editorial misconduct george thomas, editor, indian journal of medical ethics
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Editorial Misconduct
George Thomas,
Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
www.ijme.in
• Thanks– Committee on Publication Ethics– World Association of Medical Editors– Richard Smith former editor BMJ
Responsibilities
• strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;• constantly improve the journal;• ensure the quality of the material they publish;• champion freedom of expression;• maintain the integrity of the academic record;• preclude business needs from compromising
intellectual standards;• always be willing to publish corrections,
clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
COPE
Responsibilities
• Recognise and declare editorial interests– NEJM sold 929,400 reprints of a single research article
on Vioxx
• Be aware of interest beyond the commercial
Responsibilities
• Editors should:• Respect their journal’s constituents (readers,
authors, reviewers, and the human subjects of research) by:– Making the journal’s processes (e.g., governance,
editorial staff members, number of reviewers, review times, acceptance rate) transparent;
– Thanking reviewers for their work;– Protecting the confidentiality of human subjects.
WAME
Nicole Suciu-Foca
• She is the editor of Human Immunology• Invited Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, head of the immunology
department at a large public hospital in Madrid and professor of immunology and cell biology at Madrid's Complutense University, to be the guest editor of a theme issue on anthropology and genetic markers
• The guest editor was given little or no guidance on what was expected
Nicole Suciu-Foca
• Arnaiz-Villena's keynote paper concluded that Jews and Palestinians are genetically very close and that their "rivalry is based on cultural and religious, but not genetic, differences”
• These and other “political” phrases caused uproar• The guest editor was fired from the editorial board• Article retracted• Subscribers urged "to physically remove the pages"
Nicole Suciu-Foca
• But did the problems arise from lapses in translation and editing rather than political intent--and was the guest editor scapegoated?
• The editor did not face any judgement, but should she have done?
• Improve the quality of their journal by:– Becoming familiar with the best practice in
editing, peer review, research ethics, methods of investigation, and the rationale and evidence base supporting them;
– Establishing appropriate programs to monitor journals’ performance;
– Soliciting external evaluations of the journal’s effectiveness.
WAME
Responsibilities
Sir Cyril Burt: the classic case
• Founded the British Journal of Statistical Psychology and was its editor
• Published 63 of his own articles• Often altered the work of others without permission,
sometimes adding favourable references to his own work
• Once he published a letter he wrote himself under a pseudonym and a response he also wrote himself under another pseudonym in order to attack a colleague
• Promote self-correction in science and participate in efforts to improve the practice of scientific investigation by:– Publishing corrections, retractions, and
critiques of published articles;– Take responsibility for improving the level of
scientific investigation and medical writing in the larger community of potential authors and readers.
WAME
Responsibilities
• Assure honesty and integrity of the content of their journal and minimize bias by:– Managing conflicts of interest;– Maintaining confidentiality of information;– Separating the editorial and business
functions of the journal
WAME
Responsibilities
• In 2007, Reed Elsevier the publisher of Lancet and other journals was pressured by many academics including the Lancet to exit the arms exhibition which it was organising.
Potential problems
• Publication bias– Author known, institution known
• Poor peer review
• Poor response to authors
Summary
• Editors of medical journals have responsibilities to readers, authors, reviewers.
• The Committee on Publication Ethics and The World Association of Medical Editors guidelines are helpful.
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