User talk:ScottSloe

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High-quality reliable sources of medical information vs. Wikipedia

A while ago, ScottSloe got the following advice on how to refer to high-quality, reliable sources of medical information--apparently in response to his attempts to improve some Wikipedia pages about depression and antidepressants. No, Scott isn't an MD. Yes, Scott has 1) a sound, scientific education, 2) an understanding of how to write on technical subjects for general audiences, 3) personal experience with, and concern for the importance of, these topics, and 3) a general understanding of these topics, gained through discussion and reading. Unfortunately, the information that's provided by Wikipedia on these topics isn't the best-quality information that doctors, patients, family members, etc. need, and are obtaining from better sources. So, hopefully, these readers won't be exposed to the lower-quality information that's presented on Wikipedia, and it won't matter that Wikipedia doesn't seem to be open to improvement. --ScottS (talk) 06:20, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for contributing to Wikipedia. Remember that when adding content about health, please only use high-quality reliable sources as references. We typically use review articles, major textbooks and position statements of national or international organizations (There are several kinds of sources that discuss health: here is how the community classifies them and uses them). WP:MEDHOW walks you through editing step by step. A list of resources to help edit health content can be found here. The edit box has a built-in citation tool to easily format references based on the PMID or ISBN.

While editing any article or a wikipage, on the top of the edit window you will see a toolbar which says "cite" click on it
Then click on "templates",
Choose the most appropriate template and fill in the details beside a magnifying glass followed by clicking said button,
If the article is available in Pubmed Central, you have to add the pmc parameter manually -- click on "show additional fields" in the template and you will see the "pmc" field. Please add just the number and don't include "PMC".

We also provide style advice about the structure and content of medicine-related encyclopedia articles. The welcome page is another good place to learn about editing the encyclopedia. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a note. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 19:46, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]