Event: Current Challenges in Medical Communication: Diagnosing and Curing Unethical Practices

September 14, 2010

Current Challenges in Medical Communication: Diagnosing and Curing Unethical Practices

Under the Patronage of:
The President of the Polish Academy of Sciences
The Minister of Health
The Minister of Science and Higher Education

Warsaw, Poland.

October 8, 2010

Scientists, especially members of medical professions, are increasingly busy: they lack time and sometimes necessary skills, including those in the English language. Therefore it is estimated that up to 2/3 of medical research remains unpublished. This, in turn, raises the question about the propriety of the participation of professional writers in producing papers. If we accept this approach to scientific communication, should they also be included as authors of the final version of a manuscript? As the European Medical Writers Association points out, “medical writers’ role is to draft a concise scientific paper using the mass of highly detailed results…” (www.emwa.org). What is more, “there is no end to the number of clinical study reports that cross the desk of the medical writer” (J. Gardner, Science, May 21, 2010).

Another disturbing phenomenon in scientific reporting is ghostwriting (a substantial contribution to a manuscript without mentioning the role of the actual author, but naming as authors those whose contributions are questionable, if they exist at all). According to some authors, approx. 10% of articles published in leading journals may be ghostwritten: as the British Medical Journal pointed out, the quality of the journal may bless the quality of the drug.

These and other dilemmas of scientific communication will be discussed.

For more information