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Publication rules |
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© National Institute for Health and Welfare
and the MORGAM Project
investigators Last updated: 18 May 2005 For more information, please contact Alun Evans (a.evans@qub.ac.uk) or Kari.Kuulasmaa (firstname.lastname@thl.fi) |
For each Agreed Publication and report, the Publication Plan identifies the Leader, other members of the Manuscript Group, target journal or a mention that it will be an internal report of the Project, and the current status.
The MMG has the responsibility for maintaining the Publication Plan. The Plan is available in the internal MORGAM site in the World Wide Web.
The MORGAM publication policy is designed to encourage scientific publication of all types, while maintaining the highest quality of such publications and ensuring the legitimate interests of all MORGAM participants.
This policy refers to written or oral presentations of unpublished MORGAM Data (including data accepted for publication but not yet published). No such data can be presented or published without the consent of the responsible person of each MPC, whose data are included.
These rules relate to the risk and genetic components of MORGAM. The archiving of MONICA data and the production of the MONICA Monograph are covered by the existing MONICA publication rules.
Individual MPCs are encouraged to present and publish results that are based on the data from their own Centres. If MORGAM Data are used for the presentation or publication, the MORGAM Project should be acknowledged. (Note that the baseline and follow-up data kept in the MPC are not MORGAM Data, even if the MORGAM Data which were transferred to the MDC were derived from them.) Publications which refer to "the MORGAM Project" in the title must be approved by the MMG before publication.
MORGAM Publication can be proposed by any MORGAM Centre (The Proposer). The Publication Proposal, including the items specified in Section 1, should be submitted to the MMG (through a member of the MMG) (see Figure 1). For the genetic papers, the Proposer is encouraged to contact those MPCs, whose data are foreseen to be included, prior to submitting the proposal to the MMG.
The MMG decides whether the Publication Proposal should be accepted as an Agreed Publication, its priority, and who should be its Leader, and updates the MORGAM Publication Plan as appropriate.
MPCs will be informed of the Agreed Publication by e-mail. The message to the MPCs will include the following statement:
"It is hoped that data from as many populations as possible can be included in the analysis. However, if you want your data excluded from the analysis, please inform the Leader of the Manuscript Group and the MDC within 28 days of receiving this message."
The MMG will monitor the progress of the manuscript and take steps in the event of undue delay.
The manuscript is prepared by a Manuscript Group (see Section 1). The Leader is crucial to the success of the work. The Leader may delegate some if not all the writing of the paper to another member of the Manuscript Group but in this case the delegated person's name should appear first in the authorship list.
Authors other than the Leader and/or the first author should be significant contributors to the design of the paper, data preparation, analysis and/or writing. They should be consulted by the Leader and/or first author at key stages in the paper's development and should have seen and approved the final draft before it is submitted to the MMG. In the eyes of journal editors they are responsible and answerable for the accuracy of the data and conclusions contained in the paper. Co-authors are not necessarily those who volunteered, or were volunteered by others when the paper was first proposed - they must have contributed substantially when work on the paper was in progress. The final authorship list may therefore differ from the original Manuscript Group. Names of co-authors should be agreed by the Leader and first author, involving the MMG if there is any difficulty or ambiguity.
The MMG maintains regular contact with the Leaders of the Manuscript Groups to ensure that deadlines are met and on the basis of this keeps the Publication Plan up-to-date.
If MORGAM Data are used for a publication, the data must be obtained from the MDC.
For Agreed Publications, the individual data analyses to be performed in the MDC are considered for acceptance by the Head of the MDC. Quality control analyses can be accepted by the Head of the MDC even if they are not part of an Agreed Publication. Any statistical computing will be performed, documented and reviewed according to the MDC procedures.
Any MORGAM Centre, other than the MDC, wishing to undertake analysis should gain approval from the MMG (see Figure 2). When the MMG gives approval a sub-set of the MORGAM Data can then be transferred from the MDC to the MORGAM Centre. If data are to be transferred to outside KTL, a Material and Data Transfer Agreement (see Form 53) will be signed by the MORGAM Centre and the MDC before the transfer of data can take place. All MORGAM Centres will be informed by the MMG about the release of data for such decentralised analysis.
After the analysis has been completed, the MORGAM Centre will provide the MDC with documentation of the analysis, including source code of the data analysis programs and output listings of the results which have been used in the manuscript for publication. All resulting publications are subject to MORGAM Publication Rules.
Collaborative MORGAM Publications appear with the authorship statement as follows:
Name(s) of author(s) for the MORGAM Project (1),
Title:................................
Text:.................................
(1) Annex: Sites and key personnel of the MORGAM Project
The Annex includes:
The list is drafted by the Manuscript Group and corrected when necessary by the MORGAM Centres at the same time as they approve the manuscript.
Whenever reasonable, the paper should have "the MORGAM Project" in the title.
The publication must have an acknowledgement paragraph in a format consistent with MORGAM Project policy and sources of funding. The wording of this should be discussed by the Leader of the Manuscript Group with the MMG. This acknowledgement may need to be updated during the development of the paper and is subject to final revision when the paper is approved by the MMG.
On completion the manuscript is sent to the MMG (through any of its members) (see Figure 3). The MMG considers the manuscript for approval as a MORGAM Publication and hence for distribution to the MORGAM Centres for approval. Before making its decision, the MMG may use reviewers to comment on the manuscript. If the manuscript is not acceptable, the MMG decides on how to proceed. The MMG reports back to the Leader usually within 2 weeks , but in any case within 4 weeks of receiving the manuscript.
The manuscript is distributed to all MORGAM Centres by the MMG, together with the list of key personnel. In specific instances the MMG can decide on a more limited circulation.
The MORGAM Centres (responsible persons) approve the manuscript for publication and/or send their comments to the MMG or the person(s) specified in the covering letter of the manuscript. This must be forthcoming within four weeks, and if no response is obtained the publication will proceed.
Any minor modifications that may be necessary, including the list of key personnel, should be made to the manuscript, before submission. After approval the manuscript will be submitted for publication.
The Leader of the Manuscript Group and the first author should agree between themselves as to who will be responsible for submitting the paper to the agreed journal, for dealing with reviewers'/ editorial comments, for checking the proofs and for ordering reprints.
The letter to the editor on submission should include this section displayed prominently and the accompanying statement on a separate sheet:
Please Note: MORGAM Project manuscripts are prepared and submitted according to collaborative project rules on authorship. Journal editorial staff should be aware of, and honour these rules when considering and preparing such manuscripts for publication. Please see the accompanying statement.
Accompanying Statement.
MORGAM Project collaborative rules on authorship
The MORGAM Project Principal Investigators have developed a policy on authorship in the preparation and publication of manuscripts that they ask journal editorial staff to honour. This policy is designed to give appropriate recognition both to the collaborative enterprise and constituent centres, and to those identified as primarily responsible for preparing a particular manuscript and therefore answerable for its validity. These rules comply with current international requirements on authorship for publication and citation. They have been accepted by major scientific journals. It is for this reason that we bring these rules to your attention.
Submission of this manuscript by the Manuscript Group Leader is authorized by the MORGAM Project on the understanding that these rules will be honoured by the journal to which it is submitted.
The publication rules cover two specific items
- The authorship line, as in the accompanying manuscript:
"A Author, B Author, C Author, (etc), for the MORGAM Project."- Publication of a list of MORGAM sites and key personnel as an annex to the paper.
If a journal has a specific problem with any aspect of MORGAM publication policy the manuscript Leader will need to involve the MORGAM Management Group. We trust that most journals agree that the above rules are reasonable and that they enhance rather than detract from the publication of our manuscripts.
Anything more than minor corrections arising from the editorial-review process should be discussed with other members of the Manuscript Group and with the MMG. Whoever is responsible for the proofs must inform the MMG immediately on receipt of the proofs if there is any problem with the journal complying with MORGAM publication policy on authorship or listing of sites and key personnel, so that they can agree how to take the matter up with the journal Editor.
Whoever is responsible for ordering the reprints must send copies to other members of the authorship group and the MORGAM Centres. The number of reprints needed is usually 50. Their cost will be borne by the corresponding author. If there are difficulties the Project Coordinator should be consulted.
Abstracts intended for oral/poster presentation based on unpublished MORGAM Data will be sent to the MMG (through any of its members) (see Figure 4). Abstracts will be approved solely by the MMG, the only exception being when mention of specific MORGAM Centres is made in the abstract, in which case, explicit permission will be sought from the MORGAM Centres concerned by the Presenter and evidence of this furnished to the MMG. Failure to reply within one week by the relevant MORGAM Centres will be taken as imparting consent. After the approval, the MMG informs the Presenter. Approved abstracts will be circulated by the Presenter to all MORGAM Centres.
Even if no abstract is required, the Presenter should seek the approval of the MMG. If approved, the MMG will inform the MORGAM Centres. Subsequently, the Presenter should provide the MORGAM Centres with a summary of what was presented.
| Date | Update |
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| 2005-05-02 | Some of the text was rearranged to improve the readability, the statements to accompany submission of manuscripts to a journal were rephrased, Material and Data Transfer Agreements were acknowledged and misprints were corrected. However, the rights and responsibilities of the parties concerned were not changed. The previous version of the document is available at http://www.thl.fi/publications/morgam/manual/description/publrules1.htm. |
| 2005-05-18 | Updates were made after decisions in the VIth MORGAM Workshop
on 2005-05-15:
The previous version of the document is available at http://www.thl.fi/publications/morgam/manual/description/publrules2.htm. |
