Editorial policy
CancerBACUP web medical editor
Dr Maurice Slevin MD FRCP
Consultant Medical Oncologist, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London EC1A 7BE
Cancer information from CancerBACUP
CancerBACUP has published information on every aspect of all cancers since 1985. This information has been written largely by cancer specialists specifically for cancer patients and their families and has involved users from the outset.
All CancerBACUP’s information goes through an extensive process of consultation and review to make sure it is evidence-based and represents a consensus view of medical practice and opinion in the United Kingdom, and meets the needs of people affected by cancer.
Over 60 booklets and 200 factsheets, covering all aspects of cancer, have been published. The Clinical Advisory Board and the Specialist Advisory Panel are responsible for ensuring that the publications are accurate and up to date. The booklets are also sent out for review by patients to ensure that the language is accessible and the tone appropriate. A bibliography is available. Specific references questions and answers published on the website as ‘Cancer Qs’ are available via the website information nurse.
All information is reviewed every 12-18 months and the date displayed with the information. Any feedback received about a booklet, factsheet or website Q&A is kept on file for consideraton when the text is revised.
CancerBACUP is grateful to the many cancer specialists, cancer nurses, health professionals and patients who give their time and expertise to help create the CancerBACUP publications.
CancerBACUP’s editorial process
1. Planning
Ideas for new booklets, factsheets and the website Qs&As come from users of CancerBACUP’s services, its nurses, its Clinical Advisory Board and feedback from people with cancer and health professionals.
2. Selection of new booklets/factsheets/website questions
Publications staff, a Clinical Advisory Board member, specialists in the subject of the booklet and patient representatives meet to discuss new booklet titles. Where sponsorship is involved, a representative from the sponsoring organisation may attend, but will not be permitted to influence editorial content.
Decisions on new factsheets are made at quarterly meeetings of publications staff, the factsheet co-ordinator and the medical adviser.
New website questions derive from users of CancerBACUP services. Questions contain no information that could identify their source, and are chosen on the basis of usefulness to other service users.
3. Authorship
For the booklets the writers are usually external cancer specialists or a CancerBACUP publications nurse specialist. CancerBACUP nurses write Factsheets. Website Qs & As are referred to a medical oncologist, with input from other specialists and Clinical Advisory Board support.
4. Writing/review
The writing/review process is co-ordinated by the production assistant in accordance with the schedule determined after the writers have been commissioned.
First, text is drafted using relevant references so that the information represents the consensus view of UK medical practice and opinion. CancerBACUP’s policy is to provide up-to-date and accurate information on cancer and its treatments, in line with accepted national and international guidelines. Where no such guidelines exist, our information is based on scientific evidence such as data from published clinical trials, or combined analyses of trials. Where such evidence is not available, our information is based on a consensus view of experts.
Booklets are circulated to relevant organisations, at least three patient reviewers, six specialist advisers and the CancerBACUP Support Service nurses to ensure factual accuracy, reflection of current practice and appropriate tone. Factsheets are circulated for the same purpose to any relevant organisations and three specialist advisers.
After the comments have been collated, the text is amended as necessary by a nurse specialist and then sent to the appropriate Clinical Advisory Board member for approval.
The text is finally checked and approved by CancerBACUP’s medical editor, a medical oncologist.
Following final amendment, the booklet/factsheet/Q&A is printed/posted on the website.
5. Updating
The revision process is co-ordinated by the production assistant.
Each booklet is revised every 12-18 months, factsheets every 12 months.
The amended text is sent, together with any feedback received since the publication of the previous edition, to the relevant Clinical Advisory Board member, six specialist advisers and three patient reviewers for comment.
Comments are collated and the text amended by the publications nurse specialist. The revised text is then sent to the relevant Clinical Advisory Board member for approval. If the text is for a sponsored booklet it is also sent to the sponsors.
After final approval from CancerBACUP’s medical editor, the booklet is printed/posted on the website.
For Q&As on the website, review is constant in the light of new information, with a full Q&A review carried out every 12-18 months by a medical oncologist and two cancer information nurse specialists, with comments from other experts in the field and feedback from users.
Policy review date: April 2004
