Promoting GPP 2022: ACSE and ISMPP Joint Webinar

During the 8th Annual Meeting of the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), hosted virtually on August 21, 2022, three authors of Good Publication Practice 2022 (GPP 2022) guidelines, Dikran Toroser, Dan Bridges and Lisa M. De Tora, were invited to a panel discussion on “Insights into Good Publication Practice (GPP) Guidelines and How they may Impact Publication Development in Asia. Post-event comments and recommendations highlighted the need for various activities to spread awareness of GPP 2022 and its practical implementation. GPP 2022 is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on August 30, 2022¹ . Following the feedback from this meeting, on Sunday 27, November 2022, the International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) and ACSE jointly conducted a webinar on “Practical Implementation of Good Publication Practice 2022 for Bio-Medical Editors”.

The webinar was designed for bio-medical editors, especially from Asia, to help them understand and implement the revised GPP 2022 guidelines for company-sponsored biomedical research. The webinar announcement was well-circulated among ACSE members, ambassadors and industry peers through social media platforms and relevant websites. More than 400 applications were received, of which 147 met the registration criteria for the webinar.

The webinar was moderated by Dikran Toroser (Director, The ACSE and one of the GPP2022 authors) and facilitated by speakers Lisa M. DeTora (Director of STEM Writing and Associate Professor Hofstra University, USA and lead author of GPP 2022), Laura Dormer (Co-Founder and Editorial Director, Becaris Publishing Ltd., UK and coauthor of GPP 2022), Fionna Plunkett (Director Client Services, Articulate Science, ISMPP EU Board of Trustees and coauthor of GPP 2022) and Sam T Mathew (Sr. Director, Medical Affairs, Cactus Life Sciences and Regional Director, The ACSE).

The webinar started with a brief introduction of organizing bodies, the ACSE by Maryam Sayab (Professional Development Manager, ACSE) and ISMPP by Fionna Plunkett. The introduction was followed by a brief history of GPP by Dikran Toroser, where he emphasized the history of the GPP guidelines, beginning with the original GPP, first published in 2003 and culminating with the current most recent GPP 2022².

Dikran covered the original initiation of the work on the original guidelines (now almost a quarter of a century ago, in 1998) in a publications environment where fresh relationships between industry and academia were rapidly forming, to the current date, where the good publication practice is a result of extensive consultation with the extensive publications community and is a thriving and rapidly evolving field. Dikran highlighted the global reach of the guidelines and the importance of professional organizations such as the ACSE and ISMPP in making GPP principles via these valuable educational seminars.

After a thorough background of GPP and its transition of versions through the years, Dr. Sam T. Mathew provided an overview of how company-sponsored research is published. Sam spoke about the process of evidence generation by pharmaceutical companies, different means of disseminating research data and the importance of publishing in peer-reviewed research journals. He detailed the overall process of manuscript development within pharmaceutical companies, the importance of publication planning and the role of the publication steering committee.

Next to it, Dr. Lisa DeTora shared the author’s perspective on Good Publication Practices for Company-Sponsored Research. Lisa gave an overview of the general principles of GPP 2022, concentrating on the need for greater inclusivity. Basic principles include for academic collaborators and others (such as patients) who are asked to serve as authors or on steering committees. The talk covered key issues, such as establishing roles and responsibilities in writing before work begins. It was emphasized that any written agreement should specify the responsibilities of the sponsor and not only the authors or steering committee members. The different types of groups that may be listed (author groups, investigator groups and study groups) were also reviewed.

Continuing this the next speaker Laura Dormer shed light on the What, Why and How of GPP, as it relates to editors and publishers. Laura started by giving an overview on why GPP is important to Editors and Publishers, emphasizing its aim to provide guidance on the publication of company-sponsored, peer-reviewed manuscripts, including issues such as ethics and transparency. Laura highlighted the need for Editors and Publishers to be aware of how GPP relates to journal and other industry guidance and how they might be able to support authors of company-sponsored publications. In particular, this section of the webinar called out some sections of GPP of particular relevance to the audience and representing some hot topic areas, including: Recommendations on authorship and contributorship; preprints; enhanced content and plain language summaries; and the use of social media.

The informative presentations were followed by an interactive Q/A session that explored several interesting topics:

•	Clarification that GPP 2022 applies to sponsors and others engaged in company-sponsored research and is intended to encourage better adherence to journal requirements
•	Confusing authorship and editorial situations, such as special issues of journals with guest editors who may lack editorial experience
•	The need to increase awareness of GPP2022 for company-sponsored publishing in Africa
•	Exploring ways to ensure the implementation of GPP guidelines
•	The challenges of implementing GPP in the Asian continent within the pharmaceutical industry

The Q&A session was very active and everyone agreed that more seminars and webinars are necessary to spread awareness regarding the global relevance of GPP2022 and help authors and editors understand its principles and proper implementation of GPP.

REFERENCES

1. DeTora, L.M., D. Toroser, A. Sykes, C. Vanderlinden and F.J. Plunkett et al., 2022. Good publication practice (GPP) guidelines for company-sponsored biomedical research: 2022 update. Ann. Internal Med., 175: 1298-1304.
   
2. Wager, E., E.A. Field and L. Grossman, 2003. Good publication practice for pharmaceutical companies. Curr. Med. Res. Opin., 19: 149-154.