Centre for Cell Biology and Cutaneous Research, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
Department of Dermatology, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK.
Clin Exp Dermatol. 2021 Aug;46(6):1086-1088. doi: 10.1111/ced.14711. Epub 2021 Jun 4.
Medical writers may make major contributions to the preparation of a manuscript, but are not listed as authors. We assessed the prevalence, affiliation and role of medical writers in dermatology randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in 2019 in the top 7 medical and top 10 dermatology journals. Medical writers were identified in 39/83 trials (47%), all of which were exclusively industry-funded trials (39/47, prevalence 83%). Most studies stated their role as 'medical writing support' and/or 'editorial assistance' (35/39, 90%), but when more information was provided, four studies specified first draft preparation (50% of RCTs in general medical and 1.3% of RCTs in dermatology journals). Medical writers are common in dermatology trials but their role is often vaguely stated. In April 2020 the British Journal or Dermatology and Clinical and Experimental Dermatology adopted CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which describes contributions of authors and may help clarify who writes trial manuscripts.
医学作者可能会为手稿的准备做出重大贡献，但并未被列为作者。我们评估了 2019 年在排名前 7 的医学期刊和排名前 10 的皮肤科期刊上发表的皮肤科随机对照试验（RCT）中医学作者的出现率、所属机构和角色。在 83 项试验中有 39 项（47%）确定存在医学作者，这些试验均由企业独家资助（39/47，占比 83%）。大多数研究表明他们的角色为“医学写作支持”和/或“编辑协助”（35/39，90%），但当提供更多信息时，有四项研究具体说明了初稿的编写（普通医学 RCT 的 50%和皮肤科杂志 RCT 的 1.3%）。医学作者在皮肤科试验中很常见，但他们的角色往往含糊不清。2020 年 4 月，《英国皮肤病学杂志》和《临床与实验皮肤病学》采用了 CRediT（贡献者角色分类法），该分类法描述了作者的贡献，可能有助于阐明谁撰写了试验手稿。
