Abstract
Numerous recommendations and guidelines aim to improve the quality, timeliness and transparency of medical publications. However, these guidelines use ambiguous language that can be challenging to interpret, particularly for speakers of English as a second language. Cultural expectations within the Asia-Pacific region raise additional challenges and several studies have suggested that awareness and application of ethical publication practices in the Asia-Pacific region is relatively low compared with other regions. However, guidance on applying ethical publication practice guidelines in the Asia-Pacific region is lacking. This commentary aims to improve publication practices in the Asia-Pacific region by providing guidance on applying the 10 principles of the Good Publication Practice 3 (GPP3) guidelines and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship. Recommendations are provided for encore presentations, applying the ICMJE authorship criteria in the context of regional cultural expectations, and the role of study sponsors and professional medical writers. Ongoing barriers to compliance with guidelines are also highlighted, and additional guidance is provided to support authors submitting manuscripts for publication. The roles of regional journals, regulatory authorities and professional bodies in improving practices are also discussed.
Highlights
Numerous recommendations and guidelines have been developed to improve the quality, timeliness and transparency of publishing medical data. These include the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations (Table 1) [1], which provide guidance on all aspects of medical research published in peer-reviewed journals, and the Good Publication Practice 3 (GPP3) guidelines on communicating industry-sponsored research [2]
A number of studies suggest that poor publication practices are more prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region compared with other regions, North America and Europe [7,8,9,10,11,12], such assertions have been questioned [13, 14]
Any person or company who has an interest in the publications process, such as an author or study sponsor ambiguous language that can be challenging to interpret, for speakers of English as a second language, we provide guidance for applying these guidelines in the context of situations that are relevant to authors in the Asia-Pacific region (Table 3)
Summary
Numerous recommendations and guidelines have been developed to improve the quality, timeliness and transparency of publishing medical data (see Additional file 1 for a list of relevant recommendations and guidelines) These include the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations (Table 1) [1], which provide guidance on all aspects of medical research published in peer-reviewed journals, and the Good Publication Practice 3 (GPP3) guidelines on communicating industry-sponsored research [2]. Applying the Good Publication Practice 3 guidelines in the Asia-Pacific region The GPP3 guidelines comprise 10 principles, as listed below, ‘to help individuals and organizations maintain ethical and transparent publication practices and comply with legal and regulatory requirements [2]’, in relation to the publication of industry-sponsored research Given that these guidelines sometimes include publish, unscrupulous providers of editing or publishing services preying on such pressure, language barriers, cultural practices and/or an absence of awareness of global publication standards [6, 8, 10, 14]. A statement provided to all authors of a publication prior to initiating publication development that explains the rights, roles, responsibilities and expectations of each of party to manuscript development (for example, authors, study sponsors, professional medical writers, translators etc.)
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