http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7331/192/d
BMJ 2002;324:192 ( 26 January )
Roger Dobson Abergavenny
Authors of papers submitted to the leading neurology journals will be
required to declare that they have the right to publish any and all of their
data, whatever the views of the sponsor. Without that and other written
assurances, articles will not be considered for publication in the journals,
say the editors in an editorial in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery,
and Psychiatry (2002;72:143).
"Corporate sponsors must not be allowed to influence publication, or
indeed to prevent it, especially when the data are not supportive of their
product. Authors, editors, and industry sponsors are aware of these matters and
it is now time to address them," they say.
The neurology journals, like others, already require each author to sign a
statement of his or her financial arrangements with public, private, and
industry sources of support, but the editors say that non-financial conflicts
of interest between authors and corporate sponsors are of equal concern and
require attention.
"These include the need for an open and candid relationship between
authors and the policies of the sponsoring companies with regard to academic
freedom. Issues of control and complete access to all data, conduct of
statistical studies and analyses, manuscript preparation, and decisions to
publish are of increasing importance and concern," they say.
"We firmly believe that manuscripts submitted to our journals are the
intellectual property of the authors, not the study sponsor. Academic freedom
includes the right of authors to have access to all of the data obtained in
their study, to review it, obtain statistical analyses independently, and to
publish their data based on their own decisions and not those of the financial
sponsor.
"We will now require the principal author to declare in writing that he
or she will take full responsibility for the data, the analyses and
interpretation, and the conduct of the research; that he or she had full access
to all of the data; and that he or she had the right to publish any and all
data, separate and apart from the attitudes of the sponsor. Without these
written assurances, we will not consider the paper for review."
The editorial is signed by the editors of the Archives of Neurology; Muscle
and Nerve; European Journal of Neurology; Neurology; Stroke;
Clinical Neurophysiology; Annals of Neurology; Journal of
Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry; Movement Disorders; Journal
of the Neurological Sciences; Brain; Epilepsia; Neurorehabilitation
and Neural Repair; and the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.
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