Acronyms: What’s In a Name?

摘要

I sometimes work out wearing a t-shirt from the Parkinson Study Group (PSG), a clinical research consortium I belong to, which boasts the many studies the PSG has successfully completed, all having ac- ronyms, with their names arrayed in a Scrabble-like format. I am a little embar- rassed by the shirt because of these acro- nyms. I would much prefer a small logo. The acronyms themselves had become a source of personal irritation which had been dying down until a recent article in JAMA ("Extremities," Sept 10, 2008) re- vived it. Believe it or not, trials with acro- nyms are more commonly cited than those without, and protocols with acronym titles are thought to more likely be funded than those without (NEJM 2006;355:101).