Jacobs Adam, Wager Elizabeth
Dianthus Medical Limited, London, UK.
Curr Med Res Opin. 2005 Feb;21(2):317-22. doi: 10.1185/030079905X25578.
Many papers in biomedical journals are drafted not by the named authors, but by professional medical writers working under the direction of those authors, usually funded by pharmaceutical companies. Although this practice can improve both the quality and speed of publications, it has attracted controversy as a result of concerns about the inappropriate influence of pharmaceutical companies.
To define ethical standards for professional medical writers who prepare papers for publication in medical journals.
Guidelines were drafted after a 4-round Delphi consultation among a group of experienced medical writers. The guidelines were then further refined by seeking comments on the draft from a range of interested parties.
The guidelines stress the importance of respecting widely recognised authorship criteria, and in particular of ensuring that those listed as named authors have full control of the content of papers. The role of medical writers must be transparent, which normally means a mention in the acknowledgements section, together with a statement about funding. Writers and authors must have access to relevant data while writing papers. Medical writers have professional responsibilities to ensure that the papers they write are scientifically valid and are written in accordance with generally accepted ethical standards.
生物医学期刊上的许多论文并非由署名作者撰写，而是由在这些作者指导下工作的专业医学撰写人员撰写，这些撰写人员通常由制药公司资助。尽管这种做法可以提高出版物的质量和速度，但由于担心制药公司的不当影响，它引发了争议。
为准备在医学期刊上发表论文的专业医学撰写人员界定道德标准。
在一组经验丰富的医学撰写人员中进行了四轮德尔菲咨询后起草了指南。然后通过征求一系列相关方对草案的意见对指南进行了进一步完善。
指南强调了尊重广泛认可的作者标准的重要性，尤其强调要确保列为署名作者的人员对论文内容拥有完全控制权。医学撰写人员的角色必须透明，这通常意味着要在致谢部分提及，并说明资金来源。撰写人员和作者在撰写论文时必须能够获取相关数据。医学撰写人员负有专业责任，要确保他们撰写的论文在科学上是有效的，并且是按照普遍接受的道德标准撰写的。
