AnKing Step Deck Submission Guidelines
Try this tutorial to see how to submit suggestions. Make sure to follow the guidelines below!
You can also view other’s suggestions on AnkiHub’s website and like/dislike or comment.
Read This Before Suggesting
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If your suggestions do not contain enough rationale and/or specific evidence, they will be automatically rejected.
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We also reserve the right to not provide an explanation if we deem your suggestion violates our guidelines found on this page.
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By submitting a suggestion, you agree to adhere to these rules and follow them stringently, and you acknowledge that failure to follow these rules will result in automatic rejection.
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Remember, your suggestion can affect 45,000+ users!
Revision date: August 9th 2024
Rules
Please follow these rules before suggesting or it will result in automatic rejection:
#1 Always Cite Sources When Making Changes
Summary
Please submit your suggestions with an acceptable source.
Acceptable sources include:
- Specific UWorld QIDs + explanation
- Specific AMBOSS article links with text for rationale (”AMBOSS says” is not sufficient, please paste the URL)
- Specific First Aid 2024 page numbers (Pg479 FA is not sufficient, please state FA version #)
- Society guidelines (AAFP, USPSTF; website links must be provided)
- Other cards in the deck (list specific nid #)
Unacceptable sources include:
- First Aid 2023 or older
- Pathoma
- Boards & Beyond
- Sketchy
- Random articles
- Wikipedia
- Textbooks
- Osmosis
- School lectures
- NBMEs (must be accompanied by an acceptable source)
- UpToDate ****(requires verification from AMBOSS or UWorld, see below for rationale)
UpToDate is not an acceptable standalone source, and requires verification from AMBOSS or UWorld. Our goal is to help learners test better and score better, and we will often defer to board resources over clinical practice guidelines when there is a discrepancy.
- Note: Please do not copy/paste verbatim into the text/extra sections. Verbatim copying is highly discouraged and will result in automatic rejection with the possibility of no explanation
#2 Provide a Sufficient Rationale
Summary
- Your rationale should provide reasoning for why this specific change should be added and/or why it would benefit 40,000+ users.
- You should aim to give as much supporting information as possible.
- Make a really strong case for your suggestion and avoid ambiguous statements.
- 1-3 word rationales are generally NOT accepted
- Please be extremely thorough as this will give us more explanation to hopefully accept/reject your suggestion. Usually, the longer and more detailed the rationale, the better.
- If there is no rationale provided, or the one provided is not sufficient, then your suggestion will be automatically rejected (with OR without explanation)
- Here is a flow chart for suggestions: https://imgur.com/a/6OronFA
- Since our subscriber count has increased since the inception of AnkiHub. We have drastically tightened our criteria for content changes. We typically require evidence of a UWorld/AMBOSS/NBME question directly testing the concept in order to change content in clozes.
Examples of rejected suggestions due to improper rationales:
- “This might be tested” → provide source on a place it has been tested and provide enough reasoning why this should be added to the deck for 35,000+ users to benefit from
- “This is nice to have” → provide more reasoning, it might be sufficient to add to your lecture notes field, why should it be added for 35,000+ users? Explain further.
- “URL of source” with no further explanation → A source with zero further explanation is usually rejected, please be extremely thorough.
#3 Image Suggestions Must be Formatted and Cited Appropriately
Summary
- If you are adding an image that is already in another note, please specify that in your rationale (e.g. image added from nid:###)
What Licenses Can I Use?
- If you are adding a new image, please only use an image with a creative commons license or is in the public domain
Accepted licenses: CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-ND
Non-acceptable licenses: CC-NC, CC BY-NC
Formatting Photo Credits
- Change it to italic and font size 10pt (toggle open for instructions)
- Option 1 - use the wrapper meta add-on. It will add this button. Highlight the sentence, then click the “quote” button and it will add the styling
Option 2 - using this add-on, manually change to font size 10 and italics
Image Suggestion Checklist
Please ensure the following:
- The image is added to the extra or text and nowhere else
- The font size is 10
- The citation is italicized
- Image is in JPEG/JPG format ideally
- Image is resized to an acceptable size (its should be around 500 px - 900 px in width, the maximum width size should not exceed 1500px.)
- Image is public domain/ has a creative common license that does not contain “NC” or “Non-Commercial”
- Image is cited properly like how other cards are in the deck, in general follow this format → Photo credit: Author name (hyperlinked to website), Creative Commons/Public Domain Hyperlink, via website/journal name
- Please ensure the image does NOT exceed 1mb. Ideally it is under 500 kb
Citing Wikimedia Commons
Citing DermNet / Radiology Assistant / Full Spectrum Derm / Physeo
- To cite Premium resources we have explicit access to
- DermNet (cite using this, make sure the image is watermarked: Image(s) licensed by DermNet and used with permission, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 NZ)
- Radiology Assistant (Photo credit: Image(s) provided by www.radiologyassistant.nl. Used with permission.)
- https://jddonline.com/project-atlas/ Must be watermarked and remain unaltered. Include title credit “The Full Spectrum of Dermatology: A Diverse and Inclusive Atlas”
- Physeo (must have access to the textbook yourself) (Image licensed by Physeo and used with permission. Purchase full access here.)
Citing Open Access Scientific Journals
- To cite open access scientific journals
- Hindawi = cite using: Author name et al., CC BY XX, via Hindawi (hyperlink author name with the link to the article, link the CC BY with a link to the CC license)
- Frontiers = Author name et al., CC BY XX, via Frontiers
- Cureus = Author name et al., CC BY XX, via Cureus
- PLOS = Author name et al., CC BY XX, via PLOS
- MDPI = Author name et al., CC BY XX, via MDPI
Free Resources we can use
OpenStax Anatomy
OpenStax Biology
OpenStax Microbiology
WikiMedia Commons
Retina Gallery
CDC Public Health Image Library (PHIL)
Gray’s Anatomy
#4 Help Us Review
Summary
- Please do help us review suggestions by liking/disliking others’ suggestions and leaving comments!
- Most maintainers have joined the team as a result of their continuous help by commenting, liking/disliking, and suggesting consistently!
#5 Protect Personal Fields & Tags
Summary
- All users should protect the following fields:
- “Lecture Notes”
- “Missed Questions”
- “Pathoma”
- “Boards and Beyond”
- If you have personal tags in your collection, please add them to the protected tags section so that they don’t show up in the suggestions for all users
#6 One-By-One Notes
Summary
- Feel free to submit suggestions to make cards one-by-one, however, please reference the “one-by-one card guidelines” in the section below before making them
#7 Response Time Rejection
Summary
- Due to the sheer number of suggestions per day, and a finite number of maintainers with extremely busy schedules. We will reject any suggestion if a maintainer comments for further details/explanation but does not receive an answer back for 3 days.
#8 UWorld QID Tagging
Summary
- Starting November 15th 2023, all UWorld QID tag additions/removals will require a proper rationale
- Acceptable rationales include: Why this card will be helpful to answering the question AND/OR copy + paste from question directly to support addition/removal of tag
- Unacceptable rationales include: “Fits QID”, “tags”
- If tagging a card that contains information corresponding to an incorrect answer choice, please provide strong justification (e.g., these disease presentations are very similar and 50% of students chose wrong)
- This rule is to impose stricter guidelines on what does and what doesn’t fit to be tagged. Generally, tags for a QID should only be added if the card DIRECTLY helps you answer the question
- This will decrease the amount of potentially unnecessary/unhelpful cards being tagged
Formatting for UWorld Step 1 and Level 1 Tags
Step 1: “#AK_Step1_v12::#UWorld::Step::#####”
COMLEX: “#AK_Step1_v12::#UWorld::COMLEX::#####”
Formatting Guidelines
One-By-One card guidelines
Summary
The general rules for one-by-one are as follows:
- The cards need to be able to be recalled in order - this means that there needs to be a mnemonic or a sequence of treatment
- The 5 P’s of pheochromocytoma can NOT be one-by-one because they all start with P and it will be impossible to do “ordered recall”
- One by one notes should not be done for cards that have 2-3 clozes, unless they are mnemonics
I want to submit a major content change
Summary
- For any change(s) that significantly alter the structure of a card or how the card is answered, a brief explanation must be added to the top of the extra section. Include source(s) if applicable.
- At the end of the explanation, note the current date in the following format “(M/YYYY)”
- Example: “This card previously stated ____, however, AMBOSS confirms _____. (May 2023)”
- Major change explanations should be removed/deleted from the extra section after 1 calendar year. Pertinent info from the explanation should be incorporated into the extra section in the typical format.
I made an image and want to upload it to the AnKing deck
Summary
- Please add “The AnKing LLC” with the copyright logo either on the bottom left or bottom right of the picture if you are willing to hand over the rights to the image you created over to us
- You can alternatively place the image under public domain, you can upload it to a site such as Wikimedia Commons and do it that way
- Below is an example of how the copyright and text should look like
Image reveals
Summary
- Where a question presents an image prior to pressing ‘show answer’:
- If the answer is text, it should be revealed above the image.
- If the answer is an image, it should be revealed below the image.
- Where a question presents an image after pressing ‘show answer’:
- If the answer is text, the image should be in extra, rather than being clozed.
- If the answer is an image, it should be clozed as usual.
Cloze deletions
Summary
- For suggestions relating to an increase or decrease (e.g. ‘diabetes {{c1::increases}} glucose’) the preference would be for a cloze hint of ‘increases/decreases’, in that order, like so: ‘diabetes {{c1::increases::increases/decreases}} glucose}}’. This is unless the potential answers are obvious.
Period formatting
Summary
- No cards in the deck end in periods, and most free sentences do not (unless it is a block of text explanation that requires multiple sentences in extra)
Capitalization
Summary
- Please maintain consistent capitalization. Example: I am a Deck Maintainer → should be → I am a deck maintainer. Capitals are only for names and the start of sentences
Capitalization in extra
- Please capitalize the first letter of each sentence in the extra section
In regards to demographics
- Per UTD, FA23, and the American Medical Association, we will keep capitalization when referring to White or Black populations. Online, there is a ton of variance however following the guidelines of the AMA, we have chosen to stick to capitalizing.
Updates to Reporting Black and White as Racial Categories | AMA Style Insider
The Reporting of Race and Ethnicity in Medical and Science Journals
Bolding, Underlining, and Italics
Summary
- Bolding and such should be used to draw your eyes. Our eyes go to bold first, then underline, then italics.
- It is best to tend to bold only the main subject and underline or italicize other important details.
- Italics can easily go unnoticed, particularly if you don’t use custom coloring.
- Use underlining sparingly!
Dashes
Summary
Dashes in Extra
Whenever there are TWO or more sentences in the extra section. Add a dash at the start of the example, instead of:
- The heart is a pump
- The heart is approximately 300 grams
It should be:
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- The heart is a pump
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- The heart is approximately 300 grams
Mnemonic Formatting
Summary
If existing mnemonics are being shifted to our new formatting (see below) - we will bold the hint, and underline the appropriate letter of the mnemonic
Disease Name Formatting
Summary
When listing the full name of the disease and the abbreviation in parenthesis (dz), bold the actual disease name and unbold the (abbreviation) as shown below
Table formatting
Normal table
Please use this addon to format tables! (thanks to @shmuelsash)
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/854267140
Summary
- Download this addon https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/805891399
- Open the browser in Anki, locate the card you want to create a table for, click on the extra section, and click T5 in the top right after installing the addon
- Go to table and select your cells
- Fill out the information as needed
- Highlight any header cells (usually at the top or left of the table) and right click and then go to cells → cell properties
- Then change to header cell (see below)
- Bold, underline, align thing as needed, ensure it is an appropriate size with not too much extra space
- Click save
- Click suggest then submit to AnkiHub
- If you have made multiple, please copy the HTML and paste it to the other cards, then suggest those as a bulk suggestion
UWorld Table Replacement
UWorld Tables
Summary
- The tables on numerous cards are the same. We do not have to make one table for every card with a table, which will be nice. Make sure to search for anki cards that may have the same table.
- Download this addon https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/805891399
- Find table to replace.
Ctrl+Shift+X
to get html of the table → copy it - Search the html → flag all these notes (you’ll need this later to bulk suggest the changes)
- If you are shrinking images, best to shrink all of them so the html is the same. You can use this add-on: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1633333766
- Create new table
- Click the
T5
button in the editor - Insert the table. Merge cells as needed.
- Type contents in. Do NOT duplicate the table word for word (copyright issues)
- Click the
- FORMAT:
- The tables will auto-format based on the width of the anki screen and the information of the table.
- Rows that are merged across the whole table will automatically be assigned a “title” format with a bolded upper and lower line, white background, and blue text.
- To designate subtitle cells, which will automatically be assigned a blue background and darker text: Select the cells you want to change, right click, go to “Cell”, “Cell properties” and select “Header cell” under “Cell Type”, as show in the below screenshot.
- The table will then inherit the standardized table format of the Anking deck. Take a look at how it shows up in the card editor, and if something needs to be manually changed (bolding, alignment, color, etc), changing it in the T5 editor will override the standardized formatting.
- Change all images to tables
- Copy text of image html. Also copy (or have handy) the text of the table html
- Notes → Find and Replace
- Replace all images with table
- !IMPORTANT! - tag all of these cards with the name of UWorld table (so we can keep track)
- Example: the below table will be tagged as follows
- !AK_UpdateTags::Table::Recommendations_for_Lung_Cancer_Screening
- Example: the below table will be tagged as follows
- Submit to AnkiHub as bulk suggestion (sync right before doing this)
Algorithms
Summary
Table method or Algorithm Website method
- The algorithms on numerous cards are the same. We do not have to make one algorithm for every card with a algorithm, which will be nice. Make sure to search for anki cards that may have the same algorithm.
Table Method
- Download this addon https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/805891399
- Find algorithm to replace.
Ctrl+Shift+X
to get html of the algorithm → copy it - Search the html → flag all these notes (you’ll need this later to bulk suggest the changes)
- If you are shrinking images, best to shrink all of them so the html is the same. You can use this add-on: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1633333766
- Create new table
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Click the
T5
button in the editor -
Insert a table.
- You will want enough rows and columns to split cells for when the algorithm branches
- For example, if the algorithm splits into three sections you would need three columns, one for each split.
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Type contents in. Do NOT duplicate the table word for word (copyright issues)
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Go to table properties and set to these:
![Class one is important. ]
Class one is important.
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5. Highlight the entire table → right click → cell → cell properties
Change Horizontal alight to “center” and Vertical Align to “middle”
Change border style to hidden
- FORMAT:
- note table width can be made ~60-80% based on algorithm contents
- Left align things as needed
- Bold things as needed
- Change all algorithm images to tables
- Copy text of image html. Also copy (or have handy) the text of the table html
- Notes → Find and Replace
- Replace all images with table
- !IMPORTANT! - tag all of these cards with the name of UWorld algorithm (so we can keep track)
- Example: the below table will be tagged as follows
- !AK_UpdateTags::Algorithm::Palpable_Breast_Mass
- Example: the below table will be tagged as follows
- Submit to AnkiHub as bulk suggestion (sync right before doing this)
- Example:
Algorithm table before hiding borders
Algorithm table after hiding borders
Algorithm Builder (Website)
- You can visit https://app.diagrams.net and create amazing algorithms. You just have to get familiar with the different tools, but it takes less than 5 min to create any type of algorithm.
- One example was about tetanus prophylaxis based on the AMBOSS table:
- Basically, all you need once you’re on the website is the “General” section
- You can choose shapes, text, etc. and the arrows are created by dragging the sites of the shape
Other
Want to become an AnKing Deck Maintainer?
Summary
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Maintainers are usually handpicked by the maintainer team due to a variety of factors (% suggestions accepted/rejected, time active on AnkiHub, etc.)
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Since the # of maintainers have increased, we require a certain criteria to be met before we can consider you to become a maintainer for the AnKing deck
- 1-2 months of consistent activity on AnkiHub at a minimum (liking, daily commenting, helping out etc.)
- Mostly accepted suggestions compared to rejected (>60-70%) relating to content/formatting-related changes (spelling, grammar, new content, formatting, etc.)
- Shows initiative to learn/understand/work with formatting/suggestion/rationale guidelines of the AnKing deck (this document)
- Can contribute approximately minimum 1 hour a week to AnKing-related discussions/maintenance on AnkiHub
- Team player, respectful, helpful, and willing to learn, asks for help when needed
Note: Adding tags to Sketchy or First Aid does not constitute content changes so these do not count.
- If you believe you have met the criteria, then please email anking.ahmedd@gmail.com with your application