A Resource Roundup

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Recently an AuthorAID colleague asked me to help find resources on some topics that weren't covered much in the AuthorAID Resource Library. In searching, I found some resources that might interest many researchers. These resources now appear in the AuthorAID Resource Library, and I'll say a little about them in this post.

One resource gives advice on choosing keywords for journal articles. As the author indicates, appropriate keywords can aid in various ways. Of course, they help interested readers become aware of one’s article. In addition, they can help ensure that one’s article is sent to suitable peer reviewers.

Another resource is a manual on research ethics committees and related topics. This manual—available in Arabic, English, and French—comes from the World Health Organization. Sections that can aid many researchers include those on informed consent, confidentiality, and financial conflicts of interest.

The final resource is on designing figures and tables. It consists of Parts 7, 8, and 9 of the Clinical Chemistry Guide to Scientific Writing. Advice from these parts includes the following:

• In a line graph, make the data-connecting lines thicker than the axis lines, so readers focus on the data.
• In a bar graph, make the spaces between the bars narrower than the bars.
• In a table, include only rows and columns providing data important to the message that you want to convey.

Each of these three parts includes helpful examples of figures or tables. And each ends with an exercise on improving a figure or table.

I hope that many of you will find these resources useful. If you have resources to suggest, please let me know.

Until the next post—

Barbara