WHAT'S THIS?

Home About us Email sign up Basics Commentary - General - Best practice - Clinical trial registries - Selective publication - Industry payments Viewpoints Press releases Resources Directory

This is a freely accessible online resource for everyone involved in publication planning. Help us build the site into a valuable resource for, amongst others, medical writers and communications professionals, pharmaceutical industry managers, medical journal editors and publishers. Please send your ideas, contributions and comments about the articles to the Editor of The Publication Plan, Mary Greenacre. If you have any other comments about the service, the web site, or questions about advertising and sponsorship, please contact the Publisher, Peter Llewellyn.

Related Sites

COMMENTARY << General

FEATURE ARTICLE for ThePublicationPlan.com – What to look for in a publication planning agency Published 5 January 2009 Not all agencies are created equal, and the importance of establishing the ‘right fit’ between your organisation’s business need and the capability and capacity of your partner agency is one of the most important strategic decisions your project team will make. [Access full article here].

Helsinki discords: FDA, ethics, and international drug trials Published 3 January 2009 Commentary in The Lancet on the FDA's decision that non-US clinical trials supporting applications for drug approval no longer need to comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. [Link to original source material]

Innovations in publishing BMJ research AND New format for BMJ research articles in print Published 29 December 2008 These two articles describe new formats for abridged versions of research articles published in the BMJ: BMJ Pico (a new evidence abstract prepared by the authors of the research article) and a Short Cuts article written by BMJ staff. [Link to original source material]

Update on JAMA-EXPRESS Published 24 December 2008 The Editors of JAMA provide an update on the policy and procedures of JAMA-EXPRESS (EXpedited Peer Review and Editorial System for Science), their fast-track review and publication process. [Link to original source material]

Commentary: The balance between marketing and safety Published 24 December 2008 This BMJ article debates whether drug safety surveillance systems are up to the challenges posed by regulatory environments that allow more approval of new drugs. [Link to original source material]

Proposal to allow drug companies to give information to public sparks outcry Published 16 December 2008 This BMJ article reports an angry reaction from various consumer and medical organisations to European Commission proposals to allow the pharma industry to provide information on prescription-only drugs to the public. [Link to original source material]

Breaking the embargo Published 4 December 2008 Commentary from Fiona Godlee of the BMJ on the importance of observing media embargoes. [Link to original source material]

Discrepancies in sample size calculations and data analyses reported in randomised trials: comparison of publications with protocols Published 4 December 2008 This BMJ article reports a study concluding that sample size calculations and statistical methods in randomised trials are often inadequately reported in protocols and publications, and that a high proportion of trials have discrepancies between information presented in the protocol and the publication. [Link to original source material]

What can we learn from drug marketing efficiency? Published 2 December 2008 This BMJ article looks at how drug safety surveillance systems can be improved. [Link to original source material]

Improving the reporting of pragmatic trials: an extension of the CONSORT statement Published 11 November 2008 A pragmatic trial is broadly defined as a randomised controlled trial whose purpose is to inform decisions about practice. The BMJ reports an extension of the CONSORT statement which is intended to improve reporting of pragmatic trials, focusing on helping practitioners to decide how applicable the trial is to their own practice. [Link to original source material]

Research methods and reporting Published 22 October 2008 This article introduces a new section in the BMJ that will contain 'how to' articles on doing and writing up research. Articles for the new section should propose and explain practical and theoretical developments in research. [Link to original source material]

News Media Coverage of Medication Research. Reporting Pharmaceutical Company Funding and Use of Generic Medication Names Published 1 October 2008 This JAMA article discusses how medical research is reported in the news media, and finds that pharma company funding of studies is often not stated by journalists. [Link to original source material]

Impact Assessment Published September 2008 Written by Paul Chrisp and Kevin Thoale, and published in Pharmaceutical Marketing. As more and more scholarly materials appear on the web, the supremacy of tools like Medline and SCI impact factors is being challenged by new, less narrowly defined methods of judging merit. Diffusion or visibility of information (eg open access, Google Scholar) and its influence or quality (eg F1000 factor, SJR) are the key issues for publication planning. It is possible that these elements could be combined to define a ‘digital footprint’ or ‘digital impact index’ (DI2) that determines the true ability of a publication to influence adoption of a new drug. [Link to original source material]

FEATURE ARTICLE for ThePublicationPlan.com – Publication Planning 2.0 Published 11 September 2008 Publication should only be the first stage in ensuring maximum impact for your research. Matt McKay suggests that implementation of communication strategies and Web 2.0 technologies can bring significant additional benefits post-publication [Access full article here].

Gratis and libre open access Published 2 August 2008 The SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Open Access Newsletter discusses the confusion sometimes associated with the term 'open access'. The article suggests terminology to distinguish between content that is free of charge ('gratis') and content that free of usage restrictions ('libre'). There are other interesting snippets in the rest of the newsletter. [Link to original source material]

Pharmaceutical promotion and First Amendment rights Published 31 July 2008 (NEJM) FDA oversight of drug company promotion of off-label use is poor, US watchdog says Published 5 August 2008 (BMJ) A letter in the NEJM defends publications discussing off-label use of pharmaceuticals. The same issue is discussed in the BMJ. [Link to original source material (NEJM) Subscription needed] [Link to original source material (BMJ) Subscription needed]

Open access publishing, article downloads, and citations: randomised controlled trial Editorial: Open access to research Published 31 July 2008 The BMJ reports a randomised trial comparing usage and citation rates generated by open access models compared with subscription models. Fiona Godlee of the BMJ provides editorial comment. [Link to original source material (trial report)] [Link to original source material (Godlee)]

SWEN – when authors disagree Published 26 July 2008 This article describes how The Lancet has dealt with a recent dispute amongst authors of a paper about how the data were interpreted. [Link to original source material]

Successful publication planning – strategy, ethics and rules of engagement Published 12 June 2008 A summary by Mary Greenacre of the MedCommsNetworking seminar in London, sponsored by Wolters Kluwer Health. [Link to original source material]

Peer review in the balance Published 22 May 2008 This article in the NEJM discusses the Pfizer court case to require the journal to provide peer review comments on all manuscripts covering Pfizer's COX-2 inhibitors. [Link to original source material]

Online and on-message Published April 2008 Article by Matt McKay of BioMed Central on the role of online journals in publication planning. Published in Pharmaceutical Executive Europe. [Link to original source material]

Strategies and solutions for publication planning and execution excellence Published 11 September 2007 An in-depth report from The International Publication Planning Association’s 5th Annual Meeting held in San Francisco, CA, 25-26 June 2007 by Elizabeth Wager. Published in the KeywordPharma Conference Insights series, the full report is available to download free of charge, sponsored by Wolters Kluwer. [Link to original source material]

WHAT ELSE?

This web site and associated activities are being managed by NetworkPharma Ltd, 89 Oxford Road, Oxford, OX2 9PD, UK
Telephone +44 (0) 1865 865943 Email: support@networkpharma.com

Other services managed by NetworkPharma
[www.EuropeanCMEforum.eu] [www.KeywordPharma.com] [www.MedCommsNetworking.co.uk] [www.ThePharmYard.com]