Science & Society
Are the Most Prestigious Medical Journals Transparent Enough?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2016.06.004Get rights and content

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has played a critical role in enhancing medical science reporting. Transparency in research is one of its most important objectives and the ICMJE has issued requirements for various stakeholders. However, ICMJE member journals have repeatedly failed to fully comply with a few transparency requirements.

Section snippets

Influence of the ICMJE on Medical Science

The ICMJE has had a tremendous influence on several aspects of medical science, such as authorship criteria, editorial freedom, and research misconduct. In this Science & Society article, however, two aspects should be highlighted. First, the ICMJE has issued numerous statements regarding authors, reviewers, and editors with commercial ties and its position on conflicts of interest is considered to be one of the critical requirements of the recommendations. Second, to prevent selective

Not All Transparency Requirements Are Fully Fulfilled by ICMJE Member Journals

Although what has been discussed so far is only a couple of the numerous positive aspects of what the ICMJE has contributed to medical science, there are other, less well-known aspects that should also be taken into consideration.

All authors know that the Recommendations ask them to declare any known (or potential) conflicts of interest when submitting a manuscript to a journal, facts that will be disclosed at the time the paper is published. This level of transparency is also asked of

Concluding Remarks

ICMJE leadership has been key to increasing medical science reporting and quality. This has been mainly achieved through the implementation of the requirements included in the Recommendations, which, as discussed, shape the responsibilities of trial sponsors and manuscripts’ authors and reviewers. However, ICMJE member journals repeatedly fail to comply fully with the requirements discussed above. The six top-ranked general medicine journals are not accountable for breaches of these

Disclaimer Statement

The opinions expressed in this Science & Society article are those of the author and may not reflect the opinions of the organization that he works for.

References (15)

  • A. Casadevall et al.

    Causes for the persistence of impact factor mania

    MBio

    (2014)
  • ICMJE.

    Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals

    (2015)
  • C. De Angelis

    Clinical trial registration: a statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

    N. Engl. J. Med.

    (2004)
  • D.B. Taichman

    Sharing clinical trial data

    BMJ

    (2016)
  • A. Lundh

    Conflicts of interest at medical journals: the influence of industry-supported randomised trials on journal impact factors and revenue–cohort study

    PLoS Med.

    (2010)
  • A.E. Handel

    High reprint orders in medical journals and pharmaceutical industry funding: case-control study

    BMJ

    (2012)
  • E. Smith

    Accessibility and transparency of editor conflicts of interest policy instruments in medical journals

    J. Med. Ethics

    (2012)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

View full text
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.