http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2012/12/12/questions-from-users-of-the-manual-17/ Official blog of the AMA Manual of Style Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:05:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2012/12/12/questions-from-users-of-the-manual-17/#comment-1918 Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:59:06 +0000 http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/?p=520#comment-1918 This MRI glossary is no longer available:Hendrick RE, Bradley WG Jr, Harms SE, et al. ACR Revised Glossary 2005 (ACR Glossary of MRI Terms. 5th ed.) Chicago, IL: American College of Radiology; 2005. http://www.acr.org/s_acr/sec.asp?CID=3614&DID=22815. Accessed April 21, 2006.
I am confused about an MRI term. Why is the “b” in “b value” italicized in the radiology literature but not in the AMA Style Manual? Isn’t it a variable?

]]> http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2012/12/12/questions-from-users-of-the-manual-17/#comment-1714 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:03:43 +0000 http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/?p=520#comment-1714 I can understand using the lower case letters in tables that are primarily composed of numbers but I find them disconcerting while reading tiny type that is primarily letters. Also, the need to go as far as 26 footnote symbols (available in the alphabet) is rare in anything but journal articles and monographs. We try to use AMA at my place of business but I prefer to continue with asterisk, dagger, double-dagger, etc in promotional pharmaceutical advertising and direct to consumer medical information. It’s excessive for those purposes. It would be helpful if AMA extended its sphere of interest to promotional drug advertising rather than adhere so strictly to formal medical language, especially as influenced by European publications and style preferences. To me, all of those lower case letters is busy, hard to read, and (as mentioned earlier) excessive. Reminds me of the years that AMA tried to eliminate commas in numbers over 5 places and just use a space. I’m happy that’s been rescinded.

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