The Trouble With Medical Journals

by Smith; Richard

• ISBN13: 9781853156731
• ISBN10: 1853156736
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-09-15
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

It is a turbulent time for STM publishing. With moves towards open access to scientific literature, the future of medical journals is uncertain and unpredictable. It is the only book of its kind to address this problematic issue. Richard Smith, a previous editor of the British Medical Journalfor twenty five years and one of the most influential people within medical journals and medicine depicts a compelling picture of medical publishing. Drawn from the author's own extensive and unrivalled experience in medical publishing, Smith provides a refreshingly honest analysis of current andfuture trends in journal publishing including peer review, ethics in medical publishing, the influence of the pharmaceutical industry as well as that of the mass media, and the risk that money can cloud objectivity in publishing. Full of personal anecdotes and amusing tales, this is a book foreveryone, from researcher to patient, author to publisher and editor to reader. The controversial and highly topical nature of this book, will make uncomfortable reading for publishers, researchers, funding bodies and pharmaceutical companies alike making this useful resource for anyone with aninterest in medicine or medical journals.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Introduction
Introduction: medical journals are probably a force for good but need considerable reform	3	(14)
Section 2: The nature of medical journals
Why bother with medical journals and whether they are honest?	17	(16)
What and who are medical journals for?	33	(12)
Can medical journals lead or must they follow?	45	(8)
What are and what should be the values of medical journals?	53	(18)
Section 3: The processes of publishing medical research
The complexities and confusions of medical science	71	(12)
Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals	83	(14)
Section 4: Problems in publishing medical research
Research misconduct: the poisoning of the well	97	(14)
The death of the author and the birth of the contributor?	111	(8)
Publishing too much and nothing: serious problems not just nuisances	119	(6)
Conflicts of interest: how money clouds objectivity	125	(14)
Editorial misconduct, freedom and accountability: amateurs at work	139	(18)
Section 5: Important relationships of medical journals
Patients and medical journals: from objects to partners	157	(16)
Medical journals and the mass media: moving from love and hate to love	173	(12)
Trying to stop failing the developing world	185	(10)
Medical journals and pharmaceutical companies: uneasy bedfellows	195	(16)
The highly profitable but perhaps unethical business of publishing medical research	211	(14)
Section 6: Ethical accountability of researchers and journals
Relations between research ethics committees and medical journals: guarding the probity of research	225	(10)
Ethical support and accountability for journals: an ombudsman, an ethics committee, and next?	235	(8)
Libel and medical journals: proper constraint or against the public interest?	243	(8)
The case that concern with ethical issues in publishing medical research is overdone	251	(6)
Section 7: The future
Ethical manifestos for four different futures for medical publishing	257	(10)
References	267