Fact Sheet Policy

Fact Sheet Policy

Revision Dates: December 2001, April 2002, May 2002, August 2003

POLICY

ADA will participate with the food industry, including commercial entities, to provide consumers with credible, scientifically based information about food, nutrition and fitness through Nutrition Fact Sheets published in the Journal and distributed to consumers. Information published in Nutrition Fact Sheets must conform to ADA positions, policies and philosophies. 

GENERAL GUIDELINES

Procedures and guidelines are in place to prevent inappropriate influence over the content where the would-be influencer’s self-interest might run counter to sound science or to ADA positions, policies and philosophies.

  1. The review and editing process for sponsored Nutrition Fact Sheets is designed to minimize any possibility of a conflict of interest and to enforce ADA’s control of fact sheet content.
  2. Members, selected for their specialized knowledge or experience, as appropriate, as well as ADA staff participate in the review process.
  3. Consistency with ADA’s positions and policy statements, as well as accuracy and clarity of messages, are essential for a fact sheet to receive final approval for publication.
  4. Approval will not be granted where the omission of relevant facts or important information presents an unbalanced view of a significant issue in which the sponsor has a stake.
  5. Nutrition Fact Sheets will have an expiration date printed on them. Fact sheets will expire one to three years from the date of their publication. The exact length will depend on the maturity of research and evidence with regard to the fact-sheet topic. Most fact sheets will have a three-year life, but one-year or two-year expiration dates will be used in cases where it is likely that emerging research may require an earlier updating.
  6. Sponsors may reproduce and distribute copies of current (i.e., unexpired) fact sheets and may post them on their Web sites. A sponsor does not have the right to alter the content.
  7. A sponsor may not misrepresent the fact sheet sponsorship relationship with ADA as a product or brand endorsement by ADA.
  8. Sponsors may provide direct links to fact sheets on the ADA site, as long as no endorsement is implied.
  9. In order to protect the editorial integrity of the Journal, Nutrition Fact Sheets on a specific topic will not be published in the same issue as research related to that topic.
  10. In order to separate the advertising sales process and advertising revenue considerations from the fact sheet editorial and approval process, ADA will keep the two processes administratively separate. Decisions regarding fact sheets will always be made independently of any advertising revenue considerations. The sponsor of a fact sheet need not make a commitment to purchase advertising. In order to avoid giving the impression that fact sheets and advertising are linked, if a fact sheet sponsor purchases advertising in the same issue as the fact sheet, the two items will not be placed adjacent to each other.

REVIEW AND APPROVAL PROCEDURES

The review and editing process for Nutrition Fact Sheets is as follows:

  1. The process typically begins with an inquiry from an industry representative about the possibility of a fact sheet. The ADA Knowledge Center project manager then works with the inquirer to determine whether the proposed topic, key messages and point of view are consistent with ADA requirements and represent a position that ADA would want to communicate to the public if ADA could afford to do so without sponsorship. If they are not, the project manager may be able to suggest modifications that would bring the proposal in line with ADA guidelines. If they cannot reach a tentative agreement at this point, the project is rejected. If they do reach agreement, the project manager summarizes the topic, key messages and point of view and submits the information for the ADA review process.
  2. In stage one of the review process, the information goes to a review group made up of staff from the Knowledge Center, Marketing and Communications, House of Delegates, the Journal and Scientific Affairs as well as a minimum of two members from a Fact Sheet Review Panel of members. Unanimous approval by the review group is required. Further modifications and iterations may be required to obtain this approval. If unanimous approval is not obtained, the project may not go to the next stage without review and approval by the E-Team and the CEO.
  3. The Fact Sheet Review Panel consists of representatives from DPGs plus other technical experts. The Knowledge Center will contact DPG Chairs annually to obtain a list of potential review panel members. DPG Chairs will submit two nominees to serve on the review panel for one year. All reviewers must submit a signed Duality of Interest Disclosure Form.
  4. If the proposal is approved, the Knowledge Center sends the approved summary of the topic, key messages and point of view to the prospective sponsor along with a letter of agreement.
  5. After the agreement is signed, the Knowledge Center project manager prepares a rough first draft of the fact sheet and sends it to the sponsor. If the sponsor has professional writers or nutrition experts working on the project, they are invited to submit suggestions for improvement of the draft, which are taken into consideration by the Knowledge Center project manager. If irreconcilable differences arise at this point, the project can still be abandoned. When tentative agreement is reached on a draft, the project manager submits it for stage two of the review process.
  6. In stage two, this draft is reviewed and edited internally by staff from the Knowledge Center, House of Delegates, Public Relations, the Journal, Scientific Affairs and Research and, if appropriate, Policy Initiatives and Advocacy.
  7. A concurrent external review is conducted by a minimum of two ADA members selected from the Fact Sheet Review Panel — based on expertise in the topic area and/or consumer communications. If deemed appropriate by the ADA Director of Scientific Affairs and Research, one of the members will be selected from the Research DPG. Reviewers’ corrections are incorporated into the final draft. When reviewers’ comments disagree, a third reviewer from the list of technical experts may be selected. 
  8. If a consensus cannot be reached and if there is significant disagreement, the fact sheet draft may not go to the next stage without the concurrence of the E-Team and CEO.
  9. The fact sheet, as approved by ADA, is then sent to the sponsor or the sponsor’s agency for review. If the approved version is not acceptable to the sponsor, then the project may be abandoned or a draft with additional modifications may be submitted again through the review process for approval.
  10. ADA has final editorial control of the content of all Nutrition Fact Sheets.

FURTHER EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

  1. Nutrition Fact Sheets are designed to provide a brief overview of a subject or to focus on one or two key food and nutrition messages. Additional resources may be listed that will provide more in-depth information, including the sponsor’s Web site and/or consumer information 800 number.
  2. Acknowledgement of the sponsor and ADA’s disclaimer sentence, "The appearance of this information does not constitute an endorsement by ADA of the sponsor’s products or services," is printed on the front of the Nutrition Fact Sheet. The sponsor’s logo appears along with the ADA logo on page two of the fact sheet.
  3. Nutrition Fact Sheets are 800 to 1,000 words in length and written at the sixth to eighth grade reading level.
  4. Brand names may not appear within the text of Nutrition Fact Sheets. 
  5. It is the sponsor’s responsibility to supply references or research documentation to substantiate the accuracy of fact sheet statements.
  6. When a fact sheet is supported by research that was funded by the fact sheet sponsor and previously published in the Journal, a disclaimer to that effect will be placed in the fact sheet.
  7. On the ADA Web site, individual fact sheets may be followed by references and hyperlinks to related nutrition information available elsewhere on the ADA site that might be useful and informative to consumers interested in the particular topic. 
  8. At the sole discretion of ADA, any fact sheet may be removed from the ADA Web site at any time after ADA has fulfilled its standard one-year, Web site agreement with the sponsor.