Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15393

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Tanne JH.
JAMA's new rule on whistleblowers creates controversy.
BMJ 2009 Mar 31; 338:b1352:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/mar31_2/b1352

Abstract:

The announcement by the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association that, in future, anyone writing to the journal about a possible conflict of interest on the part of authors must keep silent while their allegations are investigated has aroused a storm of criticism.

The new policy (http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/jed90012pap_E1_E3.pdf) was announced after Jonathan Leo, professor of neuroanatomy at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, and Jeffrey Lacasse, of Arizona State University, published a letter online in the BMJ in which they criticised a study published in JAMA and pointing out that the lead author had not reported a conflict of interest (http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/338/feb05_1/b463#208503,9Feb2009).

The American Medical Association, JAMA’s owner and publisher, has said in a press release that it is referring the controversy to JAMA’s journal oversight committee. It said, “While we are ultimately responsible for these publications, as most in the medical and . . .