Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18297

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

Anekwe TD
Profits And Plagiarism: The Case of Medical Ghostwriting
Bioethics 2010 Feb 16; 24:(6):267-272
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122204938/HTMLSTART?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Abstract:

This paper focuses on medical ghostwriting in the United States. I argue that medical ghostwriting often involves plagiarism and, in those cases, can be treated as an act of research misconduct by both the federal government and research institutions. I also propose several anti-ghostwriting measures, including: 1) journals should implement guarantor policies so that researchers may be better held accountable for their work; 2) research institutions and the federal government should explicitly prohibit medical ghostwriting and outline appropriate penalties; and 3) a publicly available database should be created to record researchers’ ethics violations.