Human orthopedic research articles convey information better than veterinary orthopedic research articles: Evidence-based manuscript writing guidelines

Abstract Objective.The objective of this study was to compare the brevity and clarity of human orthopedic articles to veterinary orthopedic articles. The goal is to provide authors and reviewers with objective, evidence-based guidelines to critically evaluate the brevity and clarity of veterinary manuscripts during the writing phase of research and the review process. Study design.We used word counts and the percent of active voice sentences to assess the brevity and clarity of the introduction sections and discussion sections in 15 randomly chosen veterinary orthopedic clinical trial articles and 15 randomly chosen human orthopedic clinical trial articles. Results.Veterinary introduction sections were on average 193 words longer than human introduction sections (p=0.001). Veterinary discussion sections were on average 370 words longer than human discussion sections. Veterinary introduction sections had on average 14.4 percent fewer active voice sentences than human introduction sections (p=0.003). Veterinary discussion sections had on average 8.3 percent fewer active voice sentences than human discussion sections. Conclusion.Human orthopedic clinical trial articles are more concise and direct than veterinary clinical trial articles.