Freelance Business Forum Agenda, EMWA Conference Barcelona
Friday 08 November 2013, 17:15–18.45
 Presenters: Sam Hamilton (SH) and Kathryn White (KW)
 Minutes: Catherine Wightwick (CW) and KW
Item 1: New members
SH welcomed new members to the forum - over half the FBF attendees were new members of
EMWA. Everyone was reminded that this was their forum for discussing relevant topics and issues
faced by freelancers. All were encouraged to contribute throughout the meeting.
Hand-outs were distributed giving information about the Freelance Resource Centre (FRC) on the
EMWA website, and the EMWA Linked-In group.
Item 2: Reference management software - EndNote
A short introduction to EndNote, provided as a slide-set by Adept Science Ltd, was presented by
KW. Hand-outs were also provided. Adept Science Ltd is currently offering a discounted price for
EndNote licenses to EMWA members. The EMWA members’ license will be £85 +VAT if
purchased online, pending a credentials check before sending out a CD. This is a saving of almost
50% for EMWA members. Phil Leventher (PL) informed members that an article will be published
in the next issue of Medical Writing about EndNote which will describe the basics of what the
software does and how to use it. Andrea Rossi (AR) requested members to contact EMWA if they
have found other tools that are useful. With a 1000-strong membership across Europe, EMWA can
talk to the producers of these tools and software to negotiate other potential offers in the future.
Similar software for collating, managing and citing references within publications is available from
other vendors.
Discussion: FBF members were asked what problems they faced in relation to literature
searches and references collation when writing documents.
The following points and issues were raised and will be fed back to Adept Science Ltd where
applicable:
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On the whole, several people endorsed the use of reference management software,
explaining how it saves times and makes the renumbering of references much easier than
doing so manually.
Other available software used by members of the forum included Mendeley and Zotero –
both of which are free of charge. Zotero enables groups to work collaboratively on a
document.
PL advised that when formatting references, it is worthwhile checking that the version
provided in the reference manager software database is up-to-date.
One problem is a lack of portability of references in a document i.e. it is difficult to make
changes to references when documents are sent out for review. Can this be resolved?
Endnote master library only allows one person to access it at any given time which is not
ideal when more than one writer needs access to the document. Can this be overcome?
How do you specify the use of full stops in the journal abbreviation? It was felt that the
EndNote guidance provided under ‘help’ was very complicated (this user was using version
5 at the moment).
Is it possible to convert, import or export into other reference manager formats from
EndNote because clients often have their own libraries in other formats? This user found
the conversion from Endnote to Reference Manager to be an issue.
SH requested that members could email Sam (sam@samhamiltonmwservices.co.uk) or Kath
(Kathryn@cathean.co.uk) with any further points and queries.
Item 3: EMA and freelance MWs
SH asked the FBF if they thought there was an appetite for an ‘Ask the Regulator’ section in the
Medical Writing journal?
Alistair Reeves (AR) recalled that the questions put to the EMA representatives at the conference
Opening Night Presentation were mostly regarding regulatory matters. Unfortunately, the
representatives were not from the Regulatory department of EMA and were unable to answer the
questions. However, AR has invited EMA to contribute articles to Medical Writing with the intention
of maintaining an open dialogue with them. AR re-iterated the importance of developing a
relationship with EMA – this is a partnership for the future. It is in EMWA’s interests to be first-line
customers for the regulators and future collaborations remain a possibility.
It was suggested that it may be difficult to get one EU opinion since ideas may vary across the
member states. Wendy Kingdom (WH) also suggested that EMWA probably has the resources to
answer some of the questions from within its membership.
FBF members discussed the best way forward in terms of obtaining ‘Ask the Regulator’ questions
and getting them answered. Suggestions included a list that could be updated in the FRC, or
questions could be posted on the Linked-in group forum, or questions could be written in Medical
Writing with an invitation to readers to provide solutions.
The feedback from the forum confirmed that were was certainly an appetite for discussion amongst
EMWA members and there remained the possibility of obtaining answers from EMA as well.
Item 4: EMWA Website Update
Diarmuid De Faoite, (DDF) EMWA Web Manager provided an update on the current status of site.
He encouraged everyone to make full use of the FRC and to provide any suggestions for how the
website can be improved – the website is there to serve the members of EMWA so it is important
to obtain members’ input. DDF requested that members contact him at webmanager@emwa.org if
they see anything that could be updated or changed.
Over the past 1.5 years, DDF has managed the website with 2 main aims for its development:
1) To make the content more dynamic and give EMWA a more professional presence on web.
2) To sort out the infrastructure such as having a single login rather than 2 logins.
Issues of Medical Writing (formerly The Write Stuff) up to 2012 are freely accessible on the website
as scanned pdf documents. The archived journal library is currently searchable by terms, however
EMWA is changing providers and since this is an expensive tool, EMWA needs to gauge interest in
this item to see if it is worth keeping.
DDF believes 2014 will be an exciting year for the website with a redesign planned involving the
addition and reorganisation of features.
Helen Casas (HC) told the forum that she had recently found a blog called Freelance Folder
(http://freelancefolder.com/ ). This would be a good place to go to to explore options with respect to
content for the EMWA website, in particular the FRC. It is also a good place to look up freelancing
rates. HC suggested that a link could be created to the Freelance Folder from the FRC.
Item 5: Out On Our Own
Medical Writing is under the editorship of Phil Leventhal (Ed in Chief). A summary of recent and
upcoming articles for the freelance section Out On Our Own was presented:
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Social media as used for networking, marketing, training/education – 3 articles from Sep
13 – Jane Tricker
Toolbox – covered Toggl, Oanda, Wordle, QR codes; any further suggestions/offers?
Raquel Billiones
Out of hours –Tell us about anything MW-related or not that you get up to – Gina
Dungworth (Mar 14)
Freelance foraging: Send in photos/pictures of silly words/weird English
Other ideas and articles welcome – please email to Sam at sam@samhamiltonmwservices.co.uk
or Kathryn at Kathryn@cathean.co.uk
PL reminded the forum that the Medical Writing issue “Good Pharma” – to be published in March
2014 - will have an article on software for medical writers and a series on regulatory writing basics
covering pre- and post-approval documents. The September 2014 issue will have include articles
on non-standard areas of working such as veterinary, nursing, nutritional products, which may be
of interest to freelance writers.
Item 6: Member questions/points
Members at the forum were asked if they had any questions to put to the group:
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How much should I charge as a freelance writer?
o Typical rates (in Euros) can be found in the Freelance Business Survey published
this year in Medical Writing; this contained pricing across industry for different types
of documents / rates.
As a new freelancer, how do I estimate how much time it will take to perform a project?
o There is a Write Stuff article on Time Management and Assessment which may
help. Always keep clients informed of your progress, especially if you think it will
take longer than originally agreed and give yourself more time than you initially think
you’ll need. Tie each milestone to a client deliverable rather than a writerdeliverable, for example, the first draft will be delivered within 3 weeks of receiving
data from client or the updated draft will be sent 2 weeks after receiving all review
comments from client. Take into account the complexity of the project and ensure
that you increase timelines if the scope increases. Don’t be worried about getting it
wrong to begin with – over time you will build experience and provide more accurate
estimates.
The following questions were received prior to the Forum, but were not asked due to limited
time:
 The US Sunshine Act became law in August and there has been quite a lot of discussion
about how the act has been enforced and whether or not medical writing is a value in kind
and is to be reported as such. There is also a similar act in France and this might be where
members have had most experience. Has anyone had any experience of the US
Sunshine Act affecting the way they work or whether it is affecting how their services are
used by med comms agencies?
 Has anyone had experience of including cancellation fees within a proposal for work, and if
so, what experiences/ feedback/ challenges have you had?
 With the current US Government shutdown in place – how has this impacted you as MW, if
at all, given that certain website resources such as PubMed are not being updated
regularly?
 ADD J Tricker
Item 7: Any Other Business
Members of the forum were asked for feedback on the more interactive nature of the meeting. In
general, members want more time for the ‘Questions and Answers’ section.
Meeting closed at 18:45.