Anthony H C Ratliff: 2 books

In medical writing brevity is the kiss of life. Nevertheless most articles are unnecessarily lengthy and publications continue to multiply. Pity the poor reader! A succession of unduly long articles is bad enough, but if each is followed by a plethora of references the effect is positively daunting....

References, to the reader, are like insulin to the diabetic: when needed they are indispensable, but in excess they induce coma. Moreover, when references are simply shovelled into a text in great gobbets, it is hard to resist the suspicion that the author has not read them all, but has copied some...