ISMPP Highlights
Author Selection Practices Recommended by ISMPP Authorship Task Force – Now Published in CMRO
Author selection based on ICMJE criterion 1 can be challenging, particularly for multicenter trials with a large number of investigators and contributors. The ISMPP Authorship Task Force was formally launched in 2019 to define author selection best practices for industry-sponsored medical publications. The recommendations were published in CMRO on April 19, 2022…
“In The Know” – Key Updates in Medical Communications
“In The Know” highlights various updates in medical publications and communications: New CHEERS 2022 Guidance, Preprints in ICMJE Recommendations, Carbon Costs of In-Person vs Virtual Medical Conferences, Readability and Format of PLS, AI-Assisted Tools in Scholarly Communications, Peer Review Congress in September 2022…
GPP4 – The Latest Update as Interest Grows
Excitement is building as the fourth iteration of the Good Publication Practice (also known as GPP4) guidance nears completion. At the 2022 European Meeting of ISMPP in late January, Dan Bridges (CEO, Nucleus Global) of the GPP4 Steering Committee presented information on the team’s progress. Watch the video to view this GPP4 update…

Message from Our Leadership
Robert J. Matheis
ISMPP President and CEO
News and Trends
The Role of Preprint Servers and Publishers in Limiting Misinformation: An Interview
The opportunities for preprint servers and traditional publishers to limit misinformation for their users is an area of broad interest in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, with its impact continuing into 2022 and beyond. This insightful interview was conducted with Jan Seal-Roberts and Caroline Halford of Adis, Springer Healthcare, and Richard Sever of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, bioRxiv, and medRxiv…
THE FUTURE OF ADVISORY BOARDS – Is This the End of the In-Person Format?
When writing The MAP article, “Advisory Boards: Words of Advice and a 10-point Checklist”, released in March 2020, we could not have predicted the era of unprecedented change that was to come. Many pharmaceutical companies had already been reaping the benefits of fully virtual advisory boards pre-COVID-19, but the necessity to move all meetings to a fully online format required a significant shift in strategy and mindset…
The Public Face of Science: Elevating Trust through Medical Communications – Continuing the Conversation
In any relationship, whether business or personal, transparency breeds trust. Today, despite the life science industry delivering unprecedented vaccine solutions to address the Covid pandemic, mistrust remains engrained in the public persona. Third parties have leveraged that doubt for their own gain…
What Would You Do?
In our role as medical publication professionals, we may occasionally encounter situations in which it is not obvious how to ensure good publication practice. Have you ever wished you could consult the ISMPP membership for guidance when these situations arise? Here’s your opportunity!
What Would You Do? is a section of The MAP that presents case scenarios as an educational tool for medical publication professionals. The section provides a case scenario to ponder, and readers are invited to participate in a poll by selecting one of the listed solutions. Readers can also submit their thoughts on the scenario anonymously. The poll results, plus educational insights, are posted in a later issue for readers to digest.
POLL: Journal Questions Medical Writer Acknowledgement & Funding
The lead author of a meta-analysis manuscript received a rejection notice from a journal that stated “…although the topic may be of interest to the readership, the Editors are concerned about the perception of bias given the statement of funding support from the sponsor and the participation of a paid, professional medical writer.” The lead author has emailed all authors, sponsor, and medical communications agency suggesting that the manuscript be revised by the authors alone so that acknowledgement of the medical writer and funding from the sponsor to support medical writing can be removed…

ISMPP (pronounced IzMap) is the only nonprofit organization founded by medical publication professionals for medical publication professionals