Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6013

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Publication type: news

Flap Claims Journal Editor
SCIENCE ( The American Association for the Advancement of Science ) 2006 Sep 1

Full text:

SCIENCE
Volume 313, Number 5791, Issue of 01 September 2006 page 1217

Flap Claims Journal Editor

The editor of Neuropsychopharmacology will relinquish his post following a stir over his failure to list commercial ties in a July article about a new treatment for depression on which he was primary author (Science, 4 August, p. 598 ). Charles Nemeroff, chair of the psychiatry department at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, last week notified the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the journal’s publisher, that he would step down when his 3-year term ends in December. “The controversy . continues to detract from our basic mission,” says Nemeroff, who was offered a second term in May.

“I cannot recall another time where there has been so much concern among the
membership,” wrote ACNP president Kenneth Davis in a 27 August letter to
members.

Last week, the ACNP Council, which oversees the journal, approved a series
of measures to address the issue. These include disclosure by all council
members and their spouses of recent relationships with industry. “Our
College . sits on the fault line between academia and industry,” wrote
Davis, who said he hopes the new editor will be “relatively free of industry
relationships.”

C2006 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.