European Confederation of Medical Mycology
Confédération Européenne de Mycologie Médicale

From Mycology Newsletter 1997, P. 5

Rules for Epidemiological Working Groups

A working Group is composed of a Convenor (appointed by the Council), of several national coordinators (one in each country which wants to participate) and of local investigators. Convenor and coordinators have to be members of their national Society. A study has to be approved by the Council on the basis of submission of a short project outline making clear the background and the goals of the study.

The collection of data requires a form that will be prepared by the Convenor with the help of some experts in the field (including a statistician).When the form is ready, an announcement will be made in the ECMM Newsletter. This announcement will include a summary of the study, the form, and an application form allowing people who are interested in participating to send their name, address, affiliation and country to the Convenor. Those who wish to be the coordinator of the study for their country will be able to apply at the same time. This will allow the Convenor to select national coordinators (no more than 1/country) on the basis of their willingness to participate and their expertise in the field.

Participants can also provide help in selecting the appropriate coordinator. National coordinators will be responsible for collecting the forms, checking they are properly filled, helping local investigators if necessary and forwarding the forms to the Convenor. If a coordinator has to resign, the Convenor of the study will select another coordinator (and not the other way around). Convenor and coordinators can only be involved in one epidemiological study for the ECMM. When the Group is formed (Convenor+ coordinators), the Convenor has to inform the General Secretary of their names. He is also expected to submit a progress report to the General Secretary each year.

The General Secretary is responsible for co-ordinating the work of the different Working Groups. The Convenor of a study has to check with the local delegate or the administration of his country if there are any regulations on data collection, especially when using personal information on the patients.

Isolates For all the epidemiological studies, it would be important to list centres (one or several) that will be able to collect the fungal isolates. This will allow a check on the identification and storage of isolates for future studies. At the request of the depositor, the isolates will be maintained in a restricted collection, i.e. will not be sold or given out without authorization. If a subsequent study is designed that requires the use of isolates stored from a previous study, all the mycologists who participated initially will be invited to join the new group.

Authorship It must be clear that all participants will co-author the paper published by the Group. However, rules for authorship should be as follow:

• The Convenor will be the first author.
• The coordinators will follow in a list ranked by the number of forms collected and, in case of equal contribution, in alphabetical order.
• The Study Group will sign last on behalf of the ECMM and the participants will be listed in alphabetical order of the country and then in alphabetical order of the last name for each country. Each coordinator will be responsible for the accuracy of the list.
• In case of a study involving isolates collected previously, the Study Group will include the members whose isolates are used even if they do not participate in the second study.
• Before submission to a Journal, the paper should be reviewed by all the coordinators and an agreement reached.

Participants from each country will be informed by the coordinator.A copy of the final paper should be sent to the General Secretary.