Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18842

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

Marcovitch H
Editors, Publishers, Impact Factors, and Reprint Income
PLoS Med 2010 Oct 26; 7:(10):
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000355

Abstract:

Editors would like to imagine they are simply gatekeepers who facilitate the interaction between authors who wish to impart information and people who want to read it. In fact, they are subject to a raft of external pressures that interfere with this core task. Coauthors are prone to disputes with each other and with reviewers; rejected authors may protest; readers may be dissatisfied; institutions may react inadequately to editors’ concerns about probity; editorial freedom may be compromised by the demands of the learned society that owns the journal; and a commercial publisher might exert subtle-or unsubtle-pressure to increase profitability. All of these distractions increase the possibility of competing interests corrupting the editorial process….