Freedom of Science – Can Industry Influence What Scientists Publish?

Abstract

Support:The publication of this article was supported by Roche. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Roche.The right of scientists to publish data from their preclinical and clinical studies is a much-cherished principle and is vital to the freedom of science. Indeed, full and candid reporting of results is essential for scientific advancement; without such disclosure research work would have much diminished purpose and no impact outside the centre or organisation where the work was conducted.1,2 Prevention of publication preserves ignorance and may cause other researchers to needlessly repeat work. This is also unethical as it requires that human beings are exposed to a certain risk associated with such studies again without need.Data are considered to merit publication when they are regarded by journal editors as novel, valid, derived using correct study designs and methods and are correctly interpreted. They are then subject to a wholly independent, unbiased and anonymous peer-review process. [3][4][5] This strict but essentially fair system, however, has recently been threatened when published papers that show results from studies that involve commercial products were perceived by the manufacturer to potentially harm their market position by the negative or unflattering results presented. In such instances, commercial organisations have attempted to block publication or force retraction of articles by taking legal action against the authors and their institutions. The purpose of this article will be to consider the right to publish in science, review cases in which commercial bodies have attempted to block this right and assess the damaging effects on scientific freedom when such action is taken. Conduct and Communication of Medical ResearchSome 20 to 30 years ago, clinical studies were performed most often by academic centres, especially studies in early stages of clinical development or more clinical-experimental studies. Nowadays, such studies are often conducted by contract research organisations (CROs) on behalf of commercial sponsors, e.g. pharmaceutical, medical device or biotechnology companies. The main reason for this shift is the much higher complexity of study performance mainly in terms of formal aspects, data quality, study performance, etc. It is unquestionable that a successful collaboration of commercial sponsors and CROs (i.e. clinicians and scientists in these institutions and those collaborating outside these institutions) is essential for the development and improvement of medicines and medical devices. Publishing the results of such studies in respected scientific journals should be an integral part of this process. It is also unquestionable that all collaborators (e.g. clinical investigators, study sponsors, scientists, authors) included in industry-sponsored research should ensure that the study as well as its publication is performed in a responsible and ethical manner.

Authors’ conflicts of interest in Nepalese healthcare journals

“…Regarding autonomy of publication, everyone believes that the authors should be as independent as possible, although the pressure from big industries can be huge [9,10,26]. For example, some industries require that the final manuscript be approved by them before submitting it to the journal.…”