science

Prescrire

Prescrire is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Prescrire rather than just read about it. In short: Prescrire also known as La Revue Prescrire is a monthly medical journal in French which addresses developments in diseases, medications, and in medical techniques and technologies. Prescrire contains no advertising, and is internally financed by subscriptions and the sale of various personnel training.

Key takeaways

Prescrire belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Prescrire to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Prescrire from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Prescrire also known as La Revue Prescrire is a monthly medical journal in French which addresses developments in diseases, medications, and in medical techniques and technologies. Prescrire contains no advertising, and is internally financed by subscriptions and the sale of various personnel training. In contrast to many traditional medical journals, which review and publish articles submitted by external researchers, Prescrire mainly publishes reviews prepared by its own staff. It is run by the Association Mieux Prescrire which is a not for profit. It is independent of the pharmaceutical industry. Superlatively, it forbids, rather than merely requiring disclosure of, conflicts of interest, through its "Non Merci..." charter. It is a member of the International Society of Drug Bulletins. As of 2013 it had 24,700 paying subscribers. It was among the first to warn against the dangers of Mediator. Prescrire also publishes an international edition in English, titled Prescrire International.

Publication The articles are based on a search of the literature and critical appraisal of the evidence. Each article is peer-reviewed by 20-40 reviewers.

History The journal was established in 1981 by a group of pharmacists and physicians with a subsidy from the French Ministry of Labour, Employment, and Health.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Prescrire

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Prescrire claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Prescrire before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Prescrire ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Prescrire

In research: Prescrire appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Prescrire in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Prescrire is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic journals established in 1981, French-language journals, Monthly journals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Prescrire outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Prescrire in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Prescrire means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Prescrire out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Prescrire in simple terms?

Why does Prescrire matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Prescrire?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Prescrire.