Trouble with Medical Journals

Section 1: Introduction Introduction: medical journals are probably a force for good but need considerable reform 3(14) Section 2: The nature of medical journals Why bother with medical journals and whether they are honest? 17(16) What and who are medical journals for? 33(12) Can medical journals lead or must they follow? 45(8) What are and what should be the values of medical journals? 53(18) Section 3: The processes of publishing medical research The complexities and confusions of medical science 71(12) Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals 83(14) Section 4: Problems in publishing medical research Research misconduct: the poisoning of the well 97(14) The death of the author and the birth of the contributor? 111(8) Publishing too much and nothing: serious problems not just nuisances 119(6) Conflicts of interest: how money clouds objectivity 125(14) Editorial misconduct, freedom and accountability: amateurs at work 139(18) Section 5: Important relationships of medical journals Patients and medical journals: from objects to partners 157(16) Medical journals and the mass media: moving from love and hate to love 173(12) Trying to stop failing the developing world 185(10) Medical journals and pharmaceutical companies: uneasy bedfellows 195(16) The highly profitable but perhaps unethical business of publishing medical research 211(14) Section 6: Ethical accountability of researchers and journals Relations between research ethics committees and medical journals: guarding the probity of research 225(10) Ethical support and accountability for journals: an ombudsman, an ethics committee, and next? 235(8) Libel and medical journals: proper constraint or against the public interest? 243(8) The case that concern with ethical issues in publishing medical research is overdone 251(6) Section 7: The future Ethical manifestos for four different futures for medical publishing 257(10) References 267