A publication plan sets out, for a product or a program, which data will be published, where, when and by whom. It is built around the timelines of the studies that generate the data and around the congresses and journals that matter in the therapy area.
Good plans are driven by the scientific need, not by the calendar. They start from the questions clinicians, payers and regulators are asking, identify which of those the company’s data can answer, and look for the evidence gaps that nobody has yet addressed. They also track the competition: what competitors are publishing, and where.
Industry publication work follows established standards. Good Publication Practice guidelines, most recently updated as GPP 2022, set out principles for transparency, accountability and integrity in company-sponsored publications. The ICMJE recommendations define who qualifies as an author. Both expect results to be published whatever they show, authors to have real control over the content, and funding and contributions to be disclosed.
Publication teams spend much of their time tracking manuscripts, abstracts and congress deadlines, and following how the literature in their area is developing. Share of voice analysis is one of the ways they judge where the company’s research stands.