Publication ethics
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This document discusses various publication ethics issues including duplicate publication, authorship, scientific misconduct, and conflicts of interest. It provides definitions and examples of these issues, noting that journals exist to enhance the scientific database but also other interests like profits. The document cites a study that found around 0.04% of papers involved plagiarism and 1.35% involved duplicate publication. It discusses best practices for authorship including determining order upfront and documenting responsibilities. Conflicts of interest can mislead readers and include financial, personal, political or academic interests. The Committee on Publication Ethics was founded to address integrity concerns in medical journal publishing.
Publication ethics
- 1. Publication ethics Roger Watson Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Advanced Nursing Editor, Nursing Open
- 2. Ethical Issues in Publication 1. Duplicate Publication 2. Authorship and Order 3. Scientific Misconduct (including plagiarism) 4. Conflict of interest
- 3. Why do ethical issues arise? Journals exist to enhance the scientific database …and enhance seniority and income …and pharmaceutical company profits …and publishers’ profits (Courtesy of Harvey Marcovitch, COPE)
- 4. Duplicators and plagiarisers 62,312 Medline citations (sample) •0.04% with no shared author but content highly similar = plagiarism •1.35% with shared authors and highly similar content = duplication Therefore, possibly 3500 plagiarised and 117,500 duplicate papers (Mounir Errami et al 2008)
- 5. Duplicate Publication Not republishing the same findings Not submitting the same manuscript to two or more journals at once Not dividing one research project into many little papers (“salami slicing”)
- 6. Duplication.. If in doubt...always seek editorial advice
- 7. Authorship • Who can be an author? • Authorship order • Issues and problems with authorship
- 8. Authorship International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) at http://www.icmje.org/ states authorship is based on: 1) substantial contributions to the conception and design of a paper, or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data, and, 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published.
- 9. Best Practices for Authorship • Discuss the order of authorship at beginning • Revisit decisions on authorship during project – especially if responsibilities changes • Disclose if any writing done by professional writers • Document everything in writing • All authors take responsibility for content
- 10. Plagiarism Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas, including research grant applications to submission under “new” authorship of a complete paper, sometimes in a different language. It may occur at any stage of planning, research, writing, or publication: it applies to print and electronic versions.
- 11. JCN & JAN – ‘ithenticate’ policy • 15% similarity allowed • 16-30% - authors invited to revise • 31-50% - paper rejected • Over 50% - paper rejected and author asked for an explanation.
- 12. What is Fraud? Fabrication: Invention of data or cases Falsification: Wilful distortion of data – Ignoring outliers – Not admitting that some data are missing. – Post hoc analyses that are not admitted – Not including data on side effects in a clinical trial
- 13. What is Conflict of Interest? • Conflict of interest – a set of conditions in which professional judgement concerning a primary interest (such as the validity of a research study) tends to be unduly influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). – ....or may give that impression
- 14. Conflicts of Interest • They have been described as those which, when revealed later, ‘would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived’. • They may be personal, commercial, political, academic or financial. • “Financial” interests may include employment, research funding, stock or share ownership, payment for lectures or travel, consultancies and company support for staff.
- 15. Other Conflicts of Interest • Strong personal beliefs – in papers related to emotionally charged areas such as stem cells, abortion, or evolution • Other scientific conflicts of interest – Studies so closely related to your own that you are in competition with the authors – Labs/groups with ongoing real or apparent competitions in a general area of research
- 16. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) • Founded in 1997 as a response to growing anxiety about the integrity of authors submitting studies to medical journals. • Founded by British Medical Journal & Lancet editors