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.