RESEARCH - Ghostwriting is called rife in medical journals

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Ghostwriting Is Called Rife in Medical Journals

By DUFF WILSON and NATASHA SINGER

Published: September 10, 2009

Six of the top medical journals published a significant number of

articles in 2008 that were written by ghostwriters financed by drug

companies, according to a study released Thursday by editors of The

Journal of the American Medical Association.

Among authors of 630 articles who responded anonymously to an online

questionnaire created for the study, 7.8 percent acknowledged

contributions to their articles by people whose work should have

qualified them to be named as authors on the papers but who were not

listed.

In the scientific literature, ghostwriting usually refers to medical

writers, often sponsored by a drug or medical device company, who make

major research or writing contributions to articles published under

the names of academic authors.

The concern, the researchers said, is that the work of

industry-sponsored writers has the potential to introduce bias,

affecting treatment decisions by doctors and, ultimately, patient

care.

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/business/11ghost.html?em

Not an MD