September 27, 2007

Drug Industry Said to Exert Vast Power Over Research by Ghost-Managing Articles

Drug companies play a far bigger role than previously suspected in managing how academics publish articles in medical journals, charges Sergio Sismondo, an associate professor of philosophy and sociology at Queen’s University in Canada. In an essay this week in PLoS Medicine, published by the Public Library of Science, Mr. Sismondo says that “a substantial percentage of medical-journal articles (in addition to meeting presentations and other forms of publication …) are ghost-managed, allowing the pharmaceutical industry considerable influence on medical research.”

Mr. Sismondo bases his case on an examination of internal company documents revealed in a lawsuit and also on his research into so-called medical education and communication companies. Those businesses help pharmaceutical companies promote their products by preparing academic articles and then recruiting university scientists to put their names on the manuscripts, says Mr. Sismondo. “Ghost management of medical-journal publications is clearly a substantial business, employing thousands of marketers, writers, and managers,” he says.

It will take teamwork from journal editors, academic administrators, and scientists to solve the problem, he says. Editors could refuse to deal with third-party publication planners and insist that the listed authors specify the exact roles they played in preparing articles. Universities should not sign contracts that give the sponsors of research projects the authority to write or edit articles. And administrators should punish scientists who sign their names to articles written by others. Investigators, he says, should refuse to participate in projects where a company secretly writes the academic paper.

Scientists, he says, must be “more modest about how many articles they can publish, and more realistic about the amount of effort, legwork, and/or creativity it takes to publish an article.” —Richard Monastersky

Comments

1. Imagine living in a world where ALL information is falsified.

   — marci    Sep 27, 12:32 PM    #

2. “more modest about how many articles they can publish…” !!!
   Granted, it is a great deal of work to publish a manuscript, and it takes time to ensure that the results are accurately represented. But fewer published papers is interpreted as being less productive, regardless of quality. There is a lot of pressure to continue to publish. When preparing for P&T or a grant renewal, it often seems quantity is valued just as much as quality.

   — CE    Sep 27, 03:47 PM    #

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