Most submissions to the Journal of Medical Toxicology and other scientific journals include numbers from a dataset somewhere in the manuscript. Knowing when to spell out a number distinguishes a seasoned writer from a new one.
RULE 1
If you begin a sentence with a number, spell out the number.
Example 1
Incorrect: 67 subjects in the cohort reported hair loss after exposure to thallium.
Correct: Sixty-seven subjects in the cohort reported hair loss after exposure to thallium.
RULE 2
Do not mix a spelled out number with a symbol or unit: spell out the word for the symbol or unit.
Example 2
Incorrect: Twenty-three% of the lead-poisoned patients in our randomized clinical trial requested another course of chelation therapy.
Correct: Twenty-three percent of the lead-poisoned patients in our randomized clinical trial requested another course of chelation therapy.
A number that appears anywhere else in a sentence does not need to be spelled out. If you are unhappy with the appearance of a sentence on the page because it starts with a spelled out number, reorder your sentence so that number no longer starts it.
Example 1 (reordered): Hair loss was reported by 67 subjects in the cohort after exposure to thallium.
Example 2 (reordered): Of all the lead-poisoned patients in our randomized clinical trial, 23% requested another course of chelation therapy.
Remembering these two simple rules when including numbers in your next submission to JMT will give your manuscript the polish of a seasoned writer.