Dear All,
Greetings from Southend on the east coast of England.
(Apologies for the X posting as I have posted a similar message to the
Public Health list serve)
I would like to raise the issue of editorial independence here as I feel
it is very relevant to the basic concept of evidence-based health care. If
interest groups can prevent or dictate what can be or cannot be published
in scientific journals this could lead to distortion of science and there
by the evidence.
This morning’s BMJ reported an incident where the executive editor of an
American speciality journal has to refuse publishing an editorial on
epoetin written by the president of the non-profit making Medical
Technology and Practice Patterns Institute, despite a favourable peer
review. The BMJ reports that the editor of the journal wrote to the author
of the editorial that he had been "overruled by our marketing department.”
I feel that this amounts to interference in editorial independence.
You can access the BMJ news @
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7434/244-b
Disturbed by this report, I spent this morning writing up a rapid response
to this item, which is available from the BMJ web site @
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/328/7434/244-b#48764
Would be happy to hear the views of the colleagues on this issue.
Regards & very best wishes and have a GWEN (good week end!)
Badri
Dr.P.Badrinath MD PhD MFPHMI
SPR in Public Health & Recognised Clinical Teacher,
Southend PCT & University of Cambridge, UK
http://myprofile.cos.com/badrishanthi
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