On Writing: Why Projects Fail

This is the second is a series of articles on writing for presentation and publication. In this article we look at why projects fail to make into abstract or manuscript form. More than 90 % of all medical writing projects never make it into print. To those of us who mentor trainees’ writing, the causes of “manuscript death” are all too predictable:

Lack of clear objectives Poor study design Failure to recruit sufficient patients Negative findings Loss of interest/departure of investigators Discouragement Someone else publishes first.