KJT at ISMPP 2022: GPP4, Good Publication Practice guidelines – the fourth iteration
KJT attended the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP). On the first two days of the conference, we shared our thoughts on Patricia Hurter’s presentation on diversity and innovation as well as Yuan Wang and Dakota Fisher-Vance’s talk on including patients as authors on scientific manuscripts. We started the final day by attending an update on one of the most important guidance documents for medical publications professionals: the Good Publication Practice guidelines (GPP for short).
The Good Publication Practice guidelines were first published in Current Medical Research and Opinion in 2003 and focused on the potential for publication bias and the relationship between industry and academic researchers but was drafted by a relatively small group of consultants. Successive iterations of the GPP guidelines (GPP2 in 2009 and GPP3 in 2015) utilized more rigorous consultation processes with larger groups of stakeholders. GPP2 and GPP3 added additional guidance on:
- The roles of authors, sponsors, and professional medical writers
- The establishment of publication steering committees
- Author payment and reimbursement
- ICMJE authorship criteria
- Ghost writing
- Data sharing
Today members of the GPP4 steering committee gave us insight into the GPP4 development process and an overview of the major updates to GPP4 and how they may impact publication development. The key updates to GPP4 include:
- The role of the patient and how we deliver information to patients
- Social media usage
- Journal and congress selection
- Supplemental content and publication extenders
- Real world evidence (RWE) / Health economics and outcomes research (HEOR)
These topics represent areas that the medical publications industry is moving into in recent years. With GPP4, our industry is trying to keep abreast of the latest trends and ensure that we establish best practices to guide us as we expand into new frontiers such as patient authorship, social media, and publication extenders. Members of the GPP4 steering committee emphasized that GPP4 builds on and aligns with GPP3. The updates in GPP4 should not disrupt any of our processes built on GPP3, but offer additional guidance and clarity.
At KJT, we regularly reference GPP3 guidelines and find them very useful for guiding discussions with authors when we initiate projects. We were also given an opportunity to review GPP4 in February of 2022 and make comments on topics that we would like to see included or articulated with greater clarity. We are proud to be part of the community that is building consensus and supporting best practices as part of the creation of such an important document for our industry. The co-creative process speaks to the importance of integrity, transparency, and collaboration in the medical publication community.
We look forward to integrating the GPP4 guidelines into our existing processes so that we can continue to have fruitful collaborations with our clients to produce polished communications of cutting-edge medical research.
