President's Message - Volume 24, Issue

Welcome to the first issue of medical writing in 2015 on plain language, which means that this message had better be simple and easy to read. I am a huge advocate of plain writing and, as a Publication Manager, spend much of my time working with…

Medical Communications - Volume 25, Issue

Anyone working in pharmacovigilance (PV) will already have spent many months working their way through the ever changing updates and reforms to the Risk Management Plan (RMP), and the newly legislated RMP summary. Those not working in PV will…

Veterinary Medical Writing - Volume 30, Issue

The placebo-by-proxy effect – another argument against homeopathy

Chances are you know about the placebo effect. There are many variables to study,1 but in general, the placebo effect means that if you believe in a positive outcome of a drug, you wi…

Getting Your Foot in the Door - Volume 30, Issue

No setback comes without a blessing Like many things in the professional world, I got to know more about medical writing and see it as the next step in my professional life, thanks to a connection. A friend of a friend was a native Spanish speaker…

Lifelong learning opportunitites are available for all - Volume 31, Issue

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) call all UN member states– low-, high- and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the environment. The 17 goals are part “of a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for…

How FAIR are pharma publication data? - Volume 31, Issue

Sharing research data increases reusability, reduces waste, supports reproducibility and promotes innovation. In medical research, sharing data also promotes transparency and access to information relevant to patient care. While important…

The Crofter: Sustainable Communications - Volume 33, Issue

Section Editors: Louisa Ludwig-Begall, Sarah Kabani How close are we to sustainability? Author: Catarina Leitão I have always loved nature. When I was a kid, I preferred watching wildlife documentaries to cartoons. Those documentaries taught me…

Predatory publishing – what medical communicators need to know - Volume 28, Issue

The rise of ”predatory journals”, also known as pseudo-scientific journals, poses a risk to the integrity of science and therefore medical communicators need to know about their practices. Upon receipt of a publication fee, predatory journals…

Statistical analyses and methods in the published literature: The SAMPL guidelines - Volume 25, Issue

Despite calls for guidelines on reporting statistical aspects of studies, most journals have still not included in their instructions for authors more than a paragraph or two about reporting statistical methods and results. However, given that many…

Insulin biosimilars - Volume 28, Issue

Insulin was first purified in 1921 by Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best at the University of Toronto. Soon after, the benefits of using insulin to treat diabetes was discovered, the patent was sold to the University of Toronto for $1,…