EMWA FBF Agenda

Freelance Business Forum Agenda, EMWA Conference Barcelona Friday 08 November 2013, 17:15–18.45  Presenters: Sam Hamilton (SH) and Kathryn White (KW)  Minutes: Catherine Wightwick (CW) and KW

Item 1: New members SH welcomed new members to the forum - over half the FBF attendees were new members of EMWA. Everyone was reminded that this was their forum for discussing relevant topics and issues faced by freelancers. All were encouraged to contribute throughout the meeting.

Hand-outs were distributed giving information about the Freelance Resource Centre (FRC) on the EMWA website, and the EMWA Linked-In group.

Item 2: Reference management software - EndNote A short introduction to EndNote, provided as a slide-set by Adept Science Ltd, was presented by KW. Hand-outs were also provided. Adept Science Ltd is currently offering a discounted price for EndNote licenses to EMWA members. The EMWA members’ license will be £85 +VAT if purchased online, pending a credentials check before sending out a CD. This is a saving of almost 50% for EMWA members. Phil Leventher (PL) informed members that an article will be published in the next issue of Medical Writing about EndNote which will describe the basics of what the software does and how to use it. Andrea Rossi (AR) requested members to contact EMWA if they have found other tools that are useful. With a 1000-strong membership across Europe, EMWA can talk to the producers of these tools and software to negotiate other potential offers in the future.

Similar software for collating, managing and citing references within publications is available from other vendors.

Discussion: FBF members were asked what problems they faced in relation to literature searches and references collation when writing documents.

The following points and issues were raised and will be fed back to Adept Science Ltd where applicable:

 On the whole, several people endorsed the use of reference management software, explaining how it saves times and makes the renumbering of references much easier than doing so manually.  Other available software used by members of the forum included Mendeley and Zotero – both of which are free of charge. Zotero enables groups to work collaboratively on a document.  PL advised that when formatting references, it is worthwhile checking that the version provided in the reference manager software database is up-to-date.  One problem is a lack of portability of references in a document i.e. it is difficult to make changes to references when documents are sent out for review. Can this be resolved?  Endnote master library only allows one person to access it at any given time which is not ideal when more than one writer needs access to the document. Can this be overcome?  How do you specify the use of full stops in the journal abbreviation? It was felt that the EndNote guidance provided under ‘help’ was very complicated (this user was using version 5 at the moment).  Is it possible to convert, import or export into other reference manager formats from EndNote because clients often have their own libraries in other formats? This user found the conversion from Endnote to Reference Manager to be an issue.

SH requested that members could email Sam ([email protected]) or Kath ([email protected]) with any further points and queries.

Item 3: EMA and freelance MWs SH asked the FBF if they thought there was an appetite for an ‘Ask the Regulator’ section in the Medical Writing journal? Alistair Reeves (AR) recalled that the questions put to the EMA representatives at the conference Opening Night Presentation were mostly regarding regulatory matters. Unfortunately, the representatives were not from the Regulatory department of EMA and were unable to answer the questions. However, AR has invited EMA to contribute articles to Medical Writing with the intention of maintaining an open dialogue with them. AR re-iterated the importance of developing a relationship with EMA – this is a partnership for the future. It is in EMWA’s interests to be first-line customers for the regulators and future collaborations remain a possibility.

It was suggested that it may be difficult to get one EU opinion since ideas may vary across the member states. Wendy Kingdom (WH) also suggested that EMWA probably has the resources to answer some of the questions from within its membership.

FBF members discussed the best way forward in terms of obtaining ‘Ask the Regulator’ questions and getting them answered. Suggestions included a list that could be updated in the FRC, or questions could be posted on the Linked-in group forum, or questions could be written in Medical Writing with an invitation to readers to provide solutions.

The feedback from the forum confirmed that were was certainly an appetite for discussion amongst EMWA members and there remained the possibility of obtaining answers from EMA as well.

Item 4: EMWA Website Update Diarmuid De Faoite, (DDF) EMWA Web Manager provided an update on the current status of site. He encouraged everyone to make full use of the FRC and to provide any suggestions for how the website can be improved – the website is there to serve the members of EMWA so it is important to obtain members’ input. DDF requested that members contact him at [email protected] if they see anything that could be updated or changed.

Over the past 1.5 years, DDF has managed the website with 2 main aims for its development:

1) To make the content more dynamic and give EMWA a more professional presence on web. 2) To sort out the infrastructure such as having a single login rather than 2 logins.

Issues of Medical Writing (formerly The Write Stuff) up to 2012 are freely accessible on the website as scanned pdf documents. The archived journal library is currently searchable by terms, however EMWA is changing providers and since this is an expensive tool, EMWA needs to gauge interest in this item to see if it is worth keeping.

DDF believes 2014 will be an exciting year for the website with a redesign planned involving the addition and reorganisation of features.

Helen Casas (HC) told the forum that she had recently found a blog called Freelance Folder (http://freelancefolder.com/ ). This would be a good place to go to to explore options with respect to content for the EMWA website, in particular the FRC. It is also a good place to look up freelancing rates. HC suggested that a link could be created to the Freelance Folder from the FRC.

Item 5: Out On Our Own Medical Writing is under the editorship of Phil Leventhal (Ed in Chief). A summary of recent and upcoming articles for the freelance section Out On Our Own was presented:

 Social media as used for networking, marketing, training/education – 3 articles from Sep 13 – Jane Tricker  Toolbox – covered Toggl, Oanda, Wordle, QR codes; any further suggestions/offers? Raquel Billiones  Out of hours –Tell us about anything MW-related or not that you get up to – Gina Dungworth (Mar 14)  Freelance foraging: Send in photos/pictures of silly words/weird English Other ideas and articles welcome – please email to Sam at [email protected] or Kathryn at [email protected]

PL reminded the forum that the Medical Writing issue “Good Pharma” – to be published in March 2014 - will have an article on software for medical writers and a series on regulatory writing basics covering pre- and post-approval documents. The September 2014 issue will have include articles on non-standard areas of working such as veterinary, nursing, nutritional products, which may be of interest to freelance writers.

Item 6: Member questions/points Members at the forum were asked if they had any questions to put to the group:

 How much should I charge as a freelance writer? o Typical rates (in Euros) can be found in the Freelance Business Survey published this year in Medical Writing; this contained pricing across industry for different types of documents / rates.  As a new freelancer, how do I estimate how much time it will take to perform a project? o There is a Write Stuff article on Time Management and Assessment which may help. Always keep clients informed of your progress, especially if you think it will take longer than originally agreed and give yourself more time than you initially think you’ll need. Tie each milestone to a client deliverable rather than a writer- deliverable, for example, the first draft will be delivered within 3 weeks of receiving data from client or the updated draft will be sent 2 weeks after receiving all review comments from client. Take into account the complexity of the project and ensure that you increase timelines if the scope increases. Don’t be worried about getting it wrong to begin with – over time you will build experience and provide more accurate estimates.

The following questions were received prior to the Forum, but were not asked due to limited time:  The US Sunshine Act became law in August and there has been quite a lot of discussion about how the act has been enforced and whether or not medical writing is a value in kind and is to be reported as such. There is also a similar act in France and this might be where members have had most experience. Has anyone had any experience of the US Sunshine Act affecting the way they work or whether it is affecting how their services are used by med comms agencies?  Has anyone had experience of including cancellation fees within a proposal for work, and if so, what experiences/ feedback/ challenges have you had?  With the current US Government shutdown in place – how has this impacted you as MW, if at all, given that certain website resources such as PubMed are not being updated regularly?  ADD J Tricker

Item 7: Any Other Business Members of the forum were asked for feedback on the more interactive nature of the meeting. In general, members want more time for the ‘Questions and Answers’ section.

Meeting closed at 18:45.