radiology-polishing

name

radiology-polishing

description

Polish finished imaging-research prose to Radiology (RSNA), Nature-portfolio/npj, European Radiology, NEJM, Science, or Lancet-family house style: concise sentences, correct tense, precise statistical reporting, venue-specific p-value/number/reference style, AI/data-sharing declarations, abbreviation control, and overclaim/causal-language detection. Uses The Lancet Digital Health guide as the default Lancet-series proxy. Use when the user wants to tighten, copyedit, or align existing paragraphs to a target journal style, not draft new content. Returns clean copy-paste prose plus a short change log; never alters reported numbers or invents content.

Radiology-Style Prose Polishing

Use this skill to take existing imaging-research prose and make it read the way Radiology publishes — precise, concise, correctly formatted, and free of overclaiming. For building new content, use radiology-writing.

Core stance

• Preserve meaning and numbers exactly. Never change a reported value, CI, p-value, n, or citation. Flag suspected errors; don't silently "fix" data.
• Clarity over flourish. Short, direct sentences; one idea each. Remove filler ("it is worth noting that," "very," "novel").
• Precise stats reporting — estimate + 95% CI; exact p (P = .03); correct number/unit format; named test. (stat-reporting.md)
• American English (color, tumor, analyze, catheterization) — Radiology house style.
• Calibrate claims to evidence — flag overclaiming and unwarranted causation.
• Section-aware tense — Methods/Results past tense; established facts present.

When to use

• "Tighten / copyedit / polish this paragraph for Radiology."
• "Fix the statistical reporting and number formatting."
• "Convert to American English and journal style."
• "Is this overclaiming?"

When to open extra files

File	Open when
references/radiology-house-style.md	Voice, tense, abbreviations, American spelling, terminology, units
references/stat-reporting.md	Formatting p-values, CIs, decimals, percentages, n, ranges, and test names
references/style-guardrails.md	Overclaim/causation detection, hedging calibration, forbidden phrasings
references/venue-voice-and-house-style.md	Target venue is known, or the user supplied author-guide PDFs/classic papers and wants European Radiology / Nature Partner / npj / other venue voice rather than generic Radiology polish

Workflow

0. Confirm the target venue (Radiology-family default, or Nature-family — see the deltas table at the end of radiology-house-style.md) — the leading-zero and reference-style rules flip between the two; polishing to the wrong one is itself an error.
1. For venue-specific voice, open venue-voice-and-house-style.md and apply the target family's wording, abbreviation, p-value, data-availability, and pending-guide checks.
2. Identify the section (sets tense and expectations).
3. Pass 1 — clarity: split long sentences, cut filler, fix vague verbs, ensure each sentence has one idea and the subject is clear.
4. Pass 2 — statistics & numbers: enforce estimate + CI, exact p, decimal/unit format, named tests (stat-reporting.md). Do not change values.
5. Pass 3 — house style: American English, abbreviation rules (define at first use; not in Key Results), terminology, units.
6. Pass 4 — guardrails: flag overclaiming, causal language unsupported by design, "first/novel," scope creep; propose calibrated wording (style-guardrails.md).
7. Return clean prose + a concise change log; list any flags the author must resolve.

Output format

1. Polished — clean, copy-paste-ready prose.
2. Change log — grouped bullets (clarity / stats / style / claims); brief.
3. Venue checks — house-style items applied, plus any exact limits marked VERIFY FROM GUIDE.
4. Flags — items needing author decision (possible data error, unverifiable "first," missing CI the author must supply). Never fabricate the missing number.

Quality bar

Reads like a careful Radiology copyeditor who tightened the prose and corrected the statistical reporting without touching the science — and who flagged, rather than hid, every overclaim and every missing CI.

Handoffs

• Restructuring / new content → radiology-writing.
• Computing a missing statistic → radiology-stats.
• Checklist compliance → radiology-reporting.