Lecturio’s Editorial Guidelines

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Introduction

Lecturio content aims to holistically teach certain topics, such as atherosclerosis, citric acid cycle, or liver. The content should be a useful resource for somebody confronted with the topic for the first time but can also serve as exam prep resource for e.g. the USMLE or as a review tool for medical doctors. We are aiming to create the best, comprehensive but crisp study resource for medical professionals.

Workflow

1. Content creation
   1. In this phase, the authors research relevant information from resources such as
      textbooks, UpToDate, PubMed, and pre-existing content from Lecturio and
      curate it into a meaningful piece of content.
2. Medical and didactic review
   1. Research has proven, and our experience confirms, that only a multistep,
      redundant process of fact-checking and proofreading can guarantee high enough
      standards for our target audience.
3. Upload into content management system and final review by copy editors

Contacts

Guiding Principles of Medical Review

Fact-checking

First and foremost, you need to make sure that the Content is 100% factually-correct and absolutely error-free. Checklist for the fact check:

Accuracy

• Every bit of information is 100% factually correct and medically accurate.
• Regardless of how confident you feel about your handle on a topic, you are expected to cross-check with the most credible resources.
• Please be mindful of guidelines that are updated on a regular basis (e.g., yearly) in order to weed out outdated information.

 Consistency throughout Lecturio

• Information presented in the written content and in the videos does not contradict
  itself.
• Items of a collection should not contradict each other

Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is unacceptable and intolerable. Every content piece is evaluated by a plagiarism checker prior to the release.

Scope

In general, the content pieces should cater to med school and not dive too deep into residency and beyond.

• Examples of what does not belong in a Content Piece:
  • Historical explanations
  • Detailed descriptions of rare treatment options
  • Dosing of medication
  • Detailed explanations of surgical procedures

Didactics

It is our goal that every content piece is easy to follow by choosing the right type of presentation. Outline, hierarchy, and the appropriate use of media play an important role.

Outline: sections, topics, and the right order

Questions to ask yourself when working on and judging a section:

• What information do I expect to learn from a section with this headline? What is the learning objective of this section?
  • Lead-in sentences help the reader to be guided into the section. They should be no longer than 3 lines.
  • Mnemonics help the student retain and more easily remember the information (can be presented via text or in an image)
• Pay close attention to the order information is presented in and how pieces of information build on one another.
• A section is not a notebook/collection of facts, but should explain the content step by step. If when you read the section from top to bottom, there is a “jump” in topic (e.g., suddenly there’s a table that summarizes something without any context or previous mention) or you have to scroll up and down to get the logical order, then something is wrong!

Images

In general, as the topics are mainly described in bullet point lists, the creation process carries the risk of being too text-heavy and having a lack of visual support. In order to enhance the learning experience and to make it successful, we need the right balance between text and coherent images.

Include images as needed

• Make sure that the CP is sufficiently supported by visual aids.
• Please always analyze whether the textual information is sufficient or whether an image should be added to better explain/present the information, or if the page just feels too text-heavy to be ideal for learning. Pay special attention to this for clinical signs, pathogenetic processes, diagnostic imaging tests, etc.
• Always check the copyright license of the image when adding an image, and include the original source where it came from!

Images in context

• Images and text must correspond well with each other.
• Analysis of how students study a CP show that keywords should match between images and subsequent bullet points
• There should be a clear function of the image in the context of the surrounding content.

Image captions

• Every image must be self-explanatory and capable of standing on its own accord, even without the rest of the CP.

Licensing

• Licenses to use: CC BY 1.0, CC BY 2.0, CC BY 2.5, CC BY(-SA) 3.0, CC BY(-SA) 4.0, Public Domain, or by Lecturio

Language

Familiarize yourself with our Lecturio language style guide METRO and keep an eye on spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting style. All three levels of review (content curation coordinators, medical editors, and copy editors) must check for these kinds of basic mistakes. Repetition in this regard is the only way to achieve an error-free final product. Please install our Lecturio Spell Check tool or any other spellchecker to get valid support.

A few of the most common language errors

• Full sentences get a period, phrases don’t.
• Avoid incomplete phrases outside bullet-point lists.
• The section headings and the concept title use Title Case, subheadings do not (only capitalize the first word here)
• Only use one colon per bullet point, two colons indicate more than one idea.
  • E.g., don’t: Diagnosis: the following diagnostic tests are commonly used: …

Abbreviations

• In general, spell out abbreviations the first time they are used. Then continue with abbreviation throughout the CP.
• Exceptions: misleading acronyms, common acronyms
• All use cases are found in acronym list. Contact Isabel or Evelin if some are missing.

Bolding

• Use bolding with care.
• The bolded word or phase should be able to stand alone without further context and limited to the absolute necessary of a section.

References

General information

Please include at least three English sources (no other languages!) into the reference section as a numbered list at the bottom of the CP. All information must be given for proper citation. Otherwise, we cannot use them:

• Name the author/institution
• Provide the year of publication
  • No older than 10 years
  • Standard works may be older
• Date of retrieval if online source frequently changes
• Provide links to online sources
• Do not use italics
• Name the chapter and the referring page numbers

Templates

We are approximately following the APA style. Please use the following templates:

• Authors. (Year). Chapter. In Editors (Eds.), book title (xth ed. Vol x, pp.xy-xz).
• Authors. (Year). Title. Website/Organization/etc. URL
• No author: Title. (Year). URL. (If there is an organization or company, that is the author).
• No date: Author or organization. Title. Retrieved month day, year, from URL → Always use this template for frequently changing resources like UpToDate.
• Articles: Author. (Year). Article title. Journal title. Volume(Edition), pages. URL

Examples

• Schumacher HR, Chen LX. (2018). In Jameson JL, et al. (Ed.), Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (20th ed. Vol 2, pp. 2631–2633).
• Le T, Bhusan V, Sochat M, et al. (Eds.) (2020). First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, 30th ed. (p. 467).
• MacGillis, A. (2019). The case against Boeing. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/18/the-case-against-boeing
• Albrecht, MA. (2018). Epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and diagnosis of genital herpes simplex virus infection. UpToDate. Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/epidemiology-clinical-manifestations-anddiagnosis-of-genital-herpes-simplex-virus-infection#H24
• Akenroye AT, Wood R, Keet C. (2020). Asthma, biologics, corticosteroids, and coronavirus disease 2019. Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, 125(1), 12–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2020.05.001

Note: Please only cite references in English.