Scientific publishing and medical writing in CME

You plan accredited education, you assign writing, and you need clear lines between those who draft slides, those who take responsibility for the content, and those who approve it. This article shows how you can use an editorial reference from general medical journals to set those lines, even when the reference was not written for continuing education.

The details cited in this entry were checked on full Recommendations text.

You will learn what the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors publishes, who maintains it, how to read it with a planner's eye, and where writing, authorship, and editorial review fit in your own files.

Who writes the rules you cite in a syllabus?

The group behind the document describes itself as a small working group of general medical journal editors. Participants meet annually and fund their own work on the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. The group invites comments on the document and suggestions for agenda items, so you can see it as a working text rather than a fixed law. The About page does not publish the date of the next annual meeting.

What the Recommendations actually cover

The title tells you the scope. It addresses conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. The Recommendations page is titled Recommendations and invites you to read that text. It notes that the text was updated in January 2026. Annotated versions of the current text and earlier updates are available in the announcements of the respective updates in ICMJE News and Editorials, which let you trace what changed without guessing.

How can a CME planner use an editorial document?

You do not run a journal when you run education, yet you face similar questions. The questions are who did what, who approved the final wording, how errors get corrected, and where messages to journals or editors should go. If you build those questions into your planning forms, faculty letters, and review checklists, your files stay consistent from needs assessment through evaluation. For broader context on how education is structured, Program Design: Building and Funding Accredited CME explains how planning, funding, and review fit together.

Where does medical writing fit before review?

Think of writing as drafting under direction. In your timeline, you can place literature searches, building outlines, drafting slides, writing cases, writing questions, and formatting references before independent review. You keep the writing task separate from the decision to approve content for learners. That separation helps you show that validation, balance, and final approval happened after drafting, not during it. Name the writer in your internal tracker, keep version dates, and keep reviewer comments separate from draft text so later audits can follow the thread.

Who should be listed as an author?

Authorship, in an editorial sense, signals responsibility for content, not just time spent typing. You can apply that idea when you decide whose names appear on enduring materials, handouts, or course pages. You can check the full Recommendations text during drafting to align your own definitions of contribution, approval, and accountability. Then record in your file who contributed ideas, who reviewed data, who approved the final version, and who agreed to answer questions after release. When names reflect real work and real approval, learners and reviewers see a clearer chain of responsibility.

What does an editor decide apart from the writer?

Editing, in this context, means exercising judgment about accuracy, clarity, structure, and readiness for the intended audience. You can give that role to a person who did not draft the text. Ask that person to confirm that learning objectives match content, that trade names and generic names are handled consistently, that references support statements, and that gaps or uncertainties are stated in plain language. Keep the approval signature and date with the version that was approved. If changes come after approval, route the new version through the same review again rather than making last minute changes to the slides.

How do inquiries reach the right desk?

The group sets clear routing rules, and you can mirror them in your own contact pages. Before sending an inquiry, readers are asked to consult Frequently Asked Questions, since that section answers the most common questions. Inquiries about the Recommendations should be sent to the Secretariat office using the form on the Contact ICMJE page. Readers are asked not to direct inquiries about individual studies, individual journal styles, or individual journal policies to the Secretariat office. Manuscripts and Disclosure of Interest Forms intended for submission to a journal must be sent directly to the journal, not to the group. The group does not archive individual journal contact information.

How do you stay current when the text changes?

Journal expectations shift, and education built on old wording can drift. The Recommendations page offers several ways to follow the current version. You can download the full PDF to print or view on your computer or tablet. You can also browse the full content on the web by choosing one of the sections shown on the page. If you need other languages or prior versions, the page points to Translations or Archives. To follow future revisions, you can use Subscribe to Changes to request an email when the Recommendations are updated. Build one of those checks into your annual review cycle so handbooks and templates do not age quietly.

What goes in your activity file at the end?

Close the loop with records that match the roles you defined at the start. Keep the version of the Recommendations you consulted, the PDF date, and notes on how you applied conduct, reporting, editing, and publication ideas to your activity. Keep writer assignments, author approvals, editorial decisions, disclosure forms sent to journals where relevant, and correspondence routed to the correct office. The current members listed alongside the Recommendations include Annals of Internal Medicine, The BMJ, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Deutsches Ärzteblatt as German Medical Journal, JAMA, Journal of Korean Medical Science, Medical Tunisia, Medwave, The National Medical Journal of India, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, New Zealand Medical Journal, PLOS Medicine, The Lancet, the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and the World Association of Medical Editors. For orientation on credits and requirements that frame those records, CME Basics: Credits, Accreditation and Requirements gives you the baseline vocabulary.

Add the update notice to your planning calendar, file the PDF and the approval sheet with the activity record, and write role definitions into your next faculty agreement before drafting starts.