later date stage
• 11:09of the game that we start getting
• 11:11really into the paper itself.
• 11:13So people will spend months,
• 11:15years in the beautiful discussion
• 11:17and the guts of the results,
• 11:19as he should, but once again,
• 11:22leave the abstract as an afterthought and do
• 11:25do themselves a big disservice in that way.
• 11:28The other people who care a lot
• 11:29about this are medical conferences.
• 11:31Whatever your professional society,
• 11:33wherever you go,
• 11:35if you want to present,
• 11:36if you want your work work to be shown,
• 11:38you will need to write an
• 11:39abstract and put it up there.
• 11:41And the principles are exactly the same.
• 11:43You want to touch someone.
• 11:46You want to connect with someone
• 11:48through those 250 words so that they
• 11:50can see how important the work is.
• 11:56OK, so let's move on to the second part,
• 12:01the content and what I'm calling the
• 12:03Anatomy of the Physiology of an Abstract.
• 12:08So let's start with a title,
• 12:10and I'll call this entitlement,
• 12:13the mini lives of the title.
• 12:14So I have an example here of a little
• 12:17paper that I wrote that I will
• 12:19share with you at the end of today
• 12:21in which I struggle for a while.
• 12:23While as to the title of it,
• 12:26I initially thought he started with.
• 12:31I initially thought that
• 12:34Abstractification was a great title,
• 12:37but of course that's not even
• 12:38a word in the English language.
• 12:40It's a little bit or a lot too cute,
• 12:44and it really doesn't tell me anything.
• 12:45So I like the word,
• 12:47just like I like the play on entitlement.
• 12:51But it didn't really give me enough,
• 12:54so I continued polishing
• 12:55it and thinking about it.
• 12:57And then I came to this abstracted.
• 12:59Otherwise no one is likely
• 13:01to read or find your work.
• 13:04So that's a little bit better.
• 13:05It's still a little cute,
• 13:08but at least it tells me
• 13:09what the paper may be about.
• 13:14The paper that I'm going
• 13:15to show share with you.
• 13:16This is the the title I settled on,
• 13:18which is Abstract art.
• 13:2012 tips to help you write
• 13:22an effective abstract.
• 13:24You can already get a sense that this
• 13:25was not written for a scholarly journal,
• 13:27it was more for some magazine type
• 13:31publication, but it tells you what it was.
• 13:34It's a little cute abstract art,
• 13:36but not over the top cute.
• 13:38And each of the the words
• 13:39here is doing some word work,
• 13:41telling you what happened.
• 13:42Now, if I wanted to take this
• 13:45article into an academic journal,
• 13:47it would look perhaps something
• 13:48a little bit like this.
• 13:50Abstract quality predictors of
• 13:52preliminary article rejection
• 13:54in the scholarly journal, right.
• 13:57So you see different levels of this
• 14:01and at least the way my brain works,
• 14:03I typically go through some iteration
• 14:05of this couple of words, I Polish them,
• 14:07I know more and more and more and
• 14:09by the time I have a title,
• 14:12one of the hardest pieces of
• 14:14work has been done.
• 14:15Because once I knew abstract R12 tips,
• 14:17then that put A-frame on the
• 14:19paper and it was easy from them.
• 14:21Now you will notice that I
• 14:24put the colon in green.
• 14:27I highlighted that colon and I did that
• 14:31on purpose because the colon is your friend.
• 14:36Just remember that the colon is your friend.
• 14:39A good title pretty much always
• 14:42has two parts divided by a colon.
• 14:45There is something that gives us
• 14:47a hint of what this is about.
• 14:49That's on the left,
• 14:50and a whole bunch of specifiers on the right.
• 14:53So let me give you an example.
• 14:55Dana,
• 14:55my dear friend,
• 14:56is a specialist in sexually
• 14:59transmitted diseases,
• 15:00and let me just write a
• 15:03hypothetical paper in that domain.
• 15:04I know nothing about the topic,
• 15:06but we might call it
• 15:11chlamydia trachomatis in italics,
• 15:15right colon a randomized cluster
• 15:21controlled trial of community
• 15:24based services in something.
• 15:27So I already know that it's about this
• 15:30particular bug called chlamydia on the left,
• 15:33but on the right, I already have a sense
• 15:34that it's a randomized controlled trial.
• 15:36That's good, but it's not of a medication.
• 15:38Maybe it's a some psychosocial intervention.
• 15:41I'm intrigued.
• 15:41I already want to go and do that there.
• 15:44Dana, are you intrigued in reading my paper?
• 15:48Yeah. See,
• 15:48so that the colon is a is an interesting way.
• 15:52And if you look at articles,
• 15:53most of the times it's there on the right,
• 15:56you can see things like a
• 15:58randomized controlled trial,
• 15:59a systematic review,
• 16:01a case control study,
• 16:03a qualitative qualitative report.
• 16:06It tells you something You usually
• 16:09don't want to start with that.
• 16:10You don't want to start with a
• 16:12cluster randomized controlled trial
• 16:14because there's a million of those.
• 16:16You want to start with chlamydia trachomatis,
• 16:19because that already tells who
• 16:20your readership is going to be.
• 16:22So don't forget the lowly colon in the type.
• 16:29Then we get to the real
• 16:31guts of the abstract.
• 16:32And here they are.
• 16:33You know them well,
• 16:35they're your friends,
• 16:36objectives, methods,
• 16:37results and conclusions.
• 16:42And and we're going to be,
• 16:45as you can imagine,
• 16:46spending time talking about the methods
• 16:48that has all of these things about design,
• 16:50setting, participants, etcetera.
• 16:51So this is what an abstract is.
• 16:53You know that very well.
• 16:55Now let's look at how that relates
• 16:57to the Physiology of an abstract.
• 16:59So the objective is what you set out to do.
• 17:03The methods are the how and what,
• 17:05what you actually did.
• 17:08The results are the thing
• 17:10you did that you found.
• 17:11And the conclusions are a recap,
• 17:14brief recap and no more.
• 17:16We're going to get to that.
• 17:17There's a great desire to
• 17:21start really tapping on your
• 17:22keyboard and put a whole lot
• 17:24at the end of the conclusions.
• 17:25But that's not necessarily not
• 17:28necessary and usually not good.
• 17:33Well, let's start with the objective.
• 17:35It's better to have one
• 17:37single objective than two.
• 17:38Sometimes you can have two.
• 17:40This is not a place yet to put
• 17:42it in a hypothesis language.
• 17:44It's an objective statement.
• 17:49Avoid throat clearing.
• 17:50That is such a common problem
• 17:52that I saw as an editor that
• 17:55people started with chlamydia.
• 17:56Trachomatis is a venereal disease that
• 17:58has been known to mankind forever.
• 18:01It is treated with what, I don't know,
• 18:03penicillin with antibiotics.
• 18:04And it gets that I don't.
• 18:06Everybody knows that you know,
• 18:08so don't clear your throat in.
• 18:11In my area of autism,
• 18:14so many articles are autism is a
• 18:17neurodevelopmental disorder first described
• 18:18by Leo O'Connor in 1943 as like reject.
• 18:22Enough, I know that.
• 18:23So so lead with what you know with
• 18:26what is new what what is that hook
• 18:28and and think that you're writing
• 18:30a haiku here you want to be very,
• 18:32very brief,
• 18:33but not so brief as to be obscure.
• 18:36You need to be aware of who your target is.
• 18:38So the example that I gave,
• 18:40if I'm writing for about chlamydia
• 18:42to specialists in the area is going
• 18:45to be different than if I pitch it to
• 18:48internal medicine folks who are not
• 18:50sexually transmitted disease specialists.
• 18:54OK, these three letters I have come
• 18:57to love and I hope you you take
• 18:59them with you and get to love them
• 19:03because they are helpful not just
• 19:05for an objective or an introduction,
• 19:08but they're critically helpful in
• 19:10writing a paper. The introduction,
• 19:12the first part of a paper,
• 19:14so that the PGH as a reminder is a problem.
• 19:18So what is known and why it matters.
• 19:24Chlamydia has X&Y consequences and
• 19:26it responds to A&B antibiotics.
• 19:31It has a significant toll on the population
• 19:35measured by X&Y. That's a problem.
• 19:40What's missing, However, we know that
• 19:4340% of chlamydia does not respond and
• 19:46we need novel treatments to do it.
• 19:48So that's the gap, what is missing?
• 19:51And then the hook what you're doing about it.
• 19:54So approaches to treat chlamydia have
• 19:57been largely based on novel antibiotics.
• 20:00In addition, our work has expanded
• 20:04non pharmacological interventions
• 20:06such as community, blah blah blah.
• 20:09So suddenly I'm interested because
• 20:10it's not the the same old same
• 20:13old so problem gap hook.
• 20:15If you think about this,
• 20:16whenever you write that first
• 20:18few paragraphs in a paper,
• 20:20it's very, very helpful.
• 20:21Our brains are primed in this way because
• 20:24it's a little bit of a scientific
• 20:27story and and we are social animals,
• 20:29we're storytelling animals.
• 20:31So this is a way of following that.
• 20:36Your research question should flow
• 20:38very naturally out of this and in fact
• 20:40the hook and the research question
• 20:42can become a little bit of a blend.
• 20:45This is what we did in this cluster
• 20:47randomized community controls trial.
• 20:50So PGH, problem gap, gap hook,
• 20:54the 2nd and I think I'm only
• 20:56going to give you 2 acronyms,
• 20:58but this one should be known.
• 21:01This is the the better known I think is PICO.
• 21:04And this all of epidemiology can
• 21:07be summarized really to PICO.
• 21:10So the population,
• 21:12the exposure or the intervention,
• 21:15the comparison or control when applicable.
• 21:18Sometimes there are no control.
• 21:21Oops, the outcome.
• 21:23And time so again and we didn't
• 21:26we didn't rehearse this, Dana,
• 21:28but I'm just going here so the population
• 21:30is going to be you know 15 to 20 year old,
• 21:34transitionally age youth
• 21:35in the city of New Haven.
• 21:38That might be our population and
• 21:40the exposure is going to be those
• 21:42who had sex without protection,
• 21:45and the comparison will be those who
• 21:51did not have it did have protection.
• 21:54However, we want to define it to condom use.
• 21:57For example, our outcome was positivity
• 22:00under the serological tests, I guess.
• 22:02And the time is that we did this
• 22:05over the course of five months.
• 22:07So those are the key elements.
• 22:09And even if you just put
• 22:10those words or those concepts,
• 22:11it's already starting to take shape.
• 22:13You don't need to write an abstract on
• 22:15day one with full sentences and worry
• 22:18about the beauty of your prose and the
• 22:21elegance of your Times New Romance font.
• 22:23Now you just need to put down the main ideas.
• 22:26Sometimes we get stuck around those things,
• 22:29so let's give an example. Again,
• 22:31this is from my field in child psychiatry,
• 22:33so children 8 to 12 years of age at
• 22:37of parents with bipolar one disorder.
• 22:39So these were children at risk, by the way.
• 22:43Make things easy on your reader.
• 22:45So if you're going to define
• 22:46something that we don't know,
• 22:47like at Risk or an acronym like
• 22:50AR that we don't know, define it.
• 22:53Name it the first time.
• 22:55Otherwise,
• 22:56we spend time just looking
• 22:57and looking and looking.
• 23:01The comparison here is of parents without
• 23:05any psychiatric disorder, healthy controls
• 23:12and what was done here is
• 23:14diagnostic assessment with MRI.
• 23:16The amygdala was measured,
• 23:18the volumes of the amygdala and this was done
• 23:21at baseline and then a two years follow up.
• 23:23So these are just the elements.
• 23:25This is not an abstract, but this,
• 23:27this is the guts of an abstract by the way
• 23:31I underlined were evaluated and were used.
• 23:34If it didn't give you a little
• 23:36bit of a conniption fit,
• 23:38it gives me a conniption fit.
• 23:39So hopefully it will to you as well.
• 23:42I'm originally from Mexico,
• 23:43so English is my second, second language.
• 23:45So this was not something that came naturally
• 23:48to me because we don't have it in Spanish.
• 23:50But in English we have this thing
• 23:53called the active tense and the pass,
• 23:55the active voice and the passive voice.
• 23:59And it's remarkable how many people
• 24:02use the passive voice, you know,
• 24:04were evaluated were used as
• 24:06opposed to we evaluated, we used,
• 24:08you know, there always needs to be
• 24:11an agent when there's an action.
• 24:13So who is it that did what?
• 24:16So be mindful of your own use,
• 24:19if any, of the passive voice.
• 24:22And then we come to the result,
• 24:24which is the,
• 24:24you know,
• 24:25the the main event that we've
• 24:27been all waiting for.
• 24:29And some of the tips there are
• 24:32to be lean and numerical.
• 24:35You avoid descriptions without numbers
• 24:37which sound a little bit fluffy.
• 24:40I'll give a couple of examples
• 24:43and to be selective once again,
• 24:45lead with your strong point
• 24:48with your main questions.
• 24:50Tie things as much as possible to
• 24:52your objective to research question.
• 24:54And then if you need to put a
• 24:55negative finding, by all means,
• 24:56by all means, But don't start there.
• 24:59Start strong and then go to the excuses.
• 25:02Sometimes folks wanting to be so
• 25:06pristine in their scientific ethics,
• 25:09they put everything to the point that
• 25:11even in an abstract they bore us to tears.
• 25:14And when you bore someone that's not good,
• 25:16they won't read your paper.
• 25:19Not every single result needs to be exciting.
• 25:21Not everything needs to have a big P value.
• 25:23Not everything needs to be a
• 25:26positive finding.
• 25:26But again,
• 25:27you don't need to put everything down either.
• 25:32This is an example of using a
• 25:34lot of words and few numbers.
• 25:37Again an example from my
• 25:39specialty of child psychiatry.
• 25:40But you see external factors
• 25:43are more predictive.
• 25:44Well, how much more predictive
• 25:48specifically? Well, if you're so specific,
• 25:50why aren't you being specific?
• 25:52They're associated with higher how much
• 25:54higher and higher than what? And lower.
• 25:56So when you see a lot of these,
• 25:58ER, words, resist that and start
• 26:02thinking of adding numbers.
• 26:05What kind of numbers?
• 26:08Well, there's a range of numbers.
• 26:09I would say that there's an
• 26:11evolutionary ladder ladder to numbers.
• 26:13The the worst ones are the ones
• 26:14that I was just talking about.
• 26:16The vague ones, the ones that try
• 26:18to convey were numbers with words.
• 26:20Smaller, larger, not terribly helpful.
• 26:23You can use them once in a while,
• 26:24but don't rely too much on them.
• 26:27Sample size or ends and percentages
• 26:30are OK P values are really good.
• 26:32We all love them.
• 26:33We all like them, but don't give by
• 26:36and large don't give naked P values,
• 26:38just the P value.
• 26:40Try to include it with the
• 26:41result of the statistical test,
• 26:43or even better with a confidence interval.
• 26:47The finding of the confidence
• 26:49interval because that tells
• 26:50the story of significance and
• 26:52of just how much significance.
• 26:54So choose whatever works
• 26:56depending on on on your research.
• 26:59But numbers are good to to a degree.
• 27:03You don't want to pepper things
• 27:06with too many numbers either.
• 27:08So by the time that you
• 27:11get to the conclusion,
• 27:13the conclusion should really be
• 27:14self-evident by the time that you read it,
• 27:16that you read it in the in in my
• 27:21attempt at being a chlamydiologist,
• 27:23I would say that the conclusion might
• 27:25be you know I don't know community
• 27:30based treatments connected with
• 27:32healthcare centers are have a positive
• 27:37impact in the treatment of committee,
• 27:39the prevention of chlamydia,
• 27:40something like that.
• 27:41It it's a statement,
• 27:43this thing actually does something,
• 27:46so it should be self-evident.
• 27:49He distills the take home message
• 27:51usually in one line, maybe 2 lines.
• 27:53You don't need much more than that.
• 27:55Numbers are not welcome here.
• 27:56You know numbers aren't the result.
• 27:58So if you're putting a number
• 27:59in the conclusion take it away.
• 28:01It doesn't belong there.
• 28:04Please don't pontificate or editorialize.
• 28:07It's a another big pool that we have.
• 28:09Let me tell you what it all means.
• 28:11Let me tell you why my negative
• 28:12findings are not really negative.
• 28:14No, this is not a place to do that.
• 28:17And do not surprise.
• 28:19Oh, and by the way, everybody got pregnant.
• 28:21No, don't, no, don't do that.
• 28:23OK? Avoid truisms.
• 28:27Another beloved, terrible thing to do.
• 28:30The findings indicate that cultural
• 28:32factors must be taking into account.
• 28:35Well, we we know that that that
• 28:37doesn't really add anything.
• 28:38It's it's a little bit of pablum.
• 28:41Helping adolescents to deal with safe
• 28:44social relations is important, right?
• 28:47And then my unfavorite of all is this one.
• 28:51Further research is needed,
• 28:52but we know that that's what we're
• 28:54doing this It doesn't add anything.
• 28:56And you just lost four precious words there,
• 28:59so don't add obvious truisms.
• 29:04So I've I've been telling you like
• 29:05a schoolmarm, what you shouldn't do.
• 29:07But let me tell you some things
• 29:09that you might want to do.
• 29:11You should really dare to be understated.
• 29:16You take a stand to say what you have
• 29:19found because you worked hard for it.
• 29:21So you know, oops, don't be vague about it.
• 29:25Go for it and to.
• 29:27Less is more when it comes to
• 29:29the conclusion, so don't bother.
• 29:31We're reading all of this,
• 29:33blah blah blah about a very
• 29:35large study study on obsessive
• 29:36compulsive disorder done in kids.
• 29:39I put it here to show you that there's,
• 29:41you know, many numbers, many details.
• 29:43It's one of these JAMA articles with
• 29:46lots and lots of details. But whoops.
• 29:48But what is really important here?
• 29:50Is this the conclusion?
• 29:51So even if you don't are not a child
• 29:54psychiatrist and don't know all the numbers,
• 29:57we can all understand the children and
• 29:59adolescents with Obsessive Compulsive
• 30:01disorder should begin treatment with a
• 30:04combination of cognitive behavioral therapy
• 30:06plus an SSRI like Prozac or with CBT alone.
• 30:09It's it's very clear, right?
• 30:11It it's taking a stand,
• 30:13it's not opining,
• 30:15It's very clean because,
• 30:17you know,
• 30:18these authors have earned it after
• 30:19doing all of their hard work.
• 30:24I mentioned that I do qualitative work,
• 30:27so wanted to show you just a little bit
• 30:29of a difference with a qualitative study.
• 30:32This is a study that we published last year
• 30:34and look at that colon, Look at that colon.
• 30:37So we have perceptions of racism in a
• 30:40children's psychiatric inpatient unit.
• 30:42That's the what and a qualitative study
• 30:44of entrenching and uprooting factors.
• 30:47This is the the how or the detail.
• 30:50So what I want to show you is that
• 30:53in the abstract, just for a second,
• 30:56it's a qualitative study.
• 30:56So we're not going to have P values and
• 30:59numbers and all the things that I told you,
• 31:02but some simple similar principles
• 31:04apply of being orderly, of enumerating,
• 31:07of making it easy on the reader
• 31:10even on as complex a paper.
• 31:13So this is what we did.
• 31:14We identified 2 processes,
• 31:16entrenching factors that sustain or increase
• 31:20racism and they come in these three flavors,
• 31:23Predisposing factors,
• 31:25precipitating factors and perpetuating.
• 31:28And the second one,
• 31:30uprooting factors that rectify or reduce
• 31:33racism so they prevent they punctuate
• 31:37as something is happening in real time
• 31:39or they prohibit and you see that.
• 31:42In this case we played with the the letter P,
• 31:46the alliteration.
• 31:46So we organized each of the elements
• 31:50into a 6P model along the temporal
• 31:53sequence around Sentinel racist events.
• 31:56And for each one,
• 31:57we looked at contributing factors,
• 31:58emotional reactions,
• 31:59behavioral responses.
• 32:00So this is a very different kind
• 32:02of an abstract, right?
• 32:03There aren't the number findings,
• 32:05there aren't the parentheses,
• 32:06there aren't the P values.
• 32:08But it's still very clearly organized
• 32:11and it flows from the interviews and
• 32:15the the thematic analysis and what.
• 32:18So just wanted to throw in
• 32:21a word about qualitative.
• 32:22So whatever else you do you remember.
• 32:25I started with that.
• 32:26So let me finish with that.
• 32:28Whatever else you do,
• 32:29do not leave your abstract
• 32:30as an afterthought.
• 32:34In fact, get to your abstract last.
• 32:37This is exactly the opposite of what I
• 32:39said in the beginning, but both are true.
• 32:42You want to get to your
• 32:44abstract at the very beginning,
• 32:46even before you really start writing.
• 32:49And you want to be polishing it as you are
• 32:52writing your paper, your presentation,
• 32:54your PowerPoint, whatever it is.
• 32:56And the day before presenting your paper,
• 32:58your PowerPoint,
• 32:59or the day before submitting,
• 33:00you still want to be polishing
• 33:02it so that it is exactly right,
• 33:04so that it is exactly right.
• 33:06Most journals, most venues,
• 33:09look for abstracts of about 250 words,
• 33:13so it's not a lot of words.
• 33:15But again Pascal,
• 33:16you know writing brief is
• 33:18much harder than writing long.
• 33:21I'm going to finish with and
• 33:23and I would love it, love it,
• 33:25love it if people had questions
• 33:26we'll have time.
• 33:27I'm going to add with 12 tips
• 33:30or summary points most of which
• 33:32I think we have covered.
• 33:35So whatever else you do start with
• 33:38your abstract what I just mentioned
• 33:40respect the abstract's demarcations.
• 33:42So in Rad you may be familiar.
• 33:46This is the introduction,
• 33:48methods, results and discussion.
• 33:50So these are the typical elements
• 33:53of of an article.
• 33:55And what I mean by the demarcations
• 33:58is you don't want one section
• 34:00bleeding into the next.
• 34:02You don't want numbers in the
• 34:04discussion I mentioned that.
• 34:05But you don't want methods seeping
• 34:07into the results or methods into you.
• 34:10You want to keep each one very clear
• 34:17title. I gave you some pointers,
• 34:19hopefully helpful.
• 34:20This is often overlooked
• 34:22and yet is really core.
• 34:24Really, really core.
• 34:27In fact, in a poster the abstract
• 34:29may be the only thing that is
• 34:31seen and and certainly when
• 34:33you're looking at the literature,
• 34:34the title can open the doors or not.
• 34:36So spending time with the
• 34:38title is really important.
• 34:41An abstract is not a summarized article.
• 34:43So hopefully I've made my point that
• 34:45you don't want to have your paper all
• 34:48beautifully written and then try to distill
• 34:51it or to cannibalize it into 250 words.
• 34:56You you lost an opportunity there because
• 34:59an article is an expanded abstract.
• 35:02If you start with those 250 words
• 35:04with a solid bone structure,
• 35:06then you're going to be able
• 35:08to build a rich paper.
• 35:09It's a small but really important
• 35:12difference in my, in my view,
• 35:17follow the basic principles of epidemiology
• 35:19that are the pico that we talked about.
• 35:21It's almost colored by number and
• 35:24numbers and literally that's what I did,
• 35:26colored by numbers.
• 35:27If you can think of that,
• 35:29did you hit on everything?
• 35:30You're going to be in
• 35:33really much better shape.
• 35:34Include numbers when it's
• 35:36not a qualitative study,
• 35:37although there's even some
• 35:39numbers there in the right dose.
• 35:40You know, don't overdo it.
• 35:42Don't shove numbers down our throat.
• 35:45Just the key.
• 35:47Take home numerical messages.
• 35:51Shut the fluff.
• 35:52Every every word counts.
• 35:54You only have 250,
• 35:56so words must do work.
• 35:58Use vigorous verbs.
• 36:00Forget about adjectives.
• 36:02Forget, forget.
• 36:03Forget about adverbs
• 36:07and put muscular words in there.
• 36:12Be understated.
• 36:13A good abstract speaks for itself.
• 36:15It doesn't need any fancy
• 36:18words to to do its job.
• 36:22Do not editorialize.
• 36:23This is not a New York Times editorial.
• 36:26You need to be very direct,
• 36:31very objective,
• 36:33and not tell everyone
• 36:35just how smart you are,
• 36:37even though you know we
• 36:39all have that desire
• 36:43typos. A single typo can
• 36:46just shoot your ship down.
• 36:49So please, please, please, you know,
• 36:51make sure to look at typos.
• 36:55There are now several things beyond typos.
• 36:59So for example those of you
• 37:01who have not tried Grammarly or
• 37:04not familiar with Grammarly,
• 37:06I highly recommended the Grammarly Free
• 37:09version will look at all your typos.
• 37:12It's like a word on steroids.
• 37:15It will find grammar and all those
• 37:17little things, so that's good.
• 37:20But Grammarly, the one that you pay for,
• 37:23not expensive at all.
• 37:25That one also has a tool for, yeah,
• 37:28plagiarism. And you say me, plagiarism.
• 37:31Who is he? I think he's talking to?
• 37:35But it's surprising that when the
• 37:37number of references that we use
• 37:39and that we cite things like the
• 37:41methods can be very difficult to
• 37:43write completely cleanly out of,
• 37:45you know,
• 37:46So there's a certain amount of plagiarism,
• 37:48auto plagiarism,
• 37:49that happens in the best of times,
• 37:51and it's good to see it in Grammarly
• 37:53to show it to you.
• 37:54And with some small changes you can
• 37:57get rid of that and prevent the,
• 37:59you know,
• 38:00the horribleness of being said
• 38:02that you are plagiarizing.
• 38:06And as I said, whatever else you do,
• 38:08finish with your abstract.
• 38:10I'm going to ask Linda,
• 38:11if you don't mind.
• 38:12Linda, these 12 tips are included
• 38:16and elaborated in this short
• 38:18little paper that I had mentioned,
• 38:19the one with that title
• 38:24and you know there you have
• 38:25it if it is if it is helpful.
• 38:29I think that with that we
• 38:33can 01 more business thing.
• 38:35The business thing is that it would be
• 38:37wonderful is as we open it up for comments,
• 38:40if you could scan that code or Linda
• 38:43will also put the the the code.
• 38:45You could tell us you know
• 38:47your thoughts about this talk.
• 38:49It's the first time that we do
• 38:51it and we wanna be helpful.
• 38:53So I think that I will pass it to Dana now.
• 38:58Is that how it goes, Dana?
• 39:00Sure. Let's give them a little count.
• 39:03The clock is counting down.
• 39:04So we'll we'll I'll be quiet
• 39:08just for a few seconds to let
• 39:10people and myself rate you.
• 39:37Thank you. We really do appreciate
• 39:39you letting us know what's useful
• 39:41to you or not useful to you as
• 39:43we expand these sessions to be
• 39:46more relevant to more faculty.
• 39:47So what What questions does anybody
• 39:50have or comments for Doctor
• 39:52Martin about abstract writing?
• 40:07I'll just start by saying I think
• 40:10your comment about a lot of
• 40:13things from from my standpoint of
• 40:15when we do educator development,
• 40:18I find that faculty were
• 40:19learning how to teach better,
• 40:21can learn a lot by observing teaching.
• 40:23By using kind of some best tips
• 40:25and practices in a rubric to
• 40:27watch others because it makes you,
• 40:29your muscle memory of the optimal
• 40:31kind of best effective behaviors be
• 40:33so reinforced when you're doing that.
• 40:35So your corollary for for you
• 40:37to be thinking about this when
• 40:40you're reviewing abstracts,
• 40:42I think will not only make you feel like it,
• 40:44it's it's nice to guide your to
• 40:46be a more effective reviewer,
• 40:47but it'll strengthen your work as well.
• 40:49So I I really appreciate that point.
• 40:53I don't know if you can see the
• 40:56chat Andres necessarily so I'm just
• 40:58going to read the people could
• 41:00also please feel free to raise
• 41:01your hand or just go off mic.
• 41:03But one person said I am currently
• 41:06first time guest editing a journal
• 41:09and this was right sized.
• 41:12So very much appreciated Diane.
• 41:15And then there's a question
• 41:17about any tips for English not
• 41:20as first language authors.
• 41:23Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
• 41:24Yeah. So 2 two things.
• 41:26And let let me maybe address both.
• 41:27So, Diane, that's terrific.
• 41:29I don't, I don't see you,
• 41:31but I know you're there somewhere.
• 41:34Yes. As a guest editor you're likely
• 41:37going to be seeing a lot of abstracts
• 41:40and your job in being selective
• 41:44about not accepting everything and
• 41:46not your rejecting everything and
• 41:55the the the, the,
• 41:56the T tool kit T as in Tom the Kathy.
• 42:00Kathy Deangelis was the Editor in
• 42:02Chief of JAMA and we we're good
• 42:04friends and she gave me this tool
• 42:06tip that might be helpful to you.
• 42:08She said that as an editor
• 42:09you need the following TS.
• 42:10Let me see if I can remember them all.
• 42:13You need to be tough minded.
• 42:16You need to be thin, thick skinned.
• 42:20You need to be tender hearted
• 42:23and you got to be tenacious.
• 42:26And you know that served me well
• 42:29because you're going to get you know,
• 42:31every time that someone,
• 42:32every time that anyone of us submits
• 42:34something, we're giving our, you know,
• 42:36our little heart here and please,
• 42:37please take good care of it.
• 42:39And rejection can be, can be hard.
• 42:42And being in the other end of the spectrum
• 42:45being the one rejecting can also be hard.
• 42:49But it's a great thing that you're an editor,
• 42:51so welcome.
• 42:52And Angie is asking about tips for English,
• 42:56not as a first language.
• 42:58Yeah.
• 43:01Yeah, So a couple of things.
• 43:05Probably the best thing is having
• 43:07and and we have it easy here, Angie,
• 43:09you and I I know Angie in Full disclosure
• 43:14and English is not our first language,
• 43:17although we speak it reasonably well.
• 43:20But I would say that for anyone who is at
• 43:22whatever level of proficiency of English,
• 43:24if it's not their first language,
• 43:26having a reader who will be
• 43:32again tenderhearted but tough
• 43:33minded in some way is very good.
• 43:36So whether that is a friend,
• 43:38a colleague, a family member,
• 43:40family members or loved ones can
• 43:43actually be interesting in that.
• 43:45Can they understand what it
• 43:46is that you're saying?
• 43:48You know they may not understand
• 43:49the log linear model.
• 43:50You know, whatever, whatever,
• 43:51Monte Carlo, whatever.
• 43:52But can they understand the English of it?
• 43:55And. And I think that that's one.
• 43:56So.
• 43:57So having readers who are friendly and
• 43:58who are going to be honest with you is 1.
• 44:01The second one is Grammarly,
• 44:02which is very, very good.
• 44:04I'm still trying to learn things
• 44:05in English that I didn't know,
• 44:07like does the comma go inside
• 44:09of the quotation or outside.
• 44:11And when I mean there are so many strange
• 44:13things about the beautiful English language.
• 44:16And Grammarly, I would say,
• 44:17is most of the time really on the money.
• 44:21It's free, except for the
• 44:24plagiarism stuff that I mentioned.
• 44:26And I would say that for authors,
• 44:28something that you will see very
• 44:30often mentioned is these polishing
• 44:32services that you send your manuscript
• 44:34and they Polish and make it pretty.
• 44:37In my experience,
• 44:38that's really expensive and
• 44:40they don't Polish so pretty,
• 44:42but you know,
• 44:43it's there.
• 44:47I don't know.
• 44:48I I think that even things like,
• 44:51you know, I'm not endorsing this,
• 44:53but ChatGPT, which is in my
• 44:56mind after yesterday, you know,
• 44:58it can help Polish things, you know,
• 45:00take this and make it prettier.
• 45:03I haven't used it myself,
• 45:04but I wouldn't be surprised.
• 45:05You know you take like a beautiful
• 45:07abstract in your field and then
• 45:10your abstract that you're happy
• 45:11with and you go to ChatGPT and say
• 45:14take mine and do it in this form.
• 45:17It would be an interesting experiment.
• 45:18I think that it would improve it.
• 45:20Obviously you would still
• 45:21need to to check it closely.
• 45:26And my last point, Angie is a a
• 45:29website that I've come to love
• 45:31and use a lot called Deep Gram.
• 45:36Although Deep Gram is more for
• 45:40transcription than for writing,
• 45:42which is what we're doing.
• 45:43But Deep Gram can't
• 45:49capture text, capture voice into
• 45:51text in any number of languages.
• 45:53I don't know like 30 languages.
• 45:54And it's essentially free because
• 45:57most of these things are are very.
• 46:00Yeah, it's called deep where
• 46:03I am and you don't. Oops.
• 46:06No, that's misspelled. I'm sorry,
• 46:10Deep cramp. So as I oh, there it is.
• 46:14Yeah. Dana, as I mentioned,
• 46:15I do a lot of qualitative studies
• 46:17and you can put like long,
• 46:18long you know multiple hour long
• 46:21interviews and within less than a
• 46:24minute it transcribes it beautifully.
• 46:27So I think that we're,
• 46:28we're all learning about these tools.
• 46:31So those would be some of my thoughts.
• 46:32Thank you for, for that question.
• 46:37Another quick question. Yeah. So
• 46:41in deep Gram, if you're
• 46:44analyzing qualitatively, can
• 46:50HIPAA
• 46:52that sort of language. OK,
• 46:54not HIPAA compliant. OK. That's OK.
• 46:56Yeah. Not HIPAA compliant.
• 46:59OK, sounds good.
• 46:59Just wanted to make sure. OK,
• 47:01thank you. I don't, I don't know
• 47:02that the HIPAA police is going
• 47:03to come and find you but better
• 47:05not mess with the HIPAA police.
• 47:07Yeah. No, especially if you're
• 47:10if you're you know dealing with
• 47:12patients and and their. Yeah.
• 47:14OK, sounds good. Thank you.
• 47:19Any other questions or
• 47:22experiences people want to share?
• 47:30I know this is like such a common
• 47:32activity for so many on the call,
• 47:34whether they're residents,
• 47:35students or through the faculty.
• 47:38So I really learned a lot, Andreas.
• 47:40I'm looking, I'm going to look,
• 47:42go look back at my pending
• 47:45abstracts and this will dovetail
• 47:47nicely to your next session.
• 47:49Do you have the slide about
• 47:50the next sessions, Andreas,
• 47:54that will build build on this?
• 47:57Yeah, no, quite literally the
• 47:59the poster in some way really is
• 48:03just a glorified abstract. So
• 48:05we have first Friday of the next year a
• 48:10session on improving written feedback.
• 48:11We already had verbal feedback in the fall,
• 48:14and then Andreas's next session for
• 48:17writing will be the week after that.
• 48:21And we again, we have programming that'll
• 48:25run through through April at this point.
• 48:29We got show you 3 * 3 at a time.
• 48:31I see Donna has her hand up as well.
• 48:34Yeah. And Donna, just one quick second
• 48:36just to piggyback on what you said,
• 48:38Dana, that the reason we really are
• 48:41putting pressure on you to fill your
• 48:43evaluations is that this is the first
• 48:45time that we do this cycle of yes.
• 48:47So things that you think could be really
• 48:49good or have not been good or you know,
• 48:51we really want your feedback. But Donna,
• 48:55sorry I missed the first part.
• 48:56I was seeing patients this morning.
• 48:58Just, you know,
• 48:59some hints that I've found helpful.
• 49:02If you're submitting
• 49:03abstracts to an organization,
• 49:05often times they tell you or they
• 49:08should tell you the rubric by
• 49:10which they're grading abstracts.
• 49:13And I find that
• 49:14really helpful to know that in advance.
• 49:17So I know how to structure based
• 49:20on what they're looking for.
• 49:23That's a great point, great point.
• 49:30Thank you. Well,
• 49:33thanks to everyone for joining.
• 49:35We really, really appreciate you
• 49:37Andreas and everyone's participation.
• 49:40Hope you feel like this was
• 49:43useful and we'll hear from you if
• 49:45you did or you didn't hopefully
• 49:46and we'll see you next time.
• 49:49Happy holidays and thanks for
• 49:51joining us guys. Bye bye.
• 49:53Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays.