RESOURCES
A repository of websites and courses for medical communicators
COVID-19
The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook: A practical guide for improving vaccine communication and fighting miscommunication
Developed by a team of scientific experts, this guide aims to arm people with practical tips and provide up-to-date information and evidence to talk reliably about the vaccines, reduce fear and constructively challenge associated myths.
Education and qualifications
Postgraduate university courses in health communication:
- Master of Health Communication at Sydney University
- Graduate Diploma in Health Communication at Sydney University
- Master of Science Communication at The University of Western Australia
Undergraduate blended degree:
Short courses can help writers upskill in specific areas including editing, consumer health writing, freelance writing, magazine writing and technical writing:
- Science journalism – a free online course for budding science writers and journalists, developed by a team of 35 writers and editors
- Copy writing and other writing courses – Australian Writers Centre
- Fundamentals of technical writing – University of Western Australia
- Courses in journalism, editing and publishing – Australian College
- Copyediting course – Capstone Editing
- AMWA Professional Development Program
Readability tools
These tools help ensure your writing is easy to understand:
- Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG)
- Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG)
- The Up-Goer Five Text Editor
- Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) and User’s Guide: helps you assess how understandable and actionable print and audiovisual patient education materials are
- Plain language summary toolkit— Envision Pharma Group has developed a best-practice resource for PLS of peer-reviewed publications and congress abstracts
- The EAST framework for behaviour change— four simple ways to apply behavioural insights
Medical writing career resources
- From academic to medical writer – a guide to getting started in medical communications
- MedCommsNetworking – networking and dialogue amongst professionals working in med comms
- Science communication toolkit – practical tools developed by experts to help science communicators, researchers, journalists and policy makers add quality, impact and influence to their science engagement activities
- Health Writer Hub – blogs, short online health writing courses and free resources for health writers
- Ragan’s Healthcare blog – news in healthcare social media, marketing and communications
Codes and guidelines
- Code of Conduct, Medicines Australia
- Therapeutic Goods Administration advertising guidelines
- Therapeutic Guidelines series
Accessing journals
- PubMed – archive of medical journal literature with links to the full-text sources
- Unpaywall – unpaywall is a legal, open-source database that allows you to access free scholarly articles
Style and grammar resources
- Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage
- AMA Manual of Style
- Scientific Style and Format: the CSE Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers
- Australian Manual of Scientific Style
- Australian Government Style Manual 2020
Health reporting
Responsible reporting on medicines, tests and treatments – tips
to help journalists accurately and responsibly reflect independent, reliable evidence in their writing and reporting on medicines, medical
tests and treatments.
Guidelines for writing about specific health conditions:
- Cancer Institute NSW has produced guidelines for writing about cancer
- Mindframe’s guidelines for communicating about mental health issues, including suicide and alcohol and other drugs
- A group of independent experts produced these guidelines for journalists reporting on alcohol and other drugs, in an effort to reduce stigma, improve accuracy in reporting, and minimise harm
- Dementia Australia has developed guidelines for talking or writing about dementia and people living with dementia.
- Mindframe and the National Eating Disorders Collaboration created these guidelines for reporting on eating disorders
- People With Disability Australia developed these guidelines for portraying people with disability
- This position statement from Diabetes Australia focuses on improving communications with and about people with diabetes.
Medical writing associations
- American Medical Writers Association
- European Medical Writers Association
- Australian Science Communicators
- Freelance Editors’ Network
- Council of Science Editors
- World Association of Medical Editors
- European Association of Science Editors
- The Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS)
- The International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP)
- Society for Technical Communication
- International Science Writers Association
- American Copy Editors Society
- Canadian Science Writers Association
- Association of Health Care Journalists
- Freeline – The Australian Freelance Writers Network