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Access to paywall articles

Is there a place on Misplaced Pages I can go to ask for someone to email me a copy of a journal article that I can't access - or at least check a fact? I'm pretty sure I've read that somewhere. Anthony (talk) 04:04, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

What are you looking for? (PMID) Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 04:08, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Anthony, many editors are willing to share access, but you may want to request that privtely from them, so they don't get into ... issues. Put up a list of what you need, and if someone e-mails it to you ... well ... SandyGeorgia (Talk) 04:10, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Anthony's probably looking for Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request‎. LeadSongDog come howl! 04:16, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

What fact needs to be checked? Odds are good that someone here could do it for you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:19, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks everybody. I think it was Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request‎ I was trying to remember (thanks LSD). I'm going out and will check it later. The specific article is being discussed here. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. --Anthony (talk) 08:46, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Re: What fact needs to be checked? See: Talk:Major_depressive_disorder#Intact_monoamine_system. Tijfo098 (talk) 11:22, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Research directions

A discussion at Talk:Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency has raised the question of whether ClinicalTrials.gov is usable as a reference for sections on ongoing research that is not yet reporting results. The alternatives seem to be either relying on news media sources or else excluding such discussion entirely. Additional input would be helpful. LeadSongDog come howl! 18:04, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

From a different point of view: there are two questions: Is clinicaltrials reliable to cite trials?

Does it stablish notability of a trial or does it have to be inferred from other sources such as media reports?.--Garrondo (talk) 18:13, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

It's hard to judge reliability without knowing what you want to say in the article. IMO that website is a reliable source for whether a trial exists, and even information about study design and (for completed trials) what the preliminary results were (although you should cite a proper paper whenever possible).

It is certainly not evidence that a given trial is WP:Notable (deserves its own article) or even necessarily WP:DUE (should be mentioned in another article). For those purposes, the media sources might be better. If, on the other hand, the goal is to say something like "Only look! People are doing research! Isn't it exciting/hopeful/etc", then I'd invoke the "not a directory of clinical trials" standard and exclude it all together. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:31, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

We had not discuss yet what to include, but I agree fully with your reasoning.--Garrondo (talk) 19:56, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

PERQ/HCI

Shouldn't these guys have a page? They seem to rate medical journals by readership, e.g. A few journals boast their readership, e.g. , which is somewhat orthogonal to the citation-based impact factor. Tijfo098 (talk) 18:44, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

It turns out they are a Nielsen subsidiary now . Tijfo098 (talk) 18:50, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Biography question

I have been spending a lot of my time trying to help out new users. I welcomed a user recently and received this message. I don't think the article meets our notability requirements but am not sure of the exact standards of medical bios. Obviously given the circumstances please treat this person with kid gloves (as we should be doing with all non-vandal new users anyway), by that I mean no warning templates on the talk page. Personalized messages would be better. Thanks in advance to anyone who helps out. Quadzilla99 (talk) 18:24, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

At the moment it is very vague as to what his actual achievements were, and how he might have contributed to the field. You could ask the contributor this question directly. JFW | T@lk 20:09, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Some of the at WikiProject Chemistry are helping with the article. Quadzilla99 (talk) 00:01, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Plans for Breast cancer awareness

I'm plotting a new article at Breast cancer awareness. I haven't figured out whether it should subsume all of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Pink ribbon, or just the less specific elements. I've just picked up a few good history/society books from the library, and reading those will doubtless keep me busy for a couple of weeks.

In the bigger picture, we should also have an article at Disease awareness (coordinated with Awareness ribbons), and perhaps at Cancer awareness. They should cover history, advantages (people recognize symptoms and seek care), and disadvantages (e.g., these concerns) -- but I don't know how easy it will be to find sources on the general subject, rather than the individual diseases.

If you've got ideas, sources, or know of any relevant existing articles, please speak up! WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:50, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

You'll need to take due measures to ensure such articles don't become wp:linkfarms, of course, but it sounds like a good plan, with the added benefit of forking much of this awareness- and fund-raising content out of the medical articles. You might find these useful for starters. Good luck! LeadSongDog come howl! 16:07, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Parkinson's disease to GAN

I have just nominated Parkinson's disease for good article, as a way of improving it before taking it to FAC. While I believe that sources and scope are a strong point of the article, I know that my prose is far from being as professional as it should. Any kind of comments or copy-editing would be most useful. A commited reviewer would also be great, since the article is quite long. Thanks to everybody.--Garrondo (talk) 18:57, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

I was also thinking of an image for the symptoms section, and I thought of a writting by a PD patient with micrography. I do not have such kind of image, but maybe somebody from the project is capable of getting one directly from a patient. Best image would be a short text with some rule on it to show scale... --Garrondo (talk) 23:00, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

Other articles in search of a reviewer at WP:GAN#MED are:

• Edward William Archibald (Canadian surgeon, died 1945; short, and only 7 refs, so it should be quick)
• Protein C (blood clotting and inflammation)
• Haplogroup E1b1a (Y-DNA) (looks a bit technical and list-y)

So we need just four people who can read the actual criteria, and follow the simple directions. GA reviews aren't difficult, and if anyone is at all nervous about trying it out for the first time, then I'd be happy to help you learn the ropes.

BTW, there's always someone over at GA complaining about the backlog of unreviewed articles. I've always been proud of our group for staying on top of our section of the nominations list. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:08, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

Chiropractic fringiness

Two new chiropractic articles have been transferred from a user's sandbox. Not only are they not NPOV and are promotional, they are pushing unscientific BS as if it were reality, all without proper references. They are well within the rules for using WP:MEDRS, but utterly fail to do so. The articles need more eyes on them and some working over:

• Bio-Geometric Integration

• Potential Energy Theory of Subluxation

-- Brangifer (talk) 22:33, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

Both have been deleted as copy vios. Brangifer (talk) 16:47, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential

Could someone take a look at this. Recent POV edits removed criticism from the lead (quite serious criticism from the AAP) and added all sorts of stuff that fail multiple policies and guidelines. I reverted with a talk page notice but it has now been restored. This article has a history of being edited by IAHP staff, relatives of the founders, etc. Thanks. Colin° 23:15, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

We seem to have an edit war shaping up there. The new user seems interested in removing all well-sourced criticism from the lead, and downplaying it elsewhere, while spamming in basically every possible "endorsement" they've ever received. Three editors have opposed, and more eyes would be welcome. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:45, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, WhatamIdoing, Yobol and MastCell. I appreciate having more people with this watchlisted as I don't want to give any impression of WP:OWN and I'm only prepared to revert someone once. Colin° 19:57, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

And we have another SPA. I may be taking my own trip to SPI before long. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:40, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

I see our two SPAs have been briefly blocked. However, the article is currently at the "wrong version" IMO. I'd appreciate if someone uninvolved could take a look and fix as they see fit. Cheers, Colin° 18:35, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Sometimes in cases like this, it's worth stubbing the article down and starting fresh from whatever independent, reliable sources exist. I'm saying that without having looked at the disputed content in detail, though, so it's just a general observation. MastCell  20:00, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree that improving problematic article usually involves a complete rewrite. Actually, I've twice given this article an overhaul over the years I've been watch in it. I thought the pre-SPA-edit version was ok. Someone with better access to journal sources could probably do a better job. Regardless, the current version is unacceptable and I don't revert more than once. Colin° 10:38, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Odd

• Lalora6 (talk | contribs)
• Aland90 (talk | contribs)
• Kellys76 (talk | contribs)
• Dneilom1 (talk | contribs)
• Lydiamoe (talk | contribs)
• Kara Brady (talk | contribs)
• Tai adenuga (talk | contribs)
• Nkirukaokorie (talk | contribs)
• Susan. muzondo (talk | contribs)
• Raymond murphy (talk | contribs)

For a couple of weeks, this user has been making good-faith edits to mental health articles, using clumsy expression and poor citations. Over the last day or so I've been through all edits I could find and reverted most but corrected a few. They blanked notes from Looie496 and Guerillero about citations, so are aware of user talk pages, and are aware there's a problem. I have left simplified citation instructions on each of their talk pages.

The contributions all seem to be in good faith and often useful, so I'm (weakly) hopeful that with firm but gentle handling they may become beneficial to the project. Anthony (talk) 19:17, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

"This" user?

Perhaps a trip to WP:SPI is in order. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:48, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

He's not edit warring or voting; just being odd so far. Anthony (talk) 19:58, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't see any reason that we need to go as far as a SPI and ban them from wikipedia. They aren't spamming or removing content. --Guerillero | My Talk 10:40, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Since this continues, I have opened WP:SPI/Lalora6 and blocked all except the purported master. Looie496 (talk) 18:03, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Looking for a good example

At Disease#Burdens_of_disease, I'd like to have a good example of disease burden that separates the economic costs from the estimated market value of years lost. That is, I'd like to be able to say that <example> costs $X (cash) plus Y years lived with disability plus Z years of potential life lost, rather than a single number. That is, I want "Tobacco costs the world $10 billion cash, plus 10 million person-years of disabled life, plus 20 million person-years of potential life lost, not "Tobacco costs the world US$100 billion a year".

I don't really care what the medical issue is, but I've never run across a source that is straightforward and reasonably accessible, which I think is preferable for this article.

If you've got a good source, please feel free to add it directly into the first paragraph at the above-linked section. WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:49, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

In this moment I do not have full access to the article, but in PMID 17702630 reviews different studies which quantify disease burden of Parkinson's disease, and I think that at some point it separates direct and indirect costs similarly to what you look for. It may serve you.--Garrondo (talk) 10:13, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Two cleft hand articles

We now have articles both on Ectrodactyly and cleft hand. I suspect that some form of refactoring/merging/splitting/renaming may be needed here, but lacking any knowledge of this field, I don't know how to proceed. I am therefore posting this here, in the hope that someone knowledgeable may be able to resolve this. -- The Anome (talk) 11:27, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree the articles should be merged. It seems to me the appropriate thing to do would be to merge cleft hand into ectrodactyly. I've put merge templates up on each article with discussion pointing to the ectrodactyly talk page. Mattopaedia 07:26, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject cleanup listing

I have created together with Smallman12q a toolserver tool that shows a weekly-updated list of cleanup categories for WikiProjects, that can be used as a replacement for WolterBot and this WikiProject is among those that are already included (because it is a member of Category:WolterBot cleanup listing subscriptions). See the tool's wiki page, this project's listing in one big table or by categories and the index of WikiProjects. Svick (talk) 20:54, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

People interested in cleaning up these articles should click here for the list (large sortable table) and here for the list divided by type of problem. So if, for example, you wanted to have a look at the 1600 (allegedly) unreferenced articles, then you'd click here to go to that subsection of the second page.

The previous /Cleanup listing pages haven't been updated since March, so perhaps these should replace those links. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:01, 7 November 2010 (UTC)