• How do editors make decisions? How can we improve editorial practices and the quality of biomedical publications while promoting greater transparency and trust in the system? These are some of the questions that have been discussed in the last seven international congresses on peer review in biomedical publication. In an editorial in The BMJ today, Drummond Rennie encourages us to start the research projects that will be presented at the eighth congress in Chicago in September 10-12,2017.

• Abuse from patients toward health workers is frequent. In a recent survey, almost 30% of 600,000 NHS employees who responded to a survey reported bullying or abuse from patients or their families; in 15% of these patients the abuse was physical. Surveys from other countries report higher rates of abuse. But these incidents are often not reported. Sukhpreet Singh Dubb, in a personal view published today, recounts how he was attacked by a drunk patient and explains that health care workers such not think of such episodes as “part of the job.” While applauding the zero-tolerance policy in the NHS, he invites his colleagues to report any incidence of violence, and their institutions to support them, in order to end the workplace abuse.

• After a long weekend, The BMJ posted today several letters related to papers recently published recently in the journal on a variety of topics including surgical training and clinical trials, the safety of novel oral anticoagulants, integrated medical care in the UK, and the risk of transmitting Ebola at designated treatment centers.

• The BMJ also posted several news stories highlighting research published in other journals on the optimal duration of dual antiplatelet therapy in patients with drug eluting stents, the effect of blood pressure lowering on survival in patients with diabetes and kidney disease and the use of colored overlays and lenses in children with dyslexia.

José G Merino is the US clinical research editor, The BMJ.