Luty J, Arokiadass S M R, Easow J M, Anapreddy J R
South Essex Partnership NHS Trust, The Taylor Centre, Queensway House, Southend on Sea, Essex, UK.
J Med Ethics. 2009 Mar;35(3):200-2. doi: 10.1136/jme.2008.026740.
Publication bias and discrimination are increasingly recognised in medicine. A survey was conducted to determine if medical journals were more likely to publish research reports from members of their own than a rival journal's editorial board.
A retrospective review was conducted of all research reports published in 2006 in the four competing medical journals within five medical specialties. Only three journals were willing to divulge the authorship of reports that had been rejected.
Overall, 4460 research reports were published in 2006 by the 20 journals from five subspecialties (mean 223 (SD = 164) reports per journal; median 176; interquartile range 108-238). On average, 17.2 (7.7%) reports were from a journal's own editorial board (SD = 10.7; median 15; interquartile range 10-23; n = 20), and 6.3 (2.8%) reports were from a member of the editorial board of one of the three rival journals within the specialty (SD = 7.3; median 3.5; interquartile range 1-8; n = 60). There was a statistically significant excess of publications from the journal's own editorial board in 14 of the 20 journals (p<0.05). Journals were almost three times more likely to publish reports from their own editorial board than from one of the three rivals within their subspecialty (p<0.0001; median difference 11; Mann-Whitney U test; power for 5% significance >99.99%).
There was a significant excess of publications from medical journals' own editorial boards, although it is not possible to determine whether this is due to bias in the peer review process or selective submission by editors.
医学领域中，发表偏倚和歧视现象日益受到关注。开展了一项调查，以确定医学期刊是否更倾向于发表自身编辑委员会成员的研究报告，而非竞争对手期刊编辑委员会成员的报告。
对2006年在五个医学专科领域的四种相互竞争的医学期刊上发表的所有研究报告进行回顾性审查。只有三家期刊愿意透露被拒报告的作者信息。
总体而言，2006年来自五个亚专科领域的20种期刊共发表了4460篇研究报告（平均每种期刊223篇（标准差=164）；中位数176；四分位间距108 - 238）。平均而言，17.2篇（7.7%）报告来自期刊自身编辑委员会成员（标准差=10.7；中位数15；四分位间距10 - 23；n = 20），6.3篇（2.8%）报告来自该专科领域内三家竞争期刊之一的编辑委员会成员（标准差=7.3；中位数3.5；四分位间距1 - 8；n = 60）。20种期刊中有14种期刊自身编辑委员会的发表量在统计学上显著过多（p<0.05）。期刊发表自身编辑委员会报告的可能性几乎是发表其亚专科领域内三家竞争期刊之一报告的三倍（p<0.0001；中位数差异11；曼-惠特尼U检验；5%显著性水平下的检验效能>99.99%）。
医学期刊自身编辑委员会的发表量显著过多，尽管无法确定这是由于同行评审过程中的偏倚还是编辑的选择性投稿所致。
