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Medical Writers and Peer-Reviewed Journals: Understanding the Rules and Responsibilities
Liz Wager explains the concerns about the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications and helps writers and communications companies keep abreast of recent guidelines and new journal policies.
Coordinating and publishing clinical trials is a multimillion-dollar global market involving international companies and huge numbers of people. Peer-reviewed journals are an indispensable part of the process. However, many journals are only now becoming aware of the complexities of pharmaceutical research, with published guidelines and some journal conventions failing to reflect the real world.
Healthcare companies deploy thousands of medical writers to work on publications but, until recently, their roles were poorly defined and often misunderstood outside the industry. Indeed, some journal editors and academics viewed professional writers with suspicion or outright hostility. However, in the past 5 years, several guidelines and policy statements relating to medical writers have been published. Professional writers have subsequently gained greater recognition among medical journals and been catapulted from obscurity into a strange new world that demands transparency and the consideration of multiple guidelines. This Expert Review, Medical Writers and Peer-Reviewed Journals: Understanding the Rules and Responsibilities, explains the concerns about the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications and will help writers and communications companies keep abreast of recent guidelines and new journal policies.
CONTENTS
Introduction
About the author
What’s the problem?
Who’s bothered - and why should we be bothered?
The great authorship debate
Where are we now?
What next?
References
Further reading
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth (Liz) Wager is the author of books on ‘Getting Research Published: An A to Z of Publication Strategy’ and ‘How to Survive Peer Review’. She is a co-author of ‘Good Publication Practice for Pharmaceutical Companies’ and the European Medical Writers Association guidelines on the role of medical writers. After obtaining a First Class zoology degree from Oxford in 1983 she worked for Blackwell Scientific Publications, Janssen-Cilag then Glaxo-Wellcome. In 2001, she set up her own company, Sideview, which provides training, writing, editing and publication consultancy services. She is a member of: the BMJ’s Ethics Committee, the World Association of Medical Editors Ethics Committee, the Council of the Committee on Publication Ethics, the editorial board of European Science Editing (the journal of the European Association of Science Editors) and the World Health Organization Scientific Advisory Group on trial registration.
Medical writers perform an invaluable role in the dissemination of scientific information, in particular the publication of clinical trial results. However, their work has not always been acknowledged. The pharmaceutical industry has endured much criticism of how it reports clinical trials. High-profile abuses of publication ethics from within the industry have fuelled suspicions of the sector and, by association, damaged the reputations of responsible writers and communications companies. This has led to escalating calls for greater transparency in the relationships between journals, medical writers and pharmaceutical sponsors. Many journals have responded by establishing and enforcing stricter guidelines on the publication of clinical trials.
Editors and readers have responded to concerns about conflicts of interest in publications by demanding greater information on individuals involved in developing publications. Policies of disclosing individuals’ contributions to publications have increased awareness of the roles of company employees previously hidden from public view and brought about wider acknowledgement of the work of medical writers.
This Expert Review, Medical Writers and Peer-Reviewed Journals: Understanding the Rules and Responsibilities, looks at the complexities of reporting clinical trials and the important role played by medical writers. It outlines guidelines affecting medical writers that are being adopted by many journals and medical editor associations. It calls on journals and sponsor companies to work together to embrace transparency and to agree best practice in the publication of clinical trials.
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