缩略语在医学论文中的使用问题

Discussion on Use of Abbreviations in Medical Papers

缩略语在医学文献中很常见,具有简化复杂专有名词的特点,因此使用广泛。由于不同的医学名词会有相同的缩略语,如果不能规范使用,很可能导致读者的理解偏差,甚至造成医疗错误等严重问题。医学专用名词缩略语的使用在相关指南中有严格要求,但仅有的少数研究表明,很少有作者和编辑严格遵循这些指南。因此,在对缩略语不能充分理解和重复缩略语比较多的当下,宜尽量减少使用,或者在文章中首次出现时,按指南定义规范标注名词相应的缩略语。现就医学缩略语在医学论文写作中的作用及在医学中不规范使用缩写的危险性作一综述,以期对医学论文的撰写有所裨益。

Abbreviations are commonly used in medical literature,with the characteristics of simplifying complex proper nouns,so they are widely used.Because different medical terms have the same abbreviations,if they cannot be used in a standardized way,it is likely to lead to readers’misunderstanding,and even cause serious problems such as medical errors.There are strict requirements for the use of abbreviations of medical terms in relevant guidelines,but only a few studies show that the authors and editors rarely follow these guidelines strictly.Therefore,when abbreviations cannot be fully understood and there are many repeated abbreviations,it is advisable to reduce the use as much as possible,or to mark the corresponding abbreviations of nouns in accordance with the guidelines definition when they appear for the first time in the article.The role of medical abbreviations in the writing of medical papers and the risk of non-standard use of abbreviations in medicine are summarized to benefit the writing of medical papers.