INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR
MEDICAL PUBLICATION PROFESSIONALS, INC. (ISMPP)
CODE OF ETHICS
Introduction
The International Society for Medical Publication
Professionals, Inc. (ISMPP) is a non-profit, voluntary professional membership
association dedicated to advancing medical publication planning and
development, supporting medical publication professionals, and ensuring ethical
medical publication practices.
ISMPP promotes quality professional standards and
practices, and encourages members to meet such standards. Members should act in a manner that promotes
integrity and reflects positively on the individual professional, ISMPP, and
the medical publication profession, consistent with accepted ethical and legal
standards.
ISMPP has adopted these voluntary ethics guidelines to
serve as a professional resource for medical writers and communicators,
publication planners, editors, publishers, and other professions represented by
ISMPP members.
I. General Professional Guidelines
As
a matter of professional responsibility, members should:
A.
Comply with laws,
regulations, policies, and ethical standards governing professional practice
and related activities, including applicable rules of government bodies, professional
associations and credentialing organizations.
B.
Support and
disseminate the Society’s ethics principles to other professionals involved in
the medical publication process.
C.
Contribute to the
development of the profession by mentoring and training newer professionals,
and by sharing information concerning best practices.
D.
Not engage in
behavior in violation of accepted ethical or legal standards, including conduct
involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.
E.
Keep up-to-date
in their continuing professional development by regularly attending continuing
education programs and making a commitment to life-long learning
II. Professional
Services Guidelines
As
a matter of professional responsibility, members should:
A.
Solicit services
in a professional manner, and provide vendors with complete, truthful, and
accurate information concerning projects and deliverables.
B.
Promote equal
opportunity and diversity in professional activities.
C.
Provide accurate and
truthful information in all representations concerning qualifications,
experience, competency, and performance of services, including representations
related to professional status and/or area(s) of special competence.
D.
Provide
appropriate professional referrals when unable to provide competent
professional assistance.
E.
Provide quality
professional services in a timely and efficient manner, and provide clients
and/or customers with complete, truthful, and accurate information while
performing professional services.
III. Specific Professional Conduct Guidelines
A.
Publication
Preparation Guidelines
When
preparing or developing publications (i.e., abstracts or manuscripts), members
should:
1.
Never misrepresent
clinical research and/or clinical trial results, including the fabrication or
misreporting of data.
2.
Identify
appropriate trial protocols clearly, if available, when publishing clinical
trial results (e.g., NCT number).
3.
Report
primary results of a multi-center clinical trial first, and thereafter issue
secondary publications from the same trial, when appropriate, with citation of
the primary publication.
4.
Identify
and report negative and inconclusive clinical trial results, as appropriate.
5.
Strive for
accuracy, completeness, fair balance and avoid commercial product promotion.
6.
Refrain from
duplicate submissions of a manuscript, consistent with accepted professional
standards.
7.
Recognize the
author’s ultimate responsibility for publication content, including the
selection of references.
8.
Apply
appropriate standards, guidelines, and position statements of professional
organizations including, but not limited to:
a. Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors or ICMJE). www.icmje.org
b. The
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) Statement: Revised Recommendations for Improving the
Quality of Reports of Parallel-Group Randomized Trials. www.consort-statement.org
c. Principles
for the Conduct and Disclosure of Clinical Trials (Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of
d. Joint
Position on the Disclosure of Clinical Trial Information via Clinical Trial
Registration and Databases (PhRMA/IFPMA/EFPIA/JPMA). www.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials
e. Good Publication Practice (GPP) for
Pharmaceutical Companies (GPP Working Group). www.gpp-guidelines.org/
f. International
Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) position statement: the
role of the professional medical writer. (www.ismpp.org)
B. Publication
Disclosure Guidelines
When preparing or developing
publications, members should:
1.
Avoid
and discourage guest authorship (i.e., named authors who do not meet authorship
criteria).
2.
Avoid
and discourage the practice of “ghost writing” (i.e., circumstances where the
contributions of professional medical writers are not identified or acknowledged).
3.
Provide
appropriate information concerning financial contributions or other support
relating to the development of the manuscript.
4.
Acknowledge and
disclose accurately the role of each author, medical writer, medical
communications agency, and any other publication contributors who do not
satisfy accepted authorship criteria.
5.
As required,
disclose accurately the role of each author, medical writer, medical
communications agency, and sponsor (source of funding) with respect to whether
remuneration or other benefit was received.
C. Intellectual
Property Protection Guidelines
When performing professional services,
members should:
1.
Recognize,
respect, and protect the intellectual property rights and contributions of others,
including copyright laws regarding the use and distribution of published
materials.
2.
Not plagiarize,
copy, or use in substantially similar form, materials prepared by others
without acknowledging the correct source and identifying the author and/or
publisher of such materials.
D. Conflict of Interest and
Appearance of Impropriety Guidelines
When performing professional services,
members should:
1.
Avoid conduct
that could cause a conflict of interest, where possible.
2.
Ensure that when a
conflict of interest occurs, acknowledge and disclose to clients, customers,
and/or contractors significant circumstances that could be construed as a
conflict of interest, or involve an appearance of impropriety.
3.
Ensure that a
conflict of interest does not compromise legitimate interests of an employee,
employer, client, customer, or contractor, nor influence and/or interfere with
professional judgments.
4.
Refrain from
offering or accepting inappropriate payments, gifts, or other forms of
compensation or benefits in order to secure work, or which are intended to
influence professional judgment.