提交的文件报告了工作环境中疾病爆发的调查和管理。作者承认从工作场所的参考医生 - 谁拒绝被列为作者的法律建议 - 并宣布“领先作者”在与文章中讨论的爆发有关的法律程序期间向公司提供了医疗咨询。当文章提交时,爆发是公司A之间的法律程序的主题,爆发发生,以及提供疫情所谓的造成代理人(公司B)。领先作者与公司签署了他/她的法律程序证据,但不符合公众已知的任何信息,而不是作者的任何信息。提交人还增加了一份手写的附录,陈述了他/他接受了协议“在我的学术自由报告科学和公共卫生意义的研究方面没有受到损害。”关于同行评审本文的科学被判断为声音。期刊的法律顾问对出版物有一些担忧;法律程序有效;工作场所的医生虽然科学上没有被列为作者;本文讨论了A公司A的角度爆发。虽然该文章是关于公司A公司的竞争和目标,但没有关于B公司对爆发的了解的信息。 If the case resolved in favour of Company B, then the article would need to reflect this. The editor wrote to the authors, relaying the legal concerns and informed them that journal, on the basis of legal advice, could not publish while litigation was ongoing. The journal suggested that it would consider a revised version of the manuscript after the case had been resolved. The authors submitted a revised version of the article. As part of the revisions, the authors had deleted all references to the names and locale of the companies. The legal proceedings had been concluded with an out of court settlement; the lead author had no involvement in this. The terms of the settlement are subject to a confidentiality clause and it is not known whether liability was admitted or not. Company A does not wish the paper to be published on the grounds that this would violate the confidentiality agreement between the two parties. On the basis of legal advice from his/her institution, the author states that s/he is not bound by an agreement to which s/he was not party; that the handwritten clause in his/her agreement with Company A allows for publication of the article; and that the details of the outbreak were public as they had been presented in abstract form as well as briefly described in a local language publication. The lead author feels that the journal’s reluctance to publish on the basis of legal concerns is flawed. As originally relayed to the author, it was stated that the journal could be seen as “taking sides” in an ongoing legal dispute—a view that the author feels is “ethically unacceptable. ” Company A is threatening legal action against the authors if details of the case are published, and Company B would also potentially have an action for defamation. What should be done?