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nese colleges and universities have few scientific-writing courses, so improvement in scientific writing is slow. Most first-time authors writing in Chinese for publication in China usually follow the format used in the journal to which they are submitting their manuscripts. To improve scientific publishing in China, the government has instituted initiatives to improve scientific writing. A format for scientific and technical reports, degree theses, and scientific papers has been developed (GB7713-87). The recommendations closely follow international standards, including using the structured abstract for biomedical research articles. By supporting standards set by the government and international bodies, it is hoped that health science journals improve their scientific communication. A few books about biomedical writing have now been published in China. Also, a program, based in China, to teach biomedical writing and editing has been established with grants from the China Medical Board of New York. The purpose of this program, which began in 1996, is to increase publication of Chinese and other Asian research in English-language biomedical journals both by providing instruction in biomedical writing and by developing editors at the researchers' institutions. Typically the writing courses have focused on the introduction and discussion sections of articles prepared for health-science journals in China. The introduction section of the paper has tended to be incomplete, so editors and readers do not understand the point of the paper. Editors envisage the introduction as being rather like a funnel, beginning with what is known about the particular problem, leading to what is unknown and important to find out, and ending with the objectives of the research. Chinese authors typically begin the discussion with a reiteration of well-known knowledge, with little attempt to indicate how their research adds to the body of knowledge. The discussion section rarely discusses the limitations of the research. Typical Chinese manuscripts contain few references. Although that may be a long-standing tradition in Chinese publishing, it also may occur because many university and local libraries in China lack extensive collections of world literature, most articles posted on the World Wide Web are not in free-access scientific journals, and, there is generally low awareness of international websites that provide free access to journals, such as Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI;