jama-writing-style
Use when tightening prose and removing spin from a JAMA manuscript to match the journal's clinical house style and the AMA Manual of Style. Polishes language and framing; it does NOT change the analysis or the reported numbers.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jama-writing-style --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Writing Style & House Style (jama-writing-style) ## When to trigger - Prose is verbose, hedged, or jargon-heavy for a general clinician audience - The Conclusions overstate the data ("spin") - Observational findings are written with causal verbs - Late-stage polish before submission, after design/stats/exhibits are settled ## House-style essentials (AMA Manual of Style) - JAMA follows the **AMA Manual of Style**. Conform numbers, units, abbreviations, statistical notation, and reference format to it — verify current rules in the manual / author instructions. - **SI units** with conventional units as needed; define every abbreviation at first use; avoid undefined acronyms. - **Person-first, non-stigmatizing language** (e.g., "patients with diabetes," not "diabetics"); report and justify race/ethnicity and sex/gender per current JAMA guidance. - Exact p-values (P = .04, not P < .05); leading zeros omitted for p-values per AMA convention; estimates always paired with 95% CIs. - Active voice and short sentences where possible; the IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion). ## Avoiding "spin" Spin is language that makes results sound better than the data support. JA
- When to trigger
- House-style essentials (AMA Manual of Style)
- Avoiding "spin"
- Discussion structure JAMA expects
- How JAMA editors read for spin and clarity
- Worked micro-example: de-spinning a conclusion (illustrative)
- Reviewer pushback and the fix
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the jama-writing-style skill do?
Use when tightening prose and removing spin from a JAMA manuscript to match the journal's clinical house style and the AMA Manual of Style. Polishes language and framing; it does NOT change the analysis or the reported numbers.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jama-writing-style --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.