Book review: The Research Guide: A primer for residents, other health care trainees and practitioners

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 55, No. 1, January February 2013, Page 12 News
By: Anne I. Clarke, MD

Bart J. Harvey, Eddy S. Lang, Jason R. Frank (eds). 2011. ISBN 978-1-926588-09-4. Kindle edition (Amazon): 636 pages. $50.06.

This guide, published by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, is a comprehensive resource that facilitates easy searching on many aspects of conducting research. It provides a step-by-step guide on how to complete a research project from start to publication. With research now a prerequisite for completion of specialty training, this book serves a much-needed role in assisting new researchers in getting their projects off the ground. 

Illustrative cases at the start of each chapter put the information in context, and then build on the case to demonstrate different important topics covered in the section. The guide’s organization allows for easy reference to different aspects of research like protocol development and study design. Additional sections on how to write a paper, prepare an effective abstract, or prepare for a poster presentation are particularly useful. 

The Research Guide should become a must read for all new researchers and a reference for many others.
—AIC

Anne I. Clarke, MD. Book review: The Research Guide: A primer for residents, other health care trainees and practitioners. BCMJ, Vol. 55, No. 1, January, February, 2013, Page(s) 12 - News.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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