- Medicine Information and Evidence for Policy > Information and Publications
- Medicine Access and Rational Use > Rational Use
(2005; 165 pages)
6.2 Start modestly and grow gradually
It is very tempting to cover too many aspects of drugs and therapeutics when starting a bulletin, especially if few alternative sources of information exist locally. For example, editors may wish to produce new drug assessments, alerts about adverse effects, guidelines or reviews of treatment options for specific health conditions. They may also wish to train their readers in pharmacoepidemiology, drug evaluation and pharmacoeconomics. None of the established drug bulletins began with such a wide scope, and many have chosen to limit their focus, even after years of experience. Each type of article or bulletin section requires specific skills and documentation. Too much diversification may stretch limited resources too far.
Producing good quality articles is also a long and time-consuming process involving a number of steps, including commissioning the article, outlining the topic, collection and analysis of references, writing and checking the first draft before circulation to reviewers, sending the article out for review, rewriting, verifying accuracy, and copy editing. Then come the steps of design, production, printing and dissemination. Time is also needed for ongoing editorial, administrative and financial planning, and fundraising or subscriptions management to keep the bulletin afloat.
Start with a few clear objectives, produce a few useful articles adapted to local needs, and then develop the bulletin very gradually as your resources grow. It is better to produce a quarterly bulletin regularly than a monthly bulletin that is always late. For the same reason, it is better to start, for instance, with a 4-page bulletin than with 8 or more pages. Readers appreciate a regular publication that they can include in their own training schedule. This is true whether or not they pay for the bulletin themselves.
Many established bulletins started by reprinting articles from other independent drug bulletins (after getting their permission). A commentary could be added to make such an article relevant locally.
Case study: Folia Pharmacotherapeutica, Belgium
Folia Pharmacotherapeutica is a monthly bulletin. The resources of the bulletin are not sufficient to be able to publish only original articles in each issue. So, the bulletin regularly includes interpretations of interesting papers, which are found by scanning the literature, and sometimes original articles are prepared for publication in the bulletin.
Contributed by Marc Bogaert, Folia Pharmacotherapeutica, Belgium