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

Abstract

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.

Ethical Publications in Medical Research

“…• Authors should disclose any of his/her conlict of interest and a statement whether they have received any support from medical writers [26].…”

Legal remedies for medical ghostwriting: Imposing fraud liability on guest authors of ghostwritten articles

“…An especially problematic issue involves the industry practice of publishing studies prepared by hired medical writers but signed by academic ''guest authors'' who are invited to add their names without fulfilling authorship criteria. In this case, ''guest authorship'' is accompanied by ''ghostwriting,'' which occurs when a published article fails to acknowledge the original writer or writers' contributions [2][3][4]. Ghostwriting can also occur when an academic research group uses a professional writer to draft an article based on data generated by the group.…”

“…Commentators have condemned the practice as unethical and unacceptable and have discussed the harms resulting from this form of medical ghostwriting, recommending that journal submissions be policed more aggressively and that the ''guest authors'' be suitably sanctioned by journals, academic institutions, and regulatory agencies [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, these recommendations have not yet been widely embraced by the academic institutions, medical journals, and medical licensing organizations that would seem to have the most at stake in curbing this practice.…”

Change Again: A New Look for Journal Articles

“…Guidelines for authors and contributors have been carefully outlined in documents prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE; http:// www.icmje.org/) and in a variety of articles. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The declaration of conflicting interests section must describe any potential conflicting or competing interests that could affect the conduct of the study, interpretation of results, or preparation of the manuscript. This should include financial disclosures not only from the manuscript authors, but also from any collaborators who contributed to the study but did not merit article authorship.…”