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AMWA

Australasian Medical Writers Association

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Resources for medical writers

Education and qualifications

  • University courses: There are no medical writing courses offered at the undergraduate level in Australasia. Instead, medical writers can start with degrees in fields such as journalism, media and communications.
  • Postgraduate courses: Some universities offer postgraduate courses in healthcare communication, including:
    • Master of Health Communication at Sydney University
    • Graduate Diploma in Health Communication at Sydney University
    • Graduate Diploma in Health Communication at Murdoch University
  • Short courses: Writers looking to upskill in specific areas can take short courses in topics 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.
    • Magazine and newspaper writing – Australian Writers Centre
    • Fundamentals of technical writing – University of Western Australia
    • Courses in journalism, editing and publishing – Australian College
    • AMWA PDP: AMWA’s PDP program offers specialised medical writing-related training

Useful websites about medical writing

  • 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
  • Ragan’s Healthcare Communications News – a daily website that highlights the latest news in health care social media, marketing, health communications, Pharma, Physicians and mobile health
  • Health Writer Hub – blogs, short online health writing courses and free resources for health writers (run by AMWA President Michelle Guillemard)

Dictionaries

  • Stedman’s Medical Dictionary
  • Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary
  • Macquarie Dictionary. 5th edn. Sydney: Macquarie Library Online

Codes and guidelines

  • Code of Conduct, Medicines Australia
  • Therapeutic Guidelines series

Accessing journals

  • PubMed – free archive of journal literature with links to the full-text sources
  • Accessing journal articles – if you are curious about open access and accessing research behind academic paywalls, this article might be of interest

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

Health reporting

  • Reporting on Health – an informative website for health journalists
  • Reporting on data in health stories – available as a downloadable eBook

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

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Australasian Medical Writers Association