Publications policy for the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG)

1. EBCTCG papers will be published, where possible, in the name of the EBCTCG, with acknowledgment of the relevant collaborating trialists, the EBCTCG Steering Committee members, and the EBCTCG Secretariat, who will all have the opportunity to comment on the manuscript before publication. For flagged trials through NHS Digital, NHS-D will be acknowledged. To comply with current funding, EBCTCG papers should be published Open Access, under a CC-BY licence.
2. The preparation of EBCTCG manuscripts will be led by one or more members of the Secretariat, with input from one or more investigators. For all major manuscripts, a working group/writing committee will be formed.
3. Writing committee membership will vary according to how many trial groups contribute data to the meta-analyses being reported. The EBCTCG Secretariat will draft a list and circulate to participating trial groups for comment. Usually, one representative from each trial group would be invited to join the writing committee. The EBCTCG co-chairs and at least one patient representative should also be included. For larger meta-analyses, it may not be possible for the writing committee to include a representative from all trial groups, whereas for meta-analyses with fewer contributing trials, more than one representative may be appropriate. If so, numbers from each trial group should be approximately proportional to the size of their trial(s) included in the meta-analyses being reported.
4. Where a list of individual authors is required by the journal selected for submission, the writing committee should take precedence. In most circumstances, the first author will be from the EBCTCG Secretariat with further authors listed from the trialists contributing data to the meta-analysis, plus the EBCTCG co-chairs and at least one patient representative. The writing committee should agree authorship well in advance of journal submission and confirm this with the EBCTCG Steering Committee co-chairs. If a list of contributors is provided with the EBCTCG paper, the writing committee should take precedence in this listing.
5. No individual patients will be identified in any publications or presentations by the EBCTCG.
6. The statistical analyses are in accordance with the methods developed by the EBCTCG, and are discussed with the writing committee for the individual papers, the EBCTCG Steering Committee and the collaborators more generally (at EBCTCG meetings and during the consultation on the manuscripts). Manuscripts should include a paragraph on the implications for future research but otherwise focus on the presentation rather than interpretation of results.
7. EBCTCG manuscripts will be circulated to representatives of all trial groups that have sent data used in the manuscript, where possible (including NHS-Digital for papers that use data from flagged trials), and the Steering Committee, at least once before submission. Comments will be invited on the list of people to be acknowledged as well as on the text, tables and figures. The manuscript (and the EBCTCG List of Collaborators, if necessary) will be reviewed in light of comments received.
8. The EBCTCG Secretariat will be corresponding author on papers for journal submission.
9. For meeting abstracts, abstracts should include the writing committee as authors. Abstracts will be circulated for comment at least seven days before the abstract deadline for comment. All communications with the meeting organisers will be via the Secretariat. Slides for presentation should be reviewed by the writing committee prior to presentation.
10. Pre-publication, the submitted final version or proof will be circulated to all collaborators.
11. Post-publication, the Secretariat will arrange for the EBCTCG web pages to be updated with, where possible, a link to the open access paper on the journal website.

Publications policy for the Early Breast Cancer Trialists 2024 Jul 04.docx