This poster was presented by representatives from Cactus Life Sciences at the 11th Annual Meeting of ISMPP, 2015.

1. Awareness of international publication guidelines in Asia
Suchita Nath-Sain, PhD, CMPPa
and Namita Bose, BDS, PhD, CMPPa
a
Cactus Communications, Mumbai, India
Presented at the 11th
Annual Meeting of ISMPP, April 27–29, 2015, Arlington, VA, USA
#2
ABSTRACT
Objective: We assessed familiarity and application of ICMJE and
GPP2 guidelines by Asian authors.
Research design and methods: We conducted 2 surveys: one
for publication-related issues encountered by authors/publication
managers (academia/pharmaceutical industry) from China,
India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (18 questions; website
promotion); the other for challenges faced by ISMPP member
medical writers (5 questions; email questionnaire) working with
Asian authors.
Results: 123 responses from Asian authors were included in the
analysis. 23 writers took the survey (response rate, 14.5%). Of
the 56.5% writers who had worked with Asian authors, 38.5% had
faced publication-related challenges.
Conclusions: Limited awareness of publication guidelines
by authors in the Asian region remains a concern. Regional
translations alone may be insufficient to increase awareness
of ICMJE guidelines among Asian authors; other educational
activities including workshops, online webinars, and discussion
groups may help bridge this gap.
*Abstract revised from original as data in table is fully covered in table 1 and figures
1-6.
INTRODUCTION
●● Biomedical journals are increasingly encouraging
authors to follow international publication guidelines,
such as the Good Publication Practice 2 (GPP2)
and the revised 2014 International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations
●● Poor awareness of these guidelines is a key issue
in Asia1,2,3
●● Additional issues in Asia include lack of exposure to
information regarding unethical practices
●● Medical publications are important sources of
new clinical data; thus, inaccurate, incomplete,
or misleading, reporting of clinical trial results,
specifically in pharmaceutical-industry sponsored
research, can have serious implications4
●● Our survey aimed to assess current understanding,
interpretation, and application of ICMJE and GPP2
guidelines by Asian authors and also understand
current challenges faced by medical writers
METHODS
●● 2 anonymous surveys were conducted using Survey
Monkey:
Figure 1. Survey design
• Questionnaire for authors/publication
managers (academia/pharmaceutical
industry) from Asia (18 questions)
• Promoted by Editage Insights,
Cactus Communications website
from Sep 6 to Nov 30, 2014
and via email
• Announcement was sent via email to
158 medical writers of ISMPP
membership (5 questions)
• Conducted from Oct 6 to Nov 30, 2014
Author
Survey
Medical
Writer
Survey
●● Question types included multiple choice and free
text
●● Respondents who completed the author survey
had the option to enter a lucky draw by providing
their email address to win 1 of 10 Amazon vouchers
worth US$50
●● Descriptive statistics using percentages were used
to analyse the data
RESULTS
Author survey
●● 133 authors participated in the survey; 10 were
excluded based on their country or area of
expertise
●● 123 responses from Asian authors were included
in the analysis; of these ~83% were from academic
institutions (Table 1)
Table 1: Demographic data
N 123
Workplace, n (%)
Academic institutions 102 (82.9)
Pharmaceutical industry 14 (11.4)
Others 7 (5.7)
English, n (%)
As native language 4 (3.3)
As second/third language 95 (77.2)
Undetermined 24 (19.5)
Publication experience in years, n (%)
<5 68 (55.3)
5-10 37 (30.1)
>10 18 (14.6)
●● Responses were obtained from 5 Asian countries
(Figure 2); majority of respondents were from China
Figure 2. Percentage of responses from
participating Asian countries
TAIWAN
41.5%
JAPAN
7.3%
INDIA
6.5%
S. KOREA
6.5%
CHINA
44.7%
*Combined percentage response from India and S. Korea
●● More than 50% of respondents were aware of
GPP2 and ICMJE guidelines (Figure 3)
Figure 3: Awareness of ICMJE and GPP2
guidelines*
GPP2
No response
1%
Yes
55%
No
44%
ICMJE
No response
1%
Yes
58%
No
41%
*Approximate numbers obtained after rounding
●● Among those who were aware of the ICMJE
recommendations, 60.6% of the authors knew of
the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean translated
versions; of these, 76.7% felt that the translations
were easy to understand
Figure 4: Awareness of authorship-related issues
Do you include the names of
seniors/department heads
in the author list
(gift authorship) as a mark
of respect?*
Have you faced difficulty in
deciding whether to credit
someone as an author or
simply mention them in the
acknowledgements?*
Have you ever faced difficulty
in deciding the order of
the authors in a manuscript?*
37
35.8
39
29
29.3
23.6
34
35
37.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% of Respondents
Yes No No response
*This was an optional question
●● 52% (n=64) respondents were aware that copyright
permission was required to use previously published
data, 8.9% (n=11) were unaware, while 39% (n=48)
did not respond
●● Almost 45% (n=55) respondents knew what
constitutes secondary and duplicate publications.
56% (n=69) respondents had published in 2
languages; of these, only 17.4% (n=12) obtained
permission for the second publication
●● A higher number of respondents were aware of
what constituted plagiarism (Figure 5)
Figure 5: Which of the following is considered
plagiarism?*
4.1
7.3
4.1
6.5
42.3
35.8
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Copying more
than 100 words
and not using
quotes to
show it is
being quoted
from somewhere
Copying text
from other
sources
without citing
the reference
Copying text
from your
own previous
publication
without citing
the reference
None of
the above
All of
the above
No response
%ofRespondents
*This was an optional question
●● Thirty five percent (n=43) respondents acknowledged
the use of editorial/writing support (Figure 6)
Figure 6: Awareness of authorship agreements,
clinical trial registration, and ghost writing
18 8 28 46
25 237 46
35 820 37
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of Respondents
Yes No Not applicable No response
If you have authored a paper
sponsored by a pharmaceutical
company have you entered
into an authorship
agreement with them?*
If you work on clinical trials,
are you aware of the
clinical trial registration
process?*
Do you acknowledge
medical writing/technical
editing/ language editing/
proofreading assistance
in your papers?*
*This was an optional question
Writer survey
●● 23 writers took the survey (response rate, 14.5%)
●● Of the 56.5% writers who had worked with
Asian authors, 38.5% had faced publication-
related challenges involving ethics and ICMJE
authorship criteria; however, all these writers were
acknowledged for their writing assistance
CONCLUSIONS
●● Limited awareness of publication guidelines by
authors in the Asian region remains a concern
●● Regional translations alone may be insufficient
to increase awareness of ICMJE guidelines
among Asian authors; other educational activities
including workshops, online webinars, and
discussion groups may help bridge this gap
REFERENCES
1. Dhaliwal U, et al. MedGenMed 2006;8:52.
2. Bultynck L, et al. Poster presented at ISMTE 2013. http://www.
ismte.org/2013_Posters. Accessed January 8, 2014
3. Newman J. Talk presented at the 9th Annual Meeting of
ISMPP; May 1, 2013; Baltimore, MD. http://www.ismpp.org/
assets/docs/Education/AnnualMeeting/9thAM/GeneralSession/
viewfromtheregions_2013am_final_ap.pdf. Accessed January 8,
2014
4. Wager E, et al. BMJ Open 2014;4:e004780. doi:10.1136/
bmjopen-2013-004780
DISCLAIMER
The authors have had full responsibility for the development of this
research and presentation of results.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank our colleagues at Cactus Communications: Neerja Rastogi
for help with formulating survey questionnaires, execution, and valuable
suggestions; Kim Pepitone, Dr. Sandeep Kamat, and Clarinda Cerejo
for critical review and invaluable inputs; and Saketh Vellanki for creative
assistance.