Updated March 14, 2024
Overview
Educational Concepts, dba VetMedux (“Plumb’s”) is committed to delivering resources and tools to help guide the most critical decisions in veterinary medicine. The purpose of the Editorial Policy for Plumb’s™ and Plumb’s Pro is to disclose details relevant to editorial approach and processes, as well as the governance and protection of Plumb’s content for the professionals who rely on it.
Plumb’s is designed for and intended to be used by veterinary professionals, pharmacists, and students as the most authoritative resource on veterinary drugs. After a transition from human pharmacy to veterinary pharmacy, Donald A. Plumb, PharmD, recognized that veterinarians lacked a single drug reference with clinically relevant dose recommendations, and he subsequently created the Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook. The collection has since been published in multiple editions and, in 2015, was launched in the digital resource, Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs. In 2018, Educational Concepts, LLC, purchased the Plumb’s content in entirety, including digital properties and subsequent book editions.
In 2021, VetMedux launched Plumb’s Pro, a premium content subscription that combines Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs with all-new resources for veterinary professionals. Plumb’s Pro offers diagnostic, treatment, and pet owner-based information and serves as a singular, complete veterinary resource from diagnosis to discharge.
Editorial Integrity
Our mission is to guide the most critical decisions in veterinary medicine. Our objective is to deliver accurate, real-time information that reflects current and best practices in veterinary medicine and pharmacy.
The trust of the veterinary community is integral in the fulfillment of this objective. Plumb’s earns and maintains this trust through strict objectivity and adherence to a code of editorial integrity.
To prevent undue influence in the creation of Plumb’s content, materials are determined, generated, and edited solely by an independent staff of veterinary and pharmacy officers and medical editors. Content (in part or whole) is not accepted from and is not influenced by advertisers, manufacturers, or other external industry parties.
This policy is to protect the interests of all associated with Plumb’s use.
Veterinary and pharmacy staff supervising the content of Plumb’s will accept and consider feedback from the veterinary community. More details are outlined in Feedback, Corrections, & Errata.
Editorial Officers
Plumb’s employs a panel of clinically experienced and highly trained veterinarians and pharmacists (“Veterinary Officers,” “Pharmacy Officers”) who supervise the accuracy and integrity of content, ensuring it delivers to the real and practical needs of the veterinary and pharmacy communities.
More information on specific Veterinary and Pharmacy Officer roles and the entire Plumb’s editorial team can be found here.
Selection of Content
- Editorial Planning
Plumb’s honors the impact and legacy the therapeutic content originally created by Dr. Donald Plumb has had on the veterinary community. We seek to build on that legacy by rigorously reviewing and updating drug content while growing new avenues of the Plumb’s portfolio with comprehensive diagnostic, management, and client information materials.
Drugs selected for inclusion as Plumb’s monographs are those that have been demonstrated in veterinary patients as safe and effective at the time of publication or update, using the best available information at that time, either through approval as safe and effective as granted by a regulatory agency or sufficient support in the scientific literature. Selection of information for inclusion is rooted in the professional judgment of the editorial team.
Clinical conditions and signs selected for inclusion as Plumb’s monographs are those identified as relevant to clinical practice. Coordination and selection of clinical topics for inclusion as clinical monographs is directed by the editorial team.
Authors & Contributors
- Selection of Authors
The content in the original Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs Handbook was written and directed by Donald A. Plumb, PharmD, in close association with a team of contributors carefully selected by Dr. Plumb. Similarly, Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs today includes contributions from veterinary pharmacists and board-certified veterinary specialists carefully selected by the editorial team.
Authors contributing pharmacy content must have fellow designation in a veterinary pharmacy organization or be board certified by the International College of Veterinary Pharmacy. Authors contributing clinical (ie, diagnostic and treatment) content must be ABVS (or European/Australian equivalent) board-certified veterinary specialists or be co-authoring with a board-certified veterinary specialist.
Content provided by contributors undergoes rigorous review to ensure accuracy and completeness; contributors are expected to respond to queries and feedback from multiple points of review (see Peer Review). - Conflicts of Interest & Disclosure Agreements
Authors are selected based on their clinical experience and understanding of the material to be drafted. To ensure the objectivity of all content, authors are prohibited from receiving any form of payment or influence from industry partners or sponsors when creating content for Plumb’s.
Prior to creating content for Plumb’s, contributors are required to disclose any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest. Submitted content is closely evaluated by the editorial team to identify and eliminate potential bias. - Author Guidelines
When invited to contribute content to Plumb’s, authors receive instructions in the form of detailed author guidelines. These guidelines provide direction on the function of the content and expectations of the author, including but not limited to: use of evidence-based science to develop recommendations, complete dosing information, and providing responses to multiple reviewer queries.
Authors are also expected to write their material with attention to best practices in antimicrobial stewardship. - Originality
Content published under the Plumb’s brand is original, copyrighted content, owned by VetMedux, publisher of Plumb’s and Clinician’s Brief. As proprietor of both properties, VetMedux may, in its sole discretion, choose to use Clinician’s Brief content (modified or unmodified) in Plumb’s and Plumb’s content (modified or unmodified) in Clinician’s Brief; VetMedux may also choose to remove any such shared content at any time.
To ensure the originality of its content, Plumb’s invites authors/contributors to collaborate on specific topics pursuant to a rigorous editorial-planning process. Plumb’s holds its authors/contributors to high standards and provides significant editorial direction. Plumb’s requires that all content submitted to Plumb’s be completely original. Prohibitions against plagiarism and “text recycling” (self-plagiarism) are strictly enforced.
Peer Review
The resources created for the Plumb’s brand are intended to be accurate and useful at the point of care. A rigorous review process—an anonymized peer review in tandem with an internal review—helps to ensure Plumb’s content is evidence-based, scientifically valid, and practical for those delivering veterinary care.
- Anonymized, External Review Process
Plumb’s content is authored by veterinary specialists and/or veterinary pharmacists; after work is submitted, additional veterinary specialists and/or veterinary pharmacists are consulted to serve in the role of a peer reviewer. The author of the work is anonymous to the peer reviewer, whose identity is likewise undisclosed to the author.
Plumb’s clinical content updates (see Updates) undergo an external review by peer reviewers or Section Editors. Reviews for these updates are not anonymized. - Internal Review Process
Plumb’s is proud to employ skilled clinical editors (see Editorial Officers) who conduct close, careful reviews of all content in advance of publication. Whereas veterinary specialists conduct external reviews to ensure the alignment of the content with best practices within a specialty, internal reviews (ie, those completed by Plumb’s editorial staff) are intended to improve the content from multiple perspectives and may require multiple rounds of correspondence with authors.
References & Evidence
Authors are requested to substantiate claims of fact from prior research with references and citations from recent scientific literature. Authors are afforded the opportunity to provide anecdotal experience but are required to indicate (with textual cues) when claims are based on experience and not evidence.
Updates
Plumb’s content is updated on a systematic, continual schedule, or when new information deems updates necessary. Each monograph is reviewed and, if necessary, continually updated at regular intervals based on new information or predetermined schedule. Critical and practice-changing updates (eg, FDA-approved label information, safety alerts, adverse effects) are prioritized as soon as they are known.
Updates focus on new information on a disease or condition, new treatment or management recommendations, new indications for use of a drug, new dosage information, any recent pharmacokinetic information, and new dosage forms.
Updates for drug content are generated and cited, in preferential order, from primary and secondary literature of peer-reviewed journals, including consensus statements; databases (eg, FDA, Lexicomp); and substantiated clinical expert opinions.
Feedback, Corrections, & Errata
Updates to Plumb’s content reflect the ever-evolving body of veterinary knowledge. Changes to content over time do not indicate an error unless expressly marked as such.
Those who rely on Plumb’s content are encouraged to contact the editorial team to ask questions or offer feedback so this resource can be continually improved to serve the veterinary and pharmacy communities.
Submission of feedback or content revision recommendations does not guarantee that the requested content will be added to the reference. Changes are at the sole discretion of the editorial team.
Any errors found in the content are corrected as soon as they are detected. Users can alert the content team of any errors through the Plumb’s Help Center.
Errors found in the Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook (8th and subsequent editions) can be accessed on the errata page of the Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs website.
In September 2019, Plumb’s started a new policy for errata: errors will be corrected followed by an editorial note indicating what the original error was and the date it was corrected. When the monograph is updated in Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs (in the process documented in Updates), this editorial note is removed. Errors found in the Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook will be documented in the errata page as described above.
Copyright & Permissions
All Plumb’s content and digital assets, including drug content, diagnostic and treatment information, and pet owner educational materials, are the sole and exclusive property of VetMedux. By accessing Plumb’s (via app.plumbs.com or Plumb’s mobile application), users understand and agree that they do not acquire ownership of licensed materials and that all usage is governed by the Terms & Conditions and the Acceptable Use Policy.
VetMedux owns all materials on the Plumb’s websites and mobile applications, including text and graphics. All Plumb’s trademarks are owned by VetMedux.
Extra-Label Drug Use
Plumb’s content is United States-centric and includes information regarding extra-label drug usage. Such information is subject to the same level of editorial scrutiny as information about labeled drug usage. As with all Plumb’s content, however, Plumb’s users should exercise independent medical judgment when prescribing or recommending extra-label drug usage.
Disclaimer
Plumb’s is an online clinical resource to be used at the discretion of trained veterinary medical and pharmaceutical professionals to support diagnosis and treatment of veterinary conditions. Plumb’s does not provide medical, diagnostic, or treatment advice, and users should exercise clinical judgment at all times. Plumb’s is intended as a point-of-care reference and not as an exhaustive reference source. Plumb’s does not contain information regarding all possible conditions, diagnostic methods, treatments, drug information, or drug interactions. VetMedux and any other party involved in the creation of Plumb’s are not responsible for any direct, indirect, or perceived damage, loss, or injury incurred from use or misuse of Plumb’s information.
For more information about Plumb’s acceptable use policy, click here.