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NEJM responds to survey on ghost-writing

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney September 21, 2009 07:57 AM

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The New England Journal of Medicine disputes findings from a a rival journal's survey that says there were more ghostwritten articles at the Waltham-based publication than at five other prominent journals.

"We take matters of authorship very seriously," New England Journal spokeswoman Jennifer Zeis said in an e-mailed statement. "We are persistent and vigilant in communicating our policies, and we hold authors accountable for their work."

At a Vancouver conference on scientific publishing, Joseph Wislar and three other editors from the Journal of the American Medical Association presented results from a survey of 630 authors whose articles appeared in six journals, which also included the Annals of Internal Medicine, The Lancet, Nature Medicine, and PLoS Medicine. The authors were asked how many of their more than 600 articles, reviews, and editorials were written by ghost authors, or writers who are not named in the articles.

According to an abstract of the JAMA presentation, the New England Journal had the highest prevalence of ghost authors, at 10.9 percent. The rate was 7.9 percent in JAMA, 7.6 percent in The Lancet, 7.6 percent in PLoS Medicine, 4.9 percent in The Annals of Internal Medicine, and 2 percent in Nature Medicine.

The New England Journal requires its authors to specify who has written an article submitted for publication and whether that person was paid and by whom, Zeis said.

"There is a significant difference between someone who is hired to provide editorial assistance to academic authors and someone who is hired to prepare a manuscript according to company specifications so it may ultimately be published under an academic author’s name," she said. "NEJM has ... policies in place to identify all contributors to manuscripts."

The practice of ghostwriting is controversial because of the potential for hiding affiliations or conflicts of interest that might influence the way scientific information is presented, such as when authors receive payments from drug companies. The JAMA survey did not ask who paid the ghost authors.

The New England Journal requires authors to sign a statement certifying that they wrote the manuscript and agreed with decisions made about it.

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White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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