Re: Elsevier admits error

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

Not to defend Elsevier, but Merck shares some of the 
responsibility for ethical breaches in publishing.  Exposed 
during the Vioxx litigation, documents report that Merck engaged 
in preparing manuscripts and recruiting outside 
academically-affiliated researchers to become the authors of 
these articles.  The connection with Merck and the honoraria they 
pay to these "authors" somehow gets left of the manuscripts as 
well.

see:

Guest Authorship and Ghostwriting in Publications Related to 
Rofecoxib
JAMA. 2008;299(15):1800-1812.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/299/15/1800

from the abstract:

"For the publication of clinical trials, documents were found 
describing Merck employees working either independently or in 
collaboration with medical publishing companies to prepare 
manuscripts and subsequently recruiting external, academically 
affiliated investigators to be authors. Recruited authors were 
frequently placed in the first and second positions of the 
authorship list. For the publication of scientific review papers, 
documents were found describing Merck marketing employees 
developing plans for manuscripts, contracting with medical 
publishing companies to ghostwrite manuscripts, and recruiting 
external, academically affiliated investigators to be authors. 
Recruited authors were commonly the sole author on the manuscript 
and offered honoraria for their participation. Among 96 relevant 
published articles, we found that 92% (22 of 24) of clinical 
trial articles published a disclosure of Merck's financial 
support, but only 50% (36 of 72) of review articles published 
either a disclosure of Merck sponsorship or a disclosure of 
whether the author had received any financial compensation from 
the company."

--Phil Davis


Joseph Esposito wrote:

> The Financial Times reports that Elsevier has admitted an error
> in its publication of material covertly sponsored by Merck:
>
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c4a698ce-39d7-11de-b82d-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
>
> I wish Elsevier had not used the occasion as an opportunity to
> trumpet their "usual high standards."  Couldn't they find a head
> of corporate communications who said, "We made a mistake.  We are
> embarrassed.  It will not happen again."
>
> Joe Esposito