Some of the editorial team’s activities take time, but are often neglected in overall planning. These may include, for example, acknowledgements and follow-up letters to reviewers, follow-up of letters to the editors, which sometimes require a correction or erratum in the next issue and resolution of conflicts with pharmaceutical companies (or their opinion leaders) or other institutions. The team may also prepare an annual index of drugs and topics covered in each bulletin (this work can be made easier by building the index over time by adding new entries each time a new issue is prepared).

Some of these activities can be planned for in advance, for example the preparation of the index and follow-up with reviewers. Others are unpredictable, but time needs to be set aside for them. If a bulletin is produced by a small editorial team, the editors may also be in charge of subscriptions, promotion or accounting. A realistic amount of time must of course be allowed for these time-consuming activities. There is no need to point out that financial planning and management - discussed in Chapter 5 - are also crucial.