后从一个单一的随机对照试验author had been published, a letter was received in which the correspondent suggested that the original trial might be fraudulent. Firstly, the writer claimed that it was highly unlikely that just one author could perform a prospective, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial, especially in a small district hospital. The correspondent was also worried that there was no mention of other standard treatments. Advice was sought from a statistician and a gastroenterologist, both of whom raised serious doubts about the paper. The editor asked the chief executive of the hospital to investigate. Initially, the medical director of the hospital wrote to say that it would be impossible for them to investigate unless the journal was willing to pay for the investigation. The editor replied, saying that he thought this absurd, on the grounds that if someone makes a serious complaint to the police, they don’t expect to be asked to pay for an investigation. The medical director eventually agreed with this and arranged for an experienced and independent researcher to examine the case. It emerged that the author had already been suspended for clinical reasons and that a university professor had been asked to look at the research when it was first published. An experienced statistician, he found no serious problems. Nor did the independent researcher find any serious problems. No further action has therefore been taken, but are there any conclusions to be drawn?
有关一家医院问题的三篇论文已提交给三个不同的期刊。在出版之前,期刊的三名编辑意识到三篇不同的论文和它们之间的实质重叠。三位编辑互相沟通,意识到他们有四篇顾虑:1。三篇论文之间存在非常相当重叠。似乎没有任何理由发布三篇论文而不是一两篇论文。2.论文的作者尚未向任何编辑者披露其他文件的存在。3.三篇论文都有不同的作者,所有作者似乎最不可能达到由医学期刊编辑国际委员会制定的作者定义。随后,它还出现了至少一个提交人没有意识到他被列为其中一个论文的作者。这些论文之间存在不一致。在所有三篇论文中描述了一个特定的患者,患者的国籍,入住日期,特定考试的结果以及最终诊断的患者不一致。这三名编辑花了很长时间才能决定采取的行动,而且在他们的回答中的差异不同。 One editor decided simply to notify the authors that she would not publish the paper and that she was concerned about the circumstances of the paper. The two other editors decided to ask for an investigation. One editor wrote to the chief executive of the institution where the authors had worked some ten months ago, but no explanation of what happened had been received. What should the editor do now?
Can we verify that there is no ethics committee at this University? Taiwan does have ethics committees and the authors should know that they need such approval. It must be made clear to investigators that their work will not be published without ethics committee approval. The editors should contact the authors and tell them that their paper cannot be considered for publication.
A paper reported a questionnaire study of patients’ views on their preferences between minimal access and open access surgery. The questionnaires had been given to patients attending two types of clinic. The paper made no mention of ethical approval and the author was asked to clarify. He responded that he had not obtained ethical approval but that he had spoken to the chairman of the hospital ethics committee who would consider giving this retrospectively. A subsequent email from the chairman of the ethics committee to the journal expressed doubt about the value of retrospective approval, pointing out that when a study was reviewed prospectively it was possible to suggest changes to the protocol, which obviously could not be done when it was viewed retrospectively. The chairman added that “it is certainly not a foregone conclusion that we would have passed this study.” The internal editorial committee considered this case in particular, and the general issue of retrospective ethical approval, when the authors have simply forgotten or not thought of obtaining it. They were unanimous in deciding that retrospective ethical approval was not acceptable and that this paper must be rejected, explaining the reason.