• Curr Med Res Opin · Oct 2014

    Author attitudes to professional medical writing support.

    • Jackie M Marchington and Gary P Burd.
    • Caudex Medical , Oxford , UK.
    • Curr Med Res Opin. 2014 Oct 1; 30 (10): 2103-8.

    ObjectiveTo understand academic/clinician authors' perceptions regarding the value of professional medical writers.Research Design And MethodsAn online survey of academic/clinician authors was conducted to understand the value of professional medical writer support in the development of publications (abstracts, posters and manuscripts). Responses were collected anonymously. The survey used a negative-to-positive, 6 point scale to evaluate respondents' opinions and experiences of working with professional medical writers, and multiple choice to indicate in which areas professional medical writers added value.ResultsResponses from 76/260 authors were received (Europe, n = 57; 75.0%; North America, n = 16; 21.1%; Asia-Pacific region, n = 3; 3.9%). The majority of respondents were either clinicians (n = 45; 59.2%) or academic researchers (n = 25; 32.9%). A total of 82.9% (63/76) of respondents felt that it was acceptable to receive professional medical writer assistance with their publications, and 84.0% (63/75) valued the assistance provided. The services most valued (>50 responses) were editing and journal styling, conformity with reporting guidelines (e.g. CONSORT) and manuscript submissions. Fewer respondents (25-49 responses) valued management of timelines and co-author reviews, scientific/technical writing assistance and expert guidance on authorship requirements/good publication practice. The least valued service was the scientific expertise of the professional medical writer (3 responses).ConclusionsRespondents to this survey were generally accepting of medical writing assistance and valued many aspects of the role, in particular editorial support. The survey was small, however, and potentially biased towards authors with experience of working with medical communication agencies. Although many medical writers come from a scientific background and have relevant expertise, this was not perceived as a value. It would be beneficial to educate authors and journal editors regarding medical writers' scientific expertise and role.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.