{"id":772,"date":"2009-07-27T16:00:56","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T15:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=772"},"modified":"2014-07-29T10:16:34","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T09:16:34","slug":"liz-wager-spreading-the-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/07\/27\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Wager: Spreading the word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/site\/blog\/icons\/lizwager.jpg\" alt=\"Liz Wager\" width=\"162\" height=\"110\" align=\"left\" \/>A journal editor told me he was once asked to act as an expert witness defending a doctor accused of negligence for failing to diagnose a rare condition. The defence hinged on how soon a doctor could reasonably be expected to be aware of a medical development after it had been reported in a journal. To my friend\u2019s relief, but my disappointment, as I\u2019d have liked to have heard his answer, the case was settled without his expert testimony, but his story set me thinking. Journals are in the business of transmitting knowledge and ideas, but most seem content with the most old-fashioned and passive mechanisms and virtually never try to find out what methods work best.<!--more-->Still pondering about how ideas spread, I was asked to give some talks about how the guidelines on Good Publication Practice for Pharmaceutical Companies (GPP) were developed. I decided to use these opportunities (a couple in the US, and one in UK) to ask my audience of medical writers and publication planners from drug companies and communications agencies just how and when they had heard about GPP.<\/p>\n<p>Journal editors, and anybody who thinks that publishing something in a peer-reviewed journal is a speedy and effective way to influence people, take note! The GPP guidelines were published in 2003. We had no budget for promotion, but a few evangelists joined me in spreading the word when we weren\u2019t too busy with our day jobs or other distractions. I created a <a href=\"www.gpp-guidelines.org\">very basic website<\/a> and that\u2019s all the marketing we did.<\/p>\n<p>But although we started consulting 10 years ago and finally published the guidelines nearly 7 years ago, most of my audience learned about GPP only 2-3 years ago. Virtually nobody had found the article in a literature search, but around 70% had heard about GPP at meetings or from colleagues. I\u2019m sure the journal article gave us credibility, but, by itself, it didn\u2019t get the message across. Word of mouth still beats ink on paper, and several years after the publication, the word is still seeping out but usually through a \u2018grey literature\u2019 of company guidelines, not directly via the journal.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d still love to know how long it is reasonable to expect a medical development to leap from a journal\u2019s page into a doctor\u2019s practice (and I expect the answer is, boringly, \u2018it depends\u2019 on all sorts of fascinating factors that most journal editors couldn\u2019t even start to imagine). While I\u2019m waiting for an answer I\u2019d like to challenge editors to think about the after-life of their publications and whether the current model really is the best way to get ideas across. With all the clever methods we now have at our disposal of whizzing information around the world, people still seem to be most influenced by face-to-face encounters with other human beings. But if you\u2019re reading this, and it\u2019s set you thinking, maybe I\u2019ve just disproved my own argument.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Liz Wager<\/strong> is a freelance writer, trainer and publications consultant who works for a number of pharmaceutical companies, communication agencies, publishers and academic institutions. She is also the Chair of <a title=\"COPE\" href=\"http:\/\/publicationethics.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">COPE<\/a> (the Committee On Publication Ethics) and a member of the BMJ\u2019s <a title=\"BMJ Ethics Committee\" href=\"Ethics Committee\" target=\"_blank\">Ethics Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A journal editor told me he was once asked to act as an expert witness defending a doctor accused of negligence for failing to diagnose a rare condition. The defence [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/07\/27\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1404],"tags":[1328],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liz-wager","tag-good-publication-practice-for-pharmaceutical-companies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Liz Wager: Spreading the word - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/07\/27\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liz Wager: Spreading the word - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A journal editor told me he was once asked to act as an expert witness defending a doctor accused of negligence for failing to diagnose a rare condition. The defence [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/07\/27\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-27T15:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-29T09:16:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/site\/blog\/icons\/lizwager.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"julietwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"julietwalker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"julietwalker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/373707d32533c2cbca204980b8cd3493\"},\"headline\":\"Liz Wager: Spreading the word\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-27T15:00:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-29T09:16:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":548,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.bmj.com\\\/site\\\/blog\\\/icons\\\/lizwager.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Good Publication Practice for Pharmaceutical Companies\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Liz Wager\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/27\\\/liz-wager-spreading-the-word\\\/\",\"name\":\"Liz Wager: Spreading the word - 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