Clinical papers writing and required Information Literacy

Information literacy is defined as the individual's ability to collect information from appropriate sources, evaluate the quality of information obtained, and organize and use the information effectively for specific purposes. Today's researchers should be information-literacy not only in their areas of expertise but also in changing circumstances surrounding their research environment. This article provides information that researchers must know to conduct out clinical research and write papers. Recent changes in prevalent contribution rules for academic articles called “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, ” implementation of the personal information protection law in Japan, Evidence-based Medicine (EBM), and guidelines for writing structured abstracts and clinical research papers would directly affect the research process. Researchers must be aware of the changes and comply with the new rules or their papers will not be accepted by major medical journals. They must be more information-literate in a broader sense than ever.