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.