2021-04-21 OMA Agenda - Board of Trustees

Recommendation #17. JOMA should hire a medical writing team or dedicated medical writer.

Medical writing

Content from the Obesity Algorithms are to be transformed into journal articles by an experienced and competent medical writer or medical writing team, complete with timely manuscript drafts, fact check, reference application, author coordination, as well as managing the submission and revision process. If a medical writer is the chosen option, then the choice of the medical writer should be less on who is cheapest, and more on who provides the highest quality, quantity, and timely work.

• Freelance medical writer: $50 - $100 per hour • Medical Writing services (i.e., JB Ashtin, Peloton Advantage) charge tens of thousands of dollars for publishing clinical trial manuscripts

Recommendation #18. The choice of Editors should consider who can best autonomously manage the journal, without substantial dependence on the OMA staff (other than the staff duties listed above) and without involvement of OMA leadership in day-to-day journal operations. Rationale: While an assigned OMA staff member will be required for some things (e.g., meeting issues such as described in the table above), the day-to-day work of the journal Editors will be working with Elsevier. The time investment with the OMA staff and OMA leadership should be limited. In other words, beyond contractual and financial issues, once OMA decides on the direction of the journal, and after contracts are agreed upon and signed, the journal Editors and publisher should mostly work autonomously. Recommendation #19. Prior to hire of Editors, OMA should acknowledge what is not a conflict of interest, and what is a “conflict of interest.” Rationale: Working to achieve a world-class society journal is not in conflict with the interests of the Obesity Medicine Association. The work of editors, reviewers, or Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) staff members in providing OMA members and other health professionals quality information that ultimately benefits patients with obesity is an alignment of interest with the OMA. It is not a conflict with the interests of OMA.

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