Professional writers can help to improve clarity of medical writing The editorial by Roger Collier calls for the clear presentation of study findings, to ensure that results that have been carefully gathered are appropriately communicated. 1 The Global Alliance for Publication Professionals agrees with these sentiments, and states, "Most of the responsibility for improving writing in academic medicine, however, falls upon the physicians and scientists who produce it."However, it has been shown that the major barrier to publishing research is lack of time, 2,3 which may well lead to poorly written manuscripts, as well as nondisclosure of results. The issue of waste in biomedical research has been tackled before, 4 and the Global Alliance for Publication Professionals has previously highlighted the role that professional medical writers could play in resolving the burden of time constraints and lack of training faced by researchers (see PubMed Commons comments 4). We would like to emphasize the role of professional medical writers in helping authors deliver high-quality, accurate and timely manuscripts in an ethical and transparent manner. Such medical writers are highly qualified individuals, combining scientific rigour, in-depth knowledge of publication guidelines and aptitude for effective communication. 5-7 Professional writing services have a recognized impact on publication success, 8-13 and although such professional assistance does have budgetary implications, as previously suggested, provision could be included in research 4 or departmental budgets. 3,14 Indeed, there may be cost savings associated with the lower time requirement for authors preparing a high-quality, readable, concise and accurate manuscript that adheres to a journal's instructions to authors and applicable best practices.

Members of the task force strongly believed that professional medical writers can improve the quality of scientific papers, but that fact is often not recognised outside the medical writing profession. At least in part, this is because of a perception that ghostwritten papers may have been inappropriately influenced by pharmaceutical companies. One theme that emerged strongly from the discussions was transparency. Members thought it very important that the existence of a ghostwriter should always be made clear to the reader. Another strong theme was the importance of defining in detail what practices relating to ghostwriting are ethical, and what practices are not. This definition of ethical ghostwriting should be widely known, and unethical ghostwriting should be strongly condemned. Use of the term 'ghostwriting' itself was questioned. Members of the task force felt that use of a more neutral term should be encouraged. The task force suggested various activities for ensuring that above the objectives could be met, including discussions with other interested parties, such as journal editors and pharmaceutical companies, educating medical writers about ethical practices, further research into ghostwriting, and developing guidelines for ethical medical writing.

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