Addressing health inequalities in Europe: key messages from the Joint Action Health Equity Europe (JAHEE).

Health inequalities within and between Member States of the European Union are widely recognized as a public health problem as they determine a significant share of potentially avoidable mortality and morbidity. After years of growing awareness and increasing action taken, a large gap still exists across Europe in terms of policy responses and governance. With the aim to contribute to achieve greater equity in health outcomes, in 2018 a new Joint Action, JAHEE, (Joint Action Health Equity Europe) was funded by the third EU Health Programme, with the main goal of strengthening cooperation between participating countries and of implementing concrete actions to reduce health inequalities. The partnership led by Italy counted 24 countries, conducting actions in five policy domains: monitoring, governance, healthy living environments, health systems and migration, following a three-step implementation approach. Firstly, specific Policy Frameworks for Action (PFA) collecting the available evidence on what practice should be done in each domain were developed. Second, different Country Assessments (CAs) were completed to check the country's adherence to the recommended practice in each domain. The gap between the expected policy response (PFA) and the present policy response (CA) guided the choice of concrete actions to be implemented in JAHEE, many of which are continuing even after the end of JA. Final recommendations based on the best results achieved during JAHEE were elaborated and agreed jointly with the representatives of the involved Ministries of Health. The JAHEE initiative represented an important opportunity for the participating countries to work jointly, and the results show that almost all have increased their level of action and strengthened their capacities to address health inequalities.

Ethics of reviewing scientific publications.

INTRODUCTION: The approval or rejection of scientific publications can have important consequences for scientific knowledge, so considerable responsibility lies on those who have to assess or review them. Today it seems that the peer review process, far from being considered an outdated system to be abandoned, is experiencing a new upturn. AIM AND METHODS: This article proposes criteria for the conduct of reviewers and of those who select them. While commenting on new emerging models, it provides practical recommendations for improving the peer-review system, like strengthening the role of guidelines and training and supporting reviewers. CONCLUSIONS: The process of peer review is changing, it is getting more open and collaborative, but those same ethical principles which guided it from its very origin should remain untouched and be firmly consolidated. The paper highlights how the ethics of reviewing scientific publications is needed now more than ever, in particular with regard to competence, conflict of interest, willingness to discuss decisions, complete transparency and integrity.

[Scientific editors in Italy: identity, certification and roles.] / Editor scientifici in Italia: problemi di identità, certificazione e ruoli.

This study is developed as part of the activities of the Italian Chapter of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) with the aim to provide an overview of the Italian scientific publishing in biomedicine and highlight the need for professional training and certification. Even at European and international level, in fact, there is a general lack of training and accreditation programs for the certification of professional editors. After defining the editor's role (term that in the Italian language has a certain degree of ambiguity) and the different professionals involved in the publication process, the paper analyzes the biomedical production in Italy, reporting the results of a survey on professional associations, institutions, scientific societies, and others. Also reported are the results of a first hearing on views expressed by the publishers themselves. From this study the need of a constructive discussion with all stakeholders emerges not only to improve the quality of publications in the biomedical field, but also to enhance and recognize the editor's profession, both in Italy and in other countries.

Biobankers: Treat the Poison of Invisibility with CoBRA, a Systematic Way of Citing Bioresources in Journal Articles.

Even though an increasing portion of biomedical research today relies on the use of bioresources, at present biobankers are not able to trace this use in scientific literature and measure its impact with a variety of citation metrics. The "BRIF (Bioresource Research Impact Factor) and journal editors" subgroup was created precisely with the aim to study this issue and to build a standardized system to cite bioresources in journal articles. This report aims at presenting a guideline for Citation of BioResources in journal Articles (CoBRA). The guideline offers for the first time a standard for citing bioresources (including biobanks) within journal articles. It will increase their visibility and promote their sharing.

Developing a guideline to standardize the citation of bioresources in journal articles (CoBRA).

BACKGROUND: Many biomedical publications refer to data obtained from collections of biosamples. Sharing such bioresources (biological samples, data, and databases) is paramount for the present governance of research. Recognition of the effort involved in generating, maintaining, and sharing high quality bioresources is poorly organized, which does not encourage sharing. At publication level, the recognition of such resources is often neglected and/or highly heterogeneous. This is a true handicap for the traceability of bioresource use. The aim of this article is to propose, for the first time, a guideline for reporting bioresource use in research articles, named CoBRA: Citation of BioResources in journal Articles. METHODS: As standards for citing bioresources are still lacking, the members of the journal editors subgroup of the Bioresource Research Impact Factor (BRIF) initiative developed a standardized and appropriate citation scheme for such resources by informing stakeholders about the subject and raising awareness among scientists and in science editors' networks, mapping this topic among other relevant initiatives, promoting actions addressed to stakeholders, launching surveys, and organizing focused workshops. RESULTS: The European Association of Science Editors has adopted BRIF's suggestion to incorporate statements on biobanks in the Methods section of their guidelines. The BRIF subgroup agreed upon a proposed citation system: each individual bioresource that is used to perform a study and that is mentioned in the Methods section should be cited as an individual "reference [BIORESOURCE]" according to a delineated format. The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) network mentioned the proposed reporting guideline in their "guidelines under development" section. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating bioresources' use and impact requires that publications accurately cite such resources. Adopting the standard citation scheme described here will improve the quality of bioresource reporting and will allow their traceability in scientific publications, thus increasing the recognition of bioresources' value and relevance to research. Please see related article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0284-9.

[Mobile applications for the health sector: apps to support scientific information and medical practice]. / Iniziative "mobili" a supporto della salute: le app per l'informazione scientifica e la pratica medica.

The market of mobile applications (apps) and wireless technology infrastructures is rapidly widening and diversifying to better meet users' needs. Over the last few years, the use of mobile technologies and applications has been increasingly expanding in many professional fields. Research and academic institutions, hospitals, and drug companies are heavily investing in this sector, also in Italy, even though the offer seems to be still limited at the moment. As far as the industry of scientific publishing is concerned, the main Italian publishing groups show an increasing interest in developing apps aiming at spreading their own products, following the example of international publishing companies. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the mobile applications and services available in the domain of scientific information relating to health disciplines and medical practice, especially within the Italian context. This study intends to inform professionals and users in the health sector about the benefits offered by the mobile technology, and to help them to become familiar with these tools. The two main online markets (iTunes and Google Play) have been analysed; search engines for apps and Italian STM publishers' websites have also been considered. Within this fast moving scenery, innovation is supported by the pressing demand for mobile access technology which has increased enormously. Not surprisingly, the most promising target of mobile technology is represented by scientific information tools relating to health.

Open data sharing in the context of bioresources.

Recently many international initiatives have been developed to improve access to scientific information and to promote open data sharing. In the complex field of bioresources, the BRIF (Bioresource Research Impact Factor) project aims to create suitable methods to recognise and measure the use and impact of biological resources in scientific/academic work, in order to maximize access by researchers to collections of biological materials and attached databases, and to recognize efforts involved in their maintenance. The lack of a proper recognition of scientific contribution is in fact a major obstacle which impedes bioresource sharing. In this context, the BRIF initiative can be considered as a tool to facilitate research resource sharing.