Draft policy on the register of members and reviewers
Consultation on the policy governing the public register of Institute members, reviewers, correspondents and contributors: who appears, what is published about each, and what is not. The draft publishes affiliation and declared interests for every member of…
§1Consultation and window
§1.1Window
- Opened
- 1 May 2024
- Closed
- 30 June 2024
- Duration
- 60 days
- Status
- Closed — the disposition is published
- Document under consultation
- Governance document
- Submissions received
- 13
§1.2Consultation questions
The secretariat put the following questions. A submission was not required to address them and several did not; the questions record what the Institute was uncertain about rather than restricting what a respondent could raise.
- Is the asymmetry between principals and the wider register defensible, or should the same fields be published for everyone?
- Should a reviewer be named against the specific document reviewed, or listed only as a member of the reviewer register?
- Is consent to publication obtained at the right point, and is the position clear for a person who later withdraws it?
§1.3How a submission is handled
- Every submission is signed. The Institute publishes no anonymous submission.
- Every submission carries a declared interest. A declaration of no interest is itself a declaration and is recorded as one. A declaration is not a disqualification and the Institute has never given a submission less weight on that ground.
- A submission from an employee of a marketing-authorisation holder is identified as an industry submission on its face, following a unanimous consultation on the conflicts policy.
- Every submission receives a secretariat response and a disposition. Submissions that are not accepted remain published in full; the Institute does not remove a submission because it disagrees with it.
- There is no voting, no reputation score, no reply thread and no editing after receipt.
§1.4Outcome
The policy was ratified with amendments. A reviewer is named against the document reviewed where the reviewer consents and as a register member otherwise, and the position on withdrawal of consent is now stated explicitly rather than left to be inferred.
The disposition table, listing each submission with its disposition and the resulting amendment, is at §3.