1115 wed katrine wager

©Sideview

Publishers’ role in publication ethics: part of the solution

or part of the problem?

Liz WagerPublications Consultant, Sideview

Chair, COPE, 2009-2012

[email protected]

Why should publishers be concerned about ethics?

Responsible for the integrity of their publications (with editors)

As professionals

To avoid expensive problems (litigation)

Good for business

©Sideview

Scholarly publishers have special obligations

“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

Mark Twain

©Sideview

Not only in medicine …

©Sideview

What can go wrong?

Misconduct by authors• Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification

Misconduct by editors• Abuse of position, unfairness

Misconduct by peer reviewers• Theft of ideas/data

Misconduct by publishers• Undue commercial influence

©Sideview

How common is misconduct? Systematic review (screened 3207 papers)

Meta-analysis (18 studies)• surveys of fabrication or falsification• NOT plagiarism

2% admitted misconduct themselves (95% CI 0.9-4.5)

14% aware of misconduct by others (95% CI 9.9-19.7)

Fanelli PLoS One 2009;4(5):e5738

How often is misconduct detected?

PubMed retractions 0.02%

US Office of Research Integrity (ORI)

0.01-0.001%(1 in 10,000 / 100,000 scientists)

Image manipulation in J Cell Biology

1%(8/800)

FDA audit – investigators guilty of serious sci misconduct

2%

Because major ethical problems are (quite) rare

Editors don’t see many cases during their term of office

Publishers looking after many journals can provide ‘corporate memory’AND

Editors are largely untrained

Publishers (and editors)

Should work to:

prevent

detect

respond appropriately

to misconduct

©Sideview

What should journals & publishers do?

Educate

Raise awareness

Have clear policies

?screen

?discipline

Tools for detecting misconduct

Anti-plagiarism software (eg eTBLAST, CrossCheck, Turnitin)

Screening images (PhotoShop) Chemical structure checks Data review (digit preference)

CrossCheck

Based on iParadigms software

Compares text against publishers’ d-base

D-base run by CrossRef (doi system)

D-base currently contains 59,000 titles

Shows % concordance + source

Can exclude “quotes” and references

?False positives / ‘noise’ level

Image screening Pioneered by J Cell Biology

Used in some life sciences journals

Important for research where the image = the findings

• genetics / cell biology / radiography

Manual check using PhotoShop

Requires editor time / expertise

Rossner & Yamada, JCB 2004;166:11-15

Found 1% unacceptable manipulation

Figure 1. Gross manipulation of blots

Rossner M., Yamada K. M. J. Cell Biol. 2004:166:11-15

© 2004 Rossner et.al.

Chemical structure checks Examined structure-factor files Identified >70 bogus organic structures Authors had taken a genuine structure and switched

metals (eg Fe / Cu) or chemical groups (CH2 / NH / OH)

Editors note: “it is a concern and a disappointment that these [chemically implausible or impossible structures] passed into the literature”

>70 articles retracted

Acta Crystallographica 2010;E66:e1-2

Where to screen?Frequency

Severitylow

low

high

high yes

no ?

?

Effects of journal policies

Educate authors and reviewers

Encourage truthful authorship

Discourage redundant publication

Encourage clinical trial registration

©Sideview

Trial registration

1980s 1990 19971986 1999 2003 2004 20052000

Concerns re publication

bias

Simes1

Chalmers2

Tramèr3

FDAMA

clinicaltrials.gov start online

ISRCTN launched

ICMJE announcement

ICMJE deadline

GW register

1Publication bias

JCO 4:1529

2Underreporting research is scientific misconduct

JAMA 263:1405

3Impact of covert duplicate publication

BMJ 315:635

ABPI site

Journal policies are more effective than US laws …

©Sideview

New trials registered at clinicaltrials.gov May – Oct 2005

What about misconduct by publishers?

… part of the problem?

©Sideview

Problems

Inappropriate policies

Undue commercial interference

Breach of editorial independence

Undisclosed conflicts of interest

©Sideview

©Sideview

Case study

Editor of orthopaedic journal failed to disclose receiving >$20 million in royalties from a device company …

What could the publisher have done?

©Sideview

Editorial freedom

“editorial freedom … cannot be total. I couldn’t turn the BMJ into a soccer magazine because I’d got bored with

medicine. Freedom must be accompanied by accountability”

Richard Smith (former editor, BMJ)

©Sideview

Editorial freedom?

“freedom of the press … means freedom to print such of the

proprietor’s prejudices as the advertisers don’t object to”

Hannen Swaffer

©Sideview

Why being ethical makes commercial sense

©Sideview

It can avoid expensive litigation

©Sideview

• authorship disputes• copyright• patent disputes

© Sideview

Editors

AuthorsReaders

Reviewers

biased reviews

poor reviewer choice

undeclared CoI

low quality review

irresponsible

reporting

flawed processes

© Sideview

Unhappy authors

Fewer readers

Fewer advertisers

Dissatisfied parent society

fewer submissions

low quality submissions

If trust breaks down

decreased revenue

decreased

revenue

© Sideview

Consumers increasingly question

Company ethos

'Fair trade'

Environmental concerns

Labour policies

Animal testing

Reputation arrives on foot, and leaves on horseback

“the pragmatic issue of how hard it is to build a journal, and how easy it is

to destroy one”

Frank Davidoff, former editor, Annals of Internal Medicine

©Sideview

Reputation

“If readers once hear that important, relevant, and well argued articles are being suppressed or that articles are

being published simply to fulfil hidden political agendas, then the

credibility of the publication collapses—and everybody loses”

Richard Smith

©Sideview

A fine balance

Publishers want to make money

Journals depend on reputation for• Independence• Fairness• Academic merit

Part of the solution or part of the problem?

©Sideview

Part of

the problem

Weak policies

No training in ethics

No corporate memory

Interference

Few resources

Little support for editors

the solution

Sound policies

Staff and editor training

Corporate memory

Editorial independence

Resources for screening (eg CrossCheck)

Support for editors (eg joining COPE)

©Sideview

© Sideview

The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle pleasure without conscience wealth without work knowledge without character business without morality science without humanity and worship without sacrifice

Mahatma Gandhi

1115 wed katrine wager

Technology