http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7331/192/d
BMJ 2002;324:192 ( 26 January )
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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Roger Dobson, Abergavenny