A central online news resource for professionals involved in the development of medical publications and involved in publication planning and medical writing.
A blog by Elsevier published in the past week authored by Dr. Filipe Branco dos Santos, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, argues that we could … Continue Reading It’s time for academic writing to evolve – “Science is exciting, so why do we write about it in such a dull way?”
An article in PeerJ this week provides an overview and analysis of the currently available Mega Journals – including PLOS ONE, BMJ Open, PeerJ and others. The article summarises the … Continue Reading Overview of currently available mega-journals: have they reached their limits to growth?
A blog in MedPage Today this week, F. Perry Wilson (an assistant professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine) provides a very interesting overview of how statistics can … Continue Reading Lies, damned lies and statistics (relating to medical publications)
There are obvious benefits associated with open data policies for the scientific community. As a consequence, research organisations are increasingly adopting open data policies as a requisite for publication. However, … Continue Reading What is the impact of open data policies on participation in clinical trials?
GSK’s road to increasing clinical trial transparency is laid out in a document released by EFPIA today. This “road map” can be found here. Researchers can submit proposals and request … Continue Reading GSK’s road to clinical trial transparency
The videos are now available on YouTube from the recent Evidence Live 2015 meeting in Oxford. Presentations available include: Iona Heath – Eminence or evidence-based medicine: why this question is … Continue Reading Videos now available from Evidence Live 2015
The Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education (JMBE) have released a video in the past week relating to publication ethics. The video (see below) discusses the importance of scientific ethics … Continue Reading Ethics in science: trends in research misconduct on the rise (video)
The UK Health Research Authority is facing a legal review over its work to advance clinical trial transparency, the Guardian reported this week. The legal review was launched by Richmond … Continue Reading Contract research organisation using court action to challenge data transparency
Within the last week, the BMJ has published an official extension of the CONSORT 2010 Statement for reporting N-of-1 trials. This guidance from the EQUATOR Network (www.equator-network.org) provides a set … Continue Reading CONSORT extension for reporting N-of-1 trials (CENT) 2015 Statement
An Editorial in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine provides a thoughtful overview of the relationship between physicians and industry, and warns of the dangers of bias against industry-sponsored … Continue Reading Understanding industry bias and potential conflicts of interest
A PLOS Blog yesterday authored by Hilda Bastian discusses several issues relating to peer review, including: Do attempts to mask the identity of authors affect acceptance or rejection of manuscripts, … Continue Reading Weighing Up Anonymity and Openness in Publication Peer Review
A blog this week by the London School of Economics and Political Science questions the current policy of many journals to restrict manuscript word count. In principle, length limits should … Continue Reading How long does a scientific paper need to be? Do length limits have a detrimental effect on scientific reporting?
An article in the Danish Medical Journal this week discusses the importance of establishing rules for authorship in multicentre trials. These trials may involve up to hundreds of contributors, but … Continue Reading The importance of authorship contracts in multicentre trials (including access to free templates)
Heeding calls from the Institute of Medicine, WHO, and the Nordic Trial Alliance, The BMJ are extending their policy on requiring the sharing of individual patient data for trials of … Continue Reading The BMJ have extended their policy relating to sharing clinical trial data (@bmj_latest)