Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15263

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Publication type: Journal Article

Gornall J.
Research Transparency: Industry attack on academics
BMJ 2009 Mar 9; 338:b736
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/mar09_1/b736

Abstract:

An apparently uncontroversial study of potential industry influence on sponsored drug trials resulted in the authors facing accusations of misconduct, Jonathan Gornall reports

It began with the publication of a research letter,1 the third paper from a group of researchers in a series concerned with the accountability and transparency of randomised trials.2 3 It led not to debate through the normal scientific forums but to a series of public attacks by a national drug industry body on the integrity of the researchers, culminating in a formal accusation that they were guilty of scientific misconduct.

JAMA published “Constraints on publication rights in industry-related clinical trials” in April 2006. The paper was based on a study of 44 industry initiated randomised trials approved by the scientific and ethics committees for Copenhagen and Frederiksberg in Denmark in 1994-5 and published in 2004.1

The researchers, of whom four worked for the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark and two for the Centre for Statistics in Medicine in Oxford, had chosen to work with the Danish material because they were . . .

Adverse reaction

Commitment to transparency

Jgornall@mac.com