Survey evidence to advance advocacy: awareness of publication professional initiatives at the Peer Review Congress

Objective: The Peer Review Congress (PRC), hosted by JAMA and The BMJ every 4 years, attracts world-leading journal editors and publication researchers. These influencers can affect how publication professionals are perceived. The PRC provided a rare opportunity to assess awareness of initiatives to differentiate and advance our profession. Research design and methods: With PRC’s permission, we conducted face-to-face surveys of poster presenters (Chicago; September 11-12, 2017). A standardized data collection tool was used to obtain presenter consent, ask 3 binary-response questions (Figure), and document demographic information. Results: Of 84 presenters, 80 were available (response rate 95%) and 80 consented; duplicates were removed (73 unique responders; 29 from USA [40%], 42 from academia [58%]). Awareness was high for the difference between professional medical writers and ghostwriters, but low for the JPS and CMPP credential (Figure). Conclusions: Awareness of important publication professional initiatives is low among researchers in the publication ecosystem. These empirical results should help justify, guide, and advance advocacy efforts.