What are the "purposes" of "ghost-writing" scientific research articles:
--for submission to scientific research journals for consideration of publication;
--for publication on websites?
Dennis
Dennis Mazur
Medical ghost-writing is a new term, different from the ghost-writing of autobiographies, fiction and political speeches. The ghost-writers in medicine are medical writers used by pharmaceutical companies or contract research organisations and medical communication agencies that serve the industry. Some medical writers are employed by the industry or its service agencies, others are self-employed and work under contract.
Articles written by medical writers are published in medical journals. These articles can influence doctors and policy makers in their decisions that effect health. Therefore the articles have marketing potential and there is a feeling that articles associated with manufacturers of pharmaceuticals make exaggerated promises and omit information that might disadvantage their products - but whereas advertisements carry the name of the manufacturer, a ghost-written article does not.
Medical ghost-writing has attracted the ire of the mass media and those campaigning for ethics in the dissemination of medical research information. A statement in the published article acknowledging the role of the medical writer is seen as the solution to ghost-writing. A number of guidelines aiming at transparency have been produced by organisations of journal editors, namely the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2006;http://www.icmje.org; see specially ‘II.A.2. Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments’ which is related to ghost-writing) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME, 2005;http://www.wame.org/wamestmt.htm#ghost), by organisations of medical writers, namely the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA; Jacobs and Wager, 2005), and the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA; Hamilton and Royer, 2003); they have also been produced by medical writers for the pharmaceutical industry (The good publication practice: guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, GPP; Wager, 2003). Nevertheless guidelines seem to be largely ignored. I say ‘seem’ because naturally nobody knows how many articles are ghost-written.
Medical ghost-writing is a new term, different from the ghost-writing of autobiographies, fiction and political speeches. The ghost-writers in medicine are medical writers used by pharmaceutical companies or contract research organisations and medical communication agencies that serve the industry. Some medical writers are employed by the industry or its service agencies, others are self-employed and work under contract.
Articles written by medical writers are published in medical journals. These articles can influence doctors and policy makers in their decisions that effect health. Therefore the articles have marketing potential and there is a feeling that articles associated with manufacturers of pharmaceuticals make exaggerated promises and omit information that might disadvantage their products - but whereas advertisements carry the name of the manufacturer, a ghost-written article does not.
Medical ghost-writing has attracted the ire of the mass media and those campaigning for ethics in the dissemination of medical research information. A statement in the published article acknowledging the role of the medical writer is seen as the solution to ghost-writing. A number of guidelines aiming at transparency have been produced by organisations of journal editors, namely the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2006;http://www.icmje.org; see specially ‘II.A.2. Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments’ which is related to ghost-writing) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME, 2005;http://www.wame.org/wamestmt.htm#ghost), by organisations of medical writers, namely the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA; Jacobs and Wager, 2005), and the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA; Hamilton and Royer, 2003); they have also been produced by medical writers for the pharmaceutical industry (The good publication practice: guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, GPP; Wager, 2003). Nevertheless guidelines seem to be largely ignored. I say ‘seem’ because naturally nobody knows how many articles are ghost-written.
In all the sectors related with development of any new way of treatment of a disease or development of a new medicine, business is the ultimate target in most of the cases.
Suppose, as an hypothetical example, a researcher developed a very cheap medicine for cure of all type of cancers. In the way of such research, it will not be an easy task to get fund from any funding agencies. Famous journals may not be ready to publish his findings.
If he go for patent, he may be rejected on technical ground.
He may have to leave the world before time.
On the other hand, many poisons are getting certificates for their use as effective medicines. After completion of business of a few years when similar cheap drugs are developed by many small pharma companies, the drugs are suddenly discovered as toxic and doctors are advised not to prescribe them.
Publications work as a strong mean of advertisement in many such cases. Writers of such publications are well paid, definitely living, but compared with ghost due to some unknown reasons.
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