What Should Be Done To Tackle Ghostwriting in the Medical Literature?

P C Gotzsche; J P Kassirer; Karen L Woolley; E Wager; A Jacobs; A Gertel; C Hamilton

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000023

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What Should Be Done To Tackle Ghostwriting in the Medical Literature?

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

What Should Be Done To Tackle Ghostwriting in the Medical Literature?

P C Gotzsche, J P Kassirer, Karen L Woolley, E Wager, A Jacobs, A Gertel and C Hamilton

PLoS Medicine, Vol.6(2), pp.0122-0125

2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000023

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Abstract

medical literature

ghostwriting

Background to the debate: Ghostwriting occurs when someone makes substantial contributions to a manuscript without attribution or disclosure. It is considered bad publication practice in the medical sciences, and some argue it is scientific misconduct. At its extreme, medical ghostwriting involves pharmaceutical companies hiring professional writers to produce papers promoting their products but hiding those contributions and instead naming academic physicians or scientists as the authors. To improve transparency, many editors' associations and journals allow professional medical writers to contribute to the writing of papers without being listed as authors provided their role is acknowledged. This debate examines how best to tackle ghostwriting in the medical literature from the perspectives of a researcher, an editor, and the professional medical writer.

Details

Title: What Should Be Done To Tackle Ghostwriting in the Medical Literature?
Authors: P C Gotzsche (Author) - Nordic Cochrane Centre, Denmark
J P Kassirer (Author) - Tufts University School of Medicine, United States
Karen L Woolley (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health and Education
E Wager (Author) - Sideview, United Kingdom
A Jacobs (Author) - Dianthus Medical Limited, United Kingdom
A Gertel (Author) - Beardsworth Consulting Group Inc., United States
C Hamilton (Author) - Hamilton House, United States
Publication details: PLoS Medicine, Vol.6(2), pp.0122-0125
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Date published: 2009
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000023
ISSN: 1549-1277
Copyright note: Copyright © 2009 Gøtzsche et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Organisation Unit: UniSC Clinical Trials Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health and Sport Sciences - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449637002621
Output Type: Journal article

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