Ghostwriting policies at medical schools in the US
PLOS has a new article that examines the academic publishing policies on “authorship, ghostwriting, and conflicts of interest” currently in place at 50 medical schools in the US. The 50 schools were selected based on their appearance in US News’ Best Medical Schools 2009 list.
Some of the results show that just over half of these top 50 schools do not have a published policy on authorship or ghostwriting and that only 13 of the 50 schools have policies in place that prohibit ghostwriting. The paper has an excellent reference list pointing to other research and writing on the topic of ghostwriting in medical journals.
If you don’t know much about ghostwriting, here’s a good starting point:
Ghostwriting: The Dirty Little Secret of Medical Publishing That Just Got Bigger
