What are Clinical Pharmacology's editorial policies?

The Elsevier Clinical Drug Information Editorial staff develops clinically relevant drug information through a peer-review process, which represents an objective analysis of clinically relevant drug information. The content development cycle mimics the peer-review process in effect for major scientific publications.

The Clinical Drug Information Editorial Team includes the following:

• Editor-In-Chief
• Director, Clinical Drug Information
• Managing Editors
• Clinical Editors
• Freelance Writers
• Drug Information Content Specialist

To ensure the most current drug information is available for customers, the Editorial Team updates content in a "real-time" format rather than working against scheduled (e.g., quarterly) deadlines. This allows for tremendous flexibility when establishing priorities for content updates and the ability to be responsive to urgent medical news, trials, and previously unannounced product label changes.

Content updates to the database include the addition of new FDA-approved drugs, new non-prescription and herbal therapies, newly updated drug product labels, relevant clinical trials and practice guidelines, and recommendations from respected professional and drug safety/quality organizations (e.g., Institute for Safe Medication Practices). Each member of the Editorial staff is responsible for monitoring certain therapeutic categories for pertinent information to be included in the database. For more information, refer to the Elsevier Editorial Policy regarding Off-Label Data.

Every database update is subject to a strict editorial review process that employs a system of double checks to guarantee timely and accurate drug information. The process is ongoing, and quality assurance activities are inserted throughout the content development cycle. The Editorial Team periodically reviews the editorial process for system improvements.

Clinical drug information is written by a licensed pharmacist with practice experience. Before being released for inclusion into Clinical Pharmacology, the new/updated content is then reviewed and verified (i.e., "fact-checked") by a managing editor, who is also a licensed pharmacist.

Because relationships between authors and pharmaceutical manufacturers can bias written content, it is important to emphasize the principles that underlie the editorial process. The Editorial staff acknowledges that some level of interaction between Elsevier and the pharmaceutical industry may facilitate the dissemination of scientific knowledge relating to drug therapy. With that in mind, the internal and independent peer-review process is designed to eliminate manufacturer bias in drug information reporting. For instance, Elsevier has designated a single source contact for all pharmaceutical manufacturer queries/submissions and has assigned this responsibility to Elsevier team members not directly responsible for clinical data/monograph production.