Scientific and clinical research should be reported in a complete, accurate, balanced, and timely manner to ensure a well informed decision making and increase the efficiency and quality of health care.

Such research is often initiated by, or involves collaboration with, commercial organizations, such as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and diagnostics companies. The Good Publication Practice (GPP) guideline was designed primarily to help individuals and organizations maintain ethical practices when they contribute to the communication of this type of research. The GPP guideline It has been widely adopted. In an international survey of almost 500 people involved in publishing industry-sponsored research, more than 90% of respondents said they routinely referred to it, which is a similar proportion to those who reported using International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines. The GPP guidelines have also been endorsed by medical journals and cited in their instructions to authors. The GPP guideline was first  published in 2003 and updated in 2009 (as GPP2). The latest revision (GPP3) published on August 11, 2015, reflects changes in the medical publications environment and aims to clarify and strengthen the principles and practices described in earlier versions.

Reference

Battisti WP, Wager E, Baltzer L, Bridges D, Cairns A, Carswell CI, et al. Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company-Sponsored Medical Research: GPP3. Ann Intern Med. [Epub ahead of print 11 August 2015] doi:10.7326/M15-0288