Proceedings of Second International conference on Medical Writing held at Ajman, UAE (March 5-7, 2015)

Ajman (UAE): Center for Diabetes Education (EDC) in collaboration with World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), European Medical Writers Association (EPWA) and Eastern Mediterranean Association of Medical Editors (EMAME) organized a two day international conference on Medical Writing here from March 5-7, 2015. Mr. Tom Lang from USA a distinguished Medical Writer was the first speaker in the first session on March 5, 2015. Tracing the history, he gave details of the formation of various professional association of medical, science editors. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) he said, came into being in 1968 in response to a letter from a Secretary to the Editors of NEJM, AIM and JAMA about creating a standard reference format for medical journals. A meeting was then held at Vancouver in 1978. At that time ICMJE was a small self appointed working group of editors from general medical journals. It used to meet annually and funded its own programme. It decided to make recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publications of scholarly work in medical journals. Members of this group included Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, CMJA, Chinese Medical Journal, and Ethopian Journal of Health Sciences, JAMA, NEJM, Lancet, PLos and a few others. It was in 1979 that it released the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Since then it has issued important position papers that have changed how science is reported. World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) was founded in 1995 with 22 medical journal editors and scientists from thirteen countries from five continents. It is an alternative to ICMJE which is small and exclusive. Today it has nineteen hundred members from over a thousand journals from ninety two countries. WAME membership is open to decision making editors of medical journals worldwide and to scholars in the field of scientific publishing. Its membership is free. WAME facilitates worldwide cooperation, exchange of educational information, improve editorial standards, promotes the professionalism, expand the influence of medical editors, develop mutual support, encourage research to improve the quality of medical science and practice. WAME support this concept of regional groups based on language and geography. It is a virtual organization. It has different committees on Ethics, Editorial Policy and Education. Council of Science Editors (CSE) was founded in 1957 by the National Science Foundation and the American Institute of Biological Sciences as the Council of Biology Editors. Its name was changed to CSE in 2000 and today it has over eight hundred members. It publishes position papers on its website, offers journal editors certification programme and holds annual conferences with course for journal editors and manuscript editors. European Association of Science Editors (EASE) was founded in 1982 in France by a merger of European Life Science Editors Association and the European Association of Earth Science Editors. At present it has over 550 members representing more than fifty countries. It publishes a quarterly journal European Science Editing; it has published Guidelines for authors and Translators of Scientific Articles and holds its conference annually. Other organizations of Authors, Editors and Medical Writers include American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), European Medical Writers Association (EMWA), and International Society for Conference Proceedings