C是一个研究员的实验室为1年,在which time they published a joint research paper in a third party journal (journal S). After leaving C’s institute (henceforth called institute X), A published in the journal (journal T as a sole author). The affiliation provided by A on the paper was institute X. All of the data reported in this paper were obtained while A was still employed at institute X, of which C is a senior faculty member and in whose laboratory A was a research associate.
Similar to case 07-10, members of the Forum felt the same issues of confidentiality and public interest applied in this case. Most were in agreement that consent would not be obtained, and as there was a chance that one or more infants could be identified from the data, the paper should not be published. Some of the members of the Forum suggested that perhaps the paper could be presented as a multivariate statistical analysis, removing individual identifying data. If this is not possible, the Forum again advised that the editor should consider not only the ethical and legal consequences involved in deciding to publish, but also the data protection issues.
It is possible that the child could be identified, because the location of the hospital is given in the authors’ affiliations, the injuries are clearly detailed and the parents have been convicted of child abuse (it is not known if there was any press coverage of this case).
《X》杂志的编辑已经通知作者,他们正在等待COPE的建议,然后再决定是否进行同行评审。
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该病例是否符合COPE行为准则中规定的未经患者同意发布的标准:
“It may be possible to publish without consent if the report is important to public health (or is in some other way important); consent would be unusually burdensome to obtain; and a reasonable patient would be unlikely to object to publication (all three conditions must be met).”