Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) recently launched a training seminar for potential authors, entitled, “Publishing Your Research: A Seminar From the Editors of JCO.” The first seminar was held in January prior to the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco. Daniel G. Haller, MD, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, presented the seminar to a group of 16 visiting oncologists from Japan.
Seminar Topics
JCO developed the seminar to help meet the need that medical researchers have to promptly write up the results of new studies and publish their work. Attendees learn how to identify the appropriate target journals for submissions, meet journal submission requirements, assess and ensure the quality of manuscripts, and navigate the peer-review process. Because many journals follow the guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the seminar combines these criteria along with instruction based on JCO’s guidelines. Seminar topics include:
- Determining authorship and creating the author list
- Writing key sections of an original report
- Reviewing statistical guidelines
- Understanding why manuscripts may be rejected
- Responding to decision letters
- Following common publishing ethical practice
Ethical Practice in Publishing
As Dr. Haller explained, ethical practice in publishing is one of the most important topics covered:
“As medical journalism has evolved, unfortunately issues of fraud, plagiary, and conflict of interest have been more apparent and publicized both in medical journals and the lay press. Whenever I speak of these issues, I always ask the audience whether they ever had formal training in such authorship issues; the resounding answer is ‘no.’ We hope that raising these issues with prospective authors will reduce the incidence of such infractions.”
JCO anticipates that the knowledge that authors gain in the seminar will translate into better-prepared manuscripts and will enhance the authors’ likelihood for article acceptance by JCO or other medical journals. Organizations interested in hosting the seminar may contact the ASCO Licensing, Rights, and Permissions Office at 571-483-1714 or licensing@asco.org for more information. ■
© 2012. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
