Chair

Biography

Elizabeth (Liz) Wager is a freelance medical writer, editor and trainer. After a zoology degree from Oxford she worked for Blackwell Scientific Publications editing medical books. She then worked as a medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry (for Janssen-Cilag then Glaxo-Wellcome). She set up her own company, Sideview, in 2001. She has run training courses for doctors, journal editors and medical writers on five continents (including courses in China, India, Uganda, South Africa, Australia, the USA and all around Europe). She is a member of the ethics committees for the BMJ and the World Association of Medical Editors. She has written a book on publication strategy and co-authored one on peer review and is a co-author of Good Publication Practice for Pharmaceutical Companies, the European Medical Writers Association guidelines on the role of medical writers and the Blackwell Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics.

Competing interests statement

Liz provides writing, editing, training and consultancy services for a large number of pharmaceutical companies (most recently Astra Zeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Norgine, Novo Nordisk, Syner-med and Vifor), publishers (including Wiley–Blackwell) and academic / professional / not-for-profit organisations (such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Open University, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Vienna School of Clinical Research, the World Health Organization and the University of Oxford). She has received a research grant from COPE for a project on retractions, on which she is collaborating with researchers from University College, London. Liz is a Visiting Fellow of the UK Cochrane Centre but this position is unpaid. Liz also does pro bono work for the Cochrane Collaboration and the World Health Organization. Liz is an (unpaid) member of the ethics committees for the BMJ and the World Association of Medical Editors.

Posted by Elizabeth Wager , COPE Chair on August 4^th 2008