Home Print this page Email this page Small font sizeDefault font sizeIncrease font size
Users Online: 3534

 

Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Contacts Login 
     


 
 Table of Contents    
JOURNAL REVIEWS  
Year : 2013  |  Volume : 3  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 93-95
Publication ethics


Postgraduate Students, Department of Oral Pathology, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Click here for correspondence address and email

Date of Web Publication5-Jul-2014
 

How to cite this article:
Monika K, Thomas S. Publication ethics. J Educ Ethics Dent 2013;3:93-5

How to cite this URL:
Monika K, Thomas S. Publication ethics. J Educ Ethics Dent [serial online] 2013 [cited 2024 Mar 29];3:93-5. Available from: https://www.jeed.in/text.asp?2013/3/2/93/136054


Scientific publishing is the process of placing the results of one's research into the literature. The new researches are periodically reported or published in scientific journal for the progression of science. There are a number of scientific journals, some of which are specialized for a particular scientific field. The research articles to be published in a scientific journal have been peer reviewed in order to ensure that articles meet the journal's standards of quality and scientific validity. So publishing research articles reflects the quality of the author and the institution which supports them. It is therefore important to follow some moral or ethics in publishing a scientific article in an attempt to systematize and to avoid misconduct.


   Ethics and Scientific Publication Top


Dale J. Benos

Adv Physiol Educ 2005 ;29:59-74

Publication of a scientific project involves planning, analysis and its execution. This article summarizes all the ethical violations or breaches which are encountered during the publication process. The most common breaches are data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, redundant and duplicate publication, conflict of interest, authorship, animal, and human welfare and reviewer responsibility.

Author describes in detail each of the ethical violations which are common. Fabrication is intentional misinterpretation of few data to produce a desired outcome and also by omitting few. It is a form of scientific misconduct which is highly unethical which compromises the public trust in scientific field and also could waste reviewer's time. Plagiarism is copying words and phrases from others work which have been published earlier. This is equated to redundant publication or duplicate publication in which copyrighted material is published with few data added. Author says the tendency to republish is to survive in the highly competitive research field and also to achieve greater number of publications. Guidelines state that authors can submit their articles only to a single journal at a time. Conflict exists sometimes between the author and their official responsibilities. Authoring an article or authorship determines the responsibility for the work that has been created. Authorship should be based on the contributions to conception and design, data acquisition, analysis and interpretation, drafting the article. The individuals who do not meet the qualification for authorship should be duly acknowledged. Experiments on animals and human are permissible only if it benefits the society and also no harm or discomfort will result from the research.

All these ethical principles have been designed to ensure sound and quality research. And it should be adopted by every publisher to ensure confidentiality, impartiality, and above all fairness.


   Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: A Publisher's Perspective Top


Chris Graf

Int J Clin Pract, 2007;61:1-26

Academic publishing depends on trust to great extent which the editors, authors and peer reviewers put on each other for fair assessment. Author discusses general principles of ethics in publication. The author should duly acknowledge in his/her manuscript the funding source. Regarding authorship, greater transparency should be maintained. Practices such as ghost and guest authors should be discouraged. Authors should be asked to submit declaration form stating that it has not been previously published. Journals by themselves cannot investigate the scientific misconducts. They are responsible to alert appropriate bodies to investigate. In case of research including human subjects, proper consent should be required. The readers also should be informed if there are any ethical breaches.

Editors should consider only qualified peer reviewers and those who repeatedly produce poor quality should be avoided. And all the exchanges between the reviewer and author should be mediated by the editor. Conflict of interest should be disclosed by the statements from all authors and peer reviewers. The editorial decisions are independent and should not be interfered by journal owners. The editors have a right to expect that the manuscript has not been plagiarized. Likewise the author has the right to expect that peer reviewers do not plagiarize their ideas. The peer reviewers should discard the manuscripts once they have reviewed them.


   Do Medical Journals Provide Clear and Consistent Guidelines on Authorship? Top


Elizabeth Wager

Med Gen Med 2007;9:16

Authorship criteria vary among various biomedical journals. It can be difficult for the authors to determine authorship which results in disputes among them. Author had done a survey to review and analyze the published instructions to authors from 234 medical journals. Non biomedical journals were obviously excluded. Out of these 100 (41%) did not include any guidance about authorship, 68 based their guidance on ICMJE (international Committee of Medical Journal Editor) criteria, 33 (14%) proposed their own criteria and remaining included a general reference to ICMJE website. Journals that do not give guidance on authorship publish short instructions which focus only on technical requirements. Authors should be expected to participate in the study to any faulty or fraudulence in the manuscript. Also number of authors is limited and it varies among journals. Declaring authorship would increase transparency to detect ghost or guest authors. Editors play an important role in improving the quality of biomedical publications and also in preventing the abuses in authorship.


   Science Journal Editor's Views on Publication Ethics: Results of an International Survey Top


E Wager, S Fiack, C Graf, A Robinson, I Rowlands

J Med Ethics 2009;35:348-53

In publication there are areas which require strict correction from various institutions and journals. These areas include redundant publication, plagiarism, and falsification. It is a basic requirement of all the editors of various journals to maintain the integrity and uniqueness of the scientific literature. A survey was conducted enveloping various editors in dealing with ethical issues and publications. Majority of the questionnaires dealt with 16 publication ethical issues Out of which 44% gave positive response.

Most of the respondents felt quite confident in dealing with specific ethical issues. The area of concern for most of the editors was redundant publication. Most editors consider that the frequency of problem pertaining to plagiarism and other ethical issues rarely occurs. Some stated that the reason they had encountered very few authorship problem is due to the requirement that all authors sign a copyright form. There was a less sense of awareness and the use of guidelines in publication which is seen as the reason for ethical issues in publication. It is very difficult to calibrate the amount of misconduct happening in publication. Most of the studies revealed that it is fairly frequent while many authors admitted of the frequency of ghost authorship; recent high profile publication of pharmaceutical companies does reveal ethical issues. However as many authors are concerned about ethics related to publication it is vital to a adopt policies and systems to enhance and reduce ethical problems.


   Authorship of Research Papers: Ethical and Professional Issues for Short - Term Researchers Top


A Newman, R Jones

J Med Ethics 2006;32:420-3

To enhance and help the medical community to step ahead in research the role of research publications is vital. For a researcher to move up in the ladder of success is important for these researches to be published. Often it is noticed that the researcher does not take credit for the research. This is strongly due to institutional policies and financial competitions. It is therefore crucial that the credit for the work done should be given to the real author.

To be an author of a research often gives one recognition among colleagues and enhances the status of being a credible potential and intellectual researcher. The institutional policies have been seen to be the road block of these aspirants. The most important area is to acquire secure authorship. Another problem that has emerged in publication is a clause that supports authors who have already published articles than over junior researchers. The criteria for authorship are based on the values that the concerned researcher should have substantial contribution to the design and analysis of data. To ensure the safe passage the issues of authorship should be raised on the onset of any project to minimize the possibility of future dispute, there should be negotiations between the researcher and the principal investigator. There should be firm implementation of guidelines which will help and facilitate the moral of research community.


   Publication Ethics and the Ghost Management of Medical Publication Top


Sergio Sismondo, Mathieu Doucet

Bioethics 2010;24:273-83

Research in medical field is fairly risky especially when it pertains to new drugs and devices. Publication is seen as the most important criteria in research field. This article emphasizes to reinforce ethics in the area of publication ethics and ghost authorship. The ethics related in the publication of various journals are always ignored. A closer look is therefore required as there have been breaches of ethics. This trend is a worrying sign for the scientific community.

The pharmaceutical companies in order to promote their marketing, sponsor many medical researches and bring out the results of their interests. Since most of the research works involves human subjects the results of the study affects the public to a greater extent. The pharmaceutical companies behave highly unethical to publish their articles and this has brought medical publishing into the marketing era. These kinds of publications which are commercially sponsored should be discouraged to ensure that the research they publish is ethically sound.

There are multiple factors which cause ghost authorship the most prominent being sponsors and various companies taking control of the crucial steps in the research and the publication of article. These issues pertaining to ghost authorship can be managed by introduction of regulators that is governments and agencies acting together to end monopolies in the field of medical research. And also the roles of authors and journal editors should not be ignored as they should refrain in publishing or engaging with ghost managed research.

Top
Correspondence Address:
K Monika
Postgraduate Students, Department of Oral Pathology, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
India
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


Rights and PermissionsRights and Permissions




 

Top
 
 
  Search
 
  
    Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
    Email Alert *
    Add to My List *
* Registration required (free)  


    Ethics and Scien...
    Best Practice Gu...
    Do Medical Journ...
    Science Journal ...
    Authorship of Re...
    Publication Ethi...

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed2828    
    Printed197    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded278    
    Comments [Add]    

Recommend this journal