Combined workshops on medical writing and publication ethics for Japanese postgraduate students and faculty members

Abstract

Although the importance both of skills in medical writing in English and of an understanding of ethics in medical publishing is increasingly recognised, these subjects are not comprehensively taught to Japanese medical doctors and students. Limited resources, teaching staff, and time prevent most Japanese medical schools from implementing standard educational programmes on these topics. To address this, we developed two brief but intensive programmes of lectures and group-based workshops, each incorporating both medical writing skills and publication ethics; one was for Japanese postgraduate medical students, the other for faculty development. The main topics in the programme for postgraduate students were the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, and oral and poster presentation skills. The programme emphasised the importance of medical writing skills and of issues, such as authorship and conflict of interest. The faculty development programme covered handling communications with editors and reviewers after manuscript submission, as well as ethical misconduct issues. We believe these programmes provide a unique and effective means of enhancing awareness of publication ethics and improving medical writing skills among professionals in Japanese healthcare institutions.