Medical Writing Journal Policies

Journal Policies

 

Editorial policies and peer review process

All feature articles submitted to Medical Writing are reviewed by a member of the Editorial Board. All Editorial Board members are experts in the field of medical writing and members of the European Medical Writers Association. The Editorial Board member works with the contributors through an open process to review the content and to help  prepare the final version of the article. This may include substantive editing and reformatting. The contributors, the Editorial Board member who reviewed the article, and the Editor-in-Chief all must approve the final version of the article to be published. The Editor-in-Chief has the right to refuse an article if the content or quality of writing is determined to be inappropriate.

 

Publication ethics

Medical Writing supports the ethical principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) available at http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct.

The journal also complies with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, with the exception that peer review is by a member of the Editorial Board and not by an external expert.

 

Copyright

Copyright of all text published in Medical Writing remains with the contributors. This means that contributors are free to reuse or republish all or part of their texts. In such a case, Medical Writing asks that the contributor mentions that the article was first printed in Medical Writing and provides the full citation and, if possible, a link to the article on this website.

 

Corrections

If a correction is needed, the Medical Writing will publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication. The correction will be posted and will replace the former version on the article on the journal website. In addition, the journal will print a correction notice in the next issue of the journal with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made. All prior versions of the article will be archived and will be available on request.

 

Retractions and expressions of concern

When scientific misconduct is alleged, or concerns are otherwise raised about the conduct or integrity of work described in submitted or published papers, the Editor-in-Chief will initiate procedures detailed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and may choose to publish an expression of concern pending the outcomes of those procedures. If the procedures involve an investigation at the authors’ institution, the Editor-in-Chief will seek to discover the outcome of that investigation, notify readers of the outcome if appropriate, and if the investigation proves scientific misconduct, publish a retraction of the article. There may be circumstances in which no misconduct is proven, but an exchange of letters to the editor could be published to highlight matters of debate to readers.

Expressions of concern and retractions will be prominently labelled, appear in the electronic table of contents, and be added to the title of the revised electronic version of the article. The retracted article will be posted and will replace the former version on the article on the journal website. In addition, the journal will print a retraction notice in the next issue of the journal with an explanation for why the article is being retracted and include a complete citation reference to that article.

 

Conflicts of interest

Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias or be seen to bias their work. Conflicts of interest should be reported as described by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors Recommendations.

 

Access

Feature articles are available open access. This means that pdfs of feature articles can be freely transmitted, posted, or distributed. No permission is needed.

Regular sections and other materials are accessible only to members of the European Medical Writers Association. PDFs for regular sections and other materials cannot be transmitted, posted, or distributed. In cases where a regular section contributor wants to post or transmit their article, they can only re-use their text and not the full PDF. In such a case, Medical Writing also asks that the contributor mentions that the text was first printed in Medical Writing and provides the full citation and, if possible, a link to the article on this website.

 

Publication costs

Publishing in Medical Writing is free. Costs of publishing are supported by member fees.

 

Advertising in Medical Writing

Medical Writing accepts advertising but is supported by member fees. Decision about accepting ads are made by the Editor-in-Chief. For more information, please contact EMWA's Head Office

 

Archiving

Content is archived on the journal website and is backed up on a separate system by EMWA's Head Office. In the event that the journal is no longer published, EMWA will preserve access to the content.

 

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Scope

Medical Writing is a quarterly publication that aims to educate and inform medical writers in Europe and beyond. Each issue focuses on a specific theme, and all issues include feature articles and regular columns on topics relevant to the practice of medical writing. We welcome articles providing practical advice to medical writers; guidelines and reviews/summaries/updates of guidelines published elsewhere; original research; opinion pieces; interviews; and review articles.

Medical Writing is listed in the following indexes:

Editoral Board

Editor-in-Chief

Raquel Billiones

Co-Editors

Evguenia Alechine

Jonathan Pitt

Managing Editor

Victoria White

Associate Editors

Anuradha Alahari

Jennifer Bell

Nicole Bezuidenhout

Claire Chang

Barbara Grossman

Sarah Milner

John Plant

Sampoorna Rappaz

Amy Whereat

Section Editors

Daniela Kamir

AI/Automation

Jennifer Bell

Biotechnology

Nicole Bezuidenhout 

Digital Communication

Somsuvro Basu

EMWA News 

Ana Sofia Correia 

Gained in Translation

Ivana Turek

Getting Your Foot in the Door

Wendy Kingdom / Amy Whereat

Good Writing Practice

Alison McIntosh 

In the Bookstores

Maria Kołtowska-Häggström

Lingua Franca and Beyond

Maddy Dyer

Publications

Lisa Chamberlain-James

Medical Communications/Writing for Patients

Payal Bhatia

Medical Devices

Evguenia Alechine

My First Medical Writing

Anuradha Alahari

News from the EMA

Adriana Rocha

Out on Our Own

Tiziana von Bruchhausen

Pharmacovigilance

Clare ChangZuo Yen Lee 

Regulatory Matters

Sam Hamilton

Regulatory Public Disclosure

Claire Gudex

Teaching Medical Writing

Louisa Ludwig-Begall / Sarah Kabani

The Crofter: Sustainable Communications

Louisa Marcombes

Veterinary Writing

Editors Emeritus

Elise Langdon-Neuner

Phil Leventhal

Layout Designer

Chris Monk