User talk:Fgrannis

Welcome to Wikipedia from the Wikiproject Medicine!


Welcome to Wikipedia from Wikiproject Medicine (also known as WPMED). We're a group of editors who strive to improve the quality of content about health here on Wikipedia, pursuing the mission of Wikipedia to provide the public with articles that present accepted knowledge, created and maintained by a community of editors.

One of our members has noticed that you are interested in editing medical articles; it's great to have a new interested editor on board!

First, some basics about editing Wikipedia, which is a strange place behind the scenes; you may find some of the ways we operate to be surprising. Please take your time and understand how this place works. Here are some useful links, which have information to help editors get the most out of Wikipedia:
 * Everything starts with the mission - the mission of Wikipedia is to provide the public with articles that summarize accepted knowledge, working in a community of editors. (see WP:NOT)
 * We find "accepted knowledge" for biomedical information in sources defined by WP:MEDRS -- we generally use literature reviews published in good journals or statements by major medical or scientific bodies and we generally avoid using research papers, editorials, and popular media as sources for such content. We read MEDRS sources and summarize them, giving the most space and emphasis (what we call WP:WEIGHT) to the most prevalent views found in MEDRS sources.
 * Please see WPMED's "how to" guide for editing content about health
 * More generally please see The five pillars of Wikipedia and please be aware of the "policies and guidelines" that govern what we do here; these have been generated by the community itself over the last fifteen years, and you will need to learn them (which is not too hard, it just takes some time). Documents about Wikipedia - the "back office" -  reside in "Wikipedia space" where document titles are preceded by "Wikipedia:" (often abbreviated "WP:"). WP space is separate from "article space" (also called "mainspace") - the document at WP:CONSENSUS is different from, and serves as a different purpose than, the document at  Consensus.

Every article and page in Wikipedia has an associated talk page, and these pages are essential because we editors use them to collaborate and work out disagreements. (This is your Talk page, associated with your user page.) When you use a Talk page, you should sign your name by typing four tildes ( ~ ) at the end of your comment; the Wikipedia software will automatically convert that into links to your Userpage and this page and will add a datestamp. This is how we know who said what. We also "thread" comments in a way that you will learn with time. Please see the Talk Page Guidelines to learn how to use talk pages.


 * Thanks for coming aboard! We always appreciate a new editor. Feel free to leave us a message at any time on our talk page. If you are interested in joining the project yourself, there is a participant list where you can sign up. You can also just add our talk page to your watchlist and join in discussions that interest you.  Please leave a message on the WPMED talk page if you have any problems, suggestions, would like review of an article, need suggestions for articles to edit, or would like some collaboration when editing!
 * The Wikipedia community includes a wide variety of editors with different interests, skills, and knowledge. We all manage to get along through a lot of discussion that happens under the scenes and through the bold, edit, discuss editing cycle. If you encounter any problems, you can discuss it on an article's talk page or post a message on the WPMED talk page.

Feel free to drop a note below if you have any questions or problems. I wish you all the best here in Wikipedia!

--Jytdog (talk) 15:42, 15 June 2017 (UTC)

Edits to lung cancer screening
Thanks for updating the lung cancer screening article. Some of that was great, but a) the first paragraph you added was what we call WP:SYN so I removed it, and b) all the content you added was to the "lead" (the part above the table of contents) but all that section does, is summarize of the body of the article. I moved the content to the body. That article does need more work and updating! Thanks for starting that process. Jytdog (talk) 15:44, 15 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I also wanted to say thank you. I completed part of the cochrane update on this last night and I got called away. I just made a few more changes. Please let me know what you think or feel free to modify my additions. Thanks Jytdog as well.JenOttawa (talk) 17:45, 17 June 2017 (UTC)


 * copied here from comment left at my Talk page in this diff Jytdog (talk) 20:30, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I got your messages on my edits of the lung cancer screening WPspace and trying to learn how to use the features and use the system of editing. I must admit that it is daunting to learn a totally new approach to arriving at truth.  I will try to focus on Currently trying to use the talk features and system of editing, for one example, to just put the subject in the headline box.
 * I must admit that it is daunting to approach truth not from accumulated scientific data but rather from consensus, but I have worked within a consensus approach and can adapt to it here. I will look forward to your guidance in my adaptation to this new world.Fgrannis (talk) 16:25, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much for being open to learning! Yes the "epistemology" of Wikipedia is different.  We try to summarize accepted knowledge, and we identify "accepted knowledge" not based on our own judgement but rather what on what experts in the field have written in the highest quality secondary sources we can find.  Will be very happy to happy help whenever you like.  The Welcome message above has all the links you need to get you started. Jytdog (talk) 20:35, 17 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Sources really are required for everything. Really.  Jytdog (talk) 08:07, 19 June 2017 (UTC)

Formatting references
There are templates for citations that are very useful. If you look at them and try to create them manually, this looks like a nightmare. I avoided templates for years and just did simple ones like this:


 * Begley CG, Ellis LM. (2012-03-28) Drug development: Raise standards for preclinical cancer research. Nature 483: 7391. 531–533
 * which looks like this in wikicode: Begley CG, Ellis LM. (2012-03-28) Drug development: Raise standards for preclinical cancer research. Nature 483: 7391. 531–533

But then I learned that are automated tools that will create templated citations for you super fast and this is how I work now... and it is good for you and everybody if you use them. Below is a description first of how to autoformat refs in the "Visual editor" interface, which many new users use, and then in the older Wikitext editor. In either editor, '''if you are writing about health, the part of the citation we care about the most is the pmid. Please be sure to use it.'''

If you are working in the older Wikitext editor there is also a toolbar that you can see at the top of the edit window. On the right, it says "Cite" and there is a little triangle next to it. If you click the triangle, another menu appears below. On the left side of the new menu bar, you will see "Templates". If you select (for example) "Cite journal", you can fill in the "doi" or the "PMID" field, and then if you click the little magnifying glass next to the field, the whole thing will auto-fill.

That takes about 5 seconds. It is really easy!

This is described at WP:MEDHOW, which you do not seem to have read yet... Jytdog (talk) 02:16, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

Lung cancer articles
Hello, I was looking at the lung cancer surgery Wikipedia articles this evening and noticed they really need some work. Are you interested in helping? I would be happy to help you navigate the world of Wikipedia editing. We greatly appreciate skilled medical professionals such as yourself who take an interest in Wikipedia editing as a way to share high-quality medical evidence. Thanks, JenOttawa (talk) 03:53, 8 March 2018 (UTC)