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Cover image of Ethical Issues in Biomedical Publication
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Ethical Issues in Biomedical Publication

edited by Anne Hudson Jones and Faith McLellan

Publication Date

When the editors of two of the most prominent medical journals in the world—the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)—were fired in the same year, under circumstances that ranged from acrimonious to politically sensational, media attention again focused on biomedical publication. The controversy highlighted yet another ethical dimension of scientific research and its publication, topics that have generated intense scrutiny in recent years. As research funding has become scarcer and competition fiercer, with links between scientific discovery...

When the editors of two of the most prominent medical journals in the world—the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)—were fired in the same year, under circumstances that ranged from acrimonious to politically sensational, media attention again focused on biomedical publication. The controversy highlighted yet another ethical dimension of scientific research and its publication, topics that have generated intense scrutiny in recent years. As research funding has become scarcer and competition fiercer, with links between scientific discovery and commercial applications increasingly tighter and more lucrative, allegations of misconduct have also increased. Universities and research institutions, notably the NIH, have created offices of scientific integrity and mandated educational programs to investigate such allegations and to train researchers in the highest standards of sound, ethical scientific research.

Focusing on publication ethics as an essential aspect of responsible scientific conduct, Ethical Issues in Biomedical Publication examines a variety of troublesome issues, including authorship, peer review, repetitive publication, conflict of interest, and electronic publishing. The contributors include the editors of distinguished biomedical journals (among them, past or present editors of Academic Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, JAMA, and the Lancet), humanities scholars, scientists, lawyers, and a university administrator. Chapters address specific ethical issues and offer recommendations for preventing or solving problems associated with them. The result is a book that will serve as a standard reference for biomedical researchers, authors, editors, and teachers of research ethics.

"Educators, administrators, scientists, editors, and students should all welcome this comprehensive new book. Anne Hudson Jones and Faith McLellan have gathered a veritable who's who in the field of publication ethics for biomedical research. All those with a stake in biomedical research will surely want this volume on their bookshelf."—from the Foreword by Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., President, Association of American Medical Colleges

Reviews

Reviews

The authors have assembled an outstanding group of scientists with experience in their fields of expertise. The book is highly recommended for those intending to undertake clinical trials or similar research, as well as for those presently engaged in this field, as a refresher course in medical ethics.

This book discusses such ethical issues in publication as authorship, peer review, and repetitive publication; it emphasizes the conflicts of interest that can compromise good authorship and reviewing practices; and it highlights the challenges that electronic publication is presenting to our ideas of ethical publication practices. I only wish that this book had been available when I began my editorial work, if not when I began my research career.

This rich collection provides practical help to those of us who work with scientists and physicians who do research and then write it up for publication. Almost every chapter enlightens with strong, new ideas. Patients, universities, the courts, and the medical profession will certainly be better off if the information in this volume is absorbed and put into practice.

While peer review, authorship and conflicts of interest are mainstays of ethical discussion about science, the role of publication has not been fully examined before this provocative book.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
400
ISBN
9780801863158
Table of Contents

Part I: The Major Ethical Issues
Changing Traditions of Authorship
The Imagined Author
The Ethics of Peer Review
Peer Review and the Ethics of Internet Publishing
Repetitive and Divided Publication
Con

Part I: The Major Ethical Issues
Changing Traditions of Authorship
The Imagined Author
The Ethics of Peer Review
Peer Review and the Ethics of Internet Publishing
Repetitive and Divided Publication
Conflict of Interest
Ethics in Cyberspace: The Challenges of Electronic Scientific Publishing
Part II: Responses and Remedies: Law, Policy, Education
When Ethics Fails: Legal and Administrative Causes of Action and Remedies
Scientific Misconduct: Policy Issues
Ethical Scientific Reporting and Publication: Training the Trainees
Educating the Leaders: Toward Systemic Change
Part III: Commentaries and Epilogue
Research Misconduct and the Ethics of Scientific Publication
A View from the Trenches: One Scientist's Perspective
The Other Two Cultures: How Research and Publishing Can Move Forward Together

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Anne Hudson Jones

Anne Hudson Jones is the former editor of Literature and Medicine and a professor at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.