EMWA is the European Medical Writers Association, a network of professionals that represents, supports and trains medical communicators in Europe. It is a not for profit organisation that is run for its members by its members.
This website offers access to Medical Writing (EMWA's journal, previously known as The Write Stuff), as well as our Freelancer and Company listing and our Jobs page advertising vacancies for both freelance and in-house medical writers and editors. If you would like more information about how to sign up to the freelancer or company list, or how to advertise your job vacancies on this website, please contact
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EMWA's spring conference was a resounding success!
The 36th European Medical Writers Conference in Manchester, UK, closed on Saturday 11 May after attracting a record number of more than 400 delegates and 12 exhibitors from all over Europe and beyond.
The new format of the conference – launched with a networking event on the first evening, followed by three-and-a-half days of workshops with a parallel one-day symposium, a range of free seminars at lunchtime and in the evening, and a much shorter Annual Meeting – was much appreciated.
The networking event was a joint venture with MedComms Networking and included a presentation and panel discussion on the theme “Better communication means better patient outcomes: vision or illusion”.
The new EMWA Symposium with the theme “Writing for Health Economics and Market Access” was very well attended. Five expert speakers, including a representative of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, explored this theme and were also involved in panel discussions with the audience.
In addition to these two new ventures, we still managed to maintain our usual programme of more than 50 foundation and advanced credit workshops on all aspects of medical writing, many of which were fully booked.
This conference also saw the launch of a new EMWA Geoff Hall Scholarship for students which will offer two students free membership, conference attendance and participation at one foundation workshop to enable them to start working towards their EMWA certificates while still studying. The late Geoff Hall was a founder member of EMWA and was President from 1999 to 2000.
Three positions on the Executive Committee were occupied by newly elected officers. We said goodbye to Susan Bhatti (President), Gillian Pritchard (Treasurer) and Farid Khalfi (PR), and welcomed James Visanji (Treasurer), Laura C. Collada Ali (PR) and Julia Donnelly (Vice President) as new members. Sarah Choudhury was re-elected as Honorary Secretary. Andrea Rossi assumed the position of President for the next year.
On behalf of the EC, I would like to thank our sponsors, exhibitors and all those involved in organising and staging the conference for helping to make the 36th EMWA Conference such a great success.
We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona, Spain, at the 37th EMWA Conference between 7 and 9 November 2013.
Details will be available on the website in early August.
Alistair Reeves, Conference Director
Free online access to all Maney Publishing articles for 14 days!
Dear visitors to the EMWA website,
We are pleased to inform you that from 13-26 May 2013, EMWA’s publishing partner, Maney Publishing, is running ‘Free Access 14: Health Sciences’ – free online access to all articles in all health journals for 14 days.
All those signed up to the Maney Health Sciences mailing list will be given access to the content including special issues and archived volumes, as well as the latest 2013 research – that’s almost 1,500 journal issues, and thousands of articles!
The 26 journals available in the offer include EMWA’s journal Medical Writing, Journal of Communication in Healthcare and International Journal of Healthcare Management, amongst others.
Anyone can register for free access to the collection, whether you’re a practitioner, researcher, clinician, librarian or student, and activation of the trial takes a matter of seconds!
In June 2012, EMWA uploaded a short video to YouTube which explains what medical writing is and how the European Medical Writers Association can help you advance your career. Dr Helen Baldwin, an EMWA Past-President, took time out to give an interview on the subject of medical writing in general and EMWA in particular.
The video has certainly served a need, with approximately 1,400 views in just 11 months.
If you haven't already done so, you can watch the interview by clicking on the image below:
Don't forget to "like" this video on YouTube and to share it on social media platforms - an automatic link to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ is available on the YouTube page.
March issue of Medical Writing is now available
Dear EMWA members,
I am happy to announce that the March issue of Medical Writing is available online. If you have not yet received your printed copy, it should arrive shortly.
The theme of the March issue is Medical Writing Education. Although medical writing as a career has been around for a few decades, medical writing education is relatively new. This issue of medical writing is intended to help give the field of medical writing education a push in the right direction with a collection of articles on the essential competencies for medical and scientific writers and how to effectively teach them.
In addition to these valuable articles on medical writing education, we have articles on page layout and readability, the movement to require sharing of clinical trial data and its expected effects on medical writers, and how volunteering for a professional association can expand your skills and advance your career. We also have added new regular features on medical communication and medical journalism, and we have resurrected The Light Stuff, the humor section originally appearing in The Write Stuff.
We are excited about the progress that Medical Writing is making and the further improvements and advances planned for this year. If you have any questions or ideas for us, feel free to write to me at
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Phillip Leventhal
Editor-in-Chief, Medical Writing
EMWA’s position on ghostwriting
The European Medical Writers Association would like to make it clear that, contrary to what you may have read in a recently published popular science book, it is not a "ghostwriters' association". EMWA is an association for professional medical writers, and deplores ghostwriting. We have published guidelines for the role of medical writers in publications, which make it clear that ghostwriting is unacceptable [1].
EMWA notes the important distinction between ghostwriting, which is unethical, and professional medical writing assistance, which is legitimate and desirable [2]. Ghostwriting is what happens when someone writes a paper for publication in the medical literature, and neither the identity of the writer nor the funding source of the writing is disclosed to the reader. In contrast, EMWA guidelines state that the contribution of medical writers and their funding source should be made explicit. A medical writer who does not fulfil a journal's authorship criteria, and is therefore not eligible to be listed as an author, must be listed in an acknowledgements section to avoid ghostwriting.
Research evidence shows that the involvement of professional medical writers in publications is associated with fewer retractions for misconduct [3] and better compliance with reporting guidelines [4].
EMWA is committed to continuing efforts towards the eradication of ghostwriting in the medical literature. Anyone who has any constructive suggestions for how EMWA could more effectively achieve this aim is welcome to contact us.
References:
1. Jacobs A, Wager E. European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines on the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications. Curr Med Res Opin 2005;21:317-321.
2. Woolley KL. Goodbye Ghostwriters! How to work ethically and efficiently with professional medical writers. Chest 2006;130:921-923.
3. Woolley KL, Lew RA, Stretton S, et al. Lack of involvement of medical writers and the pharmaceutical industry in publications retracted for misconduct: a systematic, controlled, retrospective study. Curr Med Res Opin 2011;27:1175-1182.
4. Jacobs A. Adherence to the CONSORT guideline in papers written by professional medical writers. The Write Stuff 2010;19:196-200.
New leaflet now available for download
Dear visitors to the EMWA website,
The European Medical Writers Association is pleased to announce that a short leaflet explaining the work that EMWA does and the benefits of membership is now available.
You can download this pdf document by clicking here or from the 'About EMWA' section of this website at any time.
EMWA Workshop and Workshop Leader Database launched
The EMWA Professional Development Programme is made up of around 80 half-day workshops. These are divided into six subject streams: Drug Development, Language and Writing, Medical Communications, Professional Techniques, Medical Science, and Soft Skills. Workshops are held at EMWA’s twice-yearly conferences. You can now browse the list of EPDP workshops and the workshop leaders biographies online.
2013 Corporate Partners
Silver corporate partner
Freelancer Listing
Click here to find EMWA's listing of freelance medical writers, medical editors and translators who are members of EMWA.
Jobs
Click here to find EMWA's Jobs pages. If you are looking for a medical writing job, this is the place to look.
Company Listing
Click here to find EMWA's listing of medical writing companies.
The Journal
Medical Writing (MEW), formerly The Write Stuff (TWS), is a quarterly journal that acts as an organ for the medical writing community in Europe. EMWA members can gain online access to each new issue before print, as
well as gain access to the complete electronic archive of past issues
of the journal, by logging into the members-only section of the EMWA
website and clicking here. Non-members can also subscribe to the journal by clicking here.
Become a member
EMWA is a rapidly expanding organisation for medical writers and associated professionals.
It provides educational and social networking opportunities for its members and aims to increase
awareness of medical writing throughout Europe.
EMWA's spring conference was a resounding success!
The networking event was a joint venture with MedComms Networking and included a presentation and panel discussion on the theme “Better communication means better patient outcomes: vision or illusion”.
